Scarica The Global Spread of English: Historical Factors, Current Trends, and Future Prospects e più Appunti in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity!
ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE
1) WHAT IS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE AND WHAT MAKES A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?
To achieve a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world. They must decide to give it a special place within their communities, even though they may have few (or no) mother-tongue speakers. There are two main ways in which this can be done: ● Firstly, a language can be made the official language of a country, to be used as a medium of communication in such domains as a government, the law courts, the media, and the educational system. Such a language is often described as a “second language”, because it is seen as a complement to a person’s mother-tongue, or “first language”. ● Secondly, a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though this language has no official status. A language has to be taken up by other countries around the world. They must decide to give it a special place within their communities, even though they may have few (or no) mother-tongue speakers. Reasons for choosing a particular language as a favored foreign language: ● historical tradition; ● political expediency; ● desire for commercial, cultural or technological contact. English has some kind of official status in over seventy countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria, India, Singapore. This is far more than the status achieved by any other language (even if French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic are among those which have also developed a considerable official use.) English is now the language most widely as a foreign language - in over 100 countries, such as China, Russia, Germany, Spain, Egypt and Brazil - and in most of these countries it is emerging as the chief foreign language to be encountered in schools. About a quarter of the world’s population is already fluent or competent in English, and this figure is steadily growing - in the early 2000s that around 1.5 billion people could be considered to be fluent or competent in English. No other language can match this growth. Even Chinese, found in eight different spoken languages, but unified by a common writing system, is known to “only” some 1.1 billion.
- WHAT MAKES A GLOBAL LANGUAGE? Why a language becomes a global language has a little to do with the number of people who speak it. It’s much more to do with who those speakers are. A language doesn’t become a global language because of its intrinsic structural properties, or because of the size of its vocabulary, or because it has been a vehicle of great literature in the past, or because it was once associated with a great culture or religion. These are all factors which can motivate to learn a language, but such factors cannot even guarantee survival as a living language - as is clear from the case of Latin correspondingly, inconvenient structural properties (such as awkward spelling) do not stop a language achieving international status either.
Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this wasn’t because the Romans were more numerous than the people they subjugated. They were simply more powerful. And later, when Roman military power declined, Latin remained for a millenium as the international language of education, thanks to a different sort of power - the ecclesiastical power of Roman Catholicism. What makes a global language is set of links between language dominance and economic, technological, and cultural power. Languages have traditionally become global languages for one chief reason: the power of its people (especially their political and military power). This explanation is the same throughout history: ● GREEK: became a language of international communication in the Middle East over 2000 years ago not because of the intellects of Plato and Aristotle but thanks to the military power of the armies of Alexander the Great; ● LATIN: became known throughout Europe due to military power of the legions of the Roman Empire; ● ARABIC: come to be spoken so widely across northern Africa and the Middle East following the spread of Islam, Calong by the force of the Moorish armies from the 8th century; ● SPANISH, PORTUGUESE and FRENCH: find their way into the Americas, Africa and the Far East because of the expansion policies ruthlessly implemented by armies and navies all over the known world. The history of a global language can be traced through the successful expeditions of its soldier/sailors speakers. and english has been no exception. International language dominance isn’t solely the result of military might. It may take a military powerful nation to establish a language, but it takes an economically powerful one to maintain and expand it. Main economical reasons for which english has become a global language: ● by the beginning f the 19th century Britain had became the world’s leading industrial and trading country; ● by the end of the 19th century, the population of the USA was larger than that of any of the countries of western Europe, and its economy was the most productive and the fastest growing in the world; ● during the 19th century, British political imperialism had sent English around the globe; ● during the 20th century, this world presence was maintained and promoted almost single-handedly through the economic supremacy of the new American superpower. Economics replaced politics as the chief driving force. And the language behind the US dollar was English. Any language at the centre of such an explosion of international activity would suddenly have found itself with a global status. And English, was in the right place at the right time.
