English as a global language:
issues and attitudes
For use with Chapter 3 of:
Galloway, N. and Rose, H. (2015). Introducing
Global Englishes. Routledge.
© Dr. Heath Rose and Dr. Nicola Galloway
Review of Lecture 2
• Language change: normal and natural, and the result of numerous
factors (diachronic, endogenous, exogenous synchronic, language
contact, code-switching, code-mixing, and borrowing).
• Widespread variation – phonology, lexis, grammar, and pragmatics.
• ‘New’ Englishes – many stages involved, native or nativized?
• World Englishes paradigm – variation, codification, ownership, and ELT:
– Part of Global Englishes paradigm
– English ‘belongs to everyone who speaks it, but it is nobody’s mother
tongue’ (Rajagopalan, 2004, p. 111).
• WE, ELF, and GE.
• Despite variation, there is an idea of a ‘standard’ English, deeply
rooted in history (Lecture 1 – history is important to fully understand
GE).
• OC varieties are often seen as ‘inferior’ and ‘illegitimate’.
• Why ‘standard’ English is a fallacy:
– The very idea of a standard implies stability but language is unstable
(Widdowson, 2003)
– To support the notion of ‘standard’ English is incompatible with the
complex reality of how English is used worldwide (Saraceni, 2009)
– ELF research questions the existence of a ‘standard’ English
– difficult to define a NES (continued in this lecture).
Overview
The advantages of the global spread of English
The dark side of the global spread of English
Linguistic imperialism
The politics of the spread of English
Introductory activities
Look at the statistics in the introduction to Chapter 3 and then
discuss the questions below.
1. Which of the statistics were most surprising to you?
2. Do you think it is fair that the USA and the UK benefit financially because
they are native English-speaking nations, and therefore attract international
students?
• Do you think UK and US universities rank so highly due to quality of education? Or
is it due to their location in historically powerful English-speaking countries?
3. What do you think is the cause for a decline in foreign language learning in
the UK?
• Do you think students will suffer any long-term negative affects by not picking up
foreign language education?
4. What do you think will be the impact, if any, of the loss of languages and a
decrease in the world’s linguistic diversity?
5. Do financial savings from translation services justify decisions to switch to a
single working language in an international company or organization? What
is streamlined and what is lost?
Part 1
The advantages of the global
spread of English
Factors affecting whether a language is
adopted or abandoned when it spreads to
new territories
1. Expectations of ruling power:
• e.g. The Ottoman Empire permitted communities in their wide-ranging empire to keep their
ethnic identities and language use.
2. Geographical distance from home territory:
• e.g. Vikings in Italy were isolated from their homeland and thus adopted the local languages of
their conquered villages.
3. Loss of home territory :
• e.g. French-speaking Normans in England switched to English after losing territory in France.
4. Population size ratio :
• e.g. in Australia, British settlers far outnumbered the indigenous population, and thus
indigenous languages quickly diminished in the local populations – compare with India where
English settlers were a minority and thus the language had less impact.
5. Prestige attached to language:
• see Chapter 2 – if prestige is attached to a language it is likely to be adopted.
6. Educational, religious, or public policy:
• e.g. if a language is packaged as the ‘language of God’ it can have devastating effects on other
languages which are viewed as inferior. In the same light, Welsh probably only survives today
because the Bible was translated into the Welsh language and thus it was seen as a tool to
deliver religious messages.
Advantages for international
relations
English is now an official or coofficial language in one-third of
the world’s countries (McArthur,
2002, p. 3)
‘It has never been easier for
other Europeans to know what
Poles think about the credit
crunch, Germans about the
Middle East or Danes about
nuclear power’ (The
Economist,
12 February 2009)
Benefits to
international
diplomacy
Cost-cutting
measures in
ASEAN, unlike
in the EU
Advantages for business
Higher efficiency
The use of a single working
language means
communications between
company HQs and foreign
branches, factories,
subsidiaries, and various
connected institutional bodies
can be streamlined
Many international firms have
decided to instigate English as
their working language, even
though the company might be
based entirely in non-Englishspeaking countries (e.g.
Renault-Nissan)
Business
English as a
lingua franca
(BELF)
70% of the English
communication in
European multinational
companies is
characterized as BELF
(Kankaanranta and
Planken, 2010)
Advantages for
communication
Increased efficiency in international communication:
‘English is by far the most useful language for
international communication today’
(Ammon, 2003, p. 23).
