Languages Speed Education

English Language and Cultural Imperialism

The current rise of English to a world language is becoming a matter of concern for some people while others perceive it as a chance for the world to overcome language barriers.  Over the years, English language has presumed a great importance as a means of communication in the global world but across the globe, media and academicians have raised their concerns that depict English language as imperialist, predatory and killer to other languages and in a way it is undermining the linguistic diversity in the world.   For some people, English language has the potential of forming a true cosmopolitanism that eradicate language barriers and consequently curse of Babel. For others, English language is nothing but coming monoculture language domination. Statistics reveal that more people are learning English language as the second language and it is estimated that between 2010 and 2015, more than two billion people, which is a third of the world population will be  learning English as their second language. Adding to the current number of people who are fluent in English, it is estimated that half o the world population will be proficient in English language compared ton only 250 million people in early 1952. Regales of how the English is conceptualized, it is evident the language is becoming a world lingua franca and will have a lot of political, cultural, and economic implications. In the face of globalization, language globalization should be conceptualized in the increase knowledge and usage of different languages in the world but currently English is emerging as dominance language wiping away the influence of other like French, German, Arabic, and others.  This has been contributed by different factors including the usage of English as official language in organization bodies like United Nations and others.  Putting into consideration the estimates of people who are currently learning English language, there is little doubt the world is moving towards a mono-culturalism in which English will be lingua franca.  The concept of global English as currently perpetuated under globalization will eventually turn to language imperialism.

‘Global English‘ and cultural imperialism
(i) Origin and current global use of English language

English language is a West Germanic Language which was developed during the Anglo-Saxon period.  English language became the dominant language in England and was spread during the military, economical, and political expansion of the England under the British Empire. During the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, English language was spread through expansion of British Empire (Baugh and Cable, 2002).   Since the mid 20th century, English language has also been extensively used in the United States and it has emerged as lingua franca not only in the original British Empire but also to other countries as well. English is extensively used as the second language in many countries and also as official language in Commonwealth countries and in other international organizations.

Due to increased use in different languages, English has undergone change in dialects and now there seems to be the Old English which is still used in Queen Territory, American English used in United States and many other dialects which are influenced by the local languages (Bishop and Philips, 2006).  Today it is estimated that about 375 million people speaks English as their first language and English has become the third larges native speakers language coming after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish (Baugh and Cable, 2002).  However native speakers and non-native speakers are combined, English become the most commonly spoken language in the world. According to David Crystal who has done extensive work on English language shows that non native speakers outnumber native speakers by a ratio of 3 is to 1 (Crystal, 2003).

According to country rank, United States has the highest number of English speakers  adding up to 215 million, United Kingdom comes second with 61 million, Canada third with 18.2 million, Australia fourth with 15.5 million, Ireland fifth with 3.8 million, and South Africa comes at distant fifth with 3.7 million speakers (Boran, 2003).  However, it is important to understand that former British colonies also have a high number of English speakers. Countries like Jamaica, Niger, India, and others have a high number of English speaking individuals (Crystal, 1997). It is estimated that currently India has the highest number of people who speak or understand English although the number who speak good English are very few. Most of them speak English based Creole. It is also important to note that three countries including United States, United Kingdom, and Australia have the highest percentage of their population speaking English. United States has 96%, United Kingdom with 98%, and Australia with 92% (Crystal, 1997).

(ii) How important is English language in the world?

English has grown to become a dominant global lingua franca (Boran, 2003).  It is used as international language in communication, science, business, aviation, entertainment, diplomacy and in different other ways (Boran, 2003).  English has spread beyond the original English isles starting with the growth of British Empire.  The language however gained a boost after the colonization of North American and the consequent rise of United States to the most influential nation in the world. Since the end of the World War II, the use of English in the world has been catapulted by the increased dominance of United States and Britain in world affairs especially in the International organizations like United Nations (Boran, 2003).

Knowledge of English has become a basic requirement in different fields, occupation and professions like Medicine, computing and many others (Bishop and Philips, 2006). This use of English in education and economic areas can be traced to the era of industrial revolution in Britain and the consequent industrial revolution that led to a number of inventions. As a way of spreading the technological invention to the rest of the world, English was adopted as a means of communication and henceforth it has become an important part communication in the world.  Today, more than one billion people can speak English at a basic level and the language has also become one of the six official languages in the United Nations (Crystal, 1997).

The rise of English has had positive impacts to the world.  Most Linguisticians have advocated that multilingualism is a barrier to effective communication and hence undermine cultural integration. According to Archibugi (2005) multilingualism is an obstacle and barrier to democracy and hence it must be overcome to ensure advancement of the societies.  This is encapsulated in the notion that development comes only when there is exchange of views, developments, and technology and this cannot be achieved when there is a language barrier. Archibugi (2005) shows that cosmopolitans mostly prefer to have a directly understandable language rather than having a myriad of colorful non accessible languages that benefits only those who understands them.  In his line of argument, he posits that development in the world would not have reached its current height if there was no one language that could be used as a means of communication.

Related English Language Education Articles