The nineteenth century saw a massive increase in American immigration from Europe, as people fled the results of revolution, poverty, and famine. Large numbers of Irish came following the potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s. Germans and Italians came, escaping the consequences of the failed 1848 revolutions. And there were increasing numbers of Central European Jews, especially fleeing from the pogroms of the 1880s. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, immigrants were entering the USA at an average of three-quarters of a million a year. In the 19th century multicultural American society the English language was a major factor in maintaining American unity throughout this period of remarkable cultural diversification. The English language became a ‘glue’ which brought people together and a common and shared medium of communication across different ethical and cultural groups, which, however, managed to give people similar opportunities to access equal rights and social development. The result was a massive growth in mother-tongue use of English and a massive advancement in the role of English as a GLOBAL LANGUAGE. THE INNER CIRCLE (CANADA, AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND): The English language made progress also further north. The first English Language contact with Canada was as early as 1497. During the 1750s thousands of French settlers were deported and replaced by settlers from New England. The numbers were then further increased by many coming directly from England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand. Because of its origins, Canadian English has a great deal in common with the rest of the English spoken in North America. AUSTRALIA was visited by James Cook in 1770, and within twenty years Britain established its first penal colony at Sydney, thus relieving the pressure on the overcrowded prisons in England. About 130,000 prisoners were transported during fifty years after the arrival of the ‘first fleet’ in 1788. ‘Free’ settlers, as they were called, began to enter the country and from then on, immigration rapidly increased. By 1850, the population of Australia was abou 400,000, and by 1900 nearly 4 million. The British Isles provided the main source of settlers, and thus the main influence on the language. Many of the convicts came from London and Ireland (especially following the 1798 Irish rebellion), and features of the Cockney accent of London and the brogue of Irish English can be traced in the speech patterns heard in Australia today. In NEW ZEALAND the story of English started later. Captain Cook charted the islands in 1769–70, and European whalers and traders began to settle there in the 1790s, expanding the developments already taking place in Australia. Christian missionary work began among the Maori from about 1814. New Zealand’s social history in the present century has had especial linguistic differences in comparison with Australia for three main reasons: ● a stronger sense of the historical relationship with Britain, and a greater sympathy for British values and institutions; ● a growing sense of national identity, an emphasis on the differences between New Zealand and Australia, leading to differences in the accents of the two countries, and the use of distinctive New Zealand vocabulary;
● a stronger concern to take account of the rights and needs of the Maori people. THE OUTER OR EXTENDED CIRCLE (FORMER COLONIAL AFRICA – WEST AFRICA): The English began to visit West Africa from the end of the fifteenth century, and soon after it started to be used as a lingua franca in some coastal settlements. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the increase in commerce and anti-slave-trade activities had brought English to the whole West African coast. With hundreds of local languages to contend with, there was the rise of several English-based pidgins and creoles* , used alongside the standard varieties of colonial officials, missionaries, soldiers, and traders. ● A pidgin is a restricted language which arises for the purposes of basic communication between two social groups of which one is in a more dominant position than the other. The less dominant group is the one which develops the pidgin, resulting in a mix between the basis of the colonial language and the local language or languages of the natives. Historically, pidgins arose in colonial situations where the representatives of the particular colonial power, officials, tradesmen, sailors, etc., came in contact with natives. In the course of several generations such a reduced form of language can become more complex, and this latter stage is that of creolisation. ● A creole language is (basically) the expanded version of a pidgin: it is a stable natural language and, unlike a pidgin, it evolved into a complete language, used in a community and acquired by children as their native language. British varieties developed especially in five West African countries, each of which now gives English official status: ● Sierra Leone, The settlement became a Crown Colony in 1808 and the country received its independence in 1961. The chief form of communication was an English-based creole, still used today by the majority of Its population. ● Ghana (formerly Gold Coast) was declared a Crown Colony in 1874. Ghana achieved independence in 1957. Its population was nearly 19 million in 2002, about 1.5 million of whom use English as a second language. ● Gambia became a Crown Colony in 1843, an independent member of the Commonwealth in 1965 and a republic in 1970. It had a population of 1. million in 2002. Krio (English based creole) is widely used as a lingua franca. Other West African countries in which British varieties developed and which now gives English official status are: ● Nigeria, a former British colony was founded at Lagos in 1861, received independence in 1960. It is one of the most multilingual countries in Africa, with some 500 languages identified in the mid-1990s. Its population in 2002 was over 126 million. About half use pidgin or creole English as a second language. ● Cameroon: explored by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British, this region became a German protectorate in 1884, and was divided between France and Britain in 1919. After some uncertainty, the two areas merged as a single country in 1972, with both French and English remaining as official languages. It is also a highly multilingual region, with a 2002 population of nearly 16 million. It is thus a country in which contact languages have