English radio
programming is
heard by 150
million people in
120 countries
(Crystal, 2008,
p. 4)
English use in
Internet-based
media accounts
for 45% of online
content
Popular media
(film, book, and
gaming
translations
becoming
increasingly
unnecessary)
Transportation
industry
communication
Shipping and
aviation (specific
phraseology
ensures safe
passage)
Advantages for education
and scientific advancement
Language is a historic barrier of
information and knowledge
Emergence of a global lingua
franca means wider and
quicker access to knowledge
and new scientific
discoveries
English is now universal in
many academic disciplines
and key information is now
only made available in
English (e.g. ThomsonReuters)
Half of the world’s
international
students are
learning through
English
Europe saw a 340% increases
in English-medium instructed
programmes in just 5 years,
and a 1,000% increase in the
past 10 years (Brenn-White
and Faethe, 2013)
Advantages for
political unity
English is seen as a neutral
language
‘Because of its “neutrality”
with regard to diverse ethnic
groups wherein no single
group is privileged … English
alone has the ability to
function as a unifying
language for Singaporeans’
(Rubdy et al., 2008, p. 44)
Played a similar role in India
where historically minority
language speakers were
denied access to certain
tiers of society and politics,
and language was used to
divide society
Egalitarian
justice
Enables the rich and poor,
the powerful and powerless
to communicate across
formally insurmountable
linguistic boundaries and
national borders (van Parjis,
2011), such as in
international protests and
conflicts (e.g. Iran, Syria)
Summary of Part 1
• The emergence of a global lingua franca comes with certain
economic, political, and scientific advantages.
• English is also used in more language contact situations
than any other language, and thus the social benefit of a
global lingua franca should also not be underestimated:
– e.g. English fosters relationships between mobile
populations around the globe: Chinese tourists use English
to communicate with hotel staff in Norway; Italians use
English to talk to Polish taxi drivers in Germany; Australians
use English to communicate with storeowners in Chile.
• But the spread of English also comes at a cost – for other
languages and for global equality – which will be discussed
at length in the following parts of this lecture.
Part 2
The dark side of the global spread
of English
Disadvantages
of a global
lingua franca
Language
death
Homogenization
of culture
Reduction in
learning other
foreign
languages
Language death
• There are between 5,000 to 6,000 languages
spoken in the world today:
– These figures are hard to estimate due to fuzzy
boundaries between languages and dialects.
– Based on this figure, it has been predicted that 3,000
to 4,000 of these languages may cease to exist by the
end of this century (Grenoble and Whaley, 1998).
– More recent statistics show 40% of the world’s
languages are endangered (ELCat, 2014).
– At the end of this century only 600 languages will have
more than 100,000 speakers (Hale, 1998).
Cause of language death
Primary cause = arrival of new languages:
• Of the 270 documented mutually intelligible indigenous languages of the
USA and Canada, one-third have already disappeared and all but several
are expected to be extinct within the next few generations (Mithun, 1998).
• South America saw death of countless indigenous languages in favour of
prestigious Mayan and Incan languages, and these in turn diminished with
the arrival of Spanish.
• Regional Indian languages have diminished in the shadow of Hindi.
• Chinese minority languages have diminished with the spread of
Putonghua (Mandarin).
• African vernacular languages have diminished with the pervasive lingua
francas of French, English, and Swahili.
What is lost when languages die?
•
•
•
‘Because the rapid loss of languages (and concomitant changes occurring in
cultures) promises to reweave the social fabric of the world completely in the
coming century, one might expect it to be a topic of keen interest for anyone
concerned with the nature of social interaction in the not so distant future.
‘On the contrary, attention to the issues surrounding endangered languages has
remained mostly restricted to certain segments of academia and to individual
communities currently faced with the real possibility of the loss of a traditional
language.
‘The general inattention to the issue of language death stems in part from a failure
by linguistics to adequately explore and to explain questions about what, if
anything, is lost when one language becomes obsolescent and is superseded by
another’ (Grenoble and Whaley, 1998, p. xiii).
The world not only loses a language but the cultures, traditions, and knowledge
that surrounds it. The loss of language is a mental loss for society as it loses a
perspective to look at things differently (Mithun, 1998).
Language loss is a scientific and intellectual loss for humanity (Hale, 1998).
What of the spread of English in
more recent times?
• Attention has been drawn to the threat English poses to
foreign languages (Phillipson, 2003), which Paikeday
(1985) has called ‘linguistic genocide’.
• In most of Europe, secondary students learn English in
their modern foreign language class, often in place of
traditional neighbouring European languages.
• English is now taught at the expense of other major
ASEAN languages in ASEAN countries (Kirkpatrick, 2009).
