Ch.

4 English as a global language

Ch. 4 English as a global language

In this chapter, we will look at
1. the reasons / factors that help English language maintains its
influential status after colonial period (actually has become more and
more popular around the world);
2. The meaning of globalisation and glocalisation and the
significance of them;
3. Problems defining English speakers
4 Possible trends of English in the future
5. Issues related to the spread of English language
a. Intelligibility and categorisation of world Englishes in the future
b. the ownership of English.

The development of English language can be broadly divided into

_____
5 periods in history:

B. Old English
600 1100
C. Middle Age English
1100 -1500
D. Early Modern English
1500 - 1700

E. Present day English (17th c Today)

English as a global language (a
1700 - Today
lingua franca)

Ch. 4 English as a global language

Before we look at the role of English as a lingua franca, lets look at some
background about the post-colonial period (i.e. after mid 20th c, after WWII)
After WWII, economy of many countries, including the UK, suffered
economic depression as they lost lot of people and money in the War.

That gave the USA the opportunity to expand their economic and political
power. Gradually, the economy of the USA replaced the international financial
status of the European countries. And the USA has also improved a lot become
rather strong in different areas, e.g. technology, science
What are the linguistic consequences of a country becoming strong in its politics,
economy, science etc
i.e. what is the relationship between power and language?
When a country becomes more powerful, the language spoken by people in that
country becomes more prestigious.
That means, when we said that English language continues to become popular after
colonial period (i.e. post / neo colonial period), and that people like to learn the
standard form of English, it refers to both Am Eng and Br Eng., 2 norms emerged.

English as a global language

Starting from late 20th - 21st c, English is a lingua
franca in different domains (a language used for
communication between speakers of different
languages).
Year

Number of English speakers

around the world

1600, 17th c

about 6 million

1700, 18th c

about 8 million

1800, 19th c

about 30 million

1900, 20th c

about 120 million

2000, 21st c

possibly 2 billion
(Jenkins 2015)

7.5 billion in the world (As at 22 Sept., 10:00a.m.

(Worldmeters.info)

Defining English users

Who counted as English users? How much
competence in English a person needs? Should
people speaking pidgins and creoles be counted as
English users?
the definition will affect the total number of English
speakers around the world.
The number of people using English as a mother
tongue is falling, compare to the total number of nonnative English speakers
Whats the implication of this?
-More varieties of English emerged;
-The ways how non-native English speakers speak English
may affect how native English speakers speak English;
-Ownership of English

Why English as a lingua franca?

Intrinsic reasons?
something about the languages syntactic,
lexical and stylistic complexity?

NO

Extrinsic reasons (Appendices A & B and Bk 1, pp.156-163)

Reason related to colonial history:
English language was the language of the power in the colonial
period (a linguistic legacy carried over into the 20th c);
(Also the political, legal and cultural legacy of British Empire spread around)

Economic and cultural reasons:

The economic power of the US (English as first language) grew
rapidly (economic imperialism), overtaking the UK;
Cultural power of the US is influential around the globe (movies,
music, broadcasting, press, advertising, fictions & novels) (Details
in Book 3, Ch. 4-6);
e.g. Elvis Presley, The Beetles, BBC, Voice of the America, New
York Associate Press, Reuter
income from advertising helps lower the selling price of their
magazine, the international trade of the US magazine then help
promote American English (Details in Book 3, Ch. 4 -6);
Population growth:
A mother tongue of some post-colonial countries such as the US and
Australia. Their population grew rapidly
(more people speak that language, that language becomes more
influential);

Extrinsic reasons

(Appendices A & B and Bk 1, pp.156-163)

Reasons related to advancement in technology

International travels such as conference, holiday, business
meeting, safety instructions on international flights: English;
International Transport operations: English
(e.g. Airspeak language of international aircraft control;
Seaspeak: English for international maritime)
A result of technological power many scientists during the
industrial revolution were English speakers (e.g. telephone,
phonograph, telegraph ) ;
Development of artificial language (Invented by English
speaking countries, of course written in English (e.g. PC and
internet)
(Interesting fact: ARPANET began in 1960s for the US
Department of Defense, later on in the 90s expanded its use to
private and commercial uses (WWW);
Communication through internet grows rapidly due to the
development of social networking forums such as Facebook,
Twitter Again developed by English speaking countries at
the beginning!

Extrinsic reasons
(Appendices A & B and Bk 1, pp.156-163)
Political reason(s):
English is the language of the political powers after colonial period
(both in Europe and the US);
More and more nations established after WWII (from 51 to 192 in the
united nation), English has become a language to enable nations to talk
(UN, EU);

Reason related to education policy

Education especially higher education always encourages using
English as the MOI (Details in Book 3, Ch. 4 -6)
(e.g. NO African countries use their indigenous language as MOI) ;
To conclude, the reasons that enable English to become a lingua franca
in the post (neo) colonial period is related to :

History,
Political power,
Economic power,
Technological advancement,
Cultural power,
Population growth of the English speakers,
Also to achieve political unity is another important factor, e.g. UN, EU

Extrinsic reasons (Appendices A & B and Bk 1, pp.156-163)

All the above political, social-cultural and economic processes that

operate on an international level are called the globalizing forces
that enable English as a global language after mid-20th century up to
the present day

English and globalisation (Reading A, Book 1, p. 178-187)

Definition of globalisation:
OED: globalization as the process by which
businesses or other organizations develop
international influence or start operating on an
international scale, widely considered to be at the
expense of national identity (2009)
At the expense of national identity
Why?

Views on globalization

(Reading A, Book 1, p. 178-187)

A: Advantages of globalization

enable free trade across the whole globe;

explore new markets;
offer cheap foreign labour costs; bigger profits

B: Disadvantages of globalization
powerful companies and organization exploit resources and workforce;
economic and cultural imperialism;
imposing standardized culture (e.g. McDonalds)
language of the power spread across the globe
(linguistic imperialism), endangering the language of the
minority;
creating linguistic homogeneity?

c. globalization causes glocalisation

C: Glocalisation:
a blend of globalisation and localization;
it means practices which spread across the globe will be
nativised by local cultures
e.g. Korean hip-hop, Japanese R&B, McDonald using Asterix
but not Ronald McDonald in France

C. Globalization causes Glocalisation

Glocalisation sees influence as two-way streets,
NOT just from the powerful which imposes
influences / cultures on the less powerful.
The less powerful could also influence the more
powerful,
e.g. Japanese comics modified the American
comics popular in Japan and then sold the
modified, Japanese style comics back to the US.

Globalization causes glocalisation

How do globalisation and glocalisation relate to the development of the English
language?
Linguistic consequences of globalisation
(impact of globalisation onto the development of the English language):
1. Spread of the English language to places that have never been colonised
(Expanding circle).

Linguistic Glocalisation
1. More and more new varieties of English emerged:
From a linguistic perspective, it resulted in new indigenised varieties a result of contact
with local languages and local cultures; e.g. Australian English, Indian English
2. Multi-lingual societies within an English speaking country emerged due to migration
(that would affect language policy and language use) (Book 3, Ch. 2, Book 1, Ch. 6)

3. These new indigenised varieties may affect the English in the Inner Circle (the
standard forms, both British and American English):
i.e. language practices of the new immigrants settling in their countries influence native
speakers English (linguistic consequences of migration, Book 3, Ch. 2)