SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:

ENGLISH IN THE COMMUNITY

Name and surname(s):

Gonzalo Riveros Balln PEFPMTFL1406919

Martha Margarita Martnez Rangel MEFPMTFL1677568

Martha Alejandra Morales Vargas MXFPMTFL1996963

Group: 2015-10

Date: April 9, 2017

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION p. 3

ENGLISH NEXT, THE END OF EFL? p.4

CONCLUSION p. 8

BIBLIOGRAPHY p. 9

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 INTRODUCTION

This paper aims to analyze the current and future role of English in education, both from the educators
and learners perspectives, taking into consideration the shifts between EFL and ELF. In order to meet
this purpose, the book English Next (2007) by David Graddol will be used as the main theoretical
framework, which includes the quotation as follows, that will be analyzed and discussed in this essay:
English seems to have joined this list of basic skills. Quite simply, its function and place in the
curriculum is no longer that of foreign language and this is bringing about profound changes in
who is learning English, their motives for learning it and their needs as learners. (Graddol, 2007:
72).

As Graddol points out, globalization and English go hand in hand and the advent of technology
influences the spread of the language by leaps and bounds. Although English is still considered the
most widespread language for businesses, nowadays, there are other languages that have started to
gain ground and put the English linguistic empire at risk, such as Spanish, Mandarin or Arabic.

An alternate issue addressed by the author is related to the role of native speakers of English in the
world and its particular position in education. In this sense, Graddol states that, as English becomes
global and it is mainly spoken by non-native users of the language, the education field will require
non-native professors to carry out teaching practices all over the world, posing a threat to native ones
who will be in need to study other languages to enter the competitive, global market.

Communication technologies and students moving from one country to another have brought new
needs and diverse new reasons for learning a new language such is the case of people studying abroad
in an English speaking environment (Even when English is not the official language of the country).

These factors and others have made English a core skill necessary to cope with the new demands that
education, work and interaction are bringing about. Instead of being the goal, it is now seen as the
medium to achieve the goal of actively participating in the work life, economy and social aspects of a
globalised world.

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 ENGLISH NEXT, THE END OF EFL?

There is no question that the role of English is now radically different from what it was in the past.
Learning English used to be only accessible to some people, it was seen as a sign of status and
expected from people with higher education and it was not a compulsory part of the curriculum in
elementary schools so not every school offered English classes and not in all education levels. In
contrast, nowadays it is part of the curriculum and is being taught from preschool on, in Mexico for
example it is now part of the official education program so it is offered in every school, even public
ones. There has also been a shift on who is able to travel abroad, for pleasure, business or education,
in the past it was something reserved to upper class people, whereas now it is something accessible to
many people. People are travelling all around the world, to places with many different mother
tongues, so English has taken the role of a lingua franca which makes it possible to non-native
speakers from different nationalities to communicate among each other.

So, now the question is, why has English become a basic skill? Basically, this powerful language has
entered a wide variety of countries and is not willing to leave. There are multiple reasons for English
to become a global language, mainly related to demography, economy, technology, politics and
society. Mastering a foreign language such as English represents more job opportunities, better social
status and immersion in international markets.

The Oxford Living Dictionary defines demography as the study of statistics such as births, deaths,
income, or the incidence of disease, which illustrate the changing structure of human populations.
We must bear in mind that movement is inherent of societies, and historically, the movement of
people has been the main reason for language spread. It still has important linguistic consequences
today. Currently, people are moving away from political conflicts and economical deficiencies in
less developed countries, and into developed countries that are in need of a younger workforce, this
fact not only promotes English as a second language but also multilingualism, thus offering better job
opportunities to those who manage to communicate in English and other languages, and giving
bilingual people a competitive advantage over well-educated monolingual English speakers.

As Graddol clearly describes in his book, this continuous, global change triggers a domino effect in
societies in general. Indeed, education policies are directly influenced, being English one of the
priorities to be included in curriculums along with literacy and numeracy in L1. Not only has this
language become an utmost part of school policy, but Information Technology has also gained
importance within syllabuses worldwide. This ever-changing world is evidently different from the
past, in which literacy was enough to achieve certain position in society and foreign language skills
set a difference among social classes.

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Nowadays, in order to fit in society and be able to compete in the global market, individuals need
more flexible skills, critical thinking and creativity. These new trends portray a significant shift in the
way education is currently managed, but, on the other hand, it implies different challenges that may
threaten social order and political stability. (Graddol, 2007: 71).

