ISABEL MENA MEDINA
28792862-J
ENGLISH: CULTURAL IMPERIALISM?
Introduction:
English, during centuries, was extraordinarily successful at feeding off other
languages and turning them into English, usually English contributes giving them
quality which made them to seem English. Nowadays this language continues feeding
other languages (Bragg, M., 2004)1. English is a West Germanic language originating in
England, and the first language used in many other countries as well as it is extensively
used as a second language; but, above all, as an official language throughout the world
(Wikipedia)2. As Braj B. Kachru (1992) supports in his work The other tongue: English
across cultures3, the label of “English” is applied to several branches of the language
which are different among each other, such as British English, American English and
Indian English.
If we can say that there is a language that can have a chance of being considered
universal, it would be English which can be said to be a property of the world; we can
talk about Cultural Imperialism.
Cultural Imperialism can be defined as the way of promoting, differentiating,
separating, or even introducing the language and culture of one population into another
one. It is a sort of cultural influence characterised by the use of force. Cultural Influence
is a process that goes on all times between all cultures which have contact with each
other (Wikipedia).
It is the aim of my paper to look for factors and causes that determine English language
as the international one as a kind of cultural imperialism; and to organise them in
meaningful order by means of analysing the main fields of its universality. I will begin
presenting a general overview of the historical background, following it with the spread
of English beyond the British Isles. Then, I will analyse the concept of global language
and the role of English as it, before focus my last point on the future of English.
1
Bragg treats the origins and the growth of English deeply and meticulously.
Wikipedia is a useful source to get information about specific themes and its definitions.
3
Braj B. Kachru offers in his work an approachable study of English from the beginning of times with a
deep study of its history.
2
1
Historical overview:
If we analyse the history of English language, it is noticed that English language
has displayed the ability to adapt to new environments, situations and cultures.
Therefore, English has played a very important role in the countries where it has been
introduced social and culturally. Language expansion of English is mainly considered a
significant part of a country’s policy of extending its power and influence by means of
fulfilling its imperialistic strategies (Linguistic Imperialism Essays Web)4.
English arrived to England from northern Europe in the fifth century and spread around
the British Isles (Crystal, D., 2003)5. Graddol et al. (1996) in the work English: history,
diversity and change6 claims that it is a story of contact between speakers of different
languages and about two thousand years ago, before Norman Conquest in 1066, people
involved in the formation of the English were Celtic, Romans, Anglo-Saxon and
Vikings. But it was mainly the language of Anglo-Saxon which is said to constitute the
heart of English, although the problem with the beginning of English language is that
there is no written evidence of it before eighteenth century.
In Roman Empire English, like Latin, was imposed over an enormous area as the
language of administration and commerce. As Braj B. Kachru (1992) claimed, English
began to be used as the language for exploration, trade, conquests and dominion from
sixteenth century onwards. Some events helped to the use of English around the world
such as the trading posts in Africa and Orient, the colonial and penal settlements in
North America and Australia, the slaves’ traffic in Britain, west Africa and Caribbean
and the Industrial Revolution which was mainly dominated by people who spoke
English. The period from 1600 to 1750 was significant due to the fact that there was an
important spread of English language with the explorers, merchants, traders and soldiers
who went out from Britain to begin settlements and colonies overseas.
During World War II, English as official language had claimed progressively less
territory among the former colonies of the British Empire whereas its actual importance
4
I have found it interesting because of the linguistic study about English which is closely related to the
analysis of English as international language.
5
David Crystal analyses English language deeply and covers every issue about the internationally of
English language and its global widespread.
6
Graddol, Leith and Swann, the editors of this book, examine the development of English from the Old
English to the present day, characteristics, use of varieties and the meaning of the language to its
speakers.
2
and numbers of speakers have increased quickly. As the colonies gained independence,
English continued to be used with the vernaculars (Baugh, A. C., 1978)7.
The process of expansion has as central reason the colonization, with the establishment
of communities of English speakers who maintain a closed relationship with England
culturally and economically and who were positioned in a position of power with preexisting inhabitants. One of the reasons of colonization was economic, but also new
colonies were useful for social reasons as well as political; therefore colonization was a
Europe-wide phenomenon (Graddol et al., 1996).
The historical account is based on the movement of English all over the world,
beginning with voyages to America and Asia. This expansion was continuous in
nineteenth century with colonialism in Africa and the South Pacific, and it was really
significant for the following years, when in twentieth century it was accepted as semiofficial language for many independent states (Crystal, D., 2003).
International and Global Language:
According to Goodman and Graddol, “the English language seems set to take
over the world in the course of the twenty-first century, and become the global
language” (1996:181). English is a language widely spoken and it has often been
referred to as “global language”, the lingua franca to the modern era. Although English
is not an official language in many countries, it is the language most often taught as
second language around the world. I t is one of the official language of the European
Union, The United Nations and most international organisations. In the European
Union, English shares prominence with Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish as
official language, but it is only English which is used for correspondence (Crystal, D.,
2003).
According to Crystal (2003), a language has a global status when it plays a special role
recognized in all countries. Therefore, a language has an important role in a country
when it is use as official language and, moreover, when the Educational System
considers it with importance to be taught as foreign language. Crystal states that English
is the foreign language most taught in more than one hundred countries. Although it is
an important factor, we have to take into account the political power in order to be
7
A History of the English language by Baugh analyses in depth the History of the English language
spread all over the world.
