Guy Cook’s Applied Linguistics
Lecture 3
Chapter 3: LANGUAGES IN THE
CONTEMPORARY WORLD
Dina Bensureiti
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Languages in the Contemporary World
Although languages have common properties, it is
the differences that matter when it comes to using
them. Around the world, people speak different
languages which are mutually incomprehensible.
To solve the problem of how people can
communicate with each other, there are two
possible solutions:
1.Speakers of one language learn the other’s
language.
2.A translator/translators are used.
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What to Consider
We need to consider the following:
• How differences in languages are perceived by
linguists as well as non-specialists.
• The balance of languages in the contemporary
world and the factors that determine who
learns whose language and why.
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Attitudes to Languages
•Native speakers of a language usually regard it as their
own property and do not resent other people
acquiring it. This is simply because they lose nothing in
the process and are flattered to share something so
highly valued.
•However, it remains familiar and intrinsic to them,
whereas it remains foreign and something apart to
those who learn it as another language. They still
believe they have the right to say what is correct and
what is not.
•Furthermore, there is a marked difference between
people’s general characterization of their language and
academic beliefs/linguists views.
•Linguists regard all languages as equal and arbitrary
systems capable of fulfilling the same functions. This
view is very different from how they are perceived by
language users.
•Some languages are popularly regarded as being less
complex than others, e.g. one reason often given to
the spread of international English is that it is easier to
learn. Some languages are considered to be more
beautiful, and some are believed to carry the “spirit”
of a people.
On the same vein, Latin is widely believed to be more
logical, German more efficient, or French more
romantic than other languages.
These are all views which we must consider if we are
to mediate between the two perspectives.
In Africa it is common to switch between a local
language or a dominant regional language, and a
former colonial language such as French, English.
For immigrants to Europe there is switching
between the family language and that of their new
home, for example Turkish and German, or Arabic
and French.
Linguists are in a difficult position when comparing
their views- on what counts as a separate language
and what does not- with that of language users.
Although linguistics investigates languages in terms
of history and formal similarities, neither of these
perspectives determines the boundaries of
languages.
Although many believe it to be true, mutual
comprehensibility cannot be considered as a
measure to find boundaries.
The dialect of Sicily makes little sense in Venice,
while they are both described as “Italian”.
Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese are mutually
incomprehensible when spoken and they are both
referred to as “Chinese”.
On the other hand, there are pairs of languages, which
are mutually comprehensible but are regarded as
different. For example:
Russian can guess at the meaning of Ukrainian; Italian
may work for basic transactions in a Spanish-speaking
country; readers of Japanese can make some progress
with Chinese characters
Generally, if people decided that they speak a distinct
language, or conversely that what they speak is a
dialect of a larger language, then it is difficult to argue
with them.
The Languages of Nations:
Boundaries and Relationships
In addition to academic linguistic and popular
approaches, there are other two ways in which
languages can be compared, both of which are of
particular importance to the contemporary world.
These are by numbers of speakers and by geographical
distribution.
While the world’s largest languages, such as Arabic,
English, Chinese, Hindi, Spanish, have hundreds of
millions of speakers and are frequently used beyond
their homelands, populations of the majority of the
world’s languages are much smaller, some with only a
few hundred speakers.
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•Smaller languages are limited to restricted areas and
specific ethnic groups, and are often vulnerable.
•Among the world’s estimated 6000 languages,
language death now occurs increasingly frequently,
and half of the world’s languages are likely to
disappear in the twenty-first century.
•Languages constantly change depending on historical
and political forces. Thus powerful nations have
frequently asserted their unity by promoting one
single majority language in a standard written form
while suppressing /ignoring minority languages.
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Unfortunately, the successful promotion of one
language and its spread beyond its homeland led to
a state of multilingualism rather than
monolingualism.
A survey of London primary schools in 2000
revealed that a total of 350 home languages are
used by London schoolchildren.
Meanwhile independence movements, such
Scottish one, associate their cause with the
promotion of one of the indigenous languages
which the state has pushed aside.{Scottish Gaelic,
championed by Scottish National Party, is the
official language}
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Despite the efforts of nation builders, the
monolingual state remains a myth, because all
nations have large linguistic groups within their
borders, making cross-linguistic communication an
intranational as well international affair.
On a personal level, many individuals of the world
are 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 significant part of their daily
experience.
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THE GROWTH OF ENGLISH
• Feelings of ownership, stereotyping, unequal distribution
and power, individual and societal multilingualism- these
are- and have been throughout history- all the issues at the
heart of encounters between different languages.
• Applied linguistics must focus on these issues to resolve
problems related to rights and relationships between
languages to promote communication and understanding
while preserving cultural and linguistic identity.
• English has approximately 400 million native speakers. It is
the main language used internationally for business,
education and information access. It has drastically
diminished the role of other languages.
• In recent years the growth of English has been
further accelerated by a startling expansion in the
quantity and speed of international
communication.
• 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 and a
salient experience.
• Additionally , TEFL and TESOL now include native
and non-native speaker teachers.
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English and Englishes
• The growth of English raises important concerns about the
dangers of linguistic and cultural homogeneity. In the case
of smaller and less powerful languages, limited to a
particular community in a particular place, this is
unexceptional and 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, as they might have
regarded non standard forms within the UK. While such
feeling of ownership are to be expected, users of the
“deviations” quickly become, as they are in the USA, more
numerous and more internationally powerful than users of
the parent language.
English and Englishes (cont.)
• 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 stop it. 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 idea 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.
NATIVE SPEAKERS
• Are considered to be people who acquired the
language naturally and effortlessly in childhood,
through a combination of exposure, the child´s innate
talent of language learning and the need to
communicate. In many cases this definition is relatively
unproblematic, particularity of small languages spoken
mostly in one particular place.
• But in the case of larger and more widely distributed
languages however, and most especially in the case of
English, serious problem with the usual definitions of
native speaker begin to emerge.
Things to consider
• Firstly, there is the question of personal history.
Native speakers are considered to be people who acquired
the language naturally and effortlessly in childhood.
• 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.
However, there are some aspects of language
proficiency that this traditional definition of the
native speaker does not include.
• Firstly, it says nothing about proficiency in writing, but
only about proficiency in speech.
• Secondly, the native speaker’s knowledge of the
language is implicit rather than explicit. (Using the
rules correctly without being able to explain them).
• Lastly, traditional native speakerness implies nothing
about size of vocabulary, range of style, or ability to
communicate across diverse communities
ENGLISH AS LINGUA FRANCA
• Speaking a new variety of English which depends neither
on childhood acquisition nor on cultural identity, and is
often used in communication in which no native speaker is
involved. (She go) (you re very busy today, isn ‘t it?)
• The spread of English has generated intense interest in the
study of language pedagogy and of Second-Language
Acquisition (SLA). Historically, the most active of applied
linguistic enquiry has been in these areas.
• Indeed, in the early days of the discipline, applied
linguistics and the study of Teaching English as a Foreign
Language (TEFL) were considered to be one and the same.