● The 1993 Constitution names eleven languages as official, including English and Afrikaans, in an effort to enhance the status of the country’s indigenous languages. There is thus a linguistic side to the political divisions which marked South African apartheid society: ● Afrikaans came to be perceived by the black majority as the language of authority and repression; ● English was perceived by the Afrikaner government as the language of protest and self-determination. THE OUTER OR EXTENDED CIRCLE (SOUTH ASIA): The Indian subcontinent probably outranks the combined totals of English speakers in the USA and UK. South Asia (which comprises Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan) holds about a fifth of the world’s population. Several varieties of English have emerged throughout the subcontinent, and they are sometimes collectively referred to as South Asian 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 sovereignty (the Raj), from 1765 until independence in in 1947, English gradually became the medium of administration and education throughout the subcontinent. When the universities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras were established in 1857, English became the primary medium of instruction, thereby guaranteeing its status and steady growth during the next century. ● In India, the conflict between the supporters of English, Hindi, and regional languages led in the 1960s to a ‘three language formula’, in which English was introduced as the chief alternative to the local state language (typically Hindi in the north and regional languages in the south). It now has the status of an ‘associate’ official language, with Hindi the official language. It is also recognized as the official language of four states (Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura) and eight Union territories. English has, as a consequence, retained its standing within Indian society, continuing to be used within the legal system, government administration, secondary and higher education, the armed forces, the media, business, and tourism. ● In Pakistan, it is an associated official language. ● It has no official status in the other countries of South Asia, but throughout the region it is universally used as the medium of international communication. Increasingly it is being perceived by young South Asians as the language of cultural modernity. THE OUTER OR EXTENDED CIRCLE (SOUTH-EAST ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC): The territories in South-east Asia and the South Pacific display an interesting mixture of American and British English, but despite the common colonial history of the region, a single variety of ‘South-east Asian English’ has not emerged. The main American presence emerged after the Spanish-American War of 1898, from which the USA received the island of Guam (and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean) and sovereignty over the Philippines. ● The Philippines became independent in 1946, but the influence of American English remains strong. This country has by far the largest population of the
English- speaking states in the region (about 80 million in 2002), it makes a significant contribution to world totals. ● Hawaii was annexed at that time also, after a period of increasing US influence. In the 1940s, the US invasion of Japanese-held Pacific islands was followed after World War II by several areas being made the responsibility of the USA as United Nations Trust Territories. British influence began through the voyages of English sailors at the end of the eighteenth century, notably with the journeys of Captain Cook in the 1770s. Centers were established in several locations, notably Penang (1786) and Malacca (1824) in Malesia, and Singapore (1819). English had come to be established throughout the region as the medium of law and administration, and was being increasingly used in other contexts. ● Singapore in the 1950s introduced a bilingual educational system, with English use as a unifying medium alongside Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. However, English remained the language of government and the legal system, and retained its importance in education and the media. Its use has also been steadily increasing among the general population. There is also evidence of quite widespread use in family settings, and a new local variety, known as Singlish, has evolved. ● In Malaysia, following independence (1957), Bahasa Malaysia was adopted as the national language, and the role of English became more restricted. English is an obligatory subject but increasingly is being seen as a foreign language rather than a second language. However, the traditional prestige attached to English still exists, for many speakers. ● Hong Kong island was ceded to Britain in 1842 at the end of the first Opium War. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, several territories in the region became British protectorates, the administration of some being later taken over by Australia and New Zealand. The introduction of a British educational system exposed learners to a standard British English model very early on. English rapidly became the language of professional advancement and the chief literary language.. The language thus became a prestige lingua franca among those who had received an English education and who had thereby entered professional society. English and Chinese have joint official status, but Chinese predominates in most speech situations, often with a great deal of language mixing. ● Papua New Guinea was visited by British sailors as early as 1793, and Britain and Germany annexed these areas in 1884. The area became independent in
- About half the people speak Tok Pisin, an English-based pidgin, as a second language (and some as mother tongue language). THE EXPANDING OR EXTENDING CIRCLE (ENGLISH TAUGHT AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE): The expanding or extending circle involves those nations which recognize the importance of English as an international language, even if: ● they do not have a history of colonization ● nor have they given English any special administrative status. ● It includes China, Japan, several European countries, and an increasing number of other states. In these nations, English is taught as a foreign language.