3
classified as international language, and, above all, it is the economy the reason which
definitely affects a language to be considered lingua franca.
Crystal (2003) claims in his work English as a Global Language that to achieve a
language a global status, it has to be accepted by other countries around the world. It is
important to know that it exist some ways in which a language can be official, being the
sole official language of a country or sharing this status with other languages. A
language is dependent from the people who speak it and only exist in the brains,
mouths, ears, hands and eyes of its users. A language has traditionally become an
international language because of one main reason which is the power of its people,
politically and military. Any language at the centre of an international activity would
suddenly have found itself with a global status, and English language seems to have
been “in the right place, at the right time” because British political imperialism has sent
English around the globe during nineteenth century.
One of the reasons Crystal defends for the necessity of a global language is the
bilingualism or trilingualism of some communities, being solved finding a language to
act as lingua franca or common language. But, nevertheless, one problem or danger
provoked by the presence of a global language will make people lazy about learning
other languages or, even, make all other languages unnecessary.
Therefore, although colonization was significant at the beginning of the spread of
English, and provided a basis for the global development, in the twentieth century new
forces and processes were cause of that development, such as technological
developments, economics globalization and the improvements in the communication
sphere helped English to be the global language (Goodman, S. & Graddol, D., 1996)8.
Pennycook in his article English in the World/ The World in English states that the
global spread of English today is natural, although it began with the colonialism;
neutral, because English is not connected with political and cultural issues and,
moreover, it is a neutral tool of international communication; and, finally, beneficial
because people is benefited by the access to English and it conveys the world is more
open (Burns, A. & Coffin, C., 2001)9.
8
Goodman and Graddol in Redesigning English: new texts, new identities, look at cultural, political and
economic issues produced by the widespread of English language
9
Burns and Coffin offer in their book a number of articles written by prestigious language specialists
giving to the reader a wide view about the matter.
4
Future of English:
English has been considered as global language from the last decade and it is
thought that while English maintains the same actual world conditions with main
political, economic, socio-cultural and scientific factors from English-speaking
countries as mother tongue, it will continue being the global language for much more
time.
David Graddol in the article English in the future propose the question whether a single
world standard for English will develop presenting two dimensions. On one hand, if
English can be fragment into several unintelligible local forms. And, on the other hand,
if the standards of English will continue taking part as models of correctness for world
usage, or, on the contrary, new standards will arise for international communication and
teaching purposes. English use has been widespread as language for communication
which will continue to pressure towards global uniformity. But the English movement
from foreign language to second language status for an increasing number of people, it
may be expected that English develops a number of local varieties due to the two
functions carried out by English language. First, it provides a language for international
communication, and, second, it forms the basis for cultural identities. As English plays
an even more important role in the first function, it acts as a language of identity for
many people around the world; therefore, the fragmentation does not mean it will affect
to the role of English as lingua franca. I t has been suggested that the English language
provides the clue to Britain’s economic prosperity in the future, and it will be an
advantage for native speakers as much of the business in the world is made in English.
Graddol declares that no single language will have the monopolist position in twentyone century which English has obtained by the end of twentieth century (Burns, A. &
Coffin, C., 2001).
David Crystal in The Future of Englishes claims that it is allowed to deal with a
community’s internal policies by themselves when they wish its way of speaking to be
considered a language. However, it is necessary to have a community with a single
mind about this matter and, above all, with enough political-economic influence to
make it significant and respected by outsiders with whom it is in contact regularly.
(Burns, A. & Coffin, C. 2001)
“English is now spoken by more people (as a first, second, or foreign
language) than any other language and is recognized by more
5
countries as a desirable lingua franca than any other language”
Crystal. (Burns, A & Coffin, C., 2001:54)
An imperialistic process is the fundamental cause of the global spread of
English. It is emphasized that the use of English is not imposed as it was in early
colonial period, but its spread is imposed by the demand of it.
As David Crystal (2003) states in English as a global language, English is a global
language. We are used to hear it on television by politicians from all over the world.
Wherever we travel, we can see every advertisement and signs in English, and if you
visit a foreign city and you go to a hotel, restaurant or whatever public service, they will
understand English and every indications, letters, etc will be translated into English.
There is no reason to think that other languages will appear in some years and will
replace English as global language because English has raised its position from a
particular history which no other language can repeat (Burns, A. & Coffin, C., 2001).
6
Bibliography:
-Baugh, Albert C. (1978). A history of the English Language. 3rd ed. London:
Routledge.
- Bragg, M. (2004). The Adventure of English: 500 AD to 2000, the biography of a
Language. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
-Braj B. Kachru (1992). The other tongue: English across cultures.2nd ed. Urbana:
University of Illinois Press.
- Burns, A. & Coffin, C. (2001). Analysing English in a Global Context. London:
Routledge.
- Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
- Graddol et al. (1996). English: history, diversity and change. London: The Open
University.
Web Sources:
-
Wikipedia,
the
free
encyclopedia.
Retrieved
on
4th
April
2007
from:
on
4th
April
2007
from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_imperialism
-
Wikipedia,
the
free
encyclopedia.
Retrieved
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_English_language.
- Linguistic Imperialism. Retrieved from the web linguistic Imperialism Essays on 5th
April 2007 from: http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/essays/Penny6.pdf
Further Reading:
- Quirk, R. (1968). The Use of English. 2nd ed. London: Longman Group Limited.
- Anderman, G. & Rogers, M. (2005). In and Out of English: for better, for worse.
Buffalo: Multilingual Matters.
7