Homogenization of culture
• Language can be seen as a symbol of culture, and the strong
connection between the two means that the worldwide spread of
English has resulted in the worldwide spread of Western – and
more specifically American – culture = ‘Americanization’.
• Language, culture, and identity are inextricably intertwined, so each
exerts influence on the other.
• It is difficult to ascertain the real impact on ‘language’ of changing
culture (i.e. cannot separate the effect of ‘English’ and the effect of
‘globalization’.
• Do Irish people feel less Irish when they speak English? Do Maori
feel less Maori?
• Pennycook (1994, p. 21) points out, ‘Access to prestigious but often
inappropriate forms of knowledge is often only through English,
and thus, given the status of English both within and between
countries, there is often reciprocal reinforcement of the position of
English and the position of imported forms of culture and
knowledge.’
A killer of foreign language
learning?
• The case of the UK:
– In 2010, 43% of students elected to do a foreign language
among their GCSEs, compared to 71 % in 1999.
– In 2008, only 610 students enrolled in German language
courses at university, compared with 2,288 in 1998. French
has dropped 30% in the same period (The Independent,
2008).
• In Australia there has been a decrease in the traditional four
‘big’ languages: Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, and Korean.
• Students are no longer viewing foreign languages as a worthy
pursuit, which is perhaps indicative of the myth perpetuated
by globalization: that knowing English will be sufficient for
future international communication and careers.
– But ELF research shows these students will be at a
disadvantage in their future lives.
Is English a killer language?
• Reference to the English language has often been analogous to
monsters and other beasts that bring death and destruction
(Wilton, 2012):
– ELF as a ‘lingua frankensteinia’ (Phillipson, 2008)
– English as ‘hydra’ (Rapatahana and Bunce, 2012)
– English as a ‘Tyrannosaurus Rex’ (Tardy, 2004).
• Are such analogies warranted?
– English compared to Spanish was a much more accommodating language
to local languages (Spolsky, 2004), being used in addition to – and not
forcibly in place of – other languages.
– Mufwene (2002, p. 12): ‘languages don’t kill languages, their own
speakers do, in giving them up.’
– Dorian (1998, p. 4): ‘because the standing of a language is so intimately
tied to that of its speakers, enormous reversals in the prestige of a
language can take place in very short timespan.’
• What role did the policy of English-speaking nations play in the spread
of English (top-down forces), and what role did people play in
switching to English (bottom-up forces)?
Part 3
Linguistic imperialism and the creation of
inequalities by the global spread of English
What is linguistic imperialism?
• A term coined by Phillipson in 1992.
• Linguistic imperialism is seen by many academics as a
globally organized form of linguicism, which is defined
as ‘the intentional destruction of a powerless language
by a dominant one’ (Spolsky, 2004, p. 79).
• Phillipson in the 1990s argued:
– It was in the interests of the UK and the USA to have
English spread, and policies put in place by these countries
allowed English to become the global language it is today.
– ENL countries are unfairly benefiting today because of
English’s position as a global lingua franca.
Phillipson’s current views on
linguistic imperialism
•
As a form of linguicism, which manifests in favouring the dominant language
over another, along similar lines as racism and sexism.
• As a structurally manifested concept where ‘more resources and infrastructure
are accorded to the dominant language’.
• As being ideological, in that it encourages beliefs that the dominant language
form is superior to others, and thus is more prestigious. He also argues that
such ideas are hegemonic and ‘internalized and naturalized as being
“normal”’.
• As intertwined with the same structure as imperialism in culture, education,
the media, and politics.
• As having an exploitative essence which causes injustice and inequality
between those who use the dominant language and those who do not.
• As having a subtractive influence on other languages, in that learning the
dominant language is at the expense of others.
• As being contested and resisted because of these factors.
(Phillipson, 2012, p. 214)
Creation of socio-economic
inequalities
•
•
•
•
•
Blommaert (2010, p. 197) notes, ‘Globalization is something that has winners as well as
losers, a top as well as a bottom, and centres as well as peripheries.’
In countries where the UK had a colonial presence, English is clearly the favoured
language, even if it is not the language commonly used by its citizens. Social, political,
and educational disadvantages exist for those who do not speak it.
Discrimination also occurs in education around the world, with TOEFL and IELTS scores
necessary to enter degrees.
Kim and Elder (2009) note that in 2003, the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO) implemented English language proficiency requirements for aviation personnel,
leading the Korean government to develop an English language test.
