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  • Essay / The Future of the English Language

    Table of ContentsWhat is the future of English as a global language? (essay)Factors affecting languageConclusionWhat is the future of English as a global language? (essay)In considering the future of the English language, this essay considers the likelihood that it will become a lingua franca with blurred boundaries between formal and informal usage, leading to a proliferation of Englishes. While it is possible that the English language will evolve into various regional varieties, it is unlikely that these varieties will fragment into completely unintelligible languages. This essay will explore these two questions further. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayFirst of all, historically speaking, due to two diasporas, English first spread to America in the North, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. . Then it spread to Africa and many parts of Asia, such as Hong Kong and Singapore. In these countries or cities, after the colonial periods, English became the official or semi-official language for various reasons (Crystal, 2002). Economically, since the economic power of the United States has grown rapidly, surpassing the United Kingdom, and has reached the dominant economic position in the world (Jenkins, 2015). As a result, American culture has become much more influential around the world. For example, Disneyland and its associated films are extremely well received by children around the world. Therefore, non-native English speakers learn American English when they watch Disney movies and listen to similar English songs. There are other factors linked to globalization that cause English to achieve global status. To be more precise, it is the main language of books, newspapers and advertising in the world. It is the official international language of airports and air traffic control. It is the language of international business, diplomacy and sport. More than two-thirds of the world's scientists write in English. Three-quarters of the world's mail is written in English (Crystal, 2002). English is therefore considered a lingua franca. However, in the future, it is very likely that it will not be the only lingua franca in the world due to increased regional communications, informal market interactions, migrations, religions and organizational efforts. as well as government committees. Mandarin and Arabic are good illustrations. Mandarin is spreading throughout China and some of its southern neighbors due to the population explosion of native Mandarin-speaking communities, the growth of Mandarin-speaking migrants as well as the rapid development of international trade, business and communications between China and other countries. . Arabic spread across North Africa and South Asia both as the language of Islam and as an important language of regional trade (Fishman, 1998). Since English is no longer the only lingua franca in the world, in the near future, people are likely to learn more than one foreign language, except for their native language. In other words, a majority of people are likely to become multilingual. Instead of using languages ​​separately, they are likely to switch between languages ​​in order to be associated with each language or to “keep one foot in each camp” (Swann and Sinka, 2007). Just like what was mentioned earlier, due to various aspects of factors such as the two diasporas, the rapid growth of the economic power of the United States and globalization, compared to other languages, English has a biggercultural influence on the world and spread much more widely. . Therefore, English is more commonly used by speakers around the world than other world languages. Therefore, it is predicted that English will likely become the matrix language for all kinds of code-switching, such as English-Spanish code-switching and English-Cantonese code-switching. Second, it is expected that there will be no clear boundary between formal and informal English languages. With the rapid development of information technology, more and more people use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Whatsapp in their lives. They are not only used daily among friends and family members, but nowadays social media is applied to the workplace context. For example, Google and Cisco rely on video media (e.g., YouTube) to share recruiting videos as well as keynote speeches and press announcements with their employees and investors (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Furthermore, Savitha (n.d.) claimed that these social media are originally considered as informal spaces for networking and communication. Emojis, abstractions, simple shapes and incomplete sentences are always found in different formats of texts published on social networks. Sometimes making mistakes is acceptable in informal texts. Traditionally, all of these questions are not allowed in formal texts. However, recently these informal formats have become accepted. A good example is that Bill Marriott, chairman and CEO of the Marriott International hotel chain, uses his blog to regularly post updates on Marriott properties around the world, just as a work colleague describing her vocation would ( Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). According to previous discussions, it is assumed that instead of the traditional landline telephone and sending written correspondence by postal service in quite formal formats, people are extremely likely to form various online communities in order to perform various social functions . In these online communities, they can communicate and exchange information by mixing formal and informal languages ​​as well. In other words, in the future, people will likely pay more attention to the content of communication rather than the formality of language use, which will likely create an increasingly ambiguous boundary between formal and informal English languages. Finally, it is predicted that there may be more and more varieties of English. Due to the growth of information technology, some online communities exist. Additionally, as globalization leads to increased mobility, communities are likely to be more fluid with people migrating to and from professionals as well. As a result, new cultural practices emerge with these new communities. Factors Affecting Language Considering that language is part of culture and culture is embedded in language, different new varieties of English emerge when the English language itself changes in order to adapt to the emerging cultures of the various communities that use it (Li, 2015; Crystal, 2012). For example, if a British lawyer has lived and worked in Singapore for a long time, his or her British English accent, vocabulary and grammar might be affected by Singlish (e.g. John Kena struck by the elephant), so that 'a new variety could be modified. shape. Such a process is also called glocalization. Since globalization and glocalization are considered processes,their forces will continue to change people's lives and English languages, leading to more new Englishes, except existing new Englishes formed by historical factors and local identities such as American English and Singlish. Some people have claimed that varieties of English used in different parts of the world will fragment into various unintelligible languages. However, this is an oversimplification. First of all, language is linked to political factors. To make a dialect a language, people must ask themselves whether the community has a unique unity to promote their code as a language and whether that community has enough political and economic power to influence the decision and gain the respect of outsiders . However, in most countries the establishment's attitude towards the New English remains generally negative. It is considered that if New Englishes are applied to official contexts such as schools, social media and governments, this will have a negative impact on national reputations as well as their goals for greater international roles. For example, in Singapore, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong called on Singaporeans to reduce the use of Singlish and maintain the use of Standard English in 1999 and launched the Speak Good English movement since 2003 (Crystal, 2012 ). In a nutshell, new varieties of English are more likely to be considered dialects rather than languages ​​and limited to informal speech between basic people, because Standard English still plays an important role in all functions official. to new Englishes also contribute to this problem. The relationship between language and identities is linked to the promotion of a language. According to Joseph (2004), language and identity are “ultimately inseparable”. In Hong Kong English, for example, Hong Kong people like to add an extra vowel at the end of a word. Instead of pronouncing “bus” as [bʌs], Hong Kongers often pronounce it as [bʌsi:] to show their local identity. However, standard English is still more welcomed by most schools. Whether they are non-native (NNS) or native (NS) teachers, a firm belief in the primacy of English NS is deeply ingrained in their minds. The legitimacy of NNS regional accents is still not acceptable to teachers, who approach the standard accent as closely as possible (Jenkins, 2007). In other words, on the one hand, the attraction imposed by the need for social identity, which leads to the growth of various new Englishes, could be counterbalanced by the attraction imposed by the consistency of the standard English accent . At the formal level there may be increasing mutual unintelligibility, whereas at the latter level there may be none (Crystal, 2012). These two phenomena can be neutralized by each other. On the other hand, even if some new varieties of English are likely to become a language, due to the existence of LFC, these languages ​​are probably still intelligible. For linguistic features, firstly, it is expected that the standardization process can eventually prevent the English language from unintelligibility. During the standardization period, one variety will be selected as the standard. Depending on the grammar and vocabulary of the standard variety, the standards are set by linguists. They also extend the standard variety to a wider range of functions. Standards are then imposed and variability eliminated. Such a process is continuous since English is descriptive. According to Johnson (1755), there is no dictionary of a language that can be perfect since when he rushes to publish, some.