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English as a global language.
What is a global language? A language achieves a global status when it develops a special role that’s recognized in every country. Such a role will be most evident in countries where large numbers of the people speak the language as a mother tongue – in the case of English, this would mean the US, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, ecc; however, mother tongue use by itself cannot give a language a global status. To achieve this 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. A language can be made the official language of a country, to be used as a medium of communication in domains such as the government, the media and the educational system. Such a language is described as a ‘second language’, and it this societies it’s essential to master it as early in life as possible. A language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though it has no officia status – it becomes the language that children are most likely to be taught at school. English is now the language most widely taught as a foreign language. There are several ways in which a language can be official: it may be the sole language of a country, or it may share this status with other languages; it may have a semi-official status, being used only in certain domains. Similarly, there are a great deal of reasons for choosing a particular language as a favoured foreign language: historical tradition, politics and the desire for cultural, commercial or technological contact. What makes a global language? Why a language becomes global has little to do with the number of people who speak it: it has more to do with who those speakers are. Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, because the Romans were the most powerful of populations; later, when their military power declined, Latin remained for a long time the international language of culture and education, thanks to the ecclesiastical power of Roman Catholicism. There’s a close link between language dominance and economic, technological and cultural power: when the users of a certain language succeed internationally, their language succeeds too. A language does not become global because of its structural properties, how easy it is to learn it, or because it’s associated with a great culture or religion; it becomes an international
language because of the power of its people, especially their political and military power – but it doesn’t end there. In the 19th and 20th centuries, economic developments were supported by the new communication technologies like the radio, telegraph and telephone: the growth of competitive industry and business brought an explosion of international marketing and advertising, and technology, in the form of movies and records, created new mass entertainment industries which had a worldwide impact. By the beginning of the 19th century, Britain had become the world’s leading industrial and trading country; by the 20th century, the US took its place, and its economy became the most productive and fastest growing in the world. British political imperialism sent English around the world, and during the 20th century this world presence was mantained and promoted through the economic supremacy/power of the United States. Why do we need a global language? In communities where there are many language in contact, this problem has traditionally been solved by finding a ‘common language’, a lingua franca – sometimes, when communities begin to trade with each other, they communicate by adopting a simplified language, known as pidgin , which combines elements of both of their different languages. However, the developments in economy and technology have raised the need for global intellegibility: there has never been a time where so many nations were needing to talk to each other so much, or where so many people wished to travel to so many places. What are the dangers of a global language? Even though the benefits of having a global language are considerable, the risks are high too. Perhapsthose who speak such language as a mother tongue woll be more able to think and work quickly in it, to manipulate to their own advantage at the expense of those who don’t have it, thus mantaining the opposition between rich and poor by disguising it as a linguistic problem. Perhaps the presence of a global language will make people lazy about learning other languages, or reduce their opportunities to do so. There are 3 main arguments:
- Linguistic power – it is possible 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 a foreign language. For example, if a scientist writes up his or her research in languages other than English, they might have their work ignored by the whole community; however, if we pay proper attention to language learning, the problem of
Could anything stop a language once it achieves a global status? Yes – if language dominance is a matter of political and economic influence, then a revolution is the balance of global power could have consequences on the choice of a global language; another plausible scenario is that an alternative method of communication could emerge, which would eliminate the need for a global language entirely. Despite the remarkable growth in the use of English, at least 2 thirds of the world population do not yet use it: in most of the states of the former soviet union, for example, English has a very limited presence. Why English? There are 2 main answers: the geographical-historical answer and the socio-cultural one. The historical account traces the movement of English around the world, beginning with the pioneering voyages to the Americas, Asia and the Antipodes. This expansion continued in the 19th century colonial developments in Aftica and the South Pacific, and it took a step further when in the mid 20th century it was adopted as an official or semi-official language by newly independent states. The socio-cultural explanation looks at the way people all over the world have come to depend on English for their economic and social well-being. The language has penetrated deeply in the international domains of political life, business, communication and the media – the convenience of having a lingua franca available to serve global human relations and needs has come to be appreciated by millions.
The cultural foundation.
