Preface to the second edition

David Crystal’s English as a global language (2nd edition) contains state-of-the-art

(all’avanguardia) information about the discourse of English as a lingua Franca. It was

written in 1995 but published in 1997.

The book describes the profound transformations that, thanks to the Internet, have

influenced and facilitated our globalization.

Preface to the first edition

This book answers to the question “why is English today a political and cultural

reality?”.

The author believes in the fundamental value of multilingualism as well as in the

fundamental value of a common language.

The author was inspired to write this book by Mauro E. Mujica, chairman of US English,

the largest organization which has been campaigning for English to be made the

official language of the USA.

1. Why a global language?

“English is the global language”, you can hear it on television, wherever you travel, in

advertisement, in hotels or restaurants in a foreign city.

If there is one probable consequence of a language becoming a global language, it is

that everyone who has learned it, now owns it and has the right to use it in the way

they want.

Native speakers feel therefore proud but also concerned as their language might be

changed and “abused” to suit other speakers’ needs. (per adattarsi ai bisogni degli

altri parlanti)

What is a global language?

A language achieves (raggiunge) global status when it develops a special role in every

country and this role will be most evident in country where large numbers of people

speak the language as a mother tongue.

However, mother-tongue use by itself cannot give a language global status. To

achieve such a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the

world.

There are two ways in which this can be done:

Firstly, a language can be made the official language of a country and be used a

medium of communication in governments, in courts, in media and in the educational

system. Such a language is often described as a second language.

Secondly, a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching,

even though this language has no official status (English is now the language most

taught as a foreign language – in over 100 countries).

What makes a global language?

A language becomes global, not according to the number of speakers, but according

to who those speakers are (for example, Latin become an international language in

the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous, but

because they were the most powerful).

It is important to understand that without a strong powerbase, of whatever kind, no

language can make progress as an international medium of communication.

A language has traditionally become an international language for a few reasons: first

of all, the economic aspect. Secondly, the importance of the people that used the

language and finally, military and political aspects.

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Preface to the second edition David Crystal’s English as a global language (2nd^ edition) contains state-of-the-art (all’avanguardia) information about the discourse of English as a lingua Franca. It was written in 1995 but published in 1997. The book describes the profound transformations that, thanks to the Internet, have influenced and facilitated our globalization. Preface to the first edition This book answers to the question “why is English today a political and cultural reality?”. The author believes in the fundamental value of multilingualism as well as in the fundamental value of a common language. The author was inspired to write this book by Mauro E. Mujica, chairman of US English, the largest organization which has been campaigning for English to be made the official language of the USA.

1. Why a global language? “English is the global language”, you can hear it on television, wherever you travel, in advertisement, in hotels or restaurants in a foreign city. If there is one probable consequence of a language becoming a global language, it is that everyone who has learned it, now owns it and has the right to use it in the way they want. Native speakers feel therefore proud but also concerned as their language might be changed and “abused” to suit other speakers’ needs. (per adattarsi ai bisogni degli altri parlanti) What is a global language? A language achieves (raggiunge) global status when it develops a special role in every country and this role will be most evident in country where large numbers of people speak the language as a mother tongue. However, mother-tongue use by itself cannot give a language global status. To achieve such a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world. There are two ways in which this can be done: Firstly, a language can be made the official language of a country and be used a medium of communication in governments, in courts, in media and in the educational system. Such a language is often described as a second language. Secondly, a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though this language has no official status (English is now the language most taught as a foreign language – in over 100 countries). What makes a global language? A language becomes global, not according to the number of speakers, but according to who those speakers are (for example, Latin become an international language in the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous, but because they were the most powerful). It is important to understand that without a strong powerbase, of whatever kind, no language can make progress as an international medium of communication. A language has traditionally become an international language for a few reasons: first of all, the economic aspect. Secondly, the importance of the people that used the language and finally, military and political aspects.

