Week7 Session2

Global turning point

Hinderances to the future of English

• Source:

Global Turning Point, Mauro Guillen &

Emilio Ontiveros, 2012, Cambridge Press

• English as a Global Language

• A summary of Chinese history at

www.youtube.com

References

English-speaking world

So far, we‟ve seen English is alive and well and its global future is

assured….but we should be careful about prediction…

• In the Middle Ages, who had dared to

predict the death of Latin as the language

of education?

• In the 18C, who could suggest any other

language could be a future norm of polite

society?

So, what can hinder the future

global status of English?

A shift of global power?

Political factors?

????

The need to express

local identity?

So, we need to ask: what can hinder the

future growth of English?

• A change in the balance of power could

make other languages to take over English‟s

position?

• Political factors may make English under

pressure?

• The need to express community identity

may disrupt the ability of English to

function as a global language?

Text Hinderance1:

The rejection of English

• People of a country feel antagonistic

about English that they reject English as

an official or a foreign language.

• Strong reaction against the language of

the former colonial power.

• .

Hinderance1:

“Writers in out-circle countries”

Reach global fans in English? Or sacrifice their

cultural identity

Hinderance1:

Rejection of English

• Using cases:

• Former colonies of the

British Empire have

stayed with English

• Rejecting cases:

• Case1: Tanzania English was

jointly official with Swahili

until 1967, thereafter Swahili

became the sole national

language.

• Case2: In Malaysia, the

National Language Act of

1967 gave sole status to Malay

(destroying English as a joint

official language.)

“Rejection to impact English

position?”

• Such rejection were „sufficiently small‟

that even in total there has been little

impact on the status of the English as a

whole

Hinderance2: “Does it make sense to spend money in

learning English, if our economic future is operating more

on regionally than globally?

• The Spanish-speaking

countries of Latin

America should stay

behind Spanish…

• The countries of North

Africa should stay

with Arabic.

• Hindi, Russian and

German are other

examples of regional

lingua franca.

“Avoid the conflict with „take it

and eat it‟

Promote ethnic

language?

Learn common language?

Take it and eat

it

“Take it and eat it”

• People traveling by cab to the international

conference would be speaking Hindi, Hausa

and Spanish. When they all meet at the

conference table, they would switch into

standard English. (They don‟t have to give

up their national linguistic identities just

because they are going to an international

meeting)

English is becoming “diglossic” language : “Two

spoken varieties co-existing in Singapore”

British English for

intelligibility Singlish for local identity

Diglossic English

• Philippines: Standard American English

coexists with Taglish

Any other countries emerging to challenge the

USA as a global power?

• Then, people would

look elsewhere?

• What if peoples would

acquire new language

loyalties?

• Even if the entire

English-speaking

population of

Canada decided to

switch to French…

Ratio of native to non-native is :

1:3

In the 1960s, more L1

speakers than L2

Now it is 1:3 rate in favor of

L2 speakers

David Graddol suggest

• The share of the world‟s population who

have English as a first language will

decline from over 8% in 1950 to less than

5% in 2050.

• So much will depend on what happens in

the populous countries: China, Russia,

Japan, Indonesia and Brazil

Hinderance3:

• The language fragments into

mutually unintelligible

varieties, like vulgar Latin did

centuries ago?

Here comes another question: If these

were the 19-20C global turning

point….,

• Are there any another

global turning point in the

post-21century global

society that may reverse the

balance of global power?

So the question is:

• Are there any „game-

changing‟ events or trends

that are transforming the

world?

And these also lead to a question:

• What are the implications of these global

turning points on the English position as

a global language?

• Is it facing any challenges from other

languages spoken by peoples who are

emerging as new power potential?

Let‟s call it a day