If the sector can effectively respond to the consumer demands and technological innovation, English language teaching and learning could more than compensate for the demographic reduction of the market. ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING in ITALY: Lower levels of demand and motivation in comparison with other EU countries general poor knowledge of foreign languages: ● large number of dialects ● more importance given traditionally to national language learning at school - dubbing of foreign films and television- etc… ENGLISH AT SCHOOL: In 2006 government reforms made it mandatory to learn two foreign languages in school. Italy is now among those countries where students are taught English earliest in mainstream school. Various government reforms have seen the age drop from 11 years old in 1984 to six by 2007. The ministry of education is also looking to introduce mandatory English language lessons at the preschool level. The expected level of fluency in English at the end of upper secondary school is B2, but this is not currently verified by regulatory bodies of the Ministry of Education. CLIL: Italy is a strong supporter of CLIL programmes. In 2012, it became compulsory for some form of CLIL teaching to take place during the last three years of upper secondary school. Most staff who become CLIL teachers start out as specialist subject teachers and are eligible to become CLIL teachers if they also speak a foreign language at C1 level shortage of subject teachers who fulfill both criteria. This initiative has been extended to primary level. Since most primary school teachers are generalists, the idea that they can train to teach a subject in English should be seen as an advantageous professional development opportunity. ENGLISH AT UNIVERSITY: English-taught bachelor’s programmes (ETBs) have become popular in Italy attract foreign students, develop truly global institutions, and equip home students with high level English proficiency. Academic research: need to publish academic research papers in English. Teachers and students’ exchange programs: English employed as lingua franca in international academic exchange contexts. ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE ● No other language beside English has spread around the globe so extensively and, mostly, so rapidly, particularly with the English Language expansion that has taken place since the 1950s. ● The situation of English as a Global Language is without precedent for an international language. ● To further understand and explain this phenomenon, we need to consider other sociological and cultural factors that led to the way modern society has come to use, and depend on, the English language.
- WHY IS ENGLISH A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?(THE CULTURAL FOUNDATION) Some important factors in 19th century social history laid the cultural foundation for the growth of English as a world language. The major socio-cultural developments of the past 200 years show that the English language has repeatedly found itself ‘in the right place at the right time’.
