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English as a Global Language: Its Implications and Future

Introduction

As from the 17^th century, the English started to extend their English language across the world. For above 50 years, immigrants from the West Indies and the Indian subcontinent have added diversity and variety to the rich piecemeal of dialects and accents that is spoken in the United Kingdom (U.K.) (Schulzke, 2014). Originally, British colonizers exported the English language to the various corners of the world and migration during the 1950s resulted in altered forms of the English language. From that time, particularly within urban centres, speakers of Caribbean and Asian descent have merged the patterns of their mother tongue with existing domestic dialects, thus, producing wonderful new assortments of the English language (Oommen, 2012). Standard British English has equally been enriched by an explosion of new terminologies (Georgiou, 2017). Currently, English has become a universal language with more than 380 million individuals using it as their first language, above 200 million individuals using it as their second language (SL), and about 1 billion individuals currently learning it (Kertz-Welzel, 2016). While the language had initially been associated with Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., the world’s globalization, especially in the economic sphere, English has been perceived to have significantly role played in enhancing and facilitating communication between individuals of diverse linguistic extractions (Sekhar, 2016). Moreover, globalization in the education industry where individuals move to other nations for reasons of study has equally affected English development and spread across the world.

Implications of Globalization of the English language on Linguistic and Cultural Developments across the World

The globalization of the English language can be perceived from different facets. First, as a tool for economic success. As a tool for economic success of developer of new inequality classes, English has been a significant force behind the development of commercial institutions. Subsequently, a new class of iniquities or inequalities was created that was largely founded upon language proficiency. According to Sekhar (2016), as individuals struggle to attain success and for self-sufficiency, English remains a crucial factor towards achieving these objectives. Schulzke (2014) asserts that English has promoted the economic industry since it offers people with fundamental skills that function to enable them cope with present day age of knowhow since proficiency in the language enables a person to comprehend the fundamental skills that are needed in contemporary life. With the ongoing technological progress, English will remain the dominant language for communication. Thus, realizing adeptness in English gives a person the perfect chance to comprehend the contemporary society, making English be regarded as a kind of cultural capital.

Further, as individuals continue interacting because of various reasons, English is still the dominant language used for communication among them (Seargeant & Erling, 2013). English enables individuals to effectively and efficiently communicate across different lingual territories. Commercial establishments thrive as well as seek to internationally enlarge their operations across the world. Thus, people, especially I developing countries, learn English for the sole purpose of getting good jobs. Notwithstanding the fact that in education, the sole reason for learning a language is to ultimately be capable of communicating and comprehending in a new language, the whole notion is to become economically successful in society by obtaining a better employment (Oommen, 2012).

While the original purpose of a language was to enhance or promote communication (Cantor, 2015), the same is not the case in this time and age. With globalization, there is some hidden agenda behind the learning of a new language. Research has indicated that the globalization of English has resulted in the rise of a new notion of identity where people who are proficient in English regard themselves to be belonging to some group (Foley, 2007). Cultural identity is largely affected by language (Sekhar, 2016); thus, the new class of people formed by the proficient SL English speakers in developing countries like Asia and Africa is mainly influenced by the English language.

Studies have shown that language plays a crucial role in determining a person’s identity. A SL learner, one lacks a culture to claim. Obtaining English as the SL implies that an individual has the role of learning certain cultural practices that are practiced by the English people and speakers, the western nations. This may compel an individual to drop their culture in the process of acquiring a SL or even if they do not leave their native cultures, there will be confusion regarding the culture that they belong to (Georgiou, 2017). This is so since they will be halfway practising their native cultures and simultaneously attempting to adapt new cultures associated with the SL. Neeley (2012) states that SL learners have various social identities that are created by the newly acquired languages. They equally have diverse ways of debating concerning their cultural identities as a result of their diverse identities and positions that are largely created by the attainment of another language.

As force underlying cultural imperialism or an instrument of cross-cultural awareness and communication, English remains intact with its original culture. Not like other languages that are regarded as carriers of their individual cultures, English is perceived as a damaging force to the cultural diversity of the world (Yan & Beckett, 2007). Scholars acknowledge English as a language of power and influence. Additionally, English is not merely considered as a mode of communication but instead, it is as well regarded as a repository of identity and culture (Ienneke, 2010). With English becoming dominant globally, languages like Latin are no more in use. According to Sekhar (2016), when the diversity of a particular language is minimized, the existence of the same is equally affected. Thus, the disappearance of the Latin and other languages from global usage is attributed to the fact that the languages’ diversity use significantly decreased. Seargeant and Erling (2013) estate that decline in language diversity may result in loss of crucial concepts regarding a people’s cultural practices and values. Similarly, when a person adopts a new language during the learning process, the person may lose certain of their irreplaceable knowledge and concepts regarding their traditional practices and values and this can result in cultural identity loss of that specific group. This way, the English threatens a number of cultures globally by way of moulding learners to accept as well as behave in similitude of the English people (Britons or Americans).

