The Worldliness of English in Saudi Arabia - Dissertation Example

The Worldliness of English in Saudi Arabia Lecturer Introduction I start off this essay with a brief discussion of the global spread of English and how it came to be known as the major lingua franca of our time. After this the implications of this spread are tackled, or as Pennycook (1994, p.6) has termed it, ‘the worldliness of English’. He defines this as “the cultural and political implications of the spread of English”. This is indeed a vast area, so I restrict myself to the three main concerns: linguistic imperialism, the arrival of so called new Englishes and English as a lingua franca. Then I endeavour to address the cultural, political and social aspects of English language teaching, the three major concerns here will be; culturism1 and the perception of the foreign Other, natives Vs non-natives and English as a gatekeeper. Finally I will discuss the implications of this on English teaching in Saudi Arabia, before closing with a few concluding words. Researchers who look at the spread of English as a mere linguistic imperialism question the enterprise of learning and teaching of the English language. This is because from their view point, it has the cultural integrity of the non-native speaker compromised. In order for a language instructor to come into terms with the imposition of English language learning culturally is to utilize the practices of ELT that define and position English as an international language (EIL). In my point of view, the alternative perpetuates the negative impact that learning foreign language can pose to the cultural integrity of the learner. Linguistic imperialism is a concept of linguistics involving a transfer, to other people, of a dominant language. This transfer is often associated with power demonstration. This could be military power or even economic power. Dominant cultures are often transferred together with the language. According to Brutt-Griffler (2002), the theory of linguistic imperialism has magnetized much attention among applied linguistic scholars. This has resulted into much debate especially on the shortcomings and merits of the theory. Brutt-Griffler stated linguistic imperialism denunciations to the analyses of English as the language of the world domination and world capitalism. Generally, linguistic imperialism is usually viewed in the perspective of cultural imperialism. According to Canagarajah (1999), English linguistic imperialism is dominance stated and held through the continuous reconstitution and establishment of cultural and structural inequalities between English language and other existing languages. The Global Spread of English From a somewhat insignificant beginning, (see AskOxford.com), English has now spread to become a language spoken by over 1 billion people around the world. Braj Kachru (1985) divided this figure into three categories represented by three concentric circles (see Graddol (1997) ‘The Future of English’). The inner circle represents native English speakers; the outer circle represents speakers of English as a second language, and finally the expanding circle represents the speakers of English as a foreign language. This model has been criticised2, largely due to its emphasis on native speakers as ‘owners’ of the language, and their role in its spread. Graddol (1997) prefers to view the spread of English as overlapping circles with a darker arrow towards L2 countries, thus acknowledging the increasing importance of second language speakers. I feel that this is fundamental as it highlights the growing spread of English in the expanding circle, where it is fast becoming a second language spoken with differing levels of proficiency, China and Saudi Arabia being important examples. How This Spread Came About3 The underlining factor for this substantial spread was the function of Britain as a colonial power during the eighteenth century. Part of the discussion associated with colonization and the spread of English is that of Anglicism and Orientalism, which Pennycook regards as being “two sides of the same coin.” He defines orientalism as “policies in favour of education in local languages” and Anglicism as “policies in favour of education in English” (p.73). What is important to realise is that both of these were utilized to teach the culture of The British. An example of orientalism is how the British helped set up the Islamic school thought known as ‘Deoband’ in the early part of the seventeenth century. This eventually led to the Muslims splitting up into sects. An example of Anglicism in practice occurred when the British taught ‘local elites’ the English language, and its culture (Pennycook 1994). “We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Minute of 2 February 1835 on Indian Education," (G. M. Young 1957 in Pennycook, 1994,p.78)5. Britain was also the major player at the turn of the Industrial Revolution thus facilitating the entry of English into the domains of industry and technology. English is now the language that most academic and scientific journals are written in, over three quarters of electronic mail is stored in it and people cannot advance in the medical and IT fields without it. Another important contribution to the spread of English was the role of the British Council. Its goal was to promote the spread of English, as said by the then Prince of Wales: “The basis of our work must be the English language……This can be achieved by promoting the study of our language abroad” (White, 1965, in Pennycook, p.147). In terms of the present day situation, the role of America in the global spread of English most certainly cannot be ignored. American entertainment produced $8 billion in 1990, and 70% of the $20 billion a year music business comes from outside the United States (Pennycook 1994). This does not include the US control of most of the media, internet and satellite TV. English has globally spread as a global language all over the world in a breathtaking speed. According to Canagarajah (1999), English is no longer associated with any particular native speakers. Although