The Spread of English Is Considered to Be Evidence of Linguistic Imperialism Essay Example

see that English seriously strengthens its positions as the language of international communication not only is Europe, but in the whole world. As evidence, today the international conferences, symposiums are held mainly in English. Without knowing English any qualified specialist can’t feel himself confidently in the modern society.

The official status of English language in English-speaking countries let it be reproduced and function successfully. The most linguistic factors, supporting the promotion of English at “language market” is the Roman alphabet.It doesn’t cause the difficulty by the majority of the repositories of European language, and this gives the English language, without doubt, the opportunity in comparison with other languages, using another graphical system (Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese). The globalization has changed the linguistic situation in the whole world.

In his book “Linguistic imperialism” Fillipson affirms that after the World War II there existed a certain secret joint plan of the Americans and the British to popularize English language for gaining political aims.In the 19th century there appeared the first American organization, intended for spreading English outside the USA. The official support they got only after the World War II. The most important component of the programme was the compulsion of the immigrants for crossing from their native language into English and it was provided not only by studying English but also by the obstacles of the usage another languages.

As linguistic diversity increases in countries all around the world, policy-makers and educators are faced with complex and conflicting issues, regarding appropriate ways of educating a multilingual school population.This volume reviews the research and theory relating to instruction and assessment of bilingual pupils, focusing not only

on issues of language learning and teaching but also the ways in which power relations in the wider society affect patterns of teacher-pupil interaction in the classroom. The governments of various countries treat differently to the spread of English: the Malazian government does all if can for this process (for example, it increases the expenses for studying English at school); and in Japan English is used only in the sphere of economy, sport and entertainment.The Dutch Educational Minister announced English as the second mother language. English is an official language in 18 African countries. The government of Thailand, India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, Columbia and Peru regard English positively.

But in some African countries the government tried to limitate the influence of English and to expand the influence of the local languages, but it managed only a few countries. From the other side, the Esperantists are eager the retiring of English language from the position of the language of international communication in the global association.They have created the whole science “tetra sociology”, where they convincingly prove the necessity of adoption the language Esperanto for the role of the artificial language of international community. According to their facts, about 20 million people in 120 countries of the world can associate with each other in this language. The supporters of Esperanto are right in many respects.

The global world with the single information net, with the united economy (in future), consolidate politically, needs the indivisible language.Of course, it can not exchange the existing national language, but it must add them, fulfil the function of not only the international communication. To the minds of the Esperantists, the scantiness

of this function will not allow to substitute the international intercourse with the ethnic peculiarities of this or that natural language. Some famous sociologists (as A. Turen, M.

Veverna, T. Sudxuki) think that English language can’t effectively fulfill the function of intercourse language just because of its national originality.Its growing predominance they connect with the definition of “linguistic imperialism”, after which there can follow the imperialism of other kinds, such as “intellectual colonialism” “cultural imperialism”. There is an opinion, that it is necessary to substitute the existing language of international intercourse, because English itself exists in various variants, American, Australian, Carib, African, Ireland English and so on. And this makes difficult not only international intercourse but the intercourse between people, speaking different English languages.

There are also the fears, that the turning of English into the international language makes a lot of harm to the peculiarity of English culture, as the role globalism, according to their mind, must preserve, but not restrain the originality. Thus, we see that the spread of English is really considered to be evidence of linguistic Imperialism, because as “the predominance, caused by the establishment and constant supporting of structural and cultural inequality between English and other languages”.