‘Native English’ losing its power to Sri Lankan English etc.,
 

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 organisations, leaving native English speakers not only with increasing difficulty in employment, but also bewildered by many aspects of society and culture around them.

English Next

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 globalisation 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 galvanising 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 globalising; 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.

(Courtesy: ASIA TIMES)