people who come from countries that are primarily English speakers may seem the owners of English language, the number of non native English speakers who employ English as their second language and looks at it as a foreign language currently outweigh the number of English native speakers. According to Phillipson (1992), English has largely grown because of the massive migration from the United Kingdom to colonization of the outer circle, inner circle countries, and the socio economic power of language in the expanding circles. In this perspective, English is a form of linguistic imperialism. Although English may be viewed as an essential language for countries to relate and communicate to each other, it brings about some unsolved problems. One of the unsolved problems of the global spread of English may be the mutual intelligibility. This may result into comprehensibility between listeners and speakers due to negotiated and interactional actions. Although English has developed globally as an intra-national tool of communication, it is currently turning into an institutionalized and local form. There are various reasons that are stated as factors contributing to the spread of English language. Communications all over the world involves various people from varying places, backgrounds and situations. According to Kachru (1985), human society perceives English as a language that represents a luxurious and successful language. This success is often defined in form of accomplishments and/ or material possessions. Other people have also considered English language as proper and preferred for use by the refined or educated. English language may also be seen as a role model to be achieved. Globalization process has evolved for some time now. This has been accelerated by the use of English among firms from various countries that cooperate on various projects with one another. According to Brutt-Griffler (2002), the spread of English globally has also been associated with economic globalization. The worldliness of English This large scale and rapid spread of English has inevitably led to certain implications which will now be the topic of my next discussion. These ‘cultural and political implications of the spread of English’ have been termed by Pennycook “the worldliness of English” (p.6). I would adapt this definition and place “linguistic imperialism” within this general term as I feel it is a direct result of the spread of English6, and is one of the most disturbing consequences. This encompasses linguistic curtailment, linguistic genocide and linguicism as propounded by Phillipson (1992). I will first give broad definitions of these in turn, before giving some brief examples. Phillipson defines linguistic imperialism as how “the dominance of English is asserted and maintained by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural and cultural inequalities between English and other languages” (p.47). Linguistic curtailment and genocide refer to the decrease in usage of a language and its death respectively. Linguicism is defined as “the ideologies and structures which are used to legitimate, effectuate and reproduce an unequal division of power and resources (both material and non-material) between groups which are defined on the basis of their language 7(Ibid). I agree with Phillipson’s view only to a certain extent. He has done well to point out the inequalities but I feel he has gone to the extreme. It is true that the spread of English is in a way curtailing the use of other languages. For example, in many English medium schools in Saudi Arabia the majority of Arab students are not proficient in English, and despite being fluent in Arabic, their level of reading is poor as pointed out by many parents. Due to this, a lot of students are being placed back into Arabic schools. Having said this, there are always two sides to the story. These same students demonstrate excellent understanding of all subjects in English, and it is their spoken English, and to a lesser extent, their written English which is unsatisfactory8. Another very relevant example of linguistic imperialism, or more specifically, linguicism, is that of Quebec, Canada. Here English is frowned upon by French-speaking locals who strongly feel that it is given priority, despite Canada officially being a bilingual country. The above case of Quebec however is just one example of many, which I believe illustrates that the situation is not as dismal as Phillipson may portray. The strong desire of Quebecois to safeguard French is a healthy stance which at least demonstrates that the power of imperialism has not yet managed to curtail the use of the language in the province. The fact that this is occurring in an L1 country as opposed to a post colonial one is significant. Perhaps a more relevant example due to its post colonial context, would be India. It could be argued that many of her minor languages are being ‘ousted out’ by the dominance of Hindi rather than English. This is true in Hyderabad and Madras where the locals prefer Urdu and Tamil respectively, despite this, Hindi is still to this day, propagated by the government9. Another point worth deliberating on is the fact that within the UN Security Council, English is only spoken by two countries whilst China, France and Russia maintain their own official languages. And in England itself – one of the L1 countries, rap is extremely popular, to the extent that even the broadsheet newspapers have used terms such as “phatt” (to mean extremely good). If we look into the history of rap we will find that its origins are in Jamaica, the land of Creole. According to Pennycook (1994), worldliness of English means that English is locally specific and globally general. Pennycook puts emphasies on the global position of English as well as its localization in various villages, cities, and other parts of the world. The author asserts that English is part and parcel of colonial legacy, however, it is majorly appropriated by former colonials and colonialists for social change and resistance, for example using phrases like “expert speaker” to take