ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE – David Crystal

PREFACE TO THE 2ND EDITION

The 1990s were a revolutionary decade with a proliferation of new linguistic varieties coming from the
implementation of internet and the public recognition of the global position of English.
David Crystal in the first edition of the book says that “English has already grown to be independent of any
form of social control”, these is nothing likely to stop its spread as a global “LINGUA FRANCA”. Other authors
have different opinions. The role of these books has been to underline some of the parameters of enquiry.
There were few general hypotheses to motivate research, some are issues relating to language use: political,
economic, demographic, and social factors have been identified as potential influences on world language
presence. Others are issues affecting language structure: how regional and social factors influence the growth
of language varieties. David Crystal has published this 2nd edition of “English as a global language” because
things have changed from the first edition, there is much more literature available to refer and more point of
view to consider.

Chapter 1 - WHY A GLOBAL LANGUAGE?

The topic of English as a global language has appeared these years in many magazines, newspapers, and
television programs. Even though many statements referring to English as a global language may seem
obvious, they are not. And there are many fascinating questions to explore regarding this issue, whether your
first language is English or not. If English is your mother tongue, you may have mixed feelings about the way
English is spreading around the world. You can be proud of the success of your language, but also concerned
because it may be changed to suit other speakers. Often in English press we can find expressions like “look
what Americans have done to English”, and Americans say the same about variations in English which are
emerging all over the world. But even if English isn't your mother tongue you can have mixed feelings about it.
If you want to learn it, you may be proud of your achievement when you make progress, but you know that a
mother tongue speaker has an unfair advantage over you. Or you can be envious if you live in a country in
which the survival of your language is threatened by the success of English. Therefore, language is always in
the news, as much it's global, as much it's newsworthy.

What is a global language?

English is the first lingua franca in the world. A language achieves a global status when it develops a special
role that is recognized in every country. To achieve such a status, a language must be taken up by other
countries around the world, different from the ones having this language as mother-language.

There are two ways in which this can be done:

1. A language can be made the official language of the country, to be used as a medium of
communication in different fields (such as the government, the law courts, the media, and the
educational system). In this case it is known as ‘second language’, because it’s seen as a
completement to a person’s ‘first language’. English has this special status in over 70 countries.
2. A language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though this
language has no official status. In this case it is known simply as foreign language. There is a great
variation in the reasons for choosing a certain language over the others as a favored foreign language
(some of these are historical tradition, politics, and the desire for commercial, cultural, and
technological contact).

We should be careful making distinctions between a ‘first’, a ‘second’ and a ‘foreign’ language use, in order not
to reduce them to a simplistic interpretation. For example, the difference between a ‘second’ and a ‘foreign’
use shouldn’t be made on fluency and ability. Considering these three levels of a language’s development, it’s
evident that a global language will be used by more people than any other language. Today about a quarter of
the world’s population speaks English fluently (1.5 billion people).

What makes a global language?

The reason why a language becomes global hasn’t to do with the number of speakers but instead with who
those speakers are. A language has no independent existence, it depends on its users and if they succeed, on
the international stage, their language succeeds. Without a strong powerbase, no language can make progress
as an international medium of communication. Some people think that English has been chosen because of its
easy grammar, but this property isn't enough to ensure a language's world spread. In fact, a language does not
become global for its structural properties, or because of its vocabulary, or because of literary power, or
because it was once associated with great culture or religion (see the example of Latin). A language has
traditionally become an international language for the power of its people, especially their political and
military power. It happened with Greek, Latin, Arabic... the history of a global language can be traced trough
the successful expeditions of its soldier/sailor speakers. We can say that a military powerful nation may be
necessary to establish a language, but an economically powerful one is necessary to maintain and expand it. It
became a particularly critical factor in the 19th and 20th centuries when economic developments began to
operate on a global scale supported by new communication technologies. At the beginning of the 19th century
Britain had become the world's leading industrial and trading country and by the end of the century the
population of the USA was the largest in Western Europe and its economy was the most productive and fastest
growing in the world. Also, British political imperialism spread English all over the world and the economic
supremacy of the USA maintained and promoted it.

Why do we need a global language?

Translation has played a central role in human interaction. The more a community is linguistically mixed, the
less it can rely on individuals to ensure communication between different groups. That’s why we need a lingua
franca, or common language, to put in contact different countries. Sometimes, when communities begin to
trade with each other, the communicate by adopting a simplified language, known as pidgin, which combines
elements of the different languages. Sometimes an indigenous language emerges as lingua franca. But most
often, a foreign language is accepted from outside the community. The geographical extent to which a lingua
franca can be used depends on political factors. The prospect that a lingua franca might be needed for the
whole world is something which emerged only since the 1950s. Since the creation of the United Nations
(1945), many international bodies have come to being and never have so many countries been represented in
single meeting-places. The situation grew rapidly, so they felt the pressure to find a lingua franca to facilitate
the communication in such contexts and to trim the costs of translations. As general competence in English
grows, the use of it in international meetings is increasing. This need is particularly appreciated by the
international academic and business communities. Moreover, people have become more mobile, both
physically and electronically. In fact, people often talk about ‘global village’, as almost every country on Earth
can be in contact with the others.

What are the dangers of a global language?

The benefits of a global language are considerable, but there are also possible risks. The use of a single
language is no guarantee of social harmony or mutual understanding.

The dangers of a global language are:

1. Linguistic power. The first risk is that those who speak a global language as a mother tongue would be
in a position of power compared to those who must learn it. The risk is real but can be faced if proper
attention is paid to the question of language-learning. Children can easily assimilate another
language, so the earlier they start the better it is. It’s important for children to study a foreign
language at the beginning of their education, and to maintain it continuously. If this task is taken
seriously, the risk of a scenario of disadvantage disappears.

2. Linguistic complacency. Another risk consists of the lack of motivation for adults to learn another
language. This seems to be true for many British and Americans and it’s fueled by lack of money,
opportunity, and interest, and maybe also by the increasing presence of English as a global language.
It is not a matter of ability, even though it’s often used as an explanation (or better, an excuse) and
this self-denigration often derives from a bad learning experience in school.
But languages attitudes are always changing and these days there are signs of the need to break away
from the monolingualism. Also, influential politicians and administrators are helping to foster their
opinion about the importance of language learning. The issues are beginning to be addressed, anyway
we are still a long way from seeing the English-speaking nations renounce their linguistic insularity.

3. Linguistic death. The last risk is that a global language could cause the death of minor languages. The
process of language domination and loss have been known throughout linguistic history and exist
independently of the emergence of a global language. Today in North America, Australia, Brazil,
Africa, and Indonesia many indigenous languages are being lost, and once lost they can never be
 recaptured. And the emergence of a language as global has little to do with this issue. Nor it’s easy to
see if the arrival of English as a global language could directly influence the future of minority
languages. In past times, as England conquered territories, the English language was imposed, and it
provoked disastrous consequences for indigenous languages. But in more recent times it has the
reverse effect: many movements for language rights managed to slow the decline of a language or
even to stop it. These movements also illustrate the need of identity, as the language is a way to show
where we belong. Arguments about the need for national or cultural identity are often seen as being
opposed to those about the need for mutual intelligibility, but they can happily co-exist. This situation
is the one of bilingualism, where one language provides access to the world community and the other
to the local community. These 2 functions con be seen as complementary, responding to different
needs. Surely, the emergence of a global language can influence the structure of others, and it can be
seen as positive or negative, but we should bear in mind that English has borrowed thousands of
words from other languages. It is not about linguistic imperialism, because historical conception of
power relations must be seen alongside an emerging set of empowering relationships in which English
has a new functional role. Many experts conclude that there is only a causal link between the
widespread of English and the disappearance of minority languages.

Could anything stop a global language?

If a language’s dominance is a matter of political and economic influence, a revolution in the balance of global
power could have consequences for the choice of global language, but this revolution should be cataclysmic to
change the situation. A more plausible scenario could be the emergence of an alternative method of
communication, such as automatic translation, that could eliminate the need for a global language. However,
this process is going to take too much time and during this time frame English as a global language is going to
become stronger.

A critical area
It’s difficult to make predictions about the emergence of a global language, as there are no precedents for this
kind of linguistic growth. We know that languages of identity need to be maintained and access to the
emerging global language needs to be guaranteed. All the signs suggest that this global language will be
English, but there is still some way to go before a global lingua franca becomes a reality. Nowadays at least
two-thirds of the world’s population don’t use English, in some parts of the world it has a very limited
presence, and, in some countries, increased resources are keen to maintain the role of other languages. Now,
more than at any time in linguistic history, governments need to adopt long-term views regarding linguistic
choices.

Chapter 2 - WHY ENGLISH? THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT

There are 2 answers to the question ‘Why is English the global language?’: one is geographical-historical, which
shows how English reached a position of domination tracing their movement around the world; the other is
socio-cultural, which explains why it remains so looking at how people all over the world have come to depend
on English for their economic and social well-being. The language has penetrated in political life, business,
safety, media and education and several domains have come to be totally dependent on it (e.g., the computer
software industry).

Origins
English arrived in England from northern Europe in the 5th century, it began to spread around the British Isles
and in the 12th century in Ireland, which fell under English rule. The significant step in the progress of English
towards its status as a global language took place at the end of the 16 th century, with the expeditions in
America. Between the reign of Elizabeth I, 17th century, and the reign of Elizabeth II, 20th century, English-
speaker increased almost fiftyfold. Most of them were, and continue to be, Americans.

America
The first expedition from England to the New World in the 16 th century was a failure. The first permanent
English settlement dates from 1607, in an area they called Virginia. Another important settlement was
established in 1620 in the current Massachusetts by a group of Puritans, later called ‘Pilgrim Fathers’. The two
settlements had different linguistic backgrounds, and this arose a dialect distinction that spread across
America, based on the population movements. The dialect picture was never a neat one, but the main
divisions of north, midland, and south are still found today. During the 17 th century new immigrants arrived
and increased the variety of linguistic backgrounds. In the 18 th century there was a wave of immigration from
Ireland. The accent that emerged can now be heard all over the so-called Sunbelt, and is the accent commonly
associated with present-day American speech. But not only England influenced the directions that the English
language took in America. Spanish, French, German, Dutch, and Africans that settled in America influenced the
language. In the 19th century there was a massive increase in American immigration, as people fled the results
of revolution, poverty, and famine in Europe. Most of these immigrant families had come to speak English as a
natural process of assimilation and the result was a massive growth in mother-tongue use of English (215
million in 2000). At the end of the 20th century, a conflict between the need for intelligibility and identity has
begone to grow and fueled the movement in support of English as the official language of the USA.

Canada
The first English-language contact was in 1497, when John Cabot is thought to have reached Newfoundland
and a century later started the English migration. The English conflicted with French, whose presence dated
from the 1520s, but they were defeated, and French settlers were replaced with ones coming from New
England. The major development was in 1776: after the US Declaration on Independence, loyalist supporters
of Britain left for Canada. Because of its origins, Canadian English has a lot in common with the English spoken
in North America and due to the presence of French as co-official language, it has unique features.

The Caribbean
A highly distinctive kind of speech emerged in the islands of the West Indies and the southern part of the
mainland, spoken by the incoming black population. This was a consequence of the importation of African
slaves to work on the sugar plantations. Slave-traders used to bring people with different linguistic
backgrounds, so they could find it difficult to communicate and eventually plot rebellion. The result was the
growth of pidgin forms of communications, one between the slaves and the English-speaker sailors which
continued to be a form of communication in the Caribbean. It began to be used as mother tongue among the
blacks (it became a creole) and British English spread as a prestige variety.

Australia and New Zealand

Australia was visited by James Cook in 1770 and in 20 years Britain established its first penal colony at Sydney.
About 130,000 prisoners were transported in the next 50 years. In the mid-19 th century immigration rapidly
increased. The English language in Australia is influenced by the accents of London and Ireland (where the
main settlers came from), but also expressions originated in Australia and American English made the language
very mixed. In N.Z. The story of English started later, European whalers and traders began to settle there in the
1790s. Christian missionary work began among the Maori from about 1814. There was a rapid increase in
European immigration and 3 strands of social history in the present century have had especial linguistic
consequences:
1. In comparison with Australian, there has been a stronger relationship with Britain and many people’s accent
displays clear British influence.
2. A growing sense of national identity and an emphasis on the differences with Australia drawn attention to
the distinctions in accents and vocabulary of the two countries.
3. There is an increased used of Maori words in New Zealand English, to take account of the rights and needs
of the Maori people.

South Africa
The first who arrived in South Africa were the Dutch, while British involvement dates to the Napoleonic Wars
(1795). British control established and English became the official language in 1822, used for law, education,
and other aspects of public life. Initially, there was a certain number of dialects, but a homogenous dialect
emerged, very similar to the Australian one. English was being used as a second language by the Afrikaans
speakers. An African variety of English developed, spoken by the black population, and which was influenced
by the different language background of the speakers. English has always been a minority language in South
Africa, while Afrikaans was the language of most whites and acted as a symbol of identity for those of
Afrikaner background. English was used by whites with a British background and by increasing numbers of
black population, who saw it as a means of achieving international voice and uniting themselves with other
black communities during the political division of the apartheid society. Now Afrikaners have become bilingual,
they can speak fluently an English that often resembles the British-based variety. The 1993 Constitution names
11 languages as official. The difficulties of administering are immense, and English continue to be an important
lingua franca which dominate also in the South African Parliament.
South Asia
A third of the people of India can hold a conversation in English and considerable numbers of English speakers
are also in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan. The varieties of English spoken in the
subcontinent are collectively called South Asian English. The first British contact with the subcontinent came in
the 17th century with the formation of the British East Indian company, a group of London merchants who had
the trading monopoly in the area. During British domination, English became the medium of administration
and education and in 1857, when the universities of Bombay, Madras and Calcutta were established, it became
the primary medium of instruction, guaranteeing its growth during the next century. In 1960s a conflict led to
the ‘three language formula’, in which English was introduced as an alternative to the local state language and
now it has the status of an ‘associate’ official language. Therefore, it continued to be used in the legal system,
government administration, secondary and higher education, the armed forces, the media, business, and
tourism. It has a strong unifying force.

Former colonial Africa

The Dutch were the first who established a permanent settlement in Africa. However, by 1914 Britain, France,
Germany, Portugal, Italy, and Belgium divided the whole continent (apart from Liberia and Ethiopia) into
colonial territories. The English began to visit West Africa from the end of the 15 th century and by the end of
the 19th century, the increase in commerce and anti-slave-trade activities had brought English to the whole
West African coast. In the region arose several English-based pidgin and creoles. British varieties developed
especially in 5 countries, each of which now gives English an official status.
1. Sierra Leone. This area was used as a settlement for freed slaves. This later became a Crown Colony
and was used as a base for anti-slave-trading squadrons. The chief form of communication was an
English-based creole (Krio) which spread rapidly along the West African coast and is still used
nowadays. It achieved independence in 1961.
2. Ghana (formerly Gold Coast). It became a Crown Colony in 1874 following a successful British
expedition to protect the trading interests. It achieved independence in 1957.
3. Gambia. English trading along the Gambia River dates from 17th century. Now the country is an
independent member of the Commonwealth from 1965 and Krio is largely used as a lingua franca.
4. Nigeria. A British colony was founded in Lagos and Nigeria achieved independence in 1960. It’s one of
the most multilingual countries in Africa (there are about 500 languages) and half of the population
uses pidgin or creole English as a second language.
5. Cameroon. It was a German territory, but it was later divided between France and Britain. The two
areas emerged as one territory, with both French and English remaining as official languages. It’s also
a highly multilingual region, in which also contact languages have flourished.
6. Liberia. It’s African oldest republic, founded by the American Colonization Society to give a homeland
for former slaves. Most of the population uses pidgin-English as a second language (and many as first)
and links with US African American English are still evident.

The Imperial British East Africa Company was founded in 1888 and soon afterwards a system of colonial
protectorates became established. Several modern states gave English official status when they gained
independence, using it in government, the courts, schools, the media, and other public domains, but it's also
used as a medium of international communication in many other regions. English has an official status in
Botswana, Kenia, Lesotho, Malawi (with Chewa), Namibia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In Tanzania it was
a joint official language with Swahili until 1967, then lost its status as national language but it's still an
important medium of communication. The kind of English which developed in East Africa were very different
from those found in West Africa. Large numbers of British emigrants settled in the area; a British model was
introduced into schools. The result is a range of mother-tongue English varieties, which have lot in common
with South African and Australian English.

South-East Asia and the South Pacific

Territories in and to the West of the South Pacific display an interesting mixture of American and British
English. In the 1940s, the US invaded Japanese-held pacific islands and in the Philippines, which became
independent in 1946, the influence of American English remains strong. English became the language of power
in the British territories of South-East Asia, the introduction of a British educational system, with teachers
coming from Britain, exposed learners to a standard British English very early. Rapidly became the language of
professional advancement and literature. The language also became a prestige lingua franca among those who
had received an English education and who had entered professional society. Despite the common colonial
history of the region, a single variety of ‘South-east Asian English’ has not emerged.
1. Singapore. In the 1950s a bilingual educational system was introduced, with English used as a unifying
medium. English remained the language of government and the legal system and preserved its
importance in education and the media. Its use has been increasing and a new local variety, called
Singlish, has emerged.
2. Malaysia. After its independence, Malaysia adopted Bahasa Malaysia as the national language and
the use of English became more restricted, seen as a foreign language in education rather than a
second language.
3. Hong Kong. English has always been associated with government or military administration, law,
business, and the media. It has a limited use, but it has reached the official status beside Chinese,
which predominates in most speech situations.
4. Papua New Guinea. It is the union between British New Guinea and German New Guinea. Half of the
population speak Tok Pisin, an English-based pidgin, as a second language and it has a nation-wide
presence.

A world view
The present-day world status of English is the result of 2 factors: the expansion of the 19 th-century British
colonial power, and the emergence of the US as the leading economic power of the 20 th century. The USA has
70% of all English mother-tongue speakers and this gives America a controlling interest in the way the
language is likely to develop. An US linguist has suggested to think of the spread of English as 3 concentric
circles, representing different ways in which the language has been acquired and its current use:
- The inner circle refers to the traditional bases of English, where it's the primary language (USA, UK,
Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada).
- The outer or extended circle involves the spread of English in non-native settings, where it's a second
language and has become part of the country's chief institution (Singapore, India, Malawi + 50
territories).
- The extending circle involves nations in which English is taught as a foreign language, though they
don't have a history of colonization by members of the inner circle, nor have they given English any
special administrative status.

Chapter 3 – WHY ENGLISH? THE CULTURAL FOUNDATION

Richard Mulcaster in 1582 felt that he had to defend English against who believed that it shouldn’t usurp the
place of Latin. In his opinion English was the best language to utter all the arguments. The problem was that
Celtic languages were still strongly present in Britain at the time and the English language was of small reach.
Since the time of Shakespeare, the situation of English was changing. David Hume in 1767 at a time when
French was recognized as the language of international diplomacy, saw in America the key to the future
success of English. In the same period, John Adams said that English was destined to be the language of the
world more than Latin and French were, because of the increasing population in America and their connection
and correspondence with all nations, aided by the influence of England in the world. By the end of the century
English became the language spoken by 60 million people around the world as a mother-tongue. In the 19 th-
century social history some important factors laid the cultural foundation for the eventual growth of the
English language. English found itself ‘in the right place at the right time’ since socio-cultural developments
have put together the English language in a position of pre-eminence and they maintain it.

Political developments
English would be referred to as the language of the future only related to the growth of the British Empire, as
the civilizing influence was a main goal and the English language a mean to reach it. So, English was seen as a
guarantor, as well as a symbol, of political unity. This vision explains the intensity with which the language was
being introduced in many countries and the fact that many countries, as they became independent, chose
English as their official language to communicate on a national level with other communities. And this concept
still emerges when people perceive the unity of their country to be threatened by a minority. In the context of
colonialism, the desire for national linguistic unity is the other side of the coin from the desire for international
linguistic unity. The language of a colonial power introduces a unifying medium of communication within a
colony, but at the same time it reflects the bonds between the colony and the home country.
Access to knowledge
Britain become the world’s leading industrial and trading nation: most of the innovations came from Britain
(developments of new materials and manufacturing industries, new means of transportation…) and it was
called ‘the workshop of the world’. The terminology of technological and scientific advantage had an
immediate impact on the language, adding plenty of words to the English vocabulary. This also meant that who
wanted to learn about these innovations had also to learn the English language and several inventors were
attracted in Britain by the opportunity to study these inventions. Similar developments soon took place in
America which, by the end of the century, had overtaken Britain as the world’s fastest growing economy.
Half of the influential scientific and technological output between 1750 and 1900 had been written in English,
and therefore, 45% of people were working in an English-language environment and several more were
collaborating with English-speaking scholars. Access to the new knowledge was also helped by progress in
transportation, especially steamship and railway, as they brought people closer together, facilitated the
transportation of the new products and developed the distribution of daily newspapers on a large scale.
In 1914, Britain and USA were investing over 4,500 thousand million pounds abroad. This economic
imperialism brought a fresh dimension to the balance of linguistic power.

Taken for granted

Many developments took place at the same time and emerged the unspoken opinion that English had to be
the natural choice for progress. There is hardly any justification for the role of English. When the first radio
stations were coming on air, there were no doubts about the choice of the language to use. The only
discussion was about what kind of English should be used. There was no competition from other languages.
However, situations arose where the status of English seemed to threaten the existence of a minor language.
This happened recently in countries of the inner circles, where some degree of official status has been given to
minority languages. In this case, it’s an issue of identity. Among the countries of the outer circle, where English
is used as a second language, the decision to give English an official status has usually been made to avoid the
problem of having to choose between competing local languages, so English is perceived to be a neutral
language. In this case, it’s a decision made on political expediency. In 1900 English had become the dominant
language of global politics and economy it seems that it will remain so.

Chapter 4 - WHY ENGLISH? THE CULTURAL LEGACY

The first step of politic consolidation of English followed the 1st World War, when the League of Nations
transferred former German colonies to the supervision of the victors, and the influence of English grew
immensely in these areas. Far more important was the way in which the legacies of the colonial era and the
technological revolution were being felt on an international scale.

International relations
The League of Nations was the first alliance to allocate a special place to English in its proceedings (it was an
official language beside French). In this context it was necessary to have a lingua franca to make it easier for
the 42 members to understand each other. The League of Nation was replaced in 1945 by the United Nations
and English is one of the official languages in all its structures. The language plays an official or working role in
the proceeding of most other major international political gatherings, in every part of the world and English is
the first choice of most as a lingua franca. 85% of international organizations in 1995-6 made official use of
English, only French followed, used by 49%. a third of them use only English to carry on their affairs.
Many scientific and sporting organizations work only in English and it's also the lingua franca in international
competitions. These trends are reflected even in Europe, since almost all the organizations whose names begin
with Euro- use English as an official language. English+German+French is the most popular combination, but
there are many organizations which work only in English, especially in science. The overriding impression is
that wherever in the world an organization is based, English is a chief auxiliary language. English has a different
kind of role at meetings where many nations each has the right to participate using its own language. The
European Union is the most complex example and when it’s not possible to find a translator for some
combinations of languages, English is used as an intermediary language (or interlingua). When people want to
know that their cause gain maximum impact, they express it through the medium of English (political
protests...).

The media
Any consideration of politics leads inevitably to a consideration of the role of the media, because often a
successful access to the media is the guarantor of political achievement.
  The Press In the 17th century, several European countries were publishing newspaper, but the greatest
progress was in Britain. The 19th century was the period of greatest progress thanks to the
introduction of new printing technology and new mass production and transportation. The most
important newspapers were the New York Tribune, The Times, The Daily Mail. In this period there was
also the growth of the major news agencies. Today the top five papers published are in English and
about a quarter of the world’s periodicals are published in English.

 Advertising Towards the end of the 19th century, a combination of social and economic factors led to
an increase in the use of advertisements, especially in the more industrialized countries. Mass
production had increased the flow of goods and consumer purchasing power was growing. In the USA,
publishers realized that income from advertising would allow them to lower the selling price of their
magazines and this way publications in which over half the pages were given over to advertising
became the norm. Posters, billboards, electric displays, shop signs became part of the everyday scene.
Now is one of the most noticeable global manifestations of English language use, because English
advertisements are not only the most numerous in countries, where English has no special status, but
they are usually the most noticeable. The official language of international advertising bodies is
English.

 Broadcasting English was the first language to be transmitted by radio, the first commercial radio was
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Advertising revenue became the chief means of support, as it later did for
television. The British Broadcasting Company was established in 1922 and it was a monopoly, no
other broadcasting company was allowed. The fist director-general of BBC, developed a concept of
public-service broadcasting to inform, educate and entertain, which was highly influential abroad.
Broadcasting organizations use English as a lingua franca, as it happens in the world of international
politics. A similar dramatic expansion affected later public television. Although later to develop, the
USA rapidly overtook Britain, becoming the leading provider of English language services abroad.
Many countries during the post-War years launched English radio programs and if we list the
languages in which these countries broadcast, only one language has a place on each of the lists:
English.

 Cinema New technologies altered the nature of home and public entertainment. Britain and France
provided an initial impetus to the artistic and commercial developing of cinema from 1895. A
European film industry grew, but the dominance soon passed to America. As a result, when sound
was added in the late 1920s it was the English language which came to dominate the movie world.
Despite the growth of the film industry in other countries, English-language movies still dominate the
medium and these a strong English-language presence in most of the film festival too.

 Popular music in the 19th century emerged also the recording industry, in which the English language
was once again in evidence. After the invention of the phonograph, most of the technical
developments took place in the USA. All the major recording companies in popular music had English-
language origins and radio sets around the world testify the dominance of English in the popular
music scene today. The British and American music are particularly popular, thanks to dance halls,
bier halls and popular theatres. When modern music arrived, it was almost entirely an English scene
(Elvis Presley in the USA, the Beatles in the UK). No other source has spread English-language around
the youth of the world so rapidly and pervasively. Although every country has its popular singers, only
a few manage to break through into the international arena, and to do so they need to be singing in
English. 99% of the pop groups worked in English and his mother tongue was irrelevant (abba Swedish
but sang in English). During the 1960s and 1970s, English for the younger generation around the world
became a symbol of freedom, rebellion, and modernism. The social, political, and spiritual messages
carried by the words resounded in many countries, providing many people with a first experience of
the unifying power of English.

International travel
The reasons for travelling abroad are many and various. Each journey has immediate linguistic consequences
and since there is a contemporary movement towards world English use, it is particularly noticeable in this
domain. Restaurant menus have a parallel version in English, credit card facilities are most noticeably in
English. But we don't have to forget that there is still 2/3 of the world not exposed to English and moving away
from the regular tourist routes, we can experience this linguistic diversity. By contrast, the domains pf
transportation and accommodation use generally English as an auxiliary language. The role of military in the
spread of English is difficult to evaluate: the presence of US and British forces have certainly brought he local
inhabitants into contact with English speaking culture rapidly, but we don’t know how the effect lasts.

International safety
The language has come to be used as a means of controlling international transport operations and the use of
a lingua franca has proved of great worth. English has long been recognized as the international language of
sea, as mariners need to make their speech clear and unambiguous to reduce confusion in sending and
receiving messages. In 1980 a project was set up to produce Essential English for international Maritime Use
(Seaspeak). This project contains procedures for initiating, maintaining, and terminating conversations, as well
as recommended grammar, vocabulary, and structure. Progresses has also been made in devising systems of
unambiguous communication between public organizations like police, ambulance, fire service (Police Speak).
The official use of English as the language of the international aircraft control did not emerge until the Second
World War. Allied leaders created the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and they agreed that
English should be the international language of aviation when pilots and controllers speak different languages.
Supporters of bilingualism in air traffic stress the fact that many pilots don’t speak English fluently, so it would
be safer if both parties were allowed to speak in a language, they both understand well, but the strength of the
argument for a single language of air traffic is not questioned. Even with a single language, terminology and
phrasing need to be standardized (Airspeak). But some believe that rather than imposing a single Airspeak
to everyone, it would be better to improve the quality of English used by air personnel, to lower the risk of
accidents caused by linguistic misunderstandings.

Education
When we investigate why so many countries have decided in the last years to make English an official language
or to teach it as a foreign language in their schools, one of the most important reasons is always educational. A
person is more likely to be in touch with the latest thinking and research in a subject by learning English than
by learning any other language. Since 1960s, English has become the normal medium of instruction in higher
education for many countries. The English language teaching business has become one of the major growth
industries around the world with thousands of schools and centers worldwide. In occasion of a consultation,
people professionally involved in this field agreed that the global market of English language teaching and
learning will increase over the next 25 years, most of all in central and eastern Europe, and the countries of the
former Soviet Union, where is thought that over 10% of the population are now learning English. They also
agreed that:
1. English will retain its role as a dominant language in world media and communications
2. Is essential for progress and will provide the main means of access to high tech communications and
information
3. Will remain the world's language for international communication.
Exercises of this kind have a clear predictive value, but if identical opinions are expressed from so many
countries, they help to confirm that English is emerging as a global language.

Communication
If a language is really an international language, it's going to be most apparent in those services which deal
directly with communication. In these domains isn't easy to come by information about the use of English. USA
accounts for nearly half of the world's volume of postal traffic, a statistic shows that ¾ of the world's mail is in
English and it's easy to understand if we think at all the organizations which use English as an official language
or even just for correspondence. Another statistic shows that about 80% of the world's electronically stored
information is currently in English and thus simply reflect the pioneering role of the USA in developing and
marketing computational hardware and software. ARPANET was conceived as a national network to link
important American academic and government institutions in a way which would survive in case of a major
war. Its language was English. When people in other countries began to form links with this network, it was
essential for them to use English. The dominance of the language was even reinforced when the service was
opened to private and commercial organizations. The first protocols devised to carry data on the net were
developed for the English alphabet and most browsers are still unable to handle multilingual data presentation
(Arabic, Chinese...). At present a truly multilingual world wide web remains a long-term goal and, in the
meantime, English continues to be the chief lingua franca of the internet, and the only way to take advantages
from the use of internet. If a demand for material in other languages grows, so will the supply, this way is
possible to reduce the risk of international intellectual ghettoes. Anyway, this risk is less to do with linguistics
than it is with economics, education and technology, computer illiteracy is more the result of lack of money
than lack of English. The number of non-English language users on the internet is growing all the time, but
there are still more high-quality contents in English on the web than in any other language. On the net, all
languages are as equal as their users wish to make them, and English emerges as an alternative rather than a
threat.

The right place at the right time

English is a language which has repeatedly found itself in the right place at the right time.
• In the 17th and 18th centuries English was the language of the leading colonial nation (Britain).
• In the 18th and 19th centuries it was the language of the leader of the industrial revolution (Britain).
• In the 19th and 20th, it was the language of the leading economic power (USA).
As a result, when new technologies brought new linguistic opportunities, and English emerged as the first
language that affected all aspects of society. At the same time emerged an important need for a lingua franca.
So, English also became the leading language of international politics and economy.
By the 1960s the pre-eminence of the language was established, but since then two major events ensured its
global status:
1. Movement toward political independence, out of which English emerged as a language with special
status in several new countries
2. Electronic revolution, where English was in the right place (USA) at the right time (the 1970s)

Chapter 5 - THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL ENGLISH

The first impression is that the language is alive and well, and is global future is assured, but we must be
cautious, because for example in the Middle Ages nobody would even have supposed the death of Latin. In the
future of English as a global language there are some indications which seem to go against the trend. A
significant change in the balance of power could change the situation.

The Rejection of English

It is possible the situation where the people of a country feel so antagonistic or ambivalent about English that
they reject its privileged status. It is inevitable that in a post-colonial era there should be a strong reaction
against continuing to use the language of a formal colonial power, and in favor of promoting the indigenous
languages. The arguments are all to do with identity, and with the language as the most immediate and
universal symbol of that identity. But there are also ambivalent feelings. For example, writers of these
countries face a dilemma: if they write in English can reach worldwide audience but sacrifice their cultural
identity. There are also economic arguments that can persuade a country to reduce its investment in the
English language. A country might see its economic future as operating more on a regional than a global level,
so they can decide to invest on a local lingua franca. The need for identity and the need for intelligibility often
pull people in opposing directions and when both positions are promoted intensively, conflict is the common
consequence, and it can be avoided with the promotion of bilingualism or multilingualism. However, these
solutions are expensive in terms of time and money. Any decision to reject English has important
consequences for the identity of a nation, but it can also cause emotional ripples around the English-speaking
world.

Contrasting attitudes: the US situation

The USA has such an important role in the status of English as a global language that the future of the country
will also influence the future of the language. If the power of USA falls the millions of people learning English
to have access to this power, would begin to look elsewhere. However, there are no external forces that put at
risk this power. The real problem is domestic, in terms of the country’s future unity. In USA there are many
immigrant populations that want to maintain their original cultural identity through the safeguarding of their
mother tongue. The result is a conflict between those who want an organized movement pro-official English,
and those who don’t want, but would rather have a movement against it.

• The political argument

FOR: pro-official supporters see in the emergence of major immigrants’ group (and the support for immigrant
language programs) the seeds of separatism and the dissolution of the unity. English is viewed as a social glue
that guarantees political unity and the language has been the bases of social stability in the USA.
AGAINST: anti-official supporters think that an official English bill is unnecessary because there is no risk of
disunity. English is not at risk, but other languages are (the first-immigrant generation find it harder to
persuade their children to learn their mother tongue than to learn English). English bill is perceived as a policy
intended to limit and control minorities. Even if English were made official, the use of a common language
does not guarantee ethnic harmony.

•The socio-economic argument

FOR: at a time when there are limited founds, it is too expensive to promote a multilingual or bilingual society:
there are over 300 possible co-official languages to be taken in account and no selection is possible, so it’
better to promote the language of the majority. It would be better to improve the English-language abilities of
immigrants, to give them more chance to enter the society in a high position.
AGAINST: also, the introduction of the English bill is expensive, and it is difficult to give a precise definition of
“official”. Moreover, it is difficult to distinguish between “public” and “private” (in which it is possible to use a
language different from English) discourse. There is the risk that public domain will gradually erode the private
one, threatening freedom of speech.

•Educational issues the pro-official position thinks that many students in bilingual education programs are
being taught by teachers whose own level of English is low because of the shortage of adequately trained
teachers. Bilingual programs are not as efficient as English-immersion classes. Anti-official supporters stress
the value of bilingualism as part of a child’s learning experience. Immigrant children are more likely to learn
English if their own language is valued by the society in which they find themselves. Moreover, the official
English bill does virtually nothing to enable fluency in English to be universally achieved (other than simply
stating that it must be).

New Englishes
Today there are more speakers of English as a foreign language than mother-tongue speakers.
These foreign speakers bring some differences into the language, and the consequence is that language will
become open to linguistic changes. Some new varieties will be created, and these varieties are known as “New
Englishes”. They are the consequence of the spread of English on a global scale and can be considered as
dialects. Dialects emerge because they give identity to the groups which own them. The drive for identity was
particularly dominant in the second half of the 20 th century, when the number of independent nations grew.
When a country becomes independent, there is a natural reaction to leave behind the linguistic characters
imposed by its colonial past, and to look to indigenous languages to provide a symbol of new nationhood.
However, when there are too many languages to decide between, English is taken as official language, and
then some changes are brought into it. The most evident changes are those in the vocabulary.

The linguistic character of New Englishes

The recency of the phenomenon means that we haven't still really understood what happens to the language
when it is adopted in this way. The way the language has evolved in settings where most people are native
speakers is likely to be very different from the way it will evolve in settings where most are non-native
speakers. However, it is possible to identify several types of change which are taking place.

•Grammar It is very difficult to analyze grammatical differences because they are an open question. A variant
may be common as localized standard form, in both written and spoken language or restricted to one, it may
be formal or informal, or register-bound, occurring only in restricted settings or it can even be considered an
error.

•Vocabulary Important are borrowings, influenced by the number of cultures which co-exist, and the status
which their languages have achieved. The influence of local languages is also apparent in the form of loan
translations. Other vocabulary variations are compounds, hybrid-compounds, word-class conversion,
abbreviations (clipping, blending…) and different collocation. It is often unclear whether a particular word is
restricted to that country or whether it is also used in nearby countries. The new words are likely to be used
within the local community because they relate to distinctive notions there. And these words tend not to occur
in isolation.

•Code switching It is a process in which people rely simultaneously on two or more languages to communicate
with each other.
Today there are a lot of mixed varieties involving English (Spanglish, Chinglish, Franglais…) where there is an
active process of hybridization from a syntactic, morphologic, and phonetic point of view.

•Other domains Important are also pragmatic and discoursal domains, influenced also by the phonological
one. This has a potentially significant structural impact, especially in the way in which it affects the
comprehension of spoken English. Formal speech is stress-based, while informal speech is syllable-based. The
different use of this phonological instrument would cause misunderstandings in terms of individual words
(because of a failure to identify phonological structure), but also grammatical patterns can be misheard
because of the unfamiliar stressing of structures.

