Топик «Английский как международный язык» (English as an international language)
English is the native language for more than 300 million people on our earth. But nowadays it is widely used not only in those countries where it is a first language. A lot of countries (such as China, Russia, Thailand and many others) have recognized the importance of this language recently as an international means of communication. English is taught in all schools and colleges there. In Russia itself English is gathering pace as a popular second language.
There are also some countries (such as India, Singapore, Pakistan, the Philippines and some African countries) where English is an official second language and it is often used in mass media, courts, parliaments and universities.
Today English is used almost everywhere. It is the language of banking and industry, computers and trade, technology and science. English as an international language helps people of different nationalities from around the world discuss politics or arrange business meetings. For example, German and Italian businessmen can choose English as their mutual language of communication.
More and more people from non-English speaking countries start learning the language and using it in their daily life, business and travelling. Tourism development has contributed much to English becoming the universal means of communication. However some linguists hold the opinion that the globalization of English as an international language can be quite harmful for the language itself because foreign speakers greatly influence its grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.
Перевод
Английский язык является родным языком для более, чем 300 млн человек на земле. Но сегодня он широко используется не только в тех странах, где считается первым языком. Многие страны (такие как Китай, Россия, Таиланд и многие другие) недавно осознали всю важность этого языка в качестве международного средства общения. Там английский язык преподается во всех школах и колледжах. В самой России английский набирает обороты как популярный второй язык.
Существуют также страны (такие как Индия, Сингапур, Пакистан, Филиппины и некоторые африканские государства), в которых английский стал официальным вторым языком, и он часто используется в средствах массовой информации, в суде, парламенте и университетах.
Теперь английским пользуются почти повсюду. Это язык банковского дела и промышленности, компьютеров и торговли, технологий и науки. Английский как международный язык помогает людям разных национальностей со всего мира обсуждать политику или организовывать деловые встречи. Например, немецкие и итальянские бизнесмены могут выбрать английский в качестве общего языка для коммуникации.
Все больше и больше людей из неанглоговорящих стран начинают изучать язык и использовать его в повседневной жизни, бизнесе и путешествиях. Развитие туризма внесло большой вклад в превращение английского языка в универсальное средство общения. Однако некоторые лингвисты придерживаются мнения, что глобализация английского как международного языка может нанести ощутимый вред самому языку, поскольку иностранцы оказывают сильное влияние на его грамматику, произношение и словарный запас.
English as a Global Language
Unit 1
Language as a Cross-cultural Means of Communication
Part 1. English as a Global Language
I. Прочитайте новые слова и их перевод:
Выберите 4 новых слова. Подберите к ним как можно большее количество подходящих глаголов, существительных, прилагательных или наречий и составьте словосочетания.
Пример:Store;Словосочетания с существительными: store information; store goods
2. Перед прочтением текста обсудите следующее:
a) Ответьте на один из двух вопросов: Do we meet English in our everyday life? Where? Или Do you use English in your life?
b) Have you ever communicated with someone who doesn’t know your language? How did you communicate, what language did you use?
3. Прочитайте текст и найдите в тексте ответы на вопросы: How important is English? What’s its role?
English as a Global Language
People began to speak many centuries ago, and since then they have been speaking different languages. Every language reflects the soul, behaviour and temperament of each nationality. Peoples created their own alphabets and rules, but they always wanted to communicate with each other, to understand and to know more about each other.
Languages help people to understand each other better, they help them to solve different economic and political problems, which stand before them, and so people learn foreign languages.
All languages are different. Some are very hard, some are easier, some are similar, but there are no identical languages in the whole world. There are more than 2,700 languages in the world. Many of them are «alive» because people use them, but there are some «dead» languages, for example Latin.
What does a Global Language mean? It means a common language for the world. Having such a status, the global language has to be of great importance, influencing all the domains of the human activity in the world. For example, English dominates every field such as the media, foreign language teaching, business, etc. English can be called an international language because of its simple and wide use already.
The thinning of national borders due to globalization has made English a global communication tool. In one way or the other, every language is a pathway to understand its parent culture, because each language contains the unconscious assumption of that culture. This certainly is true of English which provides us an opportunity to know the culture that it generally represents. This we learn through various media including stories/fiction, movies, and so on.
While English is not an official language in most countries, it is currently the language most often taught as a second language around the world. However, now English is spoken practically all over the world. It is spoken as a mother tongue in Great Britain, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Besides, a lot of people speak English in Japan, India, China, Africa and many other countries.