away the current differences existing between the non-native and native speaker. In this perspective, language remains dynamic and performative, it not only reflect society and culture, but also possess the power to evoke changes in culture or society. According to Graddol (1997), English is both being changed by the world and changing the world. This change is not just limited to lexical or syntactic changes, but also includes the aspects of the use of language often imply positions within cultural politics, social order, and struggle over distinct representations on self. The worldliness of English refers to the language’s material existence in the world, its worldly character resulting from the usage all over the world, its spread in the world, and the position of English as both constitutive and reflective of worldly affairs. Pennycook (1994) asserts that language is basically a way for people, English language teachers inclusive, to implement their agency. Language is a social action. Pennycook goes ahead to state that language is a way for the people to imagine and transition to the futures preferred. He asserts that English is used in such away to balance the respect for languages and diversity of cultures with a universal responsibility and concern. The teachers of local English language contribute to the English worldliness through encouraging borrowing and code switching from resource languages to English, which is a constituting change. New Englishes Due to the globalization of English there are many varieties of English or World Englishes spoken today. As a result of this the term ‘New Englishes’ was born, personally I feel that this term is used in a condescending manner10. Certainly the English spoken by Queen Elizabeth is considerably different to that which was spoken by the original Anglo-Saxon settlers. In that case one has to ask why her majesty’s English is not regarded as one of the ‘New Englishes’. I will use the term ‘New Englishes’ to refer to the so called ‘New Englishes’ of Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. (Jenkins, 2006) One of the problems that occur between ‘Standard English’ and ‘New Englishes’ is the assertion by the former that the latter have grammatical and linguistic mistakes11, the response of the latter being that these so called mistakes are in fact deviations, and not mistakes (refer to the great debate between Quirk and Kachru for further details).I feel that the most important issue as regards the varieties of English (whether they stem from the inner or outer circle) is that of mutual intelligibility. New Englishes has been associated with properties such as phonological, lexical, and grammatical that differs from those of American Standard English or British. Since early 1980’s, New Englishes has been referred to the use of non native varieties of the English that is spoken among the former England colonies. The essential distinction existing between such varieties and the ones in nations such as United States and Australia is that there is no transmission of any English native speaker across the generations. New Englishes also indicate a sturdy influence of the spoken background languages in the regions. Due to the educational and language policy, New Englishes have become native speaker, virtually, of Englishes. English as a Lingua Franca We have seen that due to colonization many countries speak English. Some, like India, have declared it as an official language (alongside Hindi). Others, have not, but nonetheless it still plays a significant role (for example, Pakistan, Uganda and UAE). This is not only in ex-colonies, but in influential countries like China and Saudi Arabia. China has the world’s largest population and is the main exporter of goods today. Saudi Arabia is the biggest oil producing country to date. Being such huge exporters has necessitated these two big players to utilize a language that enables them to communicate with the outside world; English was chosen as the lingua franca. The term ‘English as a lingua franca’ is defined inconsistently. ELF sometimes includes native speakers and sometimes refers exclusively to non-native speakers (Jenkins via e-mail). I will use ELF as Jennifer Jenkins prefers to use it to mean “the Englishes used between people (mainly but not only non-native English speakers) who speak different first languages; ie across countries.”12 We do not have to look too far to see how English acts as a lingua franca – Europe serves as an ample example of ELF in practice. There are 21 official EU languages (including Irish) and providing translations in each language is time consuming and expensive. Despite England’s abstention from Europe (The Euro), the latter has chosen English as a lingua franca. This is not so much a direct result of Britain’s role in pushing English, but more so due to the role played by America in ‘The new World Order’. ELFE (English as a lingua franca for Europe) is not without its fair share of problems. A survey13 conducted in 2001 showed that 47% of EU citizens speak English fairly proficiently; however this survey did not include the Eastern and Southern countries. Many Europeans are extremely proud of their heritage and language, the French certainly do not want to learn the language and culture of Le ‘Roast Beef’. There are many ‘false friends’ in English, such as the French word ‘actuel’ which in English means ‘real’ whereas in French means ‘current’ (The Guardian website). Lingua franca is a language used as a channel of communication by those who do not normally speak that particular language themselves. The development of a specific language as a lingua franca is entirely depends on the political and socio economic conditions of a particular time. For example, Latin was a lingua franca, in the middle ages, of Europe. It was succeeded by French. English has today become the global lingua franca because of the colonization, improved communications, technological developments, and globalization forces. English has become a contact language used by speakers not sharing cultural background or a common mother tongue. The