Why english?.

REPÚBLICA BOLIVARIANA DE VENEZUELA[pic 1]

MINISTERIO DEL PODER POPULAR PARA LA EDUCACIÓN

VICEMINISTERIO DE EDUCACIÓN MEDIA

MICROMISIÓN SIMÓN RODRÍGUEZ ÁREA INGLÉS

Why English?

Tutora MMSR:                                                                                 Participante:

Johanna Romero                                                                               Jalbin Brito

                                                                                                       C.I. # 17957114

Cumaná, 18 de Junio de 2016

WHY ENGLISH?

People all over the world have different cultures and languages to communicate among them, but over the last two centuries English has become as the global language uses to communicate every country, every nation and everybody. Receiving the level of Lingua Franca, that means “a language which is used for communication among people who have no native language in common” (Trudgill 2000). Now my question is: Why English? Why not Spanish, Hindi or Chinese? As it is known these languages are more spoken than English, as a native language, but English has had a particular property which has made it worthy through the years, that is expressed by David Crystal (2003) as “a special role that is recognized in every country”.

This special role started since 19th century when the British Empire growth, empowering and taking the main part of the international politics operates; it uses in the development of economic systems, and also being the main language uses for technology. As a consequence, English is the language that millions of children learn at school and the language that is used in international relations, for global communication and as the major media language.

To establish a language as “global” could has positives and negatives implications; the main is to allow people to communicate easily even though they do not manage the same native language, in an interview made by Lexcode Languages and Communication to 40 people from different backgrounds, different age and with different nationalities, the major part agree that English is the best language to be considered as a global language because it is easy to learn, it is the language you hear and read every day in TV, radio and networks, also cause the younger generations have learned it in school and it would be the best global language because it is the most spread all over the world.

On the other hand, to have a global language, in this case English, it should be a danger. One of the negative aspects should be to copy the wrong cruel and violent model of colonialism and war using by British and North American. Citing David Crystal, there are two main risks around, which are: “a global language might cultivate an elite class with native speakers, who take advantage of the possibility to think and work quickly in their mother-tongue”, and also, “Perhaps a global language will make people unwilling or unable to learn other languages and make other languages unnecessary” (Crystal 2003). Resulting as a threat of future dominance.

But, in contrast, has occurred a phenomenon, other languages has not disappeared, if not English has suffered changes according to the places where it is spoken, so as a result, nowadays we often hear about “American-English”, “South African-English” or other “Englishes”, that means “the different types of English are based on the British English but have developed grammatical and vocabulary differences because of influence and “loanwords” from other languages”. (Trudgill  2000).

Analyzing these advantages and disadvantages about English as a global language I could conclude that English is a good option to be “global” cause it is easy to learn and it has been taught as a foreign language in every country from lots of years ago, and it is something not easy to change, moreover it is a well-developed language with millions of speakers. Even if it is important to have a lingual Franca, the rest of the languages keep having the same importance, because they are full of culture and represent the development of their native speakers. Also it is important to say that we must learn English as a skill of communications without copying English or North American culture and their economic system or manner of life. In other words, languages are all important and make the world more interesting and more alive, for that, although we share a language to have communication every single nation must keep on practicing their own languages and cultures.

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