English belongs to India and China
- From: PaPaPeng <PaPaPeng@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:15:41 GMT
'Native English' is losing its power
By Indrajit Basu
September 15, 2006
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HI15Df01.html
KOLKATA - Here is an alert for all monolingual speakers of native
English: if you thought your ability to speak English would continue
to give you a leg-up in the world, where this language has been the
primary language for international communication for several decades,
you are in for trouble.
Even as the English language continues its meteoric global rise,
native speakers such as the North Americans, British and Australians
will soon become a rare breed, overwhelmed by the many millions who
have started speaking English as their second language.
More important. native English speakers also face a bleak economic
future as qualified multilingual speakers from other countries gain a
competitive advantage in global companies and organizations, leaving
native English speakers not only with increasing difficulty in
employment, but also bewildered by many aspects of society and culture
around them.
These are some of the notions that David Graddol, a British linguist
and author of a new study called "English Next" commissioned by the
British Council, revealed while forecasting the new lingua franca in
what is now often called a flat world.
He also says "Asia, especially India and China, probably now hold the
key to the long-term future of English as a global language" in the
sense that the growth of these two nations would enable them to
determine how English will fare as the language of industry, commerce
and the Internet in the coming decade.
"About two years ago the number of speakers using English as second
language overtook the numbers of native English speakers," said
Graddol, adding that currently there are about 450 million native
English speakers around the world distributed in about 70 countries.
But as many as a billion people, most of whom are from China and
India, are learning English as their second language.
"So the balance of power is changing, and when the second-language
speakers adopt English language as their own language or as a second
language, they actually take control of it, mix it and use it with
their own language, developing new forms, vocabulary and ways and
using English."
Indeed, all through the past century English has been the language
that is most global. But complex international, economic,
technological and cultural changes have started diminishing the
leading position of native English as the language of the world
market, while non-native speakers in Europe and Asia have started
shifting its position of dominance.
Graddol's projections start from the fact that the globalization that
has gathered significant momentum in the past five years has enabled
outsourcing of services to countries with lower labor costs and that
"global English [for instance] has helped accelerate this phenomenon
and given India a competitive edge".
India has demonstrated the huge economic benefits of speaking English
and how the language can be exploited in the global economy. But even
as India continues churning out ever higher numbers of new English
speakers, it is China that is now setting the pace of change in the
region. That's because, said Graddol, "more people are now learning
English in China than in any other country".
China made English compulsory in primary schools from Grade 3 in 2001,
while big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have already introduced
English at Grade 1. According to Graddol's research, an estimated
176.7 million Chinese were studying English in 2005 within the formal
education sector.
Moreover, China has taken a thoughtful approach to setting goals.
Beijing is preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics by setting targets
for each category of citizen and providing opportunities for learning;
for example, 80% of police officers under 40 have been directed to
learn English. Shanghai, meanwhile, has set a target of making all of
its citizens capable of communicating in English by the time that city
hosts the World Expo in 2010.
"As a result of these policies," said Graddol, "China now produces
over 20 million English speakers each year, and possibly within a few
years, there could be more English speakers in China than in India."
But China's decision to make English a key part of its strategy for
economic development has had a galvanizing impact on neighboring
countries as well, where enthusiasm for English was in danger of
waning. For instance, Graddol reveals, by the end of 2005, Thailand,
the Philippines, Japan and Taiwan were all expressing grave anxiety
about their national proficiency in English and had announced new
educational initiatives.
Thailand, it is reported, even announced a new teacher-training
program and a switch to communicative methodology because its 1996
policy to start English at Grade 1 was failing. And following in
China's and Thailand's footsteps, the Philippines is debating whether
to make English the medium of education at all levels.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei too
have started exploiting what Graddol calls "their anglophone heritage"
to attract offshore contracts. "As regional trade grows, encouraged by
ASEAN [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations], English is
becoming an ever more valuable lingua franca in Asia," he said.
Graddol's findings predict that by 2015, there will be about 2 billion
people from Asia and non-English-speaking Europe learning English.
However, that is not necessarily good news for native English
speakers. Instead, it could come as a big blow because "they can no
longer look the other way, celebrating the rising hegemony of their
language".
In fact, said Neil Kinnock, chairman of the British Council, "Young
generations [of native English speakers] cannot be so complacent to
believe that the global position of English is so unassailable that
they do not need additional language capabilities."
According to Graddol, native English speakers are already facing a
challenge, and in the next decade the new "must learn" will be
Mandarin.
"Although Mandarin was the largest spoken language, English was
unchallenged since the Chinese, by and large, stayed within China,"
said Graddol. "But China is now globalizing; it is not just that
people are coming into China, but China is going out to the world too
and is being felt the world over."
He said other languages are also growing fast, such as Hindi, Arabic
and Spanish.
But for those who still face difficulty in speaking "propah" English,
there's hope too. As English becomes more widely used as a global
language, it will become expected that speakers will signal their
nationality, and other aspects of their identity, through English,
Graddol says. Lack of a native-speaker accent will not be seen,
therefore, as a sign of poor competence.
Indrajit Basu is a Kolkata-based journalist.
.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: English belongs to India and China
- From: sha zu Kang(butcher Kang)
- Re: English belongs to India and China
- Prev by Date: Re: Mao book
- Next by Date: Re: An efficient and safe process technology to convert plastic waste products into diesel fuel - FDpresentation.doc (0/1)
- Previous by thread: 16 photographs by al-Farrob
- Next by thread: Re: English belongs to India and China
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
