Teach English in YangliuwAn Zhen - Huanggang Shi

'English as a global language' As an English teacher, I think English is now a globalised phenomenon and English is now used by diverse speakers from different linguistic and cultural background around the globe.lt now functions as an international lingua franca and language teacher need to develop an awareness of this new role English plays Today. In the last twenty years, there has been an unprecedented increasing Internationalisation of the English Language. however, despite such changes in the sociolinguistic landscape of the English Language. The globalisation of English has important ramifications for how English is taught today.PBA builds on the current work on language policy and practice,but instead of providing a set od standards in relation to language teaching in vareity of approaches relavent or successful in their contexts. professional organizations such as TESOL International Association have attempted to collaborate with local ministries of education to develop contextually relavent standards. for example linguistic theories are abstract what language is and how it works; this knowledge is understood in terms of the study of language(through a craeation of metalangauge_gramatics_and language description). Why a global language? English is a global language, they would say. you hear it on television spoken by politicians from all over the world. whenever you travel, you see English signs and advertisements.whenever you enter a hotel or a restaurant in a foreign city they will understand English and there will be an English menu.Indeed,if there is anything to wondar about at all,they might add,it is why such headlines should still be newsworthy. but English is news. The language continues to make news daily in many countries. And the headline is'nt stating obvious for what does it mean, exactly? Is it saying that everyone in the world speaks English? This is certainly not true, as we shall see. Is it saying, then, that every country in the world recognizes English as an official language? This is not true either. So what does it mean to say that a language is a global language? Why is English the language which is usually cited this connection? How did the situation arise? And could it change? Or is it the case that,once a language becomes a global language, it is there for ever? These are fascinating questions to explore, 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 may feel pride, that your language is the one which has been so successful; but your pride may be tinged with concern, when you realize that people in other countries may not want to use the language in the sameway that you do, and are changing it to suit themselves. We are all sensitive to the way other people use (it is often said, abuse) ‘our’ language. Deeply held feelings of ownership begin to be questioned.Indeed, if there is one predictable consequence of a language becoming a global language,it is that no body owns it anymore. or rather, these feelings are natural and would arise whichever language emerged as a global language.This fact alone makes many people feel uncomfortable, even vaguely resentful. ‘Look what the Americans have done to English’ is a not uncommon comment found in the letter-columns of the British press. But similar comments can be heard in the USA when people encounter the sometimes striking variations in English which are emerging all over the world. And if English is not your mother tongue, you may still have mixed feelings about it. You may be strongly motivated to learn it,because you know it will put you in touch with more people than any other language; but at the same time you know it will take a great deal of effort to master it, and you may begrudge that effort. Having made progress, you will feel pride in your achievement,and savour the communicative power you have at your disposal,but may none the less feel that mother-tongue speakers of English have an unfair advantage over you. And if you live in a country where the survival of your own language is threatened by the success of English, you may feel envious, resentful, or angry. You may strongly object to the naivety of the populist account, with its simplistic and often suggestively triumphalist tone. These feelings are natural, and would arise whichever language emerged as a global language. They are feelings which give riseto fears, whether real or imaginary, and fears lead to conflict. Language marches, language hunger-strikes, language rioting and language deaths are a fact, in several countries. Political differences over language economics, education, laws and rights are a daily encounter for millions. Language is always in the news, and the nearer a language moves to becoming a global language, the more newsworthy it is. So how does a language come to achieve global status? What makes a global language? why a language become a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it.It is much more to do with who those speaker are.Latin became an lnternational language throughout the Roman Empire, but it was not because the Romans were more numerous then the people they subjugated They were simply more powerful. And later,when Roman military power declined, Latin remained for a millennium as the international language of education, thanx to different sort of power_the ecclesiastical power of Roman Catholicism Latin was once a major International language,despite its many inflectional ending and gender diffrences.French too,has been such a language despite its noun being masculine or feminine; and so-at different times and places have the heavily inflected Greek,Arabic,Spanish and Russian.Ease of learning has nothing to do with it. chlidren of all cultures learn to talk over more or less the same period of time regardless of the differences in the grammar of thier languages. And as for the notion that English has 'no grammer' a claim that is risible to anyone who has ever had to learn it as a foreign language. the point can be dismissed by a glance at any of large twentieth-century reference grammars.During the twentieth century, this