Professional Documents
Culture Documents
All these facts and informationare enoughto justifythe title of this presentation,since Englishis
undoubtedlya global language.Now we will see two areas of society that have been deeply
affectedby the globalizationof English:speakers'attitudes to the languageand EFL teaching.
Speakers'negativeattitudesto the globalstatusof English
37
"attitudesto language"refersto " (...) considerationsof superiorityor inferiority,beauty is kn
The term
(of la language)"(Milroy& Milroy1980 15).This meansthat lang
or ugliness,logicalityand illogicality
desig
speakersand even whole communitiesattach certain non-linguisticvalues to a language,and
to, th
that these valuesare sometimesreflectedin the speakers'discourse.An exampleis CharlesV's
"l when
famousquotation: speak Spanishto God, ltalianto women, Frenchto men and Germanto my
horse".
Sinc
"l of a nationalistvisionof language;in cons
By saying speak Spanishto God" there is a reinforcement
lingu
other words, the languageof one's nation is always the true language.In fact, all nationalist
"ltalianto langu
views of languagetend to idealizeone's languageto the detrimentof others.By saying
"sweet", rhythmic language.Then, maki
women", he means that ltalian is the languageof love, a
*Frenchto men" relatesto the famous conceptionof Frenchas beingthe languageof reason,of statu
"cold"language,a languageof strength, appe
real thinking,of logic.Finally,German is perceivedas a
brutalityand disciPline.
On th
The li
In this presentation,I will only refer to some negativeattitudesto Englishas a global language,
intera
accordingto some newspaperarticlesand forums,all dated 2006.
shou
to the globalizationgive the same reasonsfor start
Not all speakerswho hold negativeconsiderations
befon
doing so. On the contrary,it is essentialto study separatelywhat nativespeakersof Englishthink
form what foreignsPeakersthink.
Untilr
say, tl
As we all know, there exists an unbreakablelink between languageand identity(Pool 1979),
past (
which is likelyto become apparentwhen we study attitudestowards any language.In fact, this
from '
seems to be supportedin the fact that, accordingto the corpus,those nativespeakersof English
speak
who do not agree to the globalizationargue that their mothertongue is gettingdenativized.Most
New (
times, this denativizationof Englishis consideredto carry another importantconsequence:the
"The peoplewho will lose out if non-E
loss of the nationalcultureand values.As one U.K. citizenwrote:
languageare the English.Non-nativeEnglishspeakerscan requi
Englishbecomesthe international
featur
keep their own languageand culturesbut we will be forced to give ours up. English,as spoken
allowe
by English people, is a diverse and beautifullanguage".Needlessto say, there were other
was, by far, the fact tl
argumentsto complainabout the global statusof English,but the denativization "demc
mostfrequent.
Consi
In relationto non-nativespeakers,thosewho didn'tagree to the globalizationof English,referred
were the Er
to the fact that English is taking over other countries'social functions.These speakers "linguistic
as this,tl
somehow making referenceto the vitalityof regionalcountries,somethingknown
ecosystem".They arguedthat if Englishwere to becomea universallanguage,then their native
"lt's just not fair that English
languageswould be unfairlywiped out. One Welsh teenagerwrote:
is everywhereyou go and in everythingyou do. lt's our rightto speakthe languagewe want and I
want to speakmy language,not English".
What negativeattitudeshave led to in the methodological arena 3 See,fc
o This
As we have stated before,all speakershold negativeand positiveattitudestowardslanguages, a
cultural
but sometimeswhen what these attitudesimply is perceivedas a potentialrisk, languageusers do not.
"solvethe problem"by causinga changein the language.This
and languageplannersattemptto 5 For fu:
3B
is known in the linguisticfield as languageplanningand languagepolicies3.Roughlyspeaking,
language planning refers to the fact that institutions,organizationsand even individualscan
design any change in a language,if it is considerednecessary.Once there is a schemeto stick
to, the institutionsin charge have to make sure that languageusers supporttheir ideas. Here is
where they apply languagepoliciesto persuadelanguageusersaboutthe need for such change.
Since the seventies,there have been many attemptsto create a new phonologicalsystem in
consonancewith the global status of Englishand the global identitiesof its speakers.Applied
linguists such as Crystal, Graddol and Hockett, among others, have carried out different
languageplanningproposalsto simplify/ adapt / reduce the English phonologicalsystem,
making it easier and more appropriatefor non-nativelearners,as they consideredthe global
status of Englishmade it a non-democraticlanguage4.Some of these proposalsseemed very
appealingand logical,howevernone succeeded.
Final remarks
As I said in the introductionto this presentation,I do not intendto find answersto this dilemma
here. In fact, it wouldn't be possible either, as Jenkins' proposaland the democratizationof
Englishare still two of the most heatedtopicsto be discussedin the AppliedLinguistics agenda.
Instead,I will posesome questionsthat one may ask oneselfwhen facinga languageplanningof
this type:
u It seemsfair to add that Jenkinsdoesnot proposethis Lingua FrancaCore as a definite systemfor Global English,
insteadshe mentionsthe need to contrasther own work with further research.
40
re o ls it worthchanging
thewaywe teachphonology
to students?
IS
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r",
1e
lrs
er
rd
tly
tic
ES
he
be
ha
lor
h
lcr
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