Innumerable financial and social benefits are afforded to NESs because of the spread of
English: they can more easily be:
– accepted into the world’s top universities (most of which have an English language entrance
requirement)
– hired into top-paying international firms
– be published in world-reputed journals (which have strict language requirements)
– claim political positions (in many countries where English language has an administrative role).
The debate: was the spread of English
a result of linguistic imperialism?
Yes: the top-down perspective
No: the bottom-up perspective
English was intentionally spread for the benefit of ENL nations.
The spread of English was a consequence of the spread of British and American
power.
Colonial policy indicates that English was enforced at the expense of other
languages, through educational cultural and political structures.
There is evidence to the contrary of British colonial policy to deny language
education to local populations, as it was feared to lead to organized resistance to
colonial rule (Ferguson, 2006).
The development of English as a global language ‘reflects local and individual
language acquisition decisions, responding to changes in the complex ecology of
the world’s language system’ (Spolsky, 2004, p. 90).
The debate: was the spread of English
a result of linguistic imperialism?
Yes: the top-down perspective
No: the bottom-up perspective
Linguistic Imperialist policy can still be seen in policy documents of the British
Council and the United States Information Agency.
These organizations exist for most countries. The promotion of national language
and culture should not be confused with imperialist notions.
English was used as a dividing mechanism to exert dominance over local
populations.
‘What enables dominance are “ideologies, structures and practices” that are
considered extra-linguistic’ (Canagarajah. 1999b, p. 41).
Levelling inequality
• If language is viewed as a door to access the advantages
afforded to English speakers (whether due to linguistic
imperialism or incidental to the forces of globalization
is irrelevant), then it can also be seen as a means to
level such inequality.
• Knowledge of English is seen as a means to access the
privileges that are tied with the language, and thus as a
vehicle for upward social and economic mobility:
– Nations such as Rwanda and Georgia (discussed later in
this lecture) are examples of this ideology.
– However, knowledge of English alone is not a means for
political development – i.e. Vietnam and Indonesia are
enjoying economic success while maintaining strong
national languages (Kirkpatrick, 2007).
Resisting linguistic imperialism
• Linguistic imperialism is connected to power and prestige:
– Shifts in power can already be seen at the macro level with the
rise of nations like India and China as dominant global players,
resulting in a rise in the learning of Chinese Mandarin.
– The importance of languages such as Spanish in former
economic juggernauts like America is also becoming more
apparent and part of public discourse.
• Challenges to English are also found at the local level,
where discussions of Englishes, and individual decisions to
engage in code-mixing and code-switching, ‘challenge the
ideologies and institutions which undergird the dominance
of English’ (Canagarajah, 1999b, p. 42).
• The future of English will be discussed in the final lecture of
this course.
Part 4
The politics of the spread of English:
influences on language policy and planning
Four common scenarios of English
language policy
Language policy
In the Inner
Circle
English-only
policy
Minority
language policy
In the Outer
Circle
In the Expanding
Circle
English-only policy in ENL nations
• Because of inequality in wealth/power held by
English-speaking nations, ENL countries such as the
USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada have attracted
waves of immigrants in search for a better life, or in
the case of the USA ‘the American dream’:
– This migration has been met with either enthusiasm or
disdain (Ferguson, 2006) – mostly disdain in more recent
decades.
– There is a political backlash against influx of immigrant
culture and language.
– This backlash manifests in English-only policies.
English-only policy in the USA
• USA is infamous for its ‘sink or swim’ submersion policy to education:
– Immigrant children placed in classroom without language support.
• Bilingual Education Act (1968–1994):
– Bilingual in name only.
– Teachers within this programme were mostly monolingual English
speakers.
– Aim was to integrate children into English-speaking programmes as
quickly as possible.
– Aim to ‘wean’ students off their home languages – bilingualism was not
the goal.
• No Child Left Behind Act (2002–present):
– Moved even further away from notions of bilingual development.
– First language viewed as a hindrance to educational development.
– Maximum times were set for students to receive language support before
integration.
• English-only movement has also been occurring at the political level:
– 1980s and 1990s saw states declare English to be only official language.
Minority language policy
• Some other Inner Circle nations have made a political effort to
maintain and revitalize indigenous minority languages with degrees of
success:
– The Welsh Language Act of 1993 aimed to revitalize Welsh in educational,
public, and political spheres:
• Whether the increased emphasis on Welsh in schools will translate to increased
usage in later life, or decisions to pass the language on to future generations in
family language planning, is yet to be seen (Ferguson, 2006).
– Irish was declared the first official language when the Republic of Ireland
was formed in 1922:
• Census data shows that Irish is rarely used outside the classroom context, and
although people claim to be fluent, it is not used on a frequent basis (Grenoble
and Whaley, 1998, p. ix–x).