In particular, factors of Political developments & new forms of Access to knowledge put the language in a position of preeminence, allowing the establishment of its status as a global language. POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS (the growth of the British Empire): In the context of colonialism, the language of a colonial power introduces a new, unifying medium of communication within a colony, but at the same time it reflects the bonds between that colony and the home country. In the case of English, these bonds brought immediate access in the colonial territories (and later to the entire world, see next slide) to a culture (and its related language) in which the Industrial Revolution developed. Access to knowledge first within the British colonial Empire (and later in the rest of the world) contributed to the spread of English as a global language. ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE: ● By the beginning of the 19th century, Britain had become the world’s leading industrial and trading nation. Most of the innovations of the Industrial Revolution were of British origin. The most immediate linguistic consequences of this achievement were the immediate development of new terminologies related to technological and scientific advance, adding thousands of new words to the English lexicon. But, most of all, these innovations were expanding throughout the world, thus implying that anyone from abroad who wished to learn about them would need to learn English – and learn it properly– if they wished to benefit. By the end of the 19th century, similar developments were taking place in America Which had overtaken Britain as the world’s fastest growing economy. When theAmerican research added to the British, about half of the influential scientific and technological advancement between 1750 to 1900 were written in English, giving also origins to the branch of ACADEMIC ENGLISH STYLISTIC CONVENTIONS. Moreover some of the technology was itself critical in helping the dissemination of ideas. In particular: ● steam technology and the later arrival of new sources of energy, which revolutionized printing, allowing the introduction of the high-speed press, and generating an unprecedented mass of publications in English, in particular technical manuals and leaflets, books of instructions, specialized and popular periodicals, advertisements, and proceedings of learned societies. ● progress in transportation, which transformed and increased the availability of the products of the Industrial Revolution. In particular, the distribution of daily newspapers on a large scale on the railway system and, later, the road network, granted access to the new knowledge and the further spread of the English Language at a global level. ● the rapid growth of the international banking system, especially in Germany, Britain, and the USA, which supported developing industrial companies and the growth of world trade and investment. This urged the less wealthy European countries as well as the new colonies, to attract foreign investment and the main investment and trading firms, such as Rothschilds and Morgans, were based in the US and the UK. London and New York thus became the investment capitals of the world, and, consequently, the English language became the main medium of communication of business and banking activities.
the way techniques of news gathering developed. The mid 19th century saw the growth of the major news agencies, especially after the invention of the telegraph in 1851 Paul Julius Reuter, in London, launched the agency which now bears his name. By 1870 Reuters had acquired more territorial news monopolies than any of its Continental competitors. In 1856, with the of the New York Associated Press (which later became the Associated Press), the majority of the information being transmitted along the telegraph wires of the world was in English. A similar story occurred in relation to the publication of periodicals, magazines, pamphlets, digests and other press materials: about a quarter of the world’s periodicals are published in English-status countries, and for some individual genres, the pre-eminence of English is even higher consider for example academic journals, which nowadays are almost exclusively published in English. ● ADVERTISING: Towards the end of the 19th century, a combination of social and economic factors led to a huge increase in the use of advertisements in publications, especially in the more industrialized countries. In the USA, publishers realized that income from advertising would allow them to lower the selling price of their magazines, and thus further increase circulation and related profits. Nowadays, 2/3 of newspapers, especially in the USA, may be dedicated to advertising. English in advertising was (and still is) largely employed in newspapers, posters, bill- boards, electric displays, shop signs and has now become part of the everyday scene. As international markets grew, advertising became one of the most noticeable global manifestations of English language use. The English advertisements are not always more numerous, in countries where English has no special status, but they are usually the most noticeable. ● BROADCASTING: It took many decades of experimental research in physics, carried out mainly in Britain and the US, before it was possible to send the first radio telecommunication signals through the air, without wires. Marconi’s system, built in 1895, carried telegraph code signals over a distance of one mile. Six years later, his signals had crossed the Atlantic Ocean; by 1918, they had reached Australia. English was the first language to be transmitted by radio, when US physicist Reginald Fessenden broadcast music, poetry, and a short talk to Atlantic shipping from Massachusetts, USA, on Christmas Eve 1906. By 1922, in the USA, over 500 broadcasting stations had been licensed; and by 1995, the total was around 5,000 (both for AM and for FM stations). In Britain, experimental broadcasts were being made as early as 1919, and the British Broadcasting Company (later, Corporation), the BBC, was established in 1922. A similar expansion later involved public television. The world’s first high-definition service, provided by the BBC, began in London in 1936. In the USA, the National Broadcasting Company, the NBC, was able to provide a regular service in 1939. ● CINEMA: The new technologies which followed the discovery of electrical power thoroughly changed the nature of home and public entertainment, also providing new paths for the development of English as a global language. Britain and France were the first nations to contribute to the birth of the motion picture industry. However, in the years before and during the First World War