In which ways have people valued English as it grew globally during the 19th century? In which ways have they since come to use it and in which situation do they now depend on it? There are some important factors in 19th century social history which laid the cultural basis/foundation for the growth of English as a world language: 1) Political developments : the British Empire covered nearly a third of the world’s surface. The empire promoted the language as a guarantor, as a symbol of political unity. Many of the newly independent countries, especially in Africa, chose English as their official language to enable speakers of their indigenous communities to continue communicating with each other on a national level. 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 were of special signficance, because of the special nature of the historical period during which they were being formed – they brought immediate access to a culture that would be responsible for the Industrial Revolution; 2) Access to knowledge: the linguistic consequences of the Industrial Revolution were far reaching: the new terminology of technological and scientific advance had an immediate impact on the language, adding thousands of new words to the English lexicon. But, more importantly, the fact that these innovations were coming out of an English-speaking country meant that those from abroad who wished to learn about them would need to learn English; it was not long before similar developments were taking place in America and, when the American research is added to the British, we could say that about half of the influential scientific and technological output of the period between 1750 and 1900 would have been written in English. Since then, with the revolution of printing coming from steam technology, an unprecedentet mass of publications in English have taken place: manuals, books of instructions, periodicals and advertisements. Access to knowledge was also helped by progress in transportation: during the first half of the 19th century, the growth of transport systems began the process of bringing people together, and the growth of communication systems (telephone, teleraph) made contact between people instantaneous. The story of English throughout this periodi s one of rapid expansion, with innovation after innovation coming to use the language as a primary means of expression. These developments/innovations made English the natural choice for progress. When the first radio stations were coming on air, no one seems to have spent any time debating whether or not they should broadcast in English: there was plenty of discussion about what kind of English should be used, but the choice of English in the first place was not an issue, because there was simply no competition from other languages. Among the countries of the outer circle, where English is used as a second language, the decision to give English an official status has usually been made in order to avoid the problem of having to chose between competing local languages > in the 20th century, English had become the dominant language of global politics and economy: its status was not in question, and neither was the role of the USA.
was added to the technology in the late 1920s, it was the English language which suddenly came to dominate the movie world. Despite the growth of the film industry in other countries in later decades, English language movies still dominate the scene: it’s unusual to find a blockbuster movie produced in a language other than English, and also the Oscar system has always been English-language oriented. Popular music: the cinema was one of 2 new entertainment technologies which emerged at the end of the 19th century: the other was the recording industry. In 1877 Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the first machine that could both record and reproduce sound. Columbia records introduced the long-playing (LP) disk in 1948. All the major recording companies in popular music had English language origins. Radio sets around the world hourly testify the dominance of English in the popular music scene today: many people make their first contact with English in this way. When modern popular music arrived, it belonged almost entirely to the English scene: Elvis in the US, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in the UK. In the 2000s, the English-language character of the international world is extraordinary – although every country has its popular singers, singing in their own language, only a few manage to break through in the international scene, and in other to do so it seems they need to be singing in English. Popular music in the English language has had a profound and positive impact on the nature of modern popular culture in general: during the 60s and 70s, English for the younger generation in many countries became a symbol of freedom and rebellion against society. International travel: when traveling abroad, each journey has immediate linguistic consequences – a language has to be interpreted, learned, imposed > English use is particularly noticeable in this domain. In business meetings, conferences, sporting occasions and other gatherings, the domains of transportation and accomodation are mediated through the use of English as an ausiliary language. Safety instructions on international flights, information emergency procedures in hotels and directions to major locations are now always given in English alongside local languages. International safety: language has come to be used as a means of controlling international transport operations, especially on water and in the air. The arguments in favour of a single language in air traffic control are obvious: it’s safer if all pilots understand all conversations – in this way they can learn about weather and traffic conditions from other pilots. If more than one language is being used, the risk of a breakdown in communication inevitably increases.
