9/8/99
Reading
A: The English Language Today by David Crystal
David Crystal examines the question concerning the
use of English in countries where people do not use it as a mother- tongue.
Crystal states that although it is estimated that mother tongue speakers
account for over 300 million English users, this number is greatly exceeded by
those who use English as a foreign language (at least another 400 million)
(Graddol, Leith, and Swann 29).
Mother tongue users include the Americans, British, Irish, Australians,
New Zealanders, Canadians and South Africans.
However, Crystal states that there are not exact figures for those
countries who have learned English “to a reasonable standard of fluency “(Graddol,
Leith, and Swann 29).
David Crystal discusses two types of language
acquisition: English as a second language and English as a foreign
language. English as a second language
includes those countries which have given English an official status. Influenced in part by the British colonial era,
Ghana and Nigeria have established English as the “official language for
government, education, commerce, the media, and the legal system. Another
reason for the choice concerns the diversity of tribal languages. English became the official language in
order to eliminate the possibility of inter-tribal tensions because it puts the
tribal languages on an equal footing (Graddol, Leith, and Swann 30).
Likewise,
India utilizes English (alongside Hindi) as an official language of Parliament,
the legal system and the universities.
Although the English language is associated with prestige it is
estimated that only 3 percent (70 million) of the population of India speak
English (Graddol, Leith, and Swann 30).
Therefore, English becomes the language of the wealthy, educated, upper
class. Crystal writes that the amount
of second language users (300 million speakers) could begin to out pace that of
mother- tongue users. Most of the
growth is occurring within countries of high population growth (four times as
great in mother-tongue countries) (Graddol, Leith, and Swann 30).
However, in some countries such as
China, English has no official status.
It is considered a foreign language and is learned in schools, other
institutions of higher learning, and via self help materials. Crystal states that there are no clear
statistics concerning the amount of people who are learning English as a
foreign language (Graddol, Leith, and Swann 31). According to Crystal “there has been an explosion of interest (in
China) in the English language in recent years”(Graddol, Leith, and Swann
31). There is much motivation to learn
English because it is the dominant language of world communication, books,
newspapers, and advertising; it is the official international language of airports
and air traffic control, the chief maritime language, and the language of
international business, conferences, and diplomacy. Furthermore, “over two thirds of the world’s scientists write in
English”(Graddol, Leith, and Swann 31).
The list goes on and on.
Crystal comments, that although
these statistics are impressive, “it is not the number of mother- tongue users
which make a language important in the eyes of the world, but the extent to
which a language is found useful outside its original setting” (Graddol, Leith,
and Swann 31). He reminds us that this prestige has belonged to other languages
in history, such as Latin, and French.
He states it would take a shift in the
“economic fortunes of America and the overall balance of world power” to
reverse the prestigious standing and domination of the English language in the
world (Graddol, Leith, and Swann 32).
Graddol,
David, Dick Leith, and Joan Swann. English:
History, Diversity and Change.
New York: The Open University,
1996.
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