International English - English as a Global Language

Why is English considered a ‘Global language’?

• Power

  • British pioneers/explorers took English to US and Australia

  • colonialism and the rise of the British Empire

• Economics

  • rise in global trade - British = centre of Industrial revolution

  • technology - movie and popular music industries in US/UK

  • increasing economic power of US

Why is ‘global english’ controversial for some

• could create imbalance of power

• could create complacency - why bother to learn another language

• could lead to demise of some minority languages - like dialect levelling on a global scale

Lingua Franca - ‘bridging’ language used across different nationalities

Linguistic Power

• a valid concern (science, business) but can be addressed

• children are born ready for bilingualism

• invest money/resources in teaching English - Denmark, Sweden, Netherlands very successful at this

Linguistic complacency

• stereotypes of lazy American/English tourist

• 38% of British companies have an executive able to speak another language compared to 90% in Belgium

Linguistic death

• genuine threat to indigenous languages - 50% of world’s languages predicted to die out within the next century

• Foundation for Endangered Languages - Crystal argues it’s like preserving a species

• Hundreds of Amerindian languages have disappeared in South America where English is not particularly influential

• Swedish/Norwegian/Danish sound very similar but are considered different languages - intelligibility and identity can happily co-exist

More than 40% of the world speaks one of eight languages

Toubon Law

French Law dictating a certain percentage of French songs on the radio

Emmanual de Rengerve - ‘if the french language disappears, it would represent a cultural and linguistic impoverishment not just for France but for the whole world’

Welsh Not

• punishment system put in place in the late 19th and early 20th century in Wales

• given to children (piece of wood with WN inscribed hung around the neck) heard using Welsh - english considered to be only suitable means of communication

Positive View of Global English

• ‘a world of linguistic diversity can continue to exist in a world united by a common language’ - Crystal 2003

• ‘if english can facilitate the process of universal loss, so it can be turned around and made to facilitate the contrary process of universal empowerment and gain’ - Lysandrou and Lysandrou

Ghanaian English

• some Ghanaians rejecting the Queens English

• older gen are more traditional and use Queens English