Impacts of Globalization on My Country: China

From the above explanation, it is evident that the phenomenon of English as a universal language has variedly impacted on countries across the world. Specifically, it is having profound and significant effects Asia’s educational systems, language policies, and patterns of language employment (Cantor, 2015). Since English is seen by language policymakers within Asian nations as a multinational apparatus that is crucial for realizing national objectives and gals and by people as an invaluable resource for individual advancement, Asian nations have promoted the acquirement of English by their inhabitants. At the same time, nevertheless, significant concerns and tensions over the preservation of countries’ or people’s cultural identities as well as languages have been the outcome in a number of countries.

Currently, English is enjoying an unparalleled significance in the context of China, to the degree that it can be debated that its employment is currently more widespread and has higher status relative to any other time in its exchange with China. An enormous national appetite has raised English to something above a language: it is not only considered as a tool in China but a defining measure of the potential of life (Ienneke, 2010). Currently, China is divided by opportunity, power, and class, yet one of its few uniting principles, something shared by politicians, intellectuals, tycoons, and waiters, is the power of English: English has become an philosophy, a force sufficiently strong to remake one’s resume, attract a mate, or catapult one out of the village (Kertz-Welzel, 2016).  This is a far from previous exchanges between English and China during the 1th century, when interpretation was entirely and solely left to compradores – Chines mediators who had a modicum Pidgin English who suffered because of their profession by being eschewed by their societies and  communities (Yan & Beckett, 2007). The status and role of English was waned and waxed with the political tides, being specifically affected by fluctuations in the relationships between China and outside countries across the world. Georgiou (2017) sums up the association between the political temperature and climate and foreign language learning: support for acquisition of a foreign language is considered as high when sustained involvement within the global community is considered as commensurate with the economic and political interests in China and low when it is deemed as injurious to cultural and internal political integrity.

Throughout the time it has been in China, English has exhibited several drastic modifications in its status and role, signifying long standing worries regarding the cultural implications of learning English on the hand and interest in learning English to achieve access to the opportunities and knowledge it gives on the other hand (Kertz-Welzel, 2016).  Oommen (2012) reasons that the association between Chinese society and politics and the English language has traditionally been uncertain. At different periods, English has been linked with barbarians, virulent, and military aggressors anti-communists. Yet, English is equally a principal language for academicians, trade partners, advisors, technical experts, popular culture, and tourists. At worst, English has been regarded as a threat to China’s national integrity. At best, the same has been perceived as an avenue for fostering and strengthening the position China in the global community.

According to Yan and Beckett (2007), English has significantly affected cultures that were known to be very conservative like the Chinese culture. China still regards culture as significant, thus being safeguarded at all costs. Nevertheless, internationalization has considerably influenced Chinese commitment to culture, and several changes have been seen in the recent decades (Ienneke, 2010). Initially, the Chinese government declined to the teaching of English in her schools. Nevertheless, modifications were made as a result of increased interaction of Chinese with the rest of the world’s population and nowadays, English is taught in China’s schools notwithstanding the fact that mandarin remains the country’s language of instruction and communication (Georgiou, 2017). English is learnt by Chinese for purposes of internationalization.

How the role of English as a global language will be displaced

English is currently being used as an official language in a number of countries, despite the countries having been colonized. English in such countries is used as a SL for most people, used in education, government, and administration and as an avenue of communicating between people of diverse languages, while in Western Europe it is taught as a principal foreign language In addition, the language is employed as an international language (Schulzke, 2014). The global function of English as a lingua franca, thus, is employed as a means or mode of communication by speakers in various languages. Nonetheless, these roles are likely to be displaced with time.

Before the 2^nd World War, most English teaching as an international language employed British as the model, and textbooks as well as other educational resources were manufactured in the U.K. for use in oversee countries (Neeley, 2012). This signified the cultural dominance of the U.K. and the perceived ownership of the English language. However, as from 1945, the increasing economic power of the United States of America and its unparalleled influence in the world’s popular culture has implied that the American English is fast becoming the reference point for students of English in countries like Japan, among other countries.  While British English is yet the model in most of their colonies where English is studied as a SL, history has demonstrated that this situation may not remain the same indefinitely. The increasing economic and commercial power of nations like India, for example, might imply that Indian English will someday start having an impact beyond its territories.

