U214A Book 2: Chapter 6

In The World:
History, Diversity,
Change
Chapter Six
English and Other
languages
Dr. Magda
Introduction
 English has co-existed throughout its history with other languages across
nations, institutions and communities. Earlier chapters have discussed
how contact with other languages has affected the development of English
— from the influence of Scandinavian languages and Norman French on
Old and Middle English (Chapter 2) to the distinctive features of New
Englishes in several parts of the world (Chapters 3 and 5). This chapter
continues the discussion of language contact, focusing on the status and
use of English alongside other languages in contemporary multilingual
contexts.
 Bilingual individuals and communities commonly deploy their languages in
complementary ways, using one language for some functions and others
for other functions. The selections are often made unconsciously, being
based in habitual patterns. The patterns, in turn, are shaped by the
circumstances under which English came into the community, by practical
considerations, and by qualities associated with each language. As a
result, people may be very ambivalent about a language.
 People may value bilinguilism because they see it as giving access to
certain economic benefits and upward social mobility, but also dislike it
because it is the mother tongue of people -who oppress (ed) them.
English has been and still is the subject of this kind of ambivalence,
particularly in former British colonies. Thus, as we will see in this chapter,
the spread of English among speakers of other languages receives both
support and opposition.

Terminology
 Most of the phenomena discussed here occur in both bilingual and
multilingual communities. sometimes the terms 'bilingual' and
'bilingualism‘ are used as general terms to avoid awkward repetition
of 'bilingual and multilingual', or 'bilingualism and multilingualism'.
 By home language(s), means the language(s) habitually used in a
home and acquired by its children. The scope of the term is similar
to 'first language', but it allows for the fact that in some homes it
isn't clear that one language is 'first' in the sense of being acquired
first or in the sense of ranking.
Encounters with English
 In countries where it is a foreign language, such as those in Kachru's
'Expanding Circle' (Kachru, 1992), the school classroom is the main site
where speakers of other languages meet up with, learn and use English.
Where opportunities for face-to-face teaching and learning in English are
very limited, people might still be able to gain some ability to read and
write the language through a combination of self-instruction manuals, CDs
and DVDs. Their main use of it may be for accessing the English language
radio and television programmes, available through satellite technology.
Formal teaching and learning favours standard Englishes, whereas radio,
television and the internet are more hospitable to other varieties of English.
 English is the language most widely used on the internet. People do not
need to have an excellent command of the language as a whole in order to
navigate and participate in the virtual worlds of the internet. Starting with
basic vocabulary and grammar, they can pick up the style appropriate to
the domains they enter. Reading and writing in internet communication may
be all that many people will use English for — they may never need to
speak it. The rest of their lives can be carried on in their other languages.
 Although informal access to English is becoming easier, pressure to have
access to classes where English is taught systematically and intensively to
adults is on the increase throughout the world. The British Council and
hundreds of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and
TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) language schools provide
resources and classes which cater for the needs of adults who want to
interact with business, professional or academic colleagues internationally.
As has been discussed in earlier chapters, English is very widely used as a
lingua franca for communication between people who do not speak one
another's home languages.
Regulating English: policy and
planning
 Obviously, English could not be the practical lingua franca that it is
in international communication if it were not already a prominent
language in a large number of countries. As you saw in earlier
chapters, in Kachru's 'Inner Circle' countries English has a high
profile because it is now the mother tongue of the numerical
majority, who are also the most powerful group politically and
economically.
 National language policy and planning in multilingual
countries
 Language policy is the set of broad goals - political, social,
economic, linguistic - that policy developers hope to achieve by
focusing on aspects of the use of languages in particular countries
or institutions. Language planning identifies the processes of
policy application.
Official Language and National
Language?
 What is the difference between an official language and a
national language?

legislation regulates which languages are to be used for official purposes in government at
all levels (national, regional and local), in the civil service, educational institutions, the
legal domain, and in relations with other countries. As official languages, these are
given high status. They may have official language status throughout the country or only
in certain regions. Some countries also identify an indigenous language as a national
language. Its main value is symbolic.

At a language policy conference in South Africa in 1991, sociolinguist Ralph Fasold
answered a question about the difference in meaning between the terms 'national
language' and 'official language'. He said that a national language is rather like the flag:
it is valued as a symbol of national identity and people feel strongly about it. An official
language is more like the post office: it is valued as an institution through which things
get done, communication happens, but people don't feel strongly about it. (Not all
countries have both a national and an official language.)

