What Caused the Global Spread of English - Assignment Example

Name : xxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxx Title : Global English Tutor : xxxxxxxxx @ 2015 What caused the global spread of English? English began to spread throughout the world from 17th century. There are several reasons which can be attributed to this spread of English, including the British colonization period, industrial revolution, American economic power and political leadership, and American technology leadership. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the spread of English was as a result of British colonialism. English as a language began to spread in the 16th century when colonialists started using it as an apparatus imperial expansion. Hence, English gained special place in the history of many countries which were colonized by the British. This is how English spread to Canada, Australia, the Caribbean, New Zealand, South Africa, South Asia, West Africa, East Africa and South-East India and South Pacific (Tollefson, 2000). The spread of English in the 18th and 19th centuries can be credited to industrial Revolution. The fact that British leadership reigned during the industrial revolution meant that English as a language would continue to spread more and more. The British promoted technological development through supporting production machinery and large-scale manufacturing and hence countries that required this new manufacturing skill would only access it through the medium of English. As a result, this made English as a language to become powerful internationally. Technology development therefore went hand in hand with the spread of English globally (Caine, 2008). For example, the telegraph system was developed using the language of English, making English to become a global language for each telegraph operator. The spread of English at the end of 19th and early 20th century can be attributed to the American economic power and political leadership. Despite the fact that Britain had supreme economic, political and industrial power during the 18th, USA overpowered it to become the superpower for politic and economic in the world during the late 19th century and beginning of 20th century. During this era, countries all over the world started coming together to form international organizations and they needed to be able to interact. Because it was costly to run multilingual operations, they decided to use English as a language for international communications. Moreover, the United Nations replaced the League of Nations making the whole world to shift its focus to the United States. This influence combined with the fact that United States has the largest number of native English speakers led to the spread of English globally (Pennycook, 1999). The spread of English during the middle of 20th century can be credited to American technological domination. During the 1980s as well as 1990a, the computer revolution started throughout the world as a result of American technology and knowledge. Thus, English became the computers’ language as it could have been very expensive for a country to use its language (Phillipson, 1994). Advantages and disadvantages of spread of English in the world The spread of English in the world had its advantages as well as disadvantages. English is important in communication, security and travelling, international relations, education and media. English is applicable to all disciples in education, including technology, medical, science and commerce. One of the greatest advantages of the spread of English is that it enables people of different language cultures to communicate and understand each other. English is now considered a universal language (Elyas, 2008). Therefore, it is very imperative to learn English as it is only through this way can we be able to communicate with foreigners. English has become the medium for education in almost all schools throughout the world. It is the mechanism through which information is passed to student by teachers. Moreover, it is important to speak English when traveling so as we can obtain useful information. From an economic standpoint, English is important when we engage in international trade because we must introduce our idea as well as plan to our foreign investors. So, to benefit from the various opportunities provided by English, such as better job, we must learn the language. Most books, novels, and articles are written in English and hence to get the most out of them we need to understand English. English has helped us to know the customs and cultures of other people. English has made the life in a global village very simple and it enable us have a wider view of this world (Chowdhury, 2013). The spread of English has some disadvantages. Being able to speak English has been associated with cleverness. Hence, children are increasingly compelled to learn and speak English to show they are bright. It is also believed that if student can achieve high marks in English as a subject, he/she will have a high opportunity to go to a high performing school. To be able to compete with each other, students need to learn English. As a result, a number of people began worshiping foreign things and praise foreign powers. Moreover, the spread of English has made many people to highly value foreign cultures as opposed to their own culture and as a result, they are dropping their national identity. Furthermore, many children who start learning English at a very early age find themselves in a dilemma as they lack a foundation for their mother tongue and hence may end up feeling confused. It may them become very difficult for them to learn their mother tongue as the grammars and spellings of English and their mother tongue are quite different (Wu, yao-chou, 2003). Is English responsible for language death? It is no doubt that several different varieties of English have emerged but this has to the death of a wide varieties of other languages, usually smaller. The spread of English has threatened these languages with extinction. It is estimated that 95% of over 6,000 languages presently spoken are on the verge of extinction. It is estimated that the general rate of language death is far greater compared to that of all biological species. Thousands of languages have died since the introduction of English language. The language death happens when an ethnic group gets assimilated into the dominant society and assume its language, in this case the English language. The countries which have been greatly affected are those which first came into contact with the English language, including Brazil, Australia, North America, Indonesia and some parts of Africa (Philipson, 2008). The introduction of English as a colonial or commercial language has created conditions which lead to language death. It has made parent to become hesitant or incapable of