social, cultural and political dimensions of teaching English as an international language One of the most unfortunate and undeniable aspects of teaching English as an International language, is how the profession has developed into a small culture14 (Holliday 2005). This formation has led to certain concepts such as the “reduction of the foreign Other”, native speakerism and the general assumption that the native is the better teacher. Examples of this kind of prejudice can be seen all over the world in all types of TESOL contexts. One such example would be in Saudi Arabia where some expatriate teachers have a preconceived, stereotyped image of the Saudi student as being ‘worthless’. A colleague of mine once remarked that Saudis could not be taken seriously because they wore sandals all day. This generalized ‘reduction of the foreign Other’ extends to teachers as well as students. In this case they are considered deficient when compared to native teachers, and in need of ‘training’, as Holliday (2005) states “when English speaking western educators come into contact with colleagues from other places, it is not as professional equals,” (p.29). Even worse than this is the image of the ‘foreign other’ being in need of ‘enlightenment’ due to being culturally ‘inferior’ (ibid) In reference to the above, Pennycook (1994, pp.158-159) writes “how language teaching has often been infused by the ethnocentric spirit of notions such as development and modernization” and how ELT professionals view themselves “as bringing advanced ideas to backward regions of the world.” This leads us onto the native/non-native speaker debate. A ‘native speaker’ is hard to define, and it must be asked how important the issue is. Despite this, one still finds advertisements stating: “native or near-native like accent a must.” It is regrettable that such emphasis is placed on obtaining an American or British accent. Many natives themselves propagate this ideology. An international English medium school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was told that its American accreditation (CITA) would be revoked unless it employed more native speakers. One wonders why such a harsh condition was imposed, bearing in mind that some of the best teachers in English medium schools in the Kingdom are non-natives15. Ironically, the British Council in Riyadh highly recommends a non-native as the ‘top’ teacher to tutor IGCSE English. Another important discussion which is also connected to linguistic imperialism is that of English creating16 inequalities within communities by privileging the minority. It is true in many countries that only those who have knowledge of English have access to social and economic advantages such as further education and better jobs. In Saudi Arabia there is a huge demand for English tutors from medical and dental students. Many of these are rejected from admission into their respective colleges on the basis of their inadequate level of English. Implications for ELT I will now explain the relevance and implications of that which we have discussed for ELT in my particular context which is Saudi Arabia. ELT is a thriving business in this expanding circle country, so it is vital that the teaching content and textbooks are appropriate and congruent with Islamic principles. Most institutions teach using “New Interchange” and similar books which contain such things as drinking, dating, free mixing etc which are opposed to Islam17. I also believe that bilingual teaching has an important role to play here, as most students at the intermediate level do not have a firm enough grasp of the language to be taught monolingually18. I personally have found that sometimes students’ comprehension increases if difficult vocabulary is explained in their mother tongue. As far as critical pedagogy goes, and its definition by Pennycook (1994, p.297) as “education grounded in a desire for social change,” then this is a delicate issue. Many times during teaching, I have brought in discussions of current issues making the topic more “socially relevant,” (Ibid, p.238), and increasing the students’ ability to think critically. For example, during the Riyadh bombings we had many debates; such instances are beneficial for improving students’ conversational and discussion skills and increasing vocabulary. However, I am careful about teaching in a way which may “disrupt the status quo,” (Pennycook, 1994, p.300) since one of its dangers is that it may incite over zealous citizens to rebel against society and the government. This goes against the Islamic principle of seeking the “greater good” and avoiding the “greater harm,” and the harm caused by such rebellion far outweighs any good19. Conclusion In summary, this essay has explored the global spread of English and the rise of new Englishes, and has considered the social, cultural and political aspects of teaching English as an International language. I have then demonstrated the implications of EIL in Saudi Arabia, and how I believe ELT should be practiced here. References Brutt-Griffler, Janina (2002) World English. Multilingual Matters. London: SAGE Canagarajah, A. Suresh (1999), Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Graddol,D,1997, The Future of English? London: The British Council. Guardian Website. Gunnel Melchers and Philip Shaw. (2003). World Englishes: An Introduction. London: Prentice Hall Holliday, A,R,2005, The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Jenkins, J, 2006, Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca. Tesol Quarterly, Vol.40.No.1 March 2006. Kachru, B, 1985, Standards,Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: the English Language in the Outer Circle in Andrews, P, and Pulverness, A, 2006, ELT and its Contexts. University of East London. Macauley, T, B, 1835/1972, Minute on Indian Education, in G, M, Young (1957) Pennycook, A, 1994. The Cultural Politics of Teaching English as an International Language. London: Longman Phillipson, R, 1992, ‘Linguistic Imperialism’ in Andrews, P, and Pulverness, A, 2006, ELT and its Contexts. University of East London. Read More