English has a long history of serving as an official language or a language of education in
many countries. As a result, its corpus is highly developed for those functions. This has
put it in a position of advantage over many other languages in situations where new
language policies are being considered. However — and this is very important - it has not
automatically ensured that English is accorded high official status in multilingual countries,
nor even that it is retained as an official language in countries where it once had an
established presence.
Pakistan and Tanzania

Pragmatic considerations are not the only ones that shape language policy: perceptions of
historical legacy and desired national identity are also taken into account.

After they gained independence, many former British colonies initially retained English in
key domains. In some countries there was little or no organised resistance to the retention
of English, but in others there was. Two former colonies where the status of English was
challenged are Pakistan and Tanzania.

Pakistan was part of a large area in south Asia which had been under British control for
about ninety years, from the mid-nineteenth century. After they gained independence,
many former British colonies initially retained English in key domains. During the period of
British control, English was the main language of administration and it became fairly widely
known through formal education. Also during that period, several other languages of the
region were used as identity symbols for various ethno-nationalist and religious
movements. Because English had not been associated with any of these movements it
could be seen as neutral in relation to them.

This was ideologically useful to the post-independence government of Pakistan, which was
trying to unify a newly established political entity while at the same time carrying on the
day-to-day tasks of education and administration

These factors favoured keeping English as an official language. However, its retention was
strongly opposed by religious parties 'who felt that maintaining the status of English
symbolized a new form of colonization' (Mahboob and Ahmar, 2008, p. 245). They wanted
an Islamic state which used a local language spoken by Muslim communities. Of the
possible contenders, Urdu received the strongest support.

Tanzania
 The East African country, Tanzania, gained its independence from
Britain in 1961. Although it had been under British colonial rule for
far less time than Pakistan — only forty years — English was
already firmly established as the language of colonial government.
The post-independence government wanted to turn away from
Western capitalist models and build a classless society based on
Ujamaa, an African form of socialism and self-reliance. The
unifying linguistic vehicle for this was to be an African language,
Swahili, rather than English.
 Recognising the need for more political and economic interaction
with Britain and other countries of the West, the government put
measures in place to facilitate this. In 1974, as part of the process
of political and economic liberalisation, President Nyerere
advocated equalising the status of English and Swahili. Since then
'English has regained its pre-1967 prestige, while Swahili has
attained an unprecedented level of spread and importance in use'
(Blommaert, 1999, p. 98). This is not surprisingsince both
languages had been and still are used in modernisation.
Namibia
 Former British colonies are not the only multilingual countries
where English has been elevated to the status of official language.
This has been done in Rwanda, Madagascar and Namibia, none of
which had ever been part of the British Empire.
 You can read more details about Namibia on pp. 255-259.
 In these accounts of the changing status of English in Pakistan,
Tanzania and Namibia, some general points about the positioning
of English in a multilingual country can be derived. For instance,
we noted that there may be pressures between ideological and
pragmatic forces which can cause mismatches — if not
contradictions — between policy and practice, and may even
prompt (rapid, quick) a series of policy decisions and reversals.
We also saw that, in the contemporary world, national language
policies in multilingual countries should take account of both the
country's internal situation and the wider regional and global
contexts within which it is located.
English and Other Languages in Communities and Families

Language policies may influence but they certainly do not determine how people will use
languages and the resources that come with them. Communities and families are key
sites where relationships between languages are established and challenged. Thus, we
turn now to an exploration of the ways in which English may be incorporated into the
linguistic repertoires of communities and families which also use one or more other
languages.

Stable bilingual or multilingual communities which use English but do not neglect their
own languages are to be found not only in predominantly English-speaking countries and
former British colonies such as India, but also in countries which have no history of
control by Britain. Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands are examples of the latter.
Members of such communities learn and use English for some purposes (such as access
to ideas spread primarily in English) but not for others. They move comfortably within the
English-speaking world without wanting to identify with it at the expense of their own.