world presence was maintained and promoted almost single-handedly through the economic supremacy of the new American superpower. Economics replaced politics as the chief driving force. And the language behind the US dollar was English. Why Englsh ? The cultural Legacy A similar point could be made about the 1990s, which saw the presence of English-speaking troops on peace-keeping missions in Bosnia, the Middle East, Central Africa and elsewhere and in Afghanistan since 2001. UN officers are routinely heard on TV commenting on the way a crisis is developing, and the language used to the cameras is almost alwaysEnglish. But is it likely that an English-language presence of a few months, or even years, would have a long-term influence on local language awareness? We can A similar point could be made about the 1990s, which saw the presence of English-speaking troops on peace-keeping missions in Bosnia, the Middle East, Central Africa and elsewhere and in Afghanistan since 2001. UN officers are routinely heard on TV commenting on the way a crisis is developing, and the language used to the cameras is almost always English. But is it likely that an English-language presence of a few months, or even years, would have a long-term influence on local language awareness? We can only speculate.lnternational safety A special aspect of safety is the way that the language has come to be used as a means of controlling international transport operations, especially on water and in the air. As world travel has grown, more people and goods are being transported more quickly and simultaneously to more places than ever before. The communicative demands placed on air and sea personnel, given the variety of language backgrounds involved, have thus grown correspondingly. In such circumstances, the use of a lingua franca has proved of great worth. English has long been recognized as the international language of the sea, and in recent years there have been attempts to refine its use to make it as efficient as possible. Larger and faster ships pose greater navigational hazards. Shipping routes continually alter and present fresh problems of traffic flow. Radio and satellite systems have greatly extended a ship’s communicative range. In such circumstances, mariners need to make their speech clear and unambiguous, to reduce the possibility of confusion in the sending and receiving of messages.In 1980, a project was set up to produce Essential English for International Maritime Use often referred to as ‘Seaspeak’only speculate.International safety A special aspect of safety is the way that the language has come to be used as a means of controlling international transport operations, especially on water and in the air. As world travel has grown,more people and goods are being transported more quickly and simultaneously to more places than ever before. The communicative demands placed on air and sea personnel, given the variety of language backgrounds involved, have thus grown correspondingly. In such circumstances, the use of a lingua franca has proved of great worth. English has long been recognized as the international language of the sea, and in recent years there have been attempts refine its use to make it as efficient as possible. Larger and faster ships pose greater navigational hazards. Shipping routes continually alter and present fresh problems of traffic flow. Radio and satellite systems have greatly extended a ship’s communicative range. In such circumstances, mariners need to make their speech clear and unambiguous, to reduce the possibility of confusion in the sending and receiving of message. now english a source of Radio T.v Advertisement or anything we see in english. 'Education' It follows from what has been said in this chapter that English is the medium of a great deal of the world’s knowledge, especially in such areas as science and technology. And access to knowledge is the business of education. When we investigate why so many nations have in recent years made English an official language orchosen it as their chief foreign language in schools, one of the most important reasons is always educational – in the broadest sense. The linguistic character of New Englishes Although it has been possible to suggest answers to the question of why English has become a global language (chapters 3 and 4), the recency of the phenomenon means that we are still some distance from understanding what happens to the language when it is adopted in this way. Historical experience is no real guide to the kinds of adaptation that are currently taking place. Several of the ‘New Englishes’ of the past have been well studied – notably,American and Australian English – but 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. There are already signs of this happening, though it is difficult to make reliable generalizations giventhe social, ethnic and linguistic complexity within the countries where these developments are taking place, and the considerable variations between settings.16 However, it is possible to identifyseveral types of change which are taking place, and to gain a sense of their extent, from the case studies which have been carried out. This chapter focuses on grammatical and lexical issues, but does make some reference to broader patterns of interaction and to the role of nonsegmental phonology in the communication of structural meaning. Grammar Any domain of linguistic structure and use could beAlthough it has been possible to suggest answers to the question of why English has become a global language (chapters 3 and 4),the recency of the phenomenon means that we are still some distance from understanding what happens to the language when it is adopted in this way. Historical experience is no real guide to the kinds of adaptation that are currently taking place. Several of the ‘New Englishes’ of the past have been well studied – notably,American and Australian English – but 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. There are already signs of this happening, though it is difficult to make reliable generalizations given the social, ethnic and linguistic complexity