inter-generationally passing on a language to their children. The spread of English has also made the language to stop serving as a significant communicative role in the society. Moreover, the community of orators is unstable and contracting instead of being stable and expanding. However, it would be irrational to claim that the spread of English has exclusively led to the wide-spread language extinction as there are several other factors involved, including the spread of other languages, such as Chinese, French, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese and Portuguese among others. The other factor is the growth of supralinguistic functions, such as banking, tourism, science and technology and universal aviation among others. Moreover, population redistribution and dislocation due to revolution, war, religious persecution, urbanization, or economic development can lead to language death. In the same way, it would be equally irrational to assert that the huge teaching activities of English language of nations speaking English have not played a role in language extinction. However, it is not well known how they have led to language death (Phillipson, 1992). Furthermore, language death can sometimes occur as a result of the annihilation of the community of speakers. For example, the instances of many Australian Aboriginal languages or Native American Languages. A language may also become extinct during a time of bilingualism whereby a second language is embraced for a growing number of purposes by an increasing number of individuals. Therefore, the cause of language death can be attributed to complex factors and not just the spread of English. What is the impact of globalization on English and other languages? Globalization has positive and negative impacts on English and other languages. Globalization has led to commodification of English and this has affected individuals’ motivations and preference of language to be learned. Many people prefer learning English language over other languages as it is linked to better jobs, higher ranks and promotions. Many entry-level service jobs in leisure, travel, tourism and hospitality are increasingly demanding English language competence. For example, in Saudi Arabia jobs candidates who can fluently talk and write English are more likely to get employed in government or private sector (Crystal, 2003). Moreover, transnational corporations and multinational companies that are connected electronically are increasingly training their employee in oral and written English communication skills. Hence, globalization has led to great demand for English acquisition calling for additional teachers to teach English in academic institutions, training centres ad schools. This has contributed to promising career prospects for English language teachers. The increasing number of ELT’s providers has led to stiff competition within the industry with the development of organizations such as TESOL, TEFL and the British Council and English second language examination markets, including TOEFL and IELTS (Pennycook, 2003). The development of these organizations and agencies has contributed to the promotion of ELT and creation of a new market in the international economic powers. English has become a global product to be purchased and sold on the global market and it is marketable internationally as there is great demand for information products and resources such as books, and employment opportunities for English teachers (Zafar Khan, 2009). Globalization also has negative impacts of English and other languages. The export of language teachers trained in the Western and of applied linguistic theory constantly supports unsuitable teaching methodologies to diverse settings. The content as well as the process of teaching it may include some traditions, values and social habits which may not correspond with specific environments both socially and culturally as most textbooks produced in the Western are ethnocentric and do not consider the socio-cultural environment where they might be used (Syed, 2003). For instance, those books may be inappropriate for Muslim students and teachers as they may promote some things which are forbidden in Islam, such as drinking alcohol or adultery. Moreover, technological changes such as network-based language teaching may change the reading practices of adolescents who grew up using computers. In other words, the screen is appearing to replace the page. Furthermore, globalization may encourage laziness and reliance on others. A number of teachers of English can become unproductive and uncreative in enhancing their ELT approaches and hence rely on other who may provide them with new methods (Zughoul, 2003). References Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Caine, T.M. 2008, Do You Speak Global?: The Spread of English and the Implications for English Language Teaching, English ; English Language Teaching ; ELT ; Globalisation ; Globalization, vol. 1. Chowdhury, M.K.B. 2013, 'Is the Spread of English as a World Language a Positive or a Negative Development? ', Language in India, vol. 13, no. 5. Elyas, T. 2008, The Attitude and Impact of the American English as a Global Language Within the Saudi Educational System, Novitas Roral, vol. 2, no. 1, pp.28-48 Pennycook,A , 1999, Pedagogical Implications of Different Framework for Understanding the Global Spread of English , in C. Gnutzmann(Ed) , Teaching and Learning English as a Global Language : Native and Non-Native Perspectives, Stauffenberg,Tubingen Pennycook, A , 2003 ,‘Global Englishes, Rip Slyme, and performativity, Journal of Sociolinguistics, no.4, vol. 7, pp. 513-533 Phillipson , R , 1992 , Linguistic Imperialism , Oxford: Oxford University Press Phillipson , R, 1994 , English Language Spread Policy , International Journal of the Sociology of Language , vol,107,pp.7-24 Phillipson, R. 1994, 'English language spread policy', International Journal of the Sociology of Language, vol. 107, pp. 7-24. Philipson, R, 2008 , The Linguistic imperialism of neoliberal empire , Critical Inquiry in Language Studies , vol.5, no.1, pp 1-43 Syed, Z., 2003, TESOL in the Gulf: The sociocultural context of English language teachingin the Gulf, TESOL Quarterly, vol. 37, no.2 , pp 337-341. Tollefson, J, W, 2000, Policy and Ideology in the Spread of English, in J.K.Hall and W.G Eggington ( Eds), The Sociopolitics of English Language Teaching , Clevedon: Multilingual Matters , pp. 7-21 Wu, yao-chou (2003). Why should we learn English well?, National Taiwan University. Zafar Khan, S. (ed.) 2009, Imperialism of International Tests: An ElL Perspective, in English as an International Language: Perspectives and Pedagogical Issues, Farzad Sharifia., Bristol, Buffalo. Zughoul, M, 2003, Globalization and EFL/ESL Pedagogy in the Arab World, Journal of Language and Learning, vol, 1, no.2, pp 106 Read More