America took over, giving origins to the feature film and the star system, the grand studio, all based in Hollywood, California. By the mid-1990s, the USA controlled about 85% of the world film market, with Hollywood films dominating the box offices in most countries, and the English Language being the main medium of communication, to be eventually dubbed or subtitled in other foreign countries. ● POPULAR MUSIC: The recording industry was another entertainment sector which emerged at the end of the 19th century and in which the English language was again in a position of pre-eminence. Most of the technical developments in this sector took place in the USA, and all the major recording companies in popular music had English Language origins. The oldest active record label is the US firm Columbia (1898); others are HMV (originally British), which merged in 1931 with Columbia to formEMI. The role of English in popular music started much earlier. The British music hall was a major influence on popular trends – much more so than the French and German cabarets and operettas in the 18th century. During the early 20th century, European light opera (e.g. Strauss) developed an English-language dimension. Several major composers were immigrants to the USA, or they were the children of immigrants (such as George Gershwin). Jazz, or Blues singers too, influenced by the folk blues of black plantation workers, had a predominant English linguistic dimension, such as country music, gospel songs, and a wide range of folk singing and, later on, the words and beat of rock and roll. Contemporary, modern popular music is almost entirely in English. US and UK pop groups dominate the recording industry, and no other single source has spread the English language around the youngest generations of the world so quickly and so pervasively. The English-language character of the international pop music almost compels every popular singer to sing also in English, beside their own language, if they want to break through into the international arena. ● IT AND COMMUNICATIONS: The dominant position of English has been further reinforced in the 21st century by the rapid development of Information Technologies (IT) and the advent of the Internet. The major IT industries were and still are based mainly in the US, thus underpinning the position of the language in this sector. The first protocols devised to carry data on the Net were developed for the English alphabet (more sophisticated protocols with multilingual settings became available only later), and in the meantime, English continues to be the main lingua franca of the Internet. INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: The communication in the tourism industry is largely based on English: signs in museums, restaurant menus, brochures tend to be always written (or at least translated) into English. A special aspect of international travel is the way that English has come to be used as a common means of communication in international transport and safety operations. English has long been recognized as the international language of the sea, while the official use of English as the language of international air-craft control did not emerge until after the Second World War, and developed into a linguistic system called ‘Airspeak’, with a restricted vocabulary and a fixed set of sentence patterns
Language Act of 1967 disestablished English as a joint official language, giving sole status to Malay. To date, the few countries which have rejected the recognition of English as an international language are relatively small, so that even in total there has been no noticeable impact on the global status of the English language as a whole. However, there is one country whose population-size and current (and prospective) The sociolinguistic situation could significantly impact the role of English as a global language: the USA. Much of the power which has contributed to the growth of the English language during the 20th century has stemmed from America. Thus, the future status of English as a global language is strongly and inevitably linked with the future of the USA. Contrasting attitudes and links between language and power in the US situation: ● disestablishment of the USA military power; ● ever-changing Cultural identity in the USA; CONTRASTING ATTITUDES: THE US SITUATION
- Disestablishment of the USA military power:Even if the USA still has by far the most powerful conventional armed forces in the world and is the largest arms producer, since the beginning of the new millennium, the military power of the USA has been experiencing serious disestablishment, caused both by external forces (e.g. terrorism, Middle-East conflicts, Iraqi and Afghan wars) and internal political conflicts challenging the role of the US army and police forces (e.g. Black lives matter and anti-weapons movements).
- Cultural and linguistic identity: Since the 1990s increasing attention came to be focused on a domestic debate in which the positions for and against ‘official English’ have been argued with varying amounts of moderation and extremism. What has emerged is a conflict between the demands of intelligibility and identity and the need to protect the rights of individual, ethnic minority and immigrant populations, as enshrined in the US Constitution. ● On the pro-official side (pursued mainly by Republicans, but also with varying amounts of inter-party support), several bills have been presented to the House of Representatives, supporting the ‘official English’ movement and the application of different attitudes and recommendations about the use and status of other languages in the country. THE POLITICAL ARGUMENT: FOR Pro-official supporters see in the emergence of major immigrant groups, and the support for immigrant language programmes, the seeds of separatism and the eventual dissolution of the cultural unity of the United States. From this point of view, English is viewed as a social adhesive – as a linguistic glue which guarantees political unity, the basis of social stability in the USA, and any threat to this stabilizing influence would lead to the growth of ‘countries within a country’ – linguistic ghettos which would discourage contact between groups and slow down the process of socialization. Attention is drawn to the size of the possible gap, especially in relation to the use of Spanish, with the US Census Bureau predicting a Hispanic population of over 80 million by 2050.
