Page 22 - ELG2104 Apr Issue 475

FEATURE .

Is European English at the heart of unification?
Eur
opean English

Professor Marko Modiano, of the University of Gävle, Sweden, argues that it’s time
Europe’s own version of English becomes an acceptable alternative to British English

he European Union is now at a
crossroads when it comes to the
language regime promoted in
TBrussels. The plurilingual initiative PHOTO BY SHUTTERSTOCK
has not resulted in greater numbers of EU
citizens becoming functionally trilingual, nor
has Erasmus produced significant numbers of
college students becoming fluent in any of the
lesser-used European languages.
Instead, what we are seeing across
Europe is an intensification of resources
being allocated to English and a reduction
in the learning of traditional third languages
(such as, for example, the decline of
Swedish in Finland and an increase in
bilingualism, with Finns speaking only
Finnish and English).
Not only are greater numbers of EU
citizens acquiring proficiency in English,
they are also turning away from the
traditional norm – standardised British
English – and instead utilising more features,
pronunciation, lexical items and grammar
which are characteristic of American English.
At the same time, aspects of language usage which is not acceptable in the British come under considerable attack, but also
which are culture specific for European rendition of the tongue. The Irish, the only undergo some fundamental changes. For one,
English, for example, in lexical use the term remaining native-speaker nation state with language education shifted from the mastery
member state or the phrase the four freedoms in any considerable numbers (some five million of a prescriptive form through grammar and
pronunciation the unique manner in which souls, which amounts to a bit more than translation exercises to the attainment of the
mainland Europeans pronounce words such 1% of the EU population) will not make ability to communicate across cultures. Other
as cooperation and, in grammar, the use of any great effort to influence how mainland changes took place as well, such as the fact
the present continuous where non-native- Europeans use their English for the simple that Europeans began to readily mix features
speaking English users use the simple present reason that they have other fish to fry. of American and British English and, further,
(saying “I am coming from Spain”, instead there was a decisive upswing in the use and
A way forward popularity of American English. One could
With the British Why is recognising European English as a also observe more and more people using
features of European English.
legitimate variety alongside other English-
The notion that English was acquired for
out of Europe, language norms the way forward for the communication with native speakers fell to
EU? To better understand the answer to this
there are no longer question, we need to look at the manner in the side and now, as English has emerged
which English has been taught and learned
as the global and European lingua franca,
hordes of language in schools across the EU. people in greater and greater numbers have
begun to reject the notion that non-native
English was seen as a foreign language,
watchdogs in learned so that one could communicate speakers need to strive to obtain native or
near-native proficiency. Instead, people
with native speakers, and the goal of the
the EU instruction was the attainment of native or are learning English because it gives them
opportunities to communicate with others
near-native proficiency in British English.
This educational philosophy, which was more across Europe. Thus, English is seen as a
of “I come from Spain”), are becoming or less unchallenged until the 1990s, is based European lingua franca, a language which
part and parcel of the unique way in which on a structural rather than communicative Europeans use when communicating with
English is now used as a lingua franca in the vision of language learning. Such traditional each other.
European Union. language learning programmes were steeped
These processes of nativisation, which in what we call native speakerism. The Out of the driver’s seat
always take place when you have widespread understanding, naturally, was that the most The British, what they are about and how
use of a lingua franca in a multilingual refined brand of English found in the UK, they use the English language, have been
speech community, are intensifying. Brexit – the notorious RP (Received Pronunciation) forced to take a back seat.
the withdrawal of the British from European accent, was superior to all other varieties and English is now a mainland European
unification – has actually acted to accelerate was also that rendition of the tongue which language where the majority of the
these processes, because with the British promised the greatest success when it came to population is able to use the tongue in
out of Europe there are no longer hordes mutual intelligibility. interaction with others and where we find
of language watchdogs in the EU getting For some 20 years or so, we have witnessed more than 95% of young people obtaining
upset every time the EU does something this unique version of English not only proficiency in the language in a host of
22 April 2021