English as a Lingua Franca

English as a Lingua Franca. Who owns English today?

Pavlína Bílá

Semester: 1
Academic Year: 2013

The role of English language has already achieved not only the position as a native language, but it has also gained the status of global lingua franca and its power is growing day by day. With today globalized world, modern internet era, huge expansion of tourism and international trade in all over the world, it has appeared the need for common language which can be used by most people and can be easily understood. English seems to be perfect language for status lingua franca, because “unlike any other languages, English has spread to all five continents.”1 And because English is spoken in all over the world, it has become used as a tool of international communication.
Historically, English has always had a moving character. Initially, it reached from northern Europe to British Isles in the fifth century by the tribes called Anglo-Saxons.2 But probably the biggest step made towards giving English status of international language was made while British Empire started its huge expansion, also known as imperialism, in the world. In early seventeenth century British Empire settled extensive part of American shores and also its influence got into Canada. One of the very first desired targets of the imperial activities was the Asia, where Britain entered in early seventeenth century with the formation of the East India Company.3 Later on, the language aimed to New Zealand and Australia when Captain James Cook landed on coastline of the countries in the eighteenth century. The area of the British Empire became more and more extended and English language as well. Impact of the Empire arrived also to Africa and the vast colonialism commenced during the process called Scramble for Africa.4 Finally, English language reached every continents only during the few decades.
Globalization of English language cause many arguments, debates and questions, such as: “Is it good or is it bad?” This is the most feverish reaction among people. Their opinions diverge in several crucial points. One say that permeating of English is irreversible and inevitable. On the other hand, many people stand their ground to maintain local languages. Nonetheless, if we want to be objective we need to focus on both sides, good and bad.

Having common worldwide language would mean that everybody in the world would speak that language. There are numbers of reasons why we should not have one world language, one of them is fear of possible disappearence of local languages, which should be preserved by contrast. It is historically almost unnatural to rid people their language which their ancestors has been building for hundreds of years. Thus, it is not easy for particular language to be substituted for another. With one common language there will be no diversity and many traditional cultures around the world would suffer or be even destroyed. Apart from vanishing those languages and cultures, we contend with another massive problem: many people would lose their jobs. If there would be one language, no translators and interpreters would not be needed anymore. Another reason for not globalizing the language is that it is almost impractical to persuade everyone to learn it. Even if the world commence taking action upon this thought, there still would be those who would disagree or who could not afford the education or who would not be able to learn the language. Or, even if the world would have one common language, it would be always connected with cultures and therefore would appeared cultural dialects. There would be as many forms of English as there are nations which adopt it and it is impossible to unify them. English have been coming to realize this destiny because speakers from England would hardly understand to speaker living in Singapore in spite of common language. To summarize, main reasons are loss of local languages, reduction of occupations, possible unability to learn the language and commencements of dialects.
Nevertheless, in nowadays world, where the countries are more interdepended, appears tremendous necessity of global language, that all the world’s citizens would have ability to communicate easily with people from different countries and can be readily understandable. The requierement was noticed simultaneously with rapid growth of international trade, technological development, increasing amount of tourists and more and more emerging internet. Especially in these fields would globalization of English do communication easier, there would be no worries regarding talks among internationals. The globalization of English could also reduce the unemplyment rate, consequently people who normally would not get a job only because they cannot speak a certain language would be empoyed. Another argument for English as global language is the peace-supporting aspect

that is closely related to reciprocal understanding. This would probably eliminate boundaries among nations and coexistence would be more peaceful.5 Moreover, there were similar attempts to establish common language that would forestall misunderstanding among nations. To sum up, globalization of English has also many advantages, but perhaps the biggest plus is much better communication.
Whether we like it or not, English has been slowly gaining the status of global language. It is the most taught and most used language in all over the world, from business to internet. Not surprisingly, almost 54 % of Internet is written in English and about 80 % of information is stored in it.6 English is spoken in many countries both as a native and as a foreign language. It is estimated that English, as a native language, is used approximately by 375 millions. Another estimate claims that “one billion around the world has some knowledge of English, either as a native language, as a second language, or as a foreign language.” It follows that there is a larger number of people who use English as a second or as a foreign language than there are native speakers. This only strenghten statement that English has been obtaining dominant status in the world.
There is another question suggest itself: Who owns the English language? Surely, English belongs to everyone who speaks it. Many people said, that English native speakers had already forfeited their exclusive rights to ownership of the language because of enormous amount of people who speaks that language.
In conclusion, we should stop to think why English has become so popular. Currently, it is almost necessary to communicate not only in mother tongue, but also in other languages. Knowledge of foreign languages has belonged to required language skills of today’s man. But why English? The reason is opportunity for earning much money, for better life or for better-paid job. It means, that whatever our goal in life may be, from graduating university, finding satisfying job or travelling around the world, the success in these activities will depend on

how effectively can we communicate in spoken English.7 Therefore people in the world has huge interest in learning English which is considered as one of the top desired lanaguages.
Learning English can be described as a English mania. Almost two billions of people try to learn the language, it is more than one quater of overall world population. This could be perfectly encapsulated by the words of Jay Walker: “The world has new obsession. Obsession of learning English“8

Working bibliography
1. BBC. “The British Presence in India in the 18th Century“. Acessed November 11, 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/east_india_01.shtml

2. Crystal, David. English as a Global Language. (Cambridge: University Press, 2003).

3. Dooku.miun. “English As A Global Language – A Bridge-builder or Cultrue-buster?“ Acessed on November 24, 2013. http://dooku.miun.se/engelska/englishB/languageprof/Student%20work/VT07/First%20final%20drafts/Harriet%20Shaposhnikov.htm

4. Heritage History. “British Empire - Colonial Africa”. Acessed November 4, 2013. http://www.heritage-history.com/www/heritage.php?Dir=eras&FileName=britain_13.php 5. Internet World Stats. “Top Ten Internet Languages”. Acessed November 7, 2013. http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm 6. Wheeler, Rebeca S. The Workings of Language. (Greenwood: Praeger, 1999), 107.

7. Youtube. “Jay Walker On The World’s English Mania.” Acessed November 11, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5TUpNZqjM8 8. Youtube. “The Power Of English & The Rise Of The Global Citizen.“ Acessed on November 24, 2013. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGbAXVbuFX0