LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

A.     Language and Languages

The term language is used in the singular, as though language were a single unitary phenomenon. Yet, although languages have common properties, from the point of view of their users it is the differences that count. People do not speak language as an abstraction, but particular languages. And from a practical perspective the most salient feature is that these languages are mutually incomprehensible. When we hear an unknown language, we cannot even make out the boundaries between words. Reading it is not better because, even if it uses familiar symbols, we do not know what the word mean.

These simple facts mean that one of the main problems in which language is implicated is how speakers of different languages can communicate whit each other. There are two possible solution : one is for one, or both, sets of speakers to learn the others language, and the other is to employ a translator.

B.   Attitude to Languages

Native speaker of a language usually regard it as in some sense their own property. Yet they do not reason other people acquiring it. They was nothing in the process and are flattered to share something so highly valued. Yet, however many people learn their language, they still regard it as theirs. They feel that outsiders cannot identify with it quite as they do. To them it remains familiar and intrinsic, to others it remains foreign and something apart.

Here again, as with the issue of correctness, there is a marked difference between popular and academic belief. Those, while linguist regard all languages as equal and arbitrary systems  of fulfilling the same function, this is far from how they are perceived by language users. Some languages are popularity regard as being less complex than others. For example, one reason often given for the spread of international English is that it is easier to learn. Some languages are regarded as being more beautiful, and all are regarded as carrying the spirit of a particular nation or people. Those Latin is widely believe to be more logical, or German more efficient or French more romantic than other languages and so on.

C.   The languages of nations: boundaries and relationships.

In addition to academic linguistic and popular approach, there are two other ways in which languages can be compared, both of which are of particular importance in the contemporary world. These are by number of speakers and by geographical distribution. While the world’s largest languages, such as Chinese, English, Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic, have   hundreds of millions of speakers and are frequently used beyond their homelands, the majority of the world’s languages are much smaller, some with only a few hundred speakers. Smaller languages are confined to restricted areas and specific ethnic groups, and are often vulnerable. Among the world’s estimated 6.000 languages, language death now occurs increasingly frequently.

Powerful nations have frequently asserted their unity by promoting one single majority language in a standard written from while simultaneously suppressing or ignoring minority  languages. Yet there is also an ironic consequence to the successful promotion of one language. In those nations which have spread their language beyond their own borders the result has often been a multiplication rather than a reduction of the languages within them.

All nations have substantial linguistic groups within their borders, making cross linguistic communication an international as well as an international  affair. On a personal level this means that many individuals as perhaps even the majority of the world’s population bilingual or multilingual. They must change tongue to go to work or school, to speak to elderly relatives, or deal with bureaucracy, making this code switching a salient and significant part their daily experience. In Africa for example it is common to switch between a small local language, a dominant regional  language, and a former colonial language such as French, English, or Portuguese.

D.  The growth of English

Whereas in the past, English was but one international language among others it is now increasingly in a category of its own.

In addition to its four hundreds million or so first-language speakers, and over a billion people who live in a country where it is an official language, English is now thought as the main foreign language in virtually every country, and used for business, education, and access to information by a substantial proportion of the world’s population. Consequently the role of other international languages such as French or Russian has diminished drastically. As with geographical areas, so with areas of activity. French is no longer the international language of air traffic control, or dominant and diplomacy. German and Russian are no longer internationally necessary for scientific study. Nor is it just a question of native-speaker numbers. Although Putonghua remains the world’s largest first language, it has not gained ground as either an official second language or a foreign language.

In recent years the growth of English has been further accelerated by a startling expansion in the quantity and speed of international corporations, linked to expanding US power and influenced, ensures an ever-increasing use of English in business. Films, songs, television programmes, and advertisements in English are heard and seen in many countries where it is not the first nor even a second language, both feeding and reflecting this growth. The dominant language of the internet is English and with the frequent absence of available software for writing systems other than the Roman alphabet, electronic mail is often conducted in English, even among people who share another language.

This new situation means that, for a large proportion of the  world’s population, the learning and use of English as an additional language is both a major language need-often one upon which their livelihood depends and also one of the salient language experiences of their lives. In addition, both non-native and native speakers are involved in Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) as teacher, planners, administrators, publishers, and testers. For these reasons alone, the teaching and learning of English has generated tremendous personal, political, academic, and commercial interest. Accompanied (both as caused and effect) by globalization, and virtually unchallenged US military and economic ascendancy, the growth of English raises important concerns about the dangers of linguistic and cultural homogeneity.

E.      English and englishes

In the case of smaller and less powerful languages, limited to a particular community in a particular place, this is both unexceptionaland unremarkable. Once, however a language begins to spread beyond its original homeland the situation changes and conflicts of opinion begin to emerge. Thus even until surprisingly recently, many British English speakers regarded American English as an impure deviation, rather as they might have regarded non standard forms within their own islands. While such feeling of ownership are to be expected, they quickly become, as they are in the USA, more numerous and more internationally powerful than speakers of the parent.

There is a similar relationship between South America and Castilian Spanish, and the Portugueses  of Brazil and Portugal. Yet despite the inevitability of this process, there is still possessiveness and attempts to call a halt. Few people nowadays would question the legitimacy of different standard Englishes for countries where it is the majority language. We talk of standard American English, standard Australian English, and so on. Still contested by some, however, is the validity of standard for countries where, although English may be a substantial or official language, it is not that of the majority. Thus there is still opposition, even within the countries themselves, to the notion of Indian English, Singapore English, and so on. Far more contentious, however, is the possibility that, as English becomes more and more widely used, recognized varieties might emerge even in places where there is no  national native speaker population or official status.

F.      Native speakers

All this raises issues about the very term native speakers. We need to look at some of the common assumptions about what it means to be a native speaker. Firstly, there is the question of personal history. Native speakers are considered to be people who acquired the acquired the language naturally and effortlessly in childhood, through a combination of exposure, the child’s innate talent for language learning, and the need to communicate. Secondly, there is a question of expertise. Native speakers are seen as people who use the language, or a variety of it, correctly, and have insight into what is or is not acceptable. Thirdly, there is a question of knowledge and loyalty. Being a native speaker, it is assumed, entails knowledge of, and loyalty to, a community which uses the language.

In many cases this threefold definition is relatively unproblematic, particularly for small languages spoken mostly in one particular place. Take Icelandic culture. Spoken 300.000 Icelanders on an island of 100.000 square kilometers. Most people there have grown up speaking Icelandic, are expert in its use, and identity with Icelandic culture. In the case of larger and more widely distributed languages however, and most especially in the case of English, serious problems with the usual definitions of native speaker begin to emerge. Many English speakers whether in the inner, outer, or expanding circle grew up with and use another language in the home. Their cultural loyalty is wholly or partly to a non-English-speaking community and they may well be opposed to the dominant English-speaking culture, feeling what their own language and values are threatened.

Necessarily reflect upon their expertise. Many such English speakers use the language just as expertly as the traditionally defined  native speakers. certainly there are often though by no means always minors differences of accent, phrasing, or confident in grammaticality judgements. Yet these are just as often accompanied by additional expertise traditionally defined native speakers may not have.

Here, it is important to take stock of those aspects of language proficiency which the traditional definition of the native speaker does not include. Firstly, if says nothing about in proficiency in writing but only about proficiency in speech. Indeed, some native speakers are illiterate, and many of those who can write do so inaccurately (lovly new potato’s) or clumsily (revise customer service arrangement presently under implementation). Secondly, the native speaker’s knowledge of the language is implicit rather than explicit. He or she uses the roles correctly in other word, but can not necessary explain them. For example, trey asking the average native speaker to explain the different between “shall” and “will”. Lastly, traditional native speakerness implies nothing about size vocabulary, range of style or ability to communicate across diverse community in all of these aspects of proficiency, it is quite common to  find that the expertise of the non-native speaker exceeds that of many native speaker.

G.     English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)

What matters in its use is clarity and comprehensibility rather than conformity to one of the existing standards. Indeed, being native speaker in the traditional sense does not necessarily imply expertise in ELF, and of the purposes of international communication native speakers may need to adjust their language to a new norm.

This rapid growth of ELF should be a major concern to contemporary applied linguistics. We need to consider whether the current situation is unprecedented, whether  it has produced a new set of language related problems. These are pressing issues, affecting in one way or another everyone who learns or uses English, native and nonnative speaker alike.

Different approaches to teaching English did not just occur by in response to changing geopolitical circumstances and social attitudes and values, as well as to shifts of fashion in linguistics which, for all its apparent objectivity, was itself subject to social change. Thus each successive movement in ELT has had its own particular stance on language learning, and on what English is, reflecting the ideology of its time.

Cook, Guy. 2003. Applied Linguistics. Oxford University Press: New york.