Facts:
— Over one billion people speak English. That’s almost one fifth of the world’s population.
— For over 400 million it’s their first language.
— For the other 600 million it’s either a second language or a foreign language.
Two thousands years ago, Latin was the world’s most important international language. Today this title belongs to English. English is the language of pop-culture, of tourism, of markets, of the Internet and trade. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations Organization and other political organizations. Nearly half of all business deals in Europe are conducted in English. It is the language of sports and glamour: the official language of the Olympics and the Miss Universe Competition. The largest broadcasting companies in the world (CBS, NBS, ABC, BBC) transmit in English to audiences that regularly exceed one hundred million.
Facts:
— Half of the world’s technical and scientific literature is in English.
— English is the medium for 80 per cent of the information stored in the world’s computers.
Several people speak English with their friends, and people get introduced to each other most often in English. English encompasses more than just a convenient means of communication among people around the world.
Facts:
— Over half of all personal letters/sms/E-mails are also written in English.
English language is a wonderful language. It’s the language of the great literature. It’s the language of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and others.
4. Ответьте на вопросы:
1. What are language functions?
2. How many languages are there in the world?
3. What requirements should global language meet?
4. How many people speak English as their first language, a second language or a foreign language?
5. What was the world’s most important international language 2 thousand years ago?
6. What events are held in English?
7. Name famous English poets and writers. Can you add any other names?
5. Расскажите о месте английского языка в современном мире (2 минуты). Сначала еще раз просмотрите текст English as a Global Language, найдите и запишите информацию, касающуюся следующих вопросов: 1) who speaks English; 2) in what domains English is used; 3) English as an international language
Используйте эти слова и фразы: Firstly/first of all, secondly, thirdly; For instance/for example; In short; In conclusion/To sum up.
2. Подумайте, по какой причине вы хотите изучать английский язык. Объясните, почему вы выбрали именно эти причины (можно с помощью примеров из вашей жизни). Затем расспросите других студентов об их причинах изучения английского языка, используя вопросы и фразы: What/how about you?; Sorry, I couldn’t hear what you said. /Sorry – could you say that again, please? /Could you repeat that, please?
English as a Global Language
статья по английскому языку
English as a Global Language
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What is a Global Language?
There is no official definition of «global» or «world» language, but it essentially refers to a language that is learned and spoken internationally, and is characterized not only by the number of its native and second language speakers, but also by its geographical distribution, and its use in international organizations and in diplomatic relations. A global language acts as a “lingua franca”, a common language that enables people from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities to communicate on a more or less equitable basis.
The influence of any language is a combination of three main things: the number of countries using it as their first language or mother-tongue, the number of countries adopting it as their official language, and the number of countries teaching it as their foreign language of choice in schools. The intrinsic structural qualities of a language, the size of its vocabulary, the quality of its literature throughout history, and its association with great cultures or religions, are all important factors in the popularity of any language. But, at base, history shows us that a language becomes a global language mainly due to the political power of its native speakers, and the economic power with which it is able to maintain and expand its position.
Why is a Global Language Needed?
Some have seen a planned or constructed language as a solution to this need. In the short period between 1880 and 1907, no less than 53 such “universal artificial languages” were developed. By 1889, the constructed language Volapьk claimed nearly a million adherents, although it is all but unknown to day. Today the best known is Esperanto, a deliberately simplified language, with just 16 rules, no definite articles, no irregular endings and no illogical spellings. A sentence like “It is often argued that the modern world needs a common language with which to communicate” would be rendered in Esperanto as “Oni ofte argumentas ke la moderna mondo bezonas komuna linguon por komunikado”, not difficult to understand for anyone with even a smattering of Romance languages.
Many of these universal languages (including Esperanto) were specifically developed with the view in mind that a single world language would automatically lead to world peace and unity. Setting aside for now the fact that such languages have never gained much traction, it has to be said this assumption is not necessarily well-founded. For instance, historically, many wars have broken out within communities of the same language (e.g. the British and American Civil Wars, the Spanish Civil War, Vietnam, former Yugoslavia, etc) and, on the other hand, the citizens of some countries with multiple languages (e.g. Switzerland, Canada, Singapore, etc) manage to coexist, on the whole, quite peaceably.
Is a Global Language Necessarily “A Good Thing”?
