Page 32 - ELG2309 Sep Issue 486

FEATURE .

English in the World

Today: Status report

and state of research

Examining the effects of globalisation on the English
language, Dr Andy Mering presents his findings on
what is known as Mid-Atlantic English.

A parochial dialect of a small island it; power in terms of politics, technology,
gains worldwide status economy and culture.
What happened to transform English from English is a language of wider communication;
an insignificant dialect into the pre-eminent a lingua franca, like French, German, Spanish
medium of international communication in and Arabic. Yet global English is unique,
our modern world? spoken by almost two billion people in the
In the beginning, there was an unnamed world, whereby only approximately 400 million
language on a small island. After having put use it as their mother tongue. According to
up quite a fight, English ultimately became ‘Ethnologue’, English ranks first among the
the language of the Commonwealth, with its most-spoken languages in the world, including
myriad of cultures and histories, and where, NSs and NNSs. As stated by the world’s
in over 70 countries, it has official or semi- foremost authority on the English language,
official status. It is also taught in more than David Crystal, NNSs of English are now
100 countries as the first foreign language in outnumbering NSs in a ratio of around 4:1.
schools. English now has a status unmatched
by any other language on earth; it is a language English for lingua franca purposes:
‘on which the sun does not set, whose users language standards for ELT
never sleep.’ What is a lingua franca? The term derives from
English was originally an Anglo-Frisian Italian, meaning ‘language of the Franks.’ It was
dialect, first taken to Southern Britain by a originally a term for the mixed language based
small number of invading tribes from northern on Italian and Occitan (southern French) used
Europe in the fifth century. Its fascinating as a contact language for trading and military
success story as a language with global stature purposes in the Middle Ages. In our time, the use
today was aptly summarised by the former of ELF refers to the verbal exchanges between
leader of the House of Commons Norman St speakers with different first languages. Given the
John-Stevas (1929-2012): ‘How amazing that undisputed predominance of NNSs over NSs,
the language of a few thousand savages living interactions overwhelmingly occur among the
on a fog-encrusted island in the North Sea former. In addition, its distinctly global profile
should become the language of the world.’ encompasses the use of English that is culturally
Why did this particular language become removed from traditional BrE.
the global language? It is only one among over Numerous researchers investigate the use
7000 languages spoken across the world today. of English in multicultural settings, amongst
A language reaches global scope for reasons them:
other than the properties of the language • Seidlhofer: Vienna-Oxford International
itself. It is the power of the people who speak Corpus of English (VOICE), focussing on
NNS pragmatics.
List of abbreviations • Jenkins: Lingua Franca Core (LFC), her
selection of pronunciation features relevant
AmE American English to communicating intelligibility with other
BrE British English NNSs.
EIL English as International Language • Crystal: World Standard Spoken English,
ELF English as a Lingua Franca WSSE, common-core English with a focus
on the issue of identity.
IDEA International Dialects of English • Modiano: English as an International English
Archive (EIL) Mid-Atlantic English (MAE), Euro-
LFC Lingua Franca Core English, with an emphasis on situational as a common denominator; the gateway to
MAE Mid-Atlantic English (Mixture of adaptation and intercultural competence. international business, technology, science,
BrE and AmE) travel, and so on. It fosters greater cooperation
NNSs Non-Native Speakers The use of English in cross-cultural situations and understanding between peoples from
NSs Native Speakers is characterised by a constant effort to diverse multicultural backgrounds. As such,
English can be seen as a key element in the
accommodate the interlocutor. Culture-specific
WSSE World Standard Spoken English features are being avoided. English is viewed process we term globalisation.
32 September 2023