Why do we need a global language? The problem has been solved by finding a language to act as a lingua franca, or ‘common language’. But most often, a language is accepted from outside the community, because of the political, economic, or religious influence of a foreign power. The prospect that a lingua franca might be needed for the whole world is something which has emerged strongly only in the 20th^ century, especially in two areas:

Organizations that include many different nations require a common language. The proof is that the UN was established with five official languages – English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese.
Business people, who have become more mobile thanks to both the technology of modern communication and the technology of transportation, need more than ever a common language. What are the dangers of a global language? There are several dangers to having a global language. Firstly, linguistic power: those who speak a global language as a mother tongue are automatically in a position of power compared with those who have to learn it as an official or foreign language. For example, senior managers who do not have English as a mother tongue might find a disadvantage when facing their mother-tongue colleagues. Secondly, linguistic complacency: there seems to be a lack of motivation to learn other languages, supported by lack of money and opportunity, but also by lack of interest. Thirdly, linguistic death: when a language dies, is lost and once lost, it can never be recuperated. In more recent times, the emergence of English as a global language has had the effect of stimulating a stronger support of local languages. It is possible to develop a situation in which understandability and identity happily co- exist. This situation is the bilingualism where one of the two languages is the global one, providing access to the world community, while the other language is the regional one, providing access to the local community. The relationship between the global spread of English and its impact on other languages attracted increasing debate during the 1990s. According to some observers, it was possible to see a correlation between the rate of English adoption and the demise of minority languages. Could anything stop a global language? The answer must be ‘yes’ considering that, as we said, language dominance, depends on political and economic factors. As a consequence, a revolution in the balance of global powers could have a strong impact of the choice of a global language. Secondly, an alternative method of communication could emerge which would eliminate the need for a global language. The chief candidate here is automatic translation (‘machine translation’). If progress in this domain continues to be as rapid, there is a possibility that it will be routine for people to communicate with each other using their first languages, with a computer “taking the strain” between them (this state can already be seen on the Internet). A critical era Within little more than a generation, we have moved from a situation where a world language was a theoretical possibility to one where it is an evident reality. Governments need to adopt long-term views, and to plan ahead – whether their interests are to promote English or to develop the use of other languages in their community, or both. 2. Why English? The historical context

In New Zealand, the story of English started later and moved more slowly. Firstly, in comparison with Australia, there has been a stronger sense of the historical relationship with Britain, and a greater sympathy for British values and institutions. Secondly, there has been a growing sense of national identity, and in particular an emphasis on the difference between New Zealand and Australia. Thirdly, there has been a fresh concern to take account of the rights and needs of the Maori people, who now form over 10 per cent of the population. South Africa English was made the official language of the region in 1822, and there was an attempt to anglicize the large Afrikaans-speaking population. English became the language of law, education, and most other aspects of public life. English has always been a minority language in South Africa. Many blacks saw English as a means of achieving an international voice and uniting themselves with other black communities. South Asia 3 and 5 per cent of the people made regular use of English. The first regular British contact with the subcontinent came in 1600 with the formation of the British East India Company – a group of London merchants who were granted a trading monopoly in the area by Queen Elizabeth I. During the period of British reign, from 1765 until independence in 1947, English gradually became the medium of administration and education throughout the subcontinent. In the 1960s, English was introduced as the chief alternative to the local state language (typically Hindi in the north and a regional language in the south). Former colonial Africa The English began to visit West Africa from the end of the fifteenth century, and soon after we find sporadic references to the use of the language as a lingua franca in some costal settlements. British varieties developed especially in five countries, each of which now gives English official status. There was also one American influence in the region.

Sierra Leone: in the 1780s philanthropists in Britain bought land to establish a settlement for freed slaves. The settlement became a crow colony in 1808 and was then used as a base for anti-slave-trading squadrons. The chief form of communication was an English-based creole, Krio, and this rapidly spread along the West African coast.
Ghana: following a successful British expedition, the southern gold coast was declared a crown colony in 1874. Ghana achieved independence in 1957 and 7.8 % of the population now uses English as a second language.
Gambia: English trading dates from the early 17th^ century. Krio is widely (ampiamente) used as a lingua franca.
Nigeria: after a period of early 19th^ century British exploration of the interior, a British colony was founded at Lagos in 1861. About half of the population use pidgin or creole English as a second language.
Cameroon: explored by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British; both French and English remained the official languages. Cameroon pidgin is spoken by half the population.
Liberia: Africa’s oldest republic was founded in 1822 through the activities of the American colonization society, which wished to establish a homeland for former slaves. It became independent in 1847. Its population mostly uses pidgin English as a second language (but there are also a number of first-language speakers).