Different views have been advanced to support the displacement of the role of English as a global language. Ienneke (2010) reasons that having been spread out by the triumph of the Roman Empire, Classical Latin was then kept alive as the world’s standard written medium across Europe long after Rome fell (Schulzke, 2014). Yet, the Vulgar Latin which was employed in speech continued to transform, forming new dialects, which with time gave rise to contemporary Romamnce languages: Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Italian, and French. Similarly, new inter-languages are arising in which characteristics of English are combined with those other native languages along with their pronunciations. Notwithstanding the attempts by Singaporean government to promote the employment of Standard British English, Singlish (a mixed language) remains the kind spoken by many Singaporeans on the country’s streets as well as in their homes (Oommen, 2012). Spanglish, a combination of Spanish and English, is native language employed by millions of speakers in the U.S., implying that this variety is arising as a language in its individual entitlement (Neeley, 2012).

Meanwhile, the development of automatic translation software, like Google Translate, will ultimately replace English as the world’s preferred means/mode of communication used in the boardrooms of government agencies and multinational companies. Seargeant and Erling (2013) add that U.S. spellings like program and disk are already getting preferred over British equivalent programme and disc in computing, signifying that the dominance of the U.S. English usage will result into a wider recognition of further American inclinations. In the online sphere, perceptions to correctness and consistency are significantly relaxed, with variant spellings being accepted and pronunciation marks getting omitted, or even repurposed to convey a variety of perceptions (Schulzke, 2014). Additionally, English is becoming shorter with the use of emoji in social media handle.  Thus, the future of English is one of several “Englishes.”

Embrace Or Resist English!

There are mixed reactions to this question. One school of thought contends argues that the future of English is uncertain. There are two conflicting drivers for this notion: the pressure for global intelligibility and the pressure to conserve and preserve national identity (Foley, 2007). There are possibilities of a natural balance being achieved between these conflicting ideas, yet it ought to be recognized that ancient loyalties of British ex-colonies have principally been replaced by realistic utilitarian reasoning. The proponents of this second school of thought reason that power is closely linked with language. The U.S.A, with its significant dominance in technical, cultural, and economic terms, is fast driving force behind English presently around the world. Thus, there is a likely shift from British English to American English, and will ultimately change to another language when America shall have lost its dominance. A population change will also contribute to the decline or use of English as a global language.

On the contrary, another school of thought argues that English is suitable for a global language. Proponents of this notion reason that English is reach and has a deeper vocabulary, it is more flexible than any other language, its grammar is by and large simpler than most languages, and it is comparatively a simple language with reference to pronunciation and spelling (Neeley, 2012). Others argue that the cosmopolitan character of English gives it a feeling of familiarity as well as welcoming relative to many other languages, English is by and large judiciously concise relative to other languages, and lack of coding for social discrepancies may make the language appear extra democratic as well as eliminate some of the possible stress linked with language-produced social mistakes. Seargeant and Erling (2013) add that the quality and degree of English literature across history marks English as a language of class and culture. Despite the two conflicting school of thoughts, English as a global language seems more appropriate than any other language as at now. Thus, English should be accepted as a global language.

Conclusion

To this end, English as a global language has caused significant economic, social, cultural, and linguistic developments across the world. The dominant figure that has been given to English proves to be injurious to other cultures and languages. Since it is used in news, advertisements, and other social functions, English is the world’s dominating language. It has, thus, been given safeguard at the expense of other dialects and languages. Students acquiring English as a SL have also to form identities as English speakers. In the process of acquiring English as SL, some people lose some knowledge regarding their original cultures and consequently cultural identity loss is the product. Since translation entails significant loss of messages when a language is moved from one language to another, people prefer communicating in English to minimize difficulties associated with translation. While there are conflicting on the use of English as a global language, studies have shown that the language is suitable for use as a global language since it is more flexible, its grammar is simpler, it has simple spelling and pronunciation, and more concise than other languages. Additionally, it lacks coding for social discrepancies and its quality and degree across history marks it as a language of class and culture. Thus, this paper contends that English should be accepted as a global language. However, while the prospect of English is lustrous as a global language, its future is uncertain and is one of several “Englishes.”