The future of English as a world language

Language is an immensely democratizing institution. To have learned a language allows to have rights in it
(adding to it, modify it, play with it, as you will). Fashions counts in language as anywhere else. It's possible, as
the example of rapping suggests, for a linguistic fashion to be started by a group of second- or foreign-
language learners. When numbers grow and they gain prestige, usages which were previously criticized as
'foreign' can become part of the standard educated speech of a locality and even appear in writing. Several of
these new linguistic features are achieving an increasingly public profile, in their respective countries: words
become used less self-consciously in the national press, they come to be adopted by first-language speakers of
English in the locality, begin to be used at the prestigious levels of society and no longer seen a sign of
ignorance within a country, it's respectable and even be cool. These people, who are important in their own
communities, start travelling abroad and use a word or phrase from their own country that is different from
the standard British or American English. In such circumstances, one must learn to live with the new usage, as
a feature of increasing diversity in English. It can take a generation or two, but it happens. The problem that all
the New Englishes encounter, in their early stages, is the same problem that older varieties of English also
encountered: the view that there can only be one kind of English, the standard kind, and that all others should
be eliminated. The contemporary view is to maintain the importance of Standard English and at the same time
the value of local accents ad dialects. The intellectual basis for this policy is the fact that language has many
functions and standard English can promote mutual intelligibility and local dialect’s local identity. The same
arguments apply, with even greater force, on a global scale. The question of how much local phonology,
grammar, vocabulary, and pragmatics should be allowed in is difficult and contentious. If the people who use
mixed varieties as markers of their identity become more influential, attitudes will change, and usages will
become more acceptable and everyone else would recognize their words as legitimate options. The contact-
language words of the future will be including more alternatives rather than supplementary expressions, the
notion of a lexical mosaic as such is not new. It has always been part of the language.

An English family or languages?

The future of world English is likely to be one of increasing dialects. The forces of the past 50 years suggest
that English is going to fragment into mutually unintelligible varieties, so that we end up with an English family
of languages. The history of language suggests that such a course of events has been a frequent phenomenon
(as in the case of Latin), but it is no longer a guide. The New Englishes could move indifferent directions at the
same time. The pull imposed by the need for identity, which has been making New Englishes dissimilar from
British English, could be balanced by a pull imposed by the need for ineligibility, on a world scale, which will
make them increasingly similar, through the continued use of standard English. If a community wishes its way
of speaking to be considered a language, 2 criteria need to be satisfied:
1. the community must have a single mind about the matter
2. the community must have enough political-economic clout to make its decision be respected by
outsiders with whom it's in regular contact.
There are very few examples of English generating varieties which are given totally different names and fewer
where these names are rated as languages, any proposal for language status is surrounded with controversy.
It's very unusual to assign a novel name to a variety of English other than in the humorous literature. There is
one clear case where a specific regional variety of English has acquired a new name as part of its claim to be
recognized as a standard in its locality: Scots. The situation is complex because the Scots community doesn't
have a single mind about the matter, nor has it had enough political-economic power to make any decision be
respected by outsiders. We have yet to see whether the same situation will obtain in countries where the New
Englishes speakers are in a majority and hold political power, or in locations where new supernational political
relationships are being formed. For example, in European Union, English is the most widely used language. The
result will be a novel variety of 'euro-English'. First-language speakers of English working in Brussels have been
pulled in the direction of these foreign-language patterns. A common future is to accommodate to an
increasingly syllable-timed rhythm, the use of simplified sentence constructions, the avoidance of idioms and
colloquial vocabulary and a slower rate of speech. It's a natural process of accommodation, which could lead
to new standardized forms. The emergence of hybrid trends and varieties raises all kinds of theoretical and
pedagogical questions during the 1990s. They blur the long-standing distinctions between first, second and
foreign language and reconsider the notion of standard. Many of the new varieties have grown extremely
rapidly, so that it's difficult to establish their role in their society or how people are reacting to them. In several
cases generates controversy within the community. If Englishes became increasingly different, as years went
by, the consequences for world English wouldn't necessarily be fatal. A new form of English, let us think about
it as WORLD STANDARD SPOKEN ENGLISH, would almost certainly arise. Most people are already
'multidialectal' to a greater or lesser extent, they use a spoken dialect at home and another one when they are
away from home, those who are literate have learned a third variety, that of written standard English which
currently unites the English-speaking world. In a future where there were many national Englishes, little would
change. People will use their dialects within their countries and WSSE to communicate with people from other
countries. People who attend international conferences or write scripts for an international audience have
probably already felt the pull of this new variety. It takes the form for example of avoiding a word or phrase
which you know is not going to be understood outside your own country. US English seems likely to be the
most influential in the development of WSSE, but the situation will be complicated by the emergence on the
world scene of new linguistic features derived from the L2 varieties, which will become numerically dominant.
None of them has yet become a part of standard US or UK English, but, as the balance of speakers changes,
there is no reasons for L2 features not to become part of WSSE. This would be especially likely if there were
features which were shared by several, or all, L2 varieties. The concept of WSSE doesn't replace a national
dialect, it supplements it, people who can use both are in a more powerful position than people who can use
only one. The situation is the familiar one of diglossia, as illustrated by the high and low varieties found in such
languages as Greek, German, and Arabic. English at the global level is steadily moving towards becoming a
diglossic language. If WSSE emerges as a neutral global variety, British and American English will still exist, but
as varieties expressing national identity in UK and USA. For global purposes, WSSE will suffice.