English has been considered a lingua franca for some time, and globalization has only reinforced such
a concept ..... economic development and increasing global influence depend almost entirely on the
processes of globalization and the enhancement of English language proficiency.(Graddol, 2007)
Consequently, changes have been coming about in many fields, for example, educational systems
around the world have been adapting to this new reality, evidence supports Graddols idea that
English learners are increasing in number and decreasing in age. The fact that English is now more
accessible worldwide, is changing the role of native speakers, who used to be seen as role models and
the best English teachers, however people now do not look up to native speakers as models anymore,
and do not look forward to achieving a native like competence, non-native speakers outnumber native
speakers, and approximately 74% of English interactions occur between non-native speakers, so
English learners now aim to learn English in its global form. The term global English, refers to the use
of the English language as a means of communication across different cultures, where the language is
intended for an international audience, and therefore kept free from local slang and local accents,
somewhat simpler in its structure and vocabulary.

As communication and globalization advance, many changes have been taking place in the worlds
economy, some countries such as India, Brazil and China are growing quite fast, and the nature of
businesses that take place around the world has also changed radically. Such is the case of business
process outsourcing and information technology outsourcing, both of which offer services for
companies from distant locations, where labor is cheaper, in the past this was usually done for
manufacturing processes, but it is currently done for services as well, .... any fraction of a service
which can be separated from a physical location and done more cheaply somewhere else, it will be
outsourced. This heightens the need for a bilingual or even multilingual workforce, which in turn
increases the need for English classes, teachers, schools, etc. and to improve the level of education
and culture in general. Through all this, English is still very much at the center, therefore is still highly
regarded as the entryway for progress in less developed countries, where being able to communicate
in English is currently the access point to better job opportunities, excluding those who are not able to
do so.

Technology has played a major role in promoting English as well, since anyone who is in contact with
technology of any kind is certain to come across the English language, the internet used to be
dominated by English content, TV channels which attempted to build a global audience were

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 dominated by global English as well. However, websites, TV channels and blogs in other languages
have risen, thus as content is now offered in other languages the use of English decreases, since
people prefer to access content in their mother tongue when available, in the meantime English is still
the dominant language. This is also true for the new communication channels that technology has
opened such as social networks, text messages, etc. which promote relationships between people from
all over the world by making it easy and cheap to communicate among each other.

Economy, technology, migration, are some aspects that are causing major changes in the way societies
are conformed, this has brought about a linguistic change which in turn has further changed the way
people, even from the same family, relate to each other. Migration has been a part of society since
ancient times, however, in the past migrants moved on and left old relationships behind, nowadays,
communications technology has made it easy for people to keep in contact with families and old
friends, or even reconnect with them making it possible to reverse migration. This has nevertheless
brought more changes to the linguistic mix, given that people from the same families and
communities sometimes do not share the same language. This in turn poses new demands, needs and
expectations from the educational system, and the English teaching business.

Other aspect that is worth analyzing is how the rise of English as Lingua Franca (also called
International English) has affected education in schools and universities or colleges.
Schools: Traditionally English was taught for six years in order to reach certain levels of proficiency
based on the Common European Framework, the Cambridge ESOL exam and an IELTS level so that
when studying the tertiary level students would be able to go through courses developed in English
smoothly. However, it turned out that this time frame was not enough since the proficiency obtained
by students did not meet the one required by universities to get a degree; as a consequence, the time
was extended and students started learning English at primary level. This way, learners could study
for about ten years and their proficiency level should be appropriate for graduating without much
difficulty. This shift has had major implications for textbooks, curriculums, methodologies and
assessment. Graddol points out, in The Future of English?, that English was the most widely studied
foreign language, and also the foreign language most taught at primary level in European schools as
part of the restructuration of the national curricula in many EU countries since 1990. English has
become the most studied foreign language in schools worldwide.
Universities: Traditionally, universities were national or local institutions, but now they have to
compete at a global scale and need to attract students, teachers and researchers from around the world
to enrich their prestige, revenue and intellectual climate. As around two-thirds of the worlds top
universities are in English speaking countries, the other educational institutions are forced to use
English increasingly as the medium of education. Besides, English is considered the global academic
language, so using it facilitates the international mobility of students and researchers. In order to gain

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 students, universities that are not American or British offer courses making broader use of English as
the teaching language; they have to compete too with on-line education, a sector dominated by the
American electronic campuses.

Finally, Graddol wonders which teaching model will be used in the future. By model he does not
mean a particular variety of English, but a complex framework which includes issues of methodology
and variety, but also includes dimensions of the context and practice of learning English. First he
describes two traditional models:
EFL (English as a Foreign Language): Tends to highlight the importance of learning about the culture
and society of native speakers, stressing the centrality of methodology in discussions of effective
learning as well as emphasizing the importance of emulating native speaker language behavior. It
presents two big problems:
the learner is considered an outsider who struggles to attain acceptance by the target community
very few EFL learners will be perfect when measured against the standard of a native speaker.
ESL (English as a Second Language): Recognizes the role of English in the society in which is taught.
The British Empire needed to teach local people sufficient English to allow the administration of large
areas of the world employing a small number of British civil servants and troops. Local social elites
received curriculum designed to cultivate language skills and a taste for British (and western) culture
and values. Unfortunately, this approach widened existing divisions within colonial society.

For Graddol there are three models which represent significant departures from both EFL and ESL:
CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning): Both curriculum and English are taught together.
A subject is taught through the medium of a language still being learned. English teachers must work
closely with subject teachers to ensure that language development is appropriately catered which
implies not having enough time available for planning and review.
ELF (English as a Lingua Franca): In this framework, the target model is not a native speaker but a
fluent bilingual speaker who retains a national identity (with his/her accent) and also has the skill to
negotiate understanding with another non-native speaker. Intelligibility is of primary importance and
not native-like accuracy.
EYL (English for Young Learners): The age at which English learners start studying it has lowered
since 1999 based on the rationale that young children find easier to learn languages than older
students. Introducing English to young learners ensures that they have longer in their school careers to
master the language.

Nevertheless, Sung states some problems with ELF as a pedagogical model:

ELF refers to a context of use rather than a variety or a set of varieties and although corpus based
research on spoken interaction has identified a number of regularly occurring lexico-grammatical

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 features, they are not sufficient to claim that ELF is a distinctive variety and, thus, ELF is best seen as
a process or a communicative activity.
The community of ELF users does not seem to be stable, but heterogeneous, with different
constellations of speakers of diverse first-language background in every interaction. Any attempts at
codifying ELF as a pedagogic model may be unrealistic given the variable, dynamic and fluid nature
of ELF use.

For these reasons, ELF is inoperable as a pedagogical model being highly uncertain whether ELF
could provide alternative norms to which learners might orient. Instead, learners should be provided
with a model (or a specific variety of English) as a starting point so that they can develop and use
their own version of English depending on the particular context of use.

CONCLUSION
1. English has become the Lingua Franca by the increasing of migration and employers mobility which
find in this language a bridge to overcome communication; also information technology and economic
reasons foster this fact.
2. Education has been shaken by the above and learners start with English at a younger age, the curricula
and materials have been changed in order to fit universities demand for a higher level of English
proficiency. Universities offer more courses in English to compete in a global society.
3. English will not be displaced as the dominant language worldwide at least for some years, and the
teaching model that will prevail is not clear now. However, other languages have started to claim
dominance in the globalized world, therefore the English teaching business is likely to change in the
near future.
4. Although it remains true that being able to speak English brings about better job opportunities, even
better job opportunities are opening up for multilingual people, therefore people are not looking at
learning English as the main goal but merely as one more essential part of their resume, which can be
further completed by learning other languages as well.
5. Global English speakers have overruled native speakers. This has led to a new model where reaching
native speakers language habits is not the goal anymore but communicating effectively and
intelligibly with other non-native speakers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Graddol, D. (2006). English Next. British Council.

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Graddol, D. (1997 ) The Future of English? The English Company (UK) Ltd

Nordquist, R. (2016) Global English [online] available at www.thoughtco.com/what-is-global-

english-1690817

Oxford Living Dictionaries, available at en.oxforddictionaries.com

Seildhofer, B. A Concept of International English and Related Issues: from Real English to
Realistic English?. University of Viena

Sung, C. C. M. (2013) English as a Lingua Franca and its Implications for Language Teaching.
JALT Journal, Vol. 3, No. 2, November 2013

Truchot, C. (2002) Key Aspects of the Use of English in Europe. Council of Europe, Strasbourg