english as a world language

Question 1

How many people speak English?

Answer 1

• English is spoken by about 1/4 of the world’s population
• there are more than 1.5 billion English speakers

Question 2

In how many countries is English the dominant language in?

Answer 2

75 countries

Question 3

What is English known as?

Answer 3

• the lingua franca of the world

Question 4

What are the six main reasons why English is the lingua franca of the world?

Answer 4

• historical
• political
• economic
• practical
• intellectual
• entertainment

Question 5

What are the historical reasons why English is the lingua franca?

Answer 5

• the legacy of British/American imperialism, the country’s main institutions may carry out their proceedings in English

Question 6

What are the political reasons why English is the lingua franca?

Answer 6

• English may have a role in providing a neutral means of communication between its different ethnic groups

Question 7

What are the economic reasons why English is the lingua franca?

Answer 7

• the USA’s dominant economic position acts as a magnet for international trade, and organisations wishing to develop international markets are thus under considerable pleasure to work with English

Question 8

What are the practical reasons why English is the lingua franca?

Answer 8

• English is the language of international air traffic control, it’s the chief language of international business and academic conferences, and the leading language of international tourism

Question 9

What are the intellectual reasons why English is the lingua franca?

Answer 9

• most of the scientific, technological, and academic information stored in electronic retrieval systems is in English

Question 10

What are the entertainment reasons why English is the lingua franca?

Answer 10

• English is the language of popular music and permeates popular culture and its associated advertising

Question 11

What is meant by Karchu’s Circles?

Answer 11

• there is the inner circle = native speakers
• the outer circle = English as a national language (India, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc.)
• the expanding circle = people learning the language as a 2nd/3rd language

Question 12

How does Schneider’s dynamic model show how new Englishes are made?

Answer 12

through 5 stages:
1. foundation
2. exonormative stabilisation
3. nativisation
4. endonormative stabilisation
5. differentiation

Question 13

What is meant by the foundation stage?

Answer 13

• English is brought to a new territory leading to an emerging bilingualism
• colonial expansion and trade resulted in the initial spread of English worldwide

Question 14

What is meant by the exonormative stabilisation stage?

Answer 14

• an ‘elite’ bilingualism spreads, led by the politically dominant country
• the politically dominant country determines linguistic behaviour and English is established as the language of law, administration and education

Question 15

What is meant by the nativisation stage?

Answer 15

• billingual speakers forge a new variety of English as ties with settlers’ country of origin weaken
• conservative speakers might resent such innovation, but other speakers begin to adopt some local forms

Question 16

What is meant by the endonormative stabilisation stage?

Answer 16

• after independence and inspired by the need for ‘nation-building’ a new linguistic norm is established and codified

Question 17

What is meant by the differentiation stage?

Answer 17

• this may follow, with internal social group identities gaining importance and thus reflected in the growth of dialectal difference
• group specific (ethnic, regional, social) varieties emerge leading to internal diversity

Question 18

What does McAthur’s circle of World English show?

Answer 18

• World Standard English is at the centre and all other englishes branch off it e.g. British English, American English, Indian English, African English, etc and then from those there are more branches of englishes

Question 19

What are the two different perspectives on the future of English?

Answer 19

• optimists = predicted that English has acquired strength and looks set to reign in the future
• pessimists = predicted that within a century the English language would be in fragments and ‘mutually unintelligible languages’

Question 20

What are the two cheif issues with English as a World language?

Answer 20

• the balance between achieving intelligibility and identity
• the drive for intelligibility is very strong; the desire to be understood worldwide
• nations want to foster national identity, so when English comes into contact with other languages, it will adopt some of the characteristics of those languages

Question 21

What points are brought up in the Hinglish case study?

Answer 21

• the demands for teaching English now come from India’s most disadvantaged communities as English is now, more than ever, an essential passport to white-collar jobs
• Hinglish features: the continuous tense, dispenses the articles ‘the’ and ‘a’
• the trouble is however, is that it can cause havoc when clear and precise communiaction is required

Question 22

How has America influenced language?

Answer 22

• America developed into a superpower, its political, economic and cultural influence has maintained the importance of English as a world language
• American English can be assessed all over the world, especially because of the influence of music, films and TV - advertising means that American brand names are internationally recognised

Question 23

What are some examples of lexical Americanisms?

Answer 23

• rubbish = trash
• pavement = sidewalk
• football = soccer
• petrol = gas

Question 24

What are some examples of orthographical Americanisms?

Answer 24

• metre = meter
• colour = color
• organise = organize
• grey = gray

Question 25

What are some examples of grammatical Americanisms?

Answer 25

• more frequent usee of the subjunctive e.g. I wish I were taller
• omission of ‘on’ in reference to days of the week
• noun phrases ordered differently e.g. a half hour instead of half an hour