Global English Development - Essay Example

RUNNING HEAD: Global English Global English Client Inserts His/her Name Client Inserts Name of Institution Introduction English is believed to have originated back as early as the fifteenth century. This is when the British Empire expanded as the foundations for English Expansion were laid. English and its teaching served as a tool that strengthened the British rule. A creation of an English speaking native class on one side and a majority of vernacular speaking on the other was the result of colonial education policies. English language was associated with capitalism and according to Huntington (1997), English language was a language of the master, the carrier of his brutality and arrogance. Different linguists have explained the spread of English in different terms. A distinction has been made between countries that use English as a Second language (ESL), where English has official status, countries that use it as a foreign language (EFL), where it is not official and countries that use English as a native language (ENL). Huntington (1997), distinguishes English in three concentric circles according to the country. The U.S, New Zealand, Canada and Australia form the inner circle; the post colonial countries that use English like Kenya, Nigeria, and Philippines form the outer circle while the expanding circle is held by the rest of the world. He notes that not until recently that the British form of English was being preferred in the expanding circle. The significance of language as a tool for the state has been credited since the Europeans decided to discover and dominate the rest of the world. The present distribution of English explains the invasion, occupation and the adoption of the invader’s language due to the benefits the speakers get from the language. The spread of English co-occurred with the powers of religion and trade during the British colonialism. English was the main language in all the countries colonized by the Americans or the British. As a language of civilization, English was highly used in Asia as “a group of individuals Indian in colour and blood, but English in taste, in morals, in opinion and in intellect” (Pennycook, 1998). A substantial diversity in educational practices in British colonies was very evident. This reflected decentralization and localization in missionary initiatives. Education was a major area in the application of English language. One of the most long lasting legacies of colonialism has been language, English being one of them. People began to learn English not only as a language but also as their way of life, which was the western culture. The language was passed off as a symbol of the educated man. With the heritage of English language, these countries became dependant on the language, thus depending on foreign theories and methods of doing things that came with the borrowed language. These included political and economic interests, dominant ideology and western way of doing things (Pennycook, 1998). Majority of African states have continued to use the language even after independence. The language is more favoured than those languages that are indigenous to the African continent. In English speaking nations, it is only a small proportion of people that speak the language of power. Kachru (1992), asserts that poorer countries are more likely to depend on English than richer nations. Only few nations like Malaysia, India and Tanzania are committed to developing their indigenous languages. This represents a force of empowerment and social democracy although English still remains the top language of power. This is mostly in the interest of local elites because of their proficiency in the colonial language. English language has been use as a basis of providing foreign aid to these countries especially by Britain and the USA. This is seen as one probe into the origins of English Language Teaching (ELT) or English as a Second Language (ESL). Phillipson (1992), views the use of English as a promotion of Western domination over the developing nations. For him English dominance is put in place and maintained by establishing and continuing the reconstitution of cultural and structural inequalities between other languages and English. In these countries, English dominated them as they believed this was the only language they could use when transacting with more advanced aspects of life. English was seen as to perform an economic-reproductive function as it enabled people to operate technology. It was also ideological as it stood for modernity and was also used as a tool for material efficiency and advancement. On one hand English is viewed as a key success to the economic success of many nations and the economic well being of these individuals but on the other hand it contributes to significant inequalities in the social, cultural, economic and political sectors. With the collapse of Soviet empire, English has widely spread in Eastern European and the former Soviet Union. According to Kachru (1992), a natural language has managed to achieve the status of an international language for cross cultural contact. Through English people of the Middle East gained access to employment, technology, education and mass culture, there was a reduction in chances of political conflicts. However, the spread of English in these countries has led to the death of other indigenous languages. In countries such as Indonesia and India, the economic globalization that amounted to the loss of local language is directly linked with the spread of English in these countries. English benefits in these countries are not equally distributed. Those who speak English have greater opportunities to businesses, education and employment as compared to those who do not know English. Those who do not access high quality English face difficulties in areas like education, businesses, employment and such activities that require the use of English. Phillipson (1992) argues that inequality among English learners was very high especially for those whose English was their second language. In many colonial nations associated with England and U.S, English is used in all aspects of life, governance, media, businesses and education. The varieties of English in these post colonial states usually differ from American or British varieties. The native nations have low status relative to the English that is spoken in the U.S, Canada, England, New Zealand, and Australia. He gives an example of Edna Velasco who was a graduate from Philippines. Throughout his life English was an instructions based language. The U.S colonial history left English language as the official language in Philippines. This was also the case in Malaysia and India where English was used for a wide variety of purposes, including; businesses, mass media, government and in the education sector. Edna has an experience of over 10 years as