Thursday, 11 September 2014
ESSAY - ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE
English is an
international language, spoken in many countries both as a native and as a
second or foreign language. It is taught in the schools in almost every country
on this earth. It is a living and vibrant language spoken by over 300 million
people as their native language. Millions more speak it as an additional
language. English is spoken habitually in the United
States, the British Isles, Ireland,
Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, the Republic
of South Africa, Liberia, and many territories under the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
It is estimated that 300 million people speak English as a second language, and
an additional 100 million people use it fluently as a foreign language. As a
rough estimate, 1000 million or one billion people around the world have some
knowledge of English, either as a native language, as a second language, or as
a foreign language. English is the associate official language of India which has
over 1000 million (over billion) people. Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and many other
nations which were ruled by Britain
continue to use English both as an optional medium of instruction in their
schools and as one of their official languages. The islands of the Philippines
continue to use English as an important tool for education, administration, and
for mass media purposes. English is the chief foreign language taught in the
schools of Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.
Even though some nations which were ruled by the French continue to teach
French as their most preferred second language, English is gaining ground even
in these countries. In the former Soviet Union,
Russian was the dominant language. Since the break of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian Republics
have been rapidly introducing English in their school system as a second or
foreign language. In Russia
itself, English is gaining ground as the most popular second language. In Japan too,
English is the most favored second or foreign language. Outside Europe, English is the predominant language of
international commerce. Although the United Nations and its various agencies
have more than one language for transaction, more often than not, English comes
to be chosen as the preferred language of communication between the participating
member-nations. All this has happened within the last one hundred years. The
ascendancy of English as the most preferred language began two hundred years
ago with the colonization of North America, Asia, and Africa by Britain. The
Industrial Revolution in Britain, its ever-expanding maritime power,
development of material wealth, progress in scientific research and consequent
power, all helped the spread of English, even as Britain marched as a great
empire. In the Sixteenth Century, English was spoken mostly in England, southern Scotland,
and small areas of Wales and
Ireland.
There were only about two to three million people speaking it as their native
language. At present one in seven in this world speaks English either as a
native language or as a second language. English was well established as the
dominant language in North America in the 17th
Century. But its rapid growth was in the 19th Century. Latin was the main
medium of education in Western Europe
throughout the middle Ages. French was the language of diplomacy for four
centuries, from the 17th to 20th. And yet, at present there is not a single
language which can be compared to the position occupied by English as the
international language. This is so, even though more people in the world speak
Chinese than English as their native language. Spanish may claim a large number
of native speakers, but neither Spanish, nor French, nor Russian, nor Chinese
can even come close to the level and variety of uses to which English is put in
the world. English is learned everywhere because people have found out that
knowledge of English is a passport for better career, better pay, advanced
knowledge, and for communication with the entire world. English is also learned
for the literature it possesses, and for the variety and rich experience it
provides. English has replaced French as the language of diplomacy. In this
computer age, English is bound to expand its domains of use everywhere.
Everyone wants to appropriate English as their own. In the Indian subcontinent,
English became the dominant language of communication among the educated
classes after the famous Minute of Lord Macaulay in 1833. For an insightful
discussion on the progress of English as the dominant language of communication
among the educated classes in India.
English belongs
to the Indo-European family of languages. Within this family, English is a
member of the Germanic branch. The Germanic branch may be divided into three
groups or subdivisions: East Germanic which consisted of Gothic, now an extinct
language; North Germanic under which we include the Scandinavian languages; and
West Germanic which consists of High German, Low German, Frisian and English.
Three tribes settled in England.
These were the Angles, the Jutes, and the Saxons. The Angles came from Denmark, the Saxons were from Holstein
in the south, and the Jutes were from the north. These and the Frisian were worshipers of Linguistic and religious associations between these tribes
resulted in a bundle of related dialects, which we presently call English
English as an additional language (EAL) is usually based on the standards
of either American English or British English as well as incorporating foreign
terms. English as an international language (EIL) is EAL with emphasis on learning
different major dialect forms; in particular, it aims to equip students with
the linguistic tools to communicate internationally
Basic Global English, or BGE, is a concept of global English initiated by
German linguist Joachim Grzega. It evolved from the idea of creating a type of
English that can be learned more easily than regular British or American
English and that serves as a tool for successful global communication. BGE is
guided by creating "empathy and tolerance" between speakers in a
global context. This applies to the context of global communication, where
different speakers with different mother tongues come together. BGE aims to
develop this competence as quickly as possible.
Thursday, 4 September 2014
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