The following states have English as an official language: Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The kinds of English which developed in East Africa were very different from those found in West Africa, because in East Africa there were more British emigrants. South-east Asia and the South pacific The territories of the south pacific display an interesting combination of American and British English. American influence -> the Philippines became independent in 1946, but the influence of American English remains strong. This country has the largest population of the English-speaking states in the region. British influence -> began through a voyage of English sailors at the end of the 18th century, notably the journeys of Capitan Cook in the 1770s. The introduction of a British educational system exposed learners to a standard British English model very early on.

Singapore: in 1950s a bilingual educational system was introduced in Singapore; English remained the language of government and the legal system and retained its importance in education and the media.
Malaysia: following independence, Bahasa Malaysia was adopted as the national language, and the role of English became more restricted.
Hong Kong: English and Chinese have joint official status, but Chinese predominates in most speech situations
Papua New Guinea: about half the people speak Tok Pisin, an English-based pidgin, as a second language (and some have it as a mother tongue). A world view The present-day world status of English is the result of two factors: the expansion of British colonial power, and the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power of the twentieth century. The US linguist Braj Kachru has suggested that we think of the spread of English around the world as three concentric circles, representing different ways in which the language has been acquired and is currently used:
The inner circle refers to the traditional bases of English, where it is the primary language: it includes the USA, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The extended circle involves the earlier phases of the spread of English in non- native settings, where the language has become part of a country’s chief institutions and plays an important ‘second language’ role in a multilingual setting: it includes Singapore, India, Malawi and over fifty other territories.
The extending circle involves those nations which recognize the importance of English as an international language, with no history of colonization by members of the inner circle, English has no special administrative status but is taught as a foreign language. It includes China, Japan, Greece, Poland and an increasing number of other states. There are some seventy-five territories in which English has held or continues to hold a special place, as a member of either the inner or the outer circles. L1 stands for people who have a variety of English as a first language or mother language. L2 stands for people who have learned a variety of English as a second language, in addition to their mother tongue. The author claims that: 1. there is no single source of statistical information on language totals, 2. where no linguistic estimate is available, he considered the percentage of a country’s population over the age of twenty-five who have completed their secondary or further education, 3. the notion of ‘a variety of English’ includes standard, pidgin, and creole varieties of English and that is why in certain countries the usage totals in the list are much higher than would be expected if only Standard

4. Why English? The cultural legacy The first steps in the political consolidation of English were taken during the decision- making which followed the First World War in 1919. International relations The League of Nations was the first to allocate (assegnare) a special place to English in its proceedings (procedure): English was one of the two official languages (the other one was French), and all documents were printed in both. The League was replaced in 1945 by the United Nations, where the role of the lingua franca became even more critical. A different kind of role for English is encountered at meetings where a large number of nations each has the right to participate using its own language. The media Politic achievement is influenced by access to the media THE PRESS The English language has been an important medium of the press for nearly 400 years. The first English newspaper to appear was The Weekly News in 1622. The nineteenth century was a period of greatest progress, thanks to the introduction of new printing technology and new methods of mass production and transportation. In Britain, taxation restricted the growth of the press in the first half of the century, but The Times continued to grow during the period. ADVERTISING English in advertising began very early on, when the weekly newspapers began to carry items about books, medicines, tea and other domestic products. During the 19th^ century the advertising slogan became a feature of the medium (una caratteristica propria del mezzo), as did the famous ‘trade name’ (così come il Famoso nome di marchio): a famous motto in the United States was “it pays to advertise”

The Rise of English as a Global Language: Historical Context and Socio-Cultural Factors, Appunti di Lingua Inglese

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