● On the anti-official side, there are many cultural perspectives reflecting the multiple socio-linguistic composition of the US population which includes, on the one hand, a major Hispanic group of over 28 millions (according to the 2000 census) and, on the other, a varied range of different ethnic groups. THE POLITICAL ARGUMENT: AGAINST Anti-official supporters affirm that recognition of “English as official language” in the US is unnecessary, as fears of disunity and cultural loss have been wildly exaggerated. They argue that most immigrants are already assimilating English – certainly by the second generation – and that the natural course of events will eventually produce a new social balance, without any need for legislation. Any “official English bill” would represent a federal intrusion into self-expression, violating cultural pluralism, would be perceived as a policy intended to limit and control minorities – increasing the chances that communities would divide along ethnic lines. Even if English were made official, the use of a common language does not guarantee ethnic harmony. A community can be torn apart on racial, religious, political, or other grounds, even when both sides are united by a single language, and this is exactly the case of the US contemporary society. CULTURAL AND LINGUISTIC IDENTITY: in reaction to the polarized positions for and against the English-only movement, around the beginning of the 90’s a new movement originated, namely, the “English Plus Resolution”. The ‘English Plus Resolution’ recognizes English as ‘the primary language of the United States’ alongside the importance of other languages spoken by US residents, recognizing them as ‘linguistic resources to be conserved and developed’. It repeatedly stressed the value of multilingualism to the US community, as this would ‘enhance American competitiveness in global markets’, ‘improve United States diplomatic efforts and ‘promote greater cross cultural understanding between different racial and ethnic groups’. The future directions of the ‘official English’ debate in the US is still unsettled. The language arguments had become increasingly polarized, forced into line with the party politics, and the emotional level of the debate has escalated. This confirms the strong and crucial relationship between language, thought, individuality and social identity. OTHER TYPES OF NEW ENGLISH: In the list of English-speaking territories, the number of first-language (L1) speakers in the inner-circle countries is currently about the same as the number of second language (L2) English speakers in the outer-circle countries (around 400 million). But if we consider also the countries of the outer circle, the balance of speakers changes dramatically, as by adding their figures, there are already more L2 speakers than L1 speakers. Considering the population-rate growth in these countries, there could be up to 50 per cent more within fifty years. Thus, the only possible future development of the English language will be a global one, with a usage not restricted by countries or governing bodies. An inevitable consequence of these developments is that the language will undergo through unpredictable linguistic changes. The spread of English around the world has already demonstrated this, in the emergence
educational system, the contemporary attitude is to maintain the importance of Standard English while, at the same time, maintaining the value of local accents and dialects. The intellectual basis for this policy is the recognition of the fact that language has many functions, and that the reason for the existence of Standard English (to promote mutual communicative comprehension) is different from the reason for the existence of local dialects (to promote local identity). The same arguments could be applied even on a global scale. The same arguments could be applied even on a global scale: there is no intrinsic conflict between Standard English and, for example, Singlish, Spanglish or other regional/national varieties, as the reasons for the existence of Standard English, i.e. to permit people of different linguistic backgrounds to communicate with each other and with people abroad, are different from the reasons for the emergence of regional/national varieties, i.e. to provide a sense of local identity. Similar attitudes can be retraced in all parts of the world where English is developing a strong non-native presence, and at all levels. The question of just how much local phonology, grammar, vocabulary and pragmatics should be allowed in, is extremely complex; but there seems no doubt that, gradually, there is a definite ameliorative trend around the English-speaking world, with expressions which were once heavily penalized as local and low-class now achieving a degree of prestige. How fast this trend develops depends on economic and social factors more than on anything else. If the people who use mixed varieties as markers of their identity become more influential, attitudes will change, and usages will become more acceptable. The future of English is likely to be one of increasing multidialectism and