Education: English is the medium of a great deal of the world’s knowledge, especially in areas such as science and technology, and access to knowledge is the business of education. Many nation in recent years have made English an official language or chosen ita s their main foreign language in schools mainly for educational purposes. Since the 1960s, English has become the normal medium of instruction in higher education for many countries, and it’s increasingly used in countries where the language has no official status. The English language teaching business has become one of the major growth industries around the world in the past 50 years. Communications: if a language is truly an international medium, it’s going to be most apparent in those services which deal directly with the tast of communication – the postal and telephone systems and the electronic networks. A widely quoted statistic is that three quarters of the world’s mail is in English: people in different countries who are involved in organizations use English as an official language, or rely on English for correspondance. For instance, when scientist from any country write to each other, the language they use is almost always going to be English. English came to have such a dominant position on the Internet firstly because of ARPANET, which was conceived as a national network, its aim being to link important American academic and government institutions in a way which would survive local damage in the event of a major war. Its language was English, and when people in other countries began to form links with this network, it proved essential for them to use English. We can thus conclude that English is a language which has repeatedly found itself in the right place at the right time. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was the language of the leading colonial power – Britain. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was the language of the leader nation of Industrial Revolution – also Britain. In the late 19th and early 20th century it was the language of the leading economic power – the USA. As a result, when new technologies brought new linguistic opportunities, English emerged as the first language in industries which affected all aspects of society – the press, advertising, broadcasting, movies, transport and international communication. At the same time, international alliances were being made/formed around the world, and there emerged the need for a lingua franca. Since then, 2 events have ensured its global status: the movement towards political independence, out of which English emerged as a language with a special role in several countries – in most of these, English had become so fundamental that no other language could
in the sociolinguistic situation could cause a linguistic revolution all around the world: the USA. The country contains 4 times as many mother-tongue speakers of English as in any other nation. It has been more involved with international developments in 20th century technology than any other nation and it is in control of the new industrial (electronic) revolution: there is the closest of links between language and power. If anything came to reverse the military or economic power of the USA, there would be inevitable consequences for the global status of the language. During the 1990s more attention came to be focused on a domestic debate in which, according to one set of arguments, there are internal forces threatening the country’s future unity. Some analysts consider the English language to have been an important factor in mantaining mutual intelligibility and American unity in the face of the immigration explosion which tripled the US population in the 20th century. For those who take this view, the movements among some immigrant populations to mantain their original cultural identity through safeguarding their mother- tongues is going to bring some serious consequences. What has emerged is a conflict between the demands of intelligibility and identity, and one outcome has been the ‘official English’ movement, where English-users faced with the possibility of their language being threatened insist that status of English has to be guaranteed. But in a country where the language is already so dominant, why should the question of its official status arise at all? Why, in a country in which 95% of the population speaks English, should there be a movement to make English official? There are a couple of arguments for and against this movement. 1) The political argument: for – From this point of view, English is seen as a socia adhesive, a linguistic glue which guarantees political unity. It as been the basis of social stability in the USA, and any threat of this stability 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; 2) The political argument: against – Anti official supporters insist that there is no risk of disunity – the natural course of events will eventually produce a new social balance, without any need of legislation. There is no need to make English an official language now – the natural urge that people have to succeed will provide the required motivation for the learning of English. English could not possibly be in danger when over 95% of the population speaks it well: it is the other languages which are actually in danger;
3) Educational issues: The pro-official position is concerned that many students in bilingual education programmes are being taught by teachers whose own level of English is of low quality, thus transmitting a sort of ‘ghetto dialect’ that will mark the speakers as socially inferior. They point to the shortage of adequately trained teachers, and claim that bilingual programmes are not as efficient as fully English ones. Anti-official supporters, on the other hand, stress the value of bilingualism as part of a child’s learning experience, observing that immigrant children are more likely to do well in learning of a second language if their own language is valued by the society in which they find themselves.
New Englishes.
No one can claim ownership on a global language. The loss of ownership is of course uncomfortable to those, especially in Britain, who feel that the language is their by historical right; but they have no alternative. In the end, it comes down to population growth. In India, for example, the population has doubled since 1960, making it the second most populous country in the world: there are almost many speakers of English in India as there are in England. An inevitable consequence of these situations is that the language will open up to linguistic change in unpredictable ways. The spread of English around the world has already demonstrated this, in the birth of new varietis od English in the different territories where the language has taken root. These varieties are known as ‘New Englishes’: the most familiar example we know of is that of the different dialect of British and American English – the 2 varieties diverged almost as soon as the first settlers arrived in America. In quite a short time, American English had established its new identity, and despite its dialect differences it was capable of providing a unified, literary standard which the new nation was able to recognize. Many distinctive forms identify the Englishes of the other countries of the inner circle: Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, Caribbean English and the different dialects within England (Scots, Welsh and Irish English). Among the countries of the outer circle, several varieties have also grown in recent decades: there’s one group in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, often collectively called South Asian English. There is another group in the former British colonies in West Africa and another one in East Africa – other emerging