– The Maori Language Act of 1987 instigated Maori as an official language
of New Zealand:
• 79.3% of students have no language education in Maori apart from a handful of
cultural words and expressions, 18.5% have Maori language education in English
medium schools, and 2.2% have Maori language immersion (Education Counts,
2014).
• Despite challenges, these are positive examples of endangered
languages having been revitalized through policy.
Language policy in the Outer Circle
• English is usually maintained as an official language
alongside other languages:
– Singapore acknowledges four official languages, but in
education English is the medium of instruction (English + 1
policy).
– In nations like Singapore, English plays a politically mediatory
role in the multilingual nations.
– In other nations like Malaysia, the emphasis on English has
been lessened with the growth in importance of other
unifying languages such as Bahasa-Melayu.
– In nations like Nigeria there is movement towards home
language promotion, where primary school-aged children can
theoretically elect to learn in their home language. However,
with 400 languages, in practice parents elect to have children
learn in a handful of dominant languages.
Language policy in the Expanding Circle
• In countries like Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and
Finland, English is becoming more predominant in education
(not due to policy but due to bottom-up forces).
• In countries like China, English is becoming more
predominant in education because of top-down policy.
• Rwanda is transitioning from French to English as its main
official language, despite being a former Belgian colony, and
despite already having a unifying national language of
Kinyarwanda. English is seen as a means to:
– Distance the nation from its colonial past
– Improve relations with the east African community.
• Georgia is also transitioning from Russian to English in order
to:
– Distance themselves from Russia
– Leverage economic advantages by increasing ties with powerful
nations where English (not Russian) is the lingua franca.
In the European Union
‘The current role of English in Europe is … characterized by the
fact that the language has become a lingua franca, a language
of wider communication, and has entered the continent in
two directions as it were, top-down by fulfilling functions in
various professional domains and, simultaneously, bottom–up
by being encountered and used by speakers from all levels of
society in practically all walks of life.
‘So English functions as a lingua franca, enabling people to
connect based on common interests and concerns across
languages and communities.
‘Despite widespread criticism of its dominance, it has to be
acknowledged that English does serve the ideal of European
integration and facilitate movement across borders.’
(Seidlhofer, 2006, p. 5)
Summary of Lecture 3 (1)
• More effective communication not only allows for increased efficiency in
international organizations, political gatherings, and international business, but also
in scientific scholarship, popular media, travel, and personal communication.
• The spread of English and the adoption of it as a lingua franca come at a cost:
– A reduction in global linguistic diversity as traditional languages are abandoned in favour of a
more powerful lingua franca. The loss of a language also often means a loss of identity,
traditions, and practices.
– With the death of languages comes the hegemony of global cultures and the notion of
Americanization.
• The question of blame for the adoption of English and abandonment of local
languages has been discussed in relation to linguistic imperialism – that the spread
of English and destruction of other languages was a result of policies connected to
colonialism and the pursuit of power through inequality.
• Arguments against linguistic imperialism take a more bottom-up perspective, in that
languages were abandoned by speakers in favour of English as an indirect
consequence of colonialism and globalization, and that partial blame for its current
status be attributed to speakers, who are driven by personal gain.
Summary of Lecture 3 (2)
• There are examples of policy that actively promoted English at the expense
of other languages (American bilingual education policy) and others that
actively revitalized languages that had been historically threatened by
English (e.g. in Wales and New Zealand).
• Some top-down policies in light of globalization promote English education
and use (such as Georgia’s switch from Russian to English), or aim to curb
the bottom-up intrusion of English into educational domains (such as in
Sweden).
• Issues and attitudes surrounding English are a complex mix of factors which
can be measured in terms of policy and social discourse, but also subtler
factors such as prestige attached to language and opportunities afforded by
speaking some languages over others.
Key terms
Linguistic imperialism
Linguicism
Language policy
English-only policy
Top-down perspective
Bottom-up perspective
Language maintenance
Language revitalization
Bilingual Education Act
No Child Left Behind Act
Transitional programmes
Submersion
Immersion
Further reading
On the effects of the spread of English:
• Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language (2nd edition).
Cambridge: CUP.
• Crystal, D. (2002). Language Death. Cambridge: CUP.
On linguistic imperialism:
• Phillipson, R. (1992b). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: OUP.
• Canagarajah, S. (1999b). Resisting Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford:
OUP.
On language policy:
• Spolsky, B. (ed.). (2012). The Cambridge Handbook of Language
Policy. Cambridge: CUP.