'Native English' is losing its
power By Indrajit Basu
KOLKATA - Here is an alert for all
monolingual speakers of native English: if you
thought your ability to speak English would
continue to give you a leg-up in the world, where
this language has been the primary language for
international communication for several decades,
you are in for trouble.
Even as the
English language continues its meteoric global
rise, native speakers such as the North Americans,
British and Australians will soon become a rare
breed, overwhelmed by the
many
millions who have started speaking English as
their second language.
More important.
native English speakers also face a bleak economic
future as qualified multilingual speakers from
other countries gain a competitive advantage in
global companies and organizations, leaving native
English speakers not only with increasing
difficulty in employment, but also bewildered by
many aspects of society and culture around them.
These are some of the notions that David
Graddol, a British linguist and author of a new
study called "English Next" commissioned by the
British Council, revealed while forecasting the
new lingua franca in what is now often called a
flat world.
He also says "Asia, especially
India and China, probably now hold the key to the
long-term future of English as a global language"
in the sense that the growth of these two nations
would enable them to determine how English will
fare as the language of industry, commerce and the
Internet in the coming decade.
"About two
years ago the number of speakers using English as
second language overtook the numbers of native
English speakers," said Graddol, adding that
currently there are about 450 million native
English speakers around the world distributed in
about 70 countries. But as many as a billion
people, most of whom are from China and India, are
learning English as their second language.
"So the balance of power is changing, and
when the second-language speakers adopt English
language as their own language or as a second
language, they actually take control of it, mix it
and use it with their own language, developing new
forms, vocabulary and ways and using English."
Indeed, all through the past century
English has been the language that is most global.
But complex international, economic, technological
and cultural changes have started diminishing the
leading position of native English as the language
of the world market, while non-native speakers in
Europe and Asia have started shifting its position
of dominance.
Graddol's projections start
from the fact that the globalization that has
gathered significant momentum in the past five
years has enabled outsourcing of services to
countries with lower labor costs and that "global
English [for instance] has helped accelerate this
phenomenon and given India a competitive edge".
India has demonstrated the huge economic
benefits of speaking English and how the language
can be exploited in the global economy. But even
as India continues churning out ever higher
numbers of new English speakers, it is China that
is now setting the pace of change in the region.
That's because, said Graddol, "more people are now
learning English in China than in any other
country".
China made English compulsory in
primary schools from Grade 3 in 2001, while big
cities such as Beijing and Shanghai have already
introduced English at Grade 1. According to
Graddol's research, an estimated 176.7 million
Chinese were studying English in 2005 within the
formal education sector.
Moreover, China
has taken a thoughtful approach to setting goals.
Beijing is preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics
by setting targets for each category of citizen
and providing opportunities for learning; for
example, 80% of police officers under 40 have been
directed to learn English. Shanghai, meanwhile,
has set a target of making all of its citizens
capable of communicating in English by the time
that city hosts the World Expo in 2010.
"As a result of these policies," said
Graddol, "China now produces over 20 million
English speakers each year, and possibly within a
few years, there could be more English speakers in
China than in India."
But China's decision
to make English a key part of its strategy for
economic development has had a galvanizing impact
on neighboring countries as well, where enthusiasm
for English was in danger of waning. For instance,
Graddol reveals, by the end of 2005, Thailand, the
Philippines, Japan and Taiwan were all expressing
grave anxiety about their national proficiency in
English and had announced new educational
initiatives.
Thailand, it is reported,
even announced a new teacher-training program and
a switch to communicative methodology because its
1996 policy to start English at Grade 1 was
failing. And following in China's and Thailand's
footsteps, the Philippines is debating whether to
make English the medium of education at all
levels.
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,
Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei too have started
exploiting what Graddol calls "their anglophone
heritage" to attract offshore contracts. "As
regional trade grows, encouraged by ASEAN [the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations], English
is becoming an ever more valuable lingua franca in
Asia," he said.
Graddol's findings predict
that by 2015, there will be about 2 billion people
from Asia and non-English-speaking Europe learning
English. However, that is not necessarily good
news for native English speakers. Instead, it
could come as a big blow because "they can no
longer look the other way, celebrating the rising
hegemony of their language".
In fact, said
Neil Kinnock, chairman of the British Council,
"Young generations [of native English speakers]
cannot be so complacent to believe that the global
position of English is so unassailable that they
do not need additional language capabilities."
According to Graddol, native English
speakers are already facing a challenge, and in
the next decade the new "must learn" will be
Mandarin.
"Although Mandarin was the
largest spoken language, English was unchallenged
since the Chinese, by and large, stayed within
China," said Graddol. "But China is now
globalizing; it is not just that people are coming
into China, but China is going out to the world
too and is being felt the world over."
He
said other languages are also growing fast, such
as Hindi, Arabic and Spanish.
But for
those who still face difficulty in speaking
"propah" English, there's hope too. As English
becomes more widely used as a global language, it
will become expected that speakers will signal
their nationality, and other aspects of their
identity, through English, Graddol says. Lack of a
native-speaker accent will not be seen, therefore,
as a sign of poor competence.
Indrajit Basu is a Kolkata-based
journalist.
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