multilingualism; as evidence suggests, within a relatively short period of time, English is going to develop into highly different varieties, just as Vulgar Latin did a millennium ago. A likely scenario is the rise of a ‘World Standard Spoken English’ (WSSE). Indeed, the foundation for such a development is already being laid around us. Most people are already ‘multidialectal’ to a greater or lesser extent. They use one spoken variety at home, when they are with their family or talking to other members of their local community: this tends to be an informal variety, full of casual pronunciation, colloquial grammar, and local turns of phrase. They use another spoken variety when they are away from home, or interacting with others at their place of work: this tends to be a formal variety, full of careful pronunciation, conventional grammar, and standard vocabulary. diglossia It would seem that English at the global level is steadily moving towards becoming a diglossic language. Already, in such locations as Singapore or the Philippines, we see two spoken varieties co-existing, one being used in formal communicative situations (respectively: Standard BE and Standard AE) and the other for identity (respectively: Singlish and Taglish). In a future where there were many national Englishes, the further development of ‘World Standard Spoken English’ (WSSE) is highly probable. If WSSE emerges as a neutral global variety in due course, British and American English will still exist, of course, but as varieties expressing national identity in the UK and USA. IN CONCLUSION..? There has never been a language so widely spread or spoken by so many people as English. There are therefore no precedents to help us see what happens to a language when it achieves such an extensive, global status, or make reliable
predictions about its future (≠ Latin, which was in a sense ‘global’, but in a much smaller world). Further, potential speculation: in 500 years’ time, will everyone automatically be introduced to English as soon as they are born? If so, will this be part of a rich multilingual experience for our future offspring? Or will English be by then the only language left to be learned? Does all this mean that the emergence of a global language is a unique event, in evolutionary terms? “Posterity, Thine be the hard decision…”
- GEOGRAPHICAL & SOCIO-CULTURAL FEATURES OF THE ‘MAIN’ ANGLOPHONE COUNTRIES + PRACTICAL ‘LIVING-TIPS Today and in the next lessons, we will focus on some of the most important geographical & socio-cultural features of the ‘main’ Anglophone countries (inner circle), namely: Ireland, New Zealand, UK, US, Canada, Australia. We will also focus on some useful and practical ‘living-tips’, in order for you to have a complete set of information in case you wish to travel, study and/or work in any of these countries. UK: The UK is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Rest of Ireland is an independent country. The official name of the country is the United Kingdom of Great Britain andNorthern Ireland. ‘Great Britain’ refers only to England, Scotland and Wales, not to NorthernIreland. The words ‘Britain’, ‘British Isles’ or ‘British’, however, are generally and commonly used to refer to the UK and to everyone in the UK. UK GEOGRAPHICAL TERRITORIES: There are also several islands which are closely linked with the UK but are not part of it: the Channel Islands and theIsle of Man. These have their own governments and are called ‘Crown dependencies’. There are also several British overseas territories (OTs) in other parts of the world. They are a set of largely self-governing territories, spread across four oceans and spanning nine time zones, from the Atlantic to thePacific, the Antarctic to the Caribbean. They are: Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Antarctic Territory, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the BritishVirgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn, St Helena (with Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha), South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, the Sovereign Base Areas, and the Turks & Caicos. Most of the OTs are permanently inhabited and largely self-governing. They are not part of the UnitedKingdom, but the UK has an obligation under article 73 of the United Nations Charter to provide for the wellbeing of their inhabitants. The total population of the UK Overseas Territories is only about 250,000. UK - SOCIAL CULTURAL INFORMATION: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK: Britain has had a local government system in one form or another for 40 centuries. It began with the Anglo-Saxon division of England into large counties and small parishes, which were organized by the monarch’s local representatives. Contemporary politics operate on UK, devolved and local government levels. ● The UK Parliament and government in London organize the UK as a whole. ● A Parliament in Scotland, Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland and a London ● Authorities have varying degrees of devolved self-government. ● Local governments throughout Britain organize society at a local level.