an English teacher in Philippines. She decides to attend a doctorate program and is admitted after passing the TOEFL examination. She discovers that one has to take another test to test his /her fluency in spoken English after she decides to apply for an assistant teacher in the university, English as Second Language (ESL) program. This test is aimed as assessing not only her English proficiency but also her accent and speaking style. She is surprised by this requirement as she has always considered English as one of her two native languages. Her Filipino English worries her during the interview. This experience is an example of many other people’s experiences especially ESL teachers in the U.S: her English is not given equal status. English speakers from Zimbabwe, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, and Singapore, Sri Lanka and Philippines and other countries must take the English speaking fluency and ability test. This is not the case for the English speakers in the U Australia, the US, Canada, England and New Zealand. These Middle East countries are sidelined when it comes to any chances like employment based on the fact that their English is of low status (Baumgardner and Robert1993). Edna has many advantages in Philippines because of her fluency in English. She has access to employment whose terms are fluency in English, including teaching. She can study abroad in countries that require a high degree of English. However, these advantages do not lead to equal treatment as an ESL teacher in the U.S. this clearly depicts that the worldwide spread of English has resulted in unequal status and treatment for English speakers (Karim, 2003). Huntington (1997), learning English language increases one’s individual income. He investigated this in three communities in the US. He controlled other factors that lead to high income in the US such as age, race, sex and education; she concluded that indeed those who were English monolinguals did have high incomes than Spanish-English bilinguals. However Cuban Americans who were English monolinguals did not have higher incomes than Cuban Americans who used Spanish. She therefore concluded that shifting to English did not offer any advantage to individuals “when the minority language is not viewed as a suspicious characteristic that must be eradicated,” but instead it is viewed as a resource for the larger community. This shows that despite English being claimed to be matching with economic benefits, this is just a myth (Huntington, 1997). English had a really great impact on Muslims and the Arabic world. Many scholars point out the way Muslims and Arabs have been discriminated against in western culture, books and electronic media, the biggest cause being the English language. Pennycook (1998), denotes that English as a language continues to be a tool in which colonial disclosure adheres. It is also a language that carries with it misrepresentation of Muslim men and women and also the inferiority of the non-white people. Kachru (1992), critique the glorification of the native English speakers, portrayed as whites, Christians, and middleclass, who speak a variety of English associated with the dominant western countries like the US and England, and the discrimination of the non-native English speakers who are the non whites, Muslims and low class who learned English in the eastern countries like India and Pakistan (Mahboob, 2003). English is deeply embedded in a set of cultural, social, economic, and political relations in the Islam and Arab countries. This has been seen as a way of westernizing these countries and means to remove it in the curriculum is something scholars are thinking about. This is seen in two dimensions. First, the desire to eradicate what are perceived as anti-west elements in the curriculum is not so much Islam in itself as the way in which Islam has become a vital tool for mobilization against what is seen as the supremacy of western capital, culture and worldviews (Karim, 2003). Secondly is the desire to replace the curriculum elements with English which becomes a tool for modernity, cultural and political formulation as well as secularization. Pakistan English was highly influenced by Islamic ideology such that all English textbooks started with an Arabic writing that translated to start all things in the name of Allah (Karmani, 2005). It is believed that English is the source of war in these Muslim and Arabic countries. English has been for many years a lucrative modernization initiative. Today the general feeling in the Arab Muslim classrooms vis-à-vis the recent wars in the Muslim worlds, which is mostly led by powerful English speaking nations, is among the revulsions that makes it difficult and overrides any effort to challenge the educational system via the teaching of English (Mahboob, 2003). According to Karmani (2005), a lot of English is a risky thing as there has been creation of Islamic English websites which complicate the role of English in the ‘war on terror’ which is the upcoming new technologies in the Muslim worlds. On the other hand, it is alleged that young Muslim men who are exposed to English language are less likely to be terrorists. Muslim languages like Arabic, Urdu or Somali are somehow encouraging a militant Islamic way of thinking that has put young Muslim men out of place and can only be rectified by a westernized language like English. These nations believe that it is the good guys who speak English but the bad ones speak Arabic, Urdu etc. (karmani, 1992). Conclusion English is a powerful language across the globe including Muslim countries. It plays a vital role in social, cultural, political and economic well being of these nations. Apart from few countries that are trying not to kill their indigenous language, English is replacing the indigenous language wherever it is being used. As much as English is perceived as a colonial language that came to replace existing cultures in other countries, English plays a major role in maintaining proper values in Muslim countries who believe that a good Muslim speaks good English while those who do not are terrorists References Baumgardner, K., Robert, J. (1993). The English Language in Pakistan. Karachi: Oxford University Press. Huntington, S. (1997) .The clash of civilizations: Remaking of world order. New York: Kachru, B. (1992). The Other Tongue: English Across Cultures, 2nd edn. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Karim, H. (2003). Islamic Peril. Montreal: Black Rose Books. Karmani, S. (2005). English, ‘Terror,’ and Islam. Applied Linguistics 26, 282–7. Mahboob, A. (2003). The English language in Pakistan: a brief overview of its history and linguistics. Pakistan Journal of Language 4, 1–28. Pennycook, A. (1998). English and the Discourses of Colonialism. London: Routledge. Phillipson,A. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press Touchstone Read More