within the countries where these developments are taking place, and the considerable variations between settings.16 However, it is possible to identify several types of change which are taking place, and to gain a sense of their extent, from the case studies which have been carried out. This chapter focuses on grammatical and lexical issues, but does make some reference to broader patterns of interaction and to the role of nonsegmental phonology in the communication of structural meaning. Vocabulary English has their own vocabulary or dictionary which helps students in learning process. All the standard processes of lexical creation are encountered when analysing the linguistic distinctiveness of New Englishes.Examples of lexical morphology have already been given Several studies of Pakistani English, for example, have shown the important role played by the various kinds of word formation.Compounding from English elements is found in such items as wheelcup hub-cap and side-hero supporting actor with some elements proving to be especially productive:- lifter (cf. shoplifter) has generated manynew words e.g. car lifter, luggage lifter, book lifter), as has wallah/walla one who does something e.g. exam-centre-walla, coachwalla). Hybrid com pounds, using Urdu and English elements, in either order, are also notable: khas deposit special deposit, double roti (bread).Distinctive prefixation is found, as in anti-mullah and deconfirm, and there is a wide range of distinctive suffixation, using both English and Urdu bases: compare endeavourance, ruinification,cronydom, abscondee, wheatish, scapegoatism, oftenly, upliftment,alongside begumocracy,sahibism, sifarashee (sifarash (favour) babuize (babu (clerk). Word-class conversion is illustrated by such verbs as to aircraft, to slogan, to tantamount, and by such noun forms as the injureds, the deads. Various processes of abbreviation, clipping and blending, are in evidence: d/o (saughter of ) r/o (resident of) admit card, by-polls. Baumgardner (1998) also illustrates distinctive collocations, both English only for example. discuss threadbare, have a soft corner) and English/Urdu combinations(e.g. commit zina (adultery), recite kalam (verse Finally), we can illustrate the many examples in which a word or phrase from a well-established variety is adopted by a New English and given a new meaning or use, without undergoing any structural change. In Jamaican English, for example, we find such meaning changes as cockpit (type of valley) and beverage. The future of English as a world language Language is an immensely democratising institution. To have learned a language is immediately to have rights in it. modify it, play with it, create in it, ignore bits of it, as you will.And it is just as likely that the course of the English language is going to be influenced by those who speak it as a second or foreign language as by those who speak it as a mother-tongue. Fashions count, in language, as anywhere else. And fashions are a function of numbers.Tongue speakers in the world is steadily falling, as a proportion. English speaking world, with expressions which were once heavily penalized as local and low class now achieving a degree of status.How fast this trend develops depends on economic and social factors more than on anything else. If the people who use mixed varieties as markers of their identity become more influential, attitudes will change, and usages will become more acceptable. In fifty years’ time, we could find ourselves with an English language which contains within itself large areas of contact-influenced vocabulary, borrowed from such languages as Malay or Chinese,being actively used in Singapore, Malaysia and emigrant communities elsewhere. First-language speakers from those areas would instinctively select this vocabulary as their first choice in conversation. Everyone else would recognize their words as legitimate options passively, at least, with occasional forays into active use. It is a familiar story, in the history of the English language, though operating now on a global scale.Indeed, such a scenario would not be so different from that already found in English. There are over 350 living languages given as vocabulary sources in the files of the Oxford English dictionary. And, for example, there are already over 250 words with Malay as part of their etymology in the OED. So the foundation is already laid. The contact-language words of the future will of course include more alternative rather than supplementary expressions localized words for everyday notions, such as tables and chairs,rather than for regionally restricted notions. There is nothing unusual, in linguistic terms, about a community using more than one variety (or language) as alternative standards for different purposes. The situation is the familiar one of diglossia, as illustrated by the ‘high’ and ‘low’ varieties found in such languages greek, German and Arabic that English at the global level is steadily moving towards becoming a diglossic language. Already, in such locations as Singapore,we see two spoken varieties co-existing one being used for intelligibility (Standard British English) and the other for identity (Singlish). A similar scenario is found in the Philippines, where Standard American English co exists alongside Taglish. If WSSE emerges as a neutral global variety in due course, it will make redundant the British/American distinction. British and American English will still exist, ofcourse,but as varieties expressing national identity in the UK and USA for global purposes. Now everywhere we travel we speak English because English become a Global language and people knows how to speak English especially when we go in foreigner countries there is a huge language barrier but English language help us to communicate people easily That's why We consider English as a Global Language.English will find itself in the service of the world community forever. References:- African English Cape Town: Oxford University press. A grammar of speech, Brazil David 1995:Oxford University press. word-formation in Pakistani English. English World-Wide.