While its advantages are self-evident, there are some legitimate concerns that a dominant global language could also have some built-in drawbacks. Among these may be the following:
Is English a Global Language?
As can be seen in more detail in the section on English Today, on almost any basis, English is the nearest thing there has ever been to a global language. Its worldwide reach is much greater than anything achieved historically by Latin or French, and there has never been a language as widely spoken as English. Many would reasonably claim that, in the fields of business, academics, science, computing, education, transportation, politics and entertainment, English is already established as the de facto lingua franca.
The UN, the nearest thing we have, or have ever had, to a global community, currently uses five official languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese, and an estimated 85% of international organizations have English as at least one of their official languages (French comes next with less than 50%). Even more starkly, though, about one third of international organizations (including OPEC, EFTA and ASEAN) use English only, and this figure rises to almost 90% among Asian international organizations.
As we have seen, a global language arises mainly due to the political and economic power of its native speakers. It was British imperial and industrial power that sent English around the globe between the 17th and 20th Century. The legacy of British imperialism has left many counties with the language thoroughly institutionalized in their courts, parliament, civil service, schools and higher education establishments. In other counties, English provides a neutral means of communication between different ethnic groups.
Is English Appropriate for a Global Language?
Some have also argued that there are other intrinsic features of the English language that set it apart, and make it an appropriate choice as a global language, and it may be worthwhile investigating some of these claims:
What About the Future?
Although English currently appears to be in an unassailable position in the modern world, its future as a global language is not necessarily assured. In the Middle Ages, Latin seemed forever set as the language of education and culture, as did French in the 18th Century. But circumstances change, and there are several factors which might precipitate such a change once again.
There are two competing drives to take into account: the pressure for international intelligibility, and the pressure to preserve national identity. It is possible that a natural balance may be achieved between the two, but it should also be recognized that the historical loyalties of British ex-colonies have been largely replaced by pragmatic utilitarian reasoning.
The very dominance of an outside language or culture can lead to a backlash or reaction against it. People do not take kindly to having a language imposed on them, whatever advantage and value that language may bring to them. As long ago as 1908, Mahatma Gandhi said, in the context of colonial India: “To give millions a knowledge of English is to enslave them”. Although most former British colonies retained English as an official language after independence, some (e.g. Tanzania, Kenya, Malaysia) later deliberately rejected the old colonial language as a legacy of oppression and subjugation, disestablishing English as even a joint official language. Even today, there is a certain amount of resentment in some countries towards the cultural dominance of English, and particularly of the USA.
As has been discussed, there is a close link between language and power. The USA, with its huge dominance in economic, technical and cultural terms, is the driving force behind English in the world today. However, if the USA were to lose its position of economic and technical dominance, then the “language loyalties” of other countries may well shift to the new dominant power. Currently, perhaps the only possible candidate for such a replacement would be China, but it is not that difficult to imagine circumstances in which it could happen.
A change in population (and population growth) trends may prove to be an influential factor. The increasing Hispanic population of the USA has, in the opinion of some commentators, already begun a dilution of the “Englishness” of the country, which may in turn have repercussions for the status of the English language abroad. Hispanic and Latino Americans have accounted for almost half of America’s population growth in recent years, and their share of the population is expected to increase from about 16% today to around 30% by 2050. Some even see the future possibility of a credible secessionist movement, similar to that for an independent Quebec in Canada, and there has been movements within the US Republican party (variously called «English First» or «Official English» or «US English») to make English the nation’s official language in an attempt to reduce the significance of Spanish. Official policies of bilingualism or multilingualism in countries with large minority language groups, such as are in place in countries like Canada, Belgium and Switzerland, are an expensive option and fraught with political difficulties, which the USA would prefer to avoid.
A 2006 report by the British Council suggests that the number of people learning English is likely to continue to increase over the next 10-15 years, peaking at around 2 billion, after which a decline is predicted. Various attempts have been made to develop a simpler «controlled» English language suitable for international usage (e.g. Basic English, Plain English, Globish, International English, Special English, Essential World English, etc). Increasingly, the long-term future of English as a global language probably lies in the hands of Asia, and especially the huge populations of India and China.
Having said that, though, there may now be a critical mass of English speakers throughout the world which may make its continued growth impossible to stop or even slow. There are no comparable historical precedents on which to base predictions, but it well may be that the emergence of English as a global language is a unique, even an irreversible, event.