The movement of English into the home domain is often facilitated by children. It is more
likely to occur when they don't just study it as a subject, but have all of their schooling in
English. In such cases, children often speak English to their siblings and friends in the
playground, and out of habit, they continue to use English with their siblings at home
when talking about things associated with life outside the home. If their parents can also
speak English, it is possible for 'home topics' to be spoken of in English. In this way
English becomes a home language. This process is occurring in Singapore, South Africa
and many other parts of the world, particularly among urban middle-class families.
Language Shift
 Where communities' own languages seem to have little currency in the
wider world, younger people may not want to continue using them. In a
community, language shift may take several generations to run its
course. In Wales, for example, efforts to stop the shift to English and to
revive the use of Welsh have met with noticeable success during the
past three decades. Cooperation between strong civil society
organisations and the Welsh Assembly Government has been a key
element in this success. The process of revival is complex and is affected
by political and economic factors, and by differing perceptions of the
connection between the Welsh language and Welsh identity (Coupland
and Aldridge, 2009; Williams, 2009).
 Some people regard the revival of the Welsh language primarily as part
of a long process of resisting political and economic domination by
English speakers. Others do not see English as an outsider language
since many people whose families have lived in Wales for generations
are English-speaking and speak very little Welsh, while regarding
themselves as Welsh. Williams's interviewees express a range of views
on the centrality of the Welsh language to a sense of Welsh identity.
Shift from Indigenous Languages
to English

In the United States, the shift from indigenous languages to English seems to be ongoing in
communities whose language of origin has not already died out. However, some Native
American communities are trying to prevent their languages from dying out. The Linguistics
Department at the University of New Mexico offers assistance to such communities by working
with community members to develop descriptions of the languages and dictionaries. These
involvements alone, however, are not enough to stop or reverse language shift — that would
require wider and more intensive community involvement and extensive state support — but
they can provide resources for those who want to learn the languages.

Families isolated through migration often undergo language shift in as little as three
generations. This is the time frame seen in many immigrant families who settle in Englishspeaking countries and live in neighbourhoods where their home language is not known. A
typical pattern in such cases is that, if they do not already know English, the adult immigrants
speak their language of origin at home and try to learn as much English as they need for their
daily lives outside the home.

Children born in the new country speak the language(s) of their parents, but also have to learn
and use English for educational and social purposes. When they in turn have children they may
choose to use English in interactions with them at home, so that they will settle easily at school
and integrate with local English-speaking children. It is in the second generation that decisions
are taken which lead to language maintenance or language shift in a family.

Although across the globe there is evidence that English is in high demand, it is not seen only as
the bringer of advantages. There are also concerns about its effects on other languages and the
cultures with which they are associated. In recent decades the promotion and rapid spread of
English throughout the world has led to a fear that it will inevitably result in the eventual death
of the languages with which it comes into contact.
Invasion by English
 This fear has been strongly expressed in metaphors of war such as
the 'invasion' by English into the territories of other languages;
English has been labelled a 'killer language', and its effect on other
languages has been seen as a form of 'linguicide' (Skutnabb-Kangas
and Phillipson, 2001). It is important to note that while the
contemporary spread of English is threatening the survival of other
languages in some places, it does not always have this effect. Even
where English is accorded high status nationally, it may not
precipitate language shift towards English, as we see in Tanzania, for
example.
Code Switching
Speaking bilingually: switching between English and other
languages
 Bilinguals do not always have to choose only one language for a
conversation — they may switch between their languages within
one conversation. The moment-by-moment alternation between
languages is termed code switching, where 'code' may refer to a
distinct language or language variety: for example, a dialect, or
accent.
 A speaker may switch from one code to another for just one
phrase, or for much longer. Switches may occur within sentences as
well as between them. Code switching may be planned or
unplanned, conscious or unconscious. There is evidence to indicate
that bilinguals are not always aware of which language they are
speaking, or of when they are switching.
 You can read the rest of this section where the writer explores
different forms and functions of switching between English and
other languages pp.264-273.
Conclusion
 In the early twenty-first century most speakers of English in the world
have another language as their first language: language contact
phenomena are, then, common rather than exceptional in the lives of
people who speak English today. In the many multilingual countries
where English is an official language, it is usually also the main
language of post-primary education and is thus perceived as the
language of access to higher education, to well-paid employment and
to the wider world. While there are fears that such positive
associations will lead to neglect or loss of a community's other
languages, this is not necessarily the case. For instance, local
languages may be regarded as the only appropriate languages for
important cultural domains. In contact situations, speakers may also
frequently, even routinely, draw on English alongside other languages,
switching between these in everyday conversation to a range of
stylistic and interpersonal effects.