Ashfaq Aslam 1346524

Multilingualism problem or a resource?

Ashfaq Aslam 1346524 (1510 words)

Ashfaq Aslam 1346524

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11 1-9) In philosophy, the essence of the human being is divided into three language, thought and perception. As language constitutes third of what makes us human, man has exerted himself, over the centuries, to explain human language. The story in genesis seeks to explain how man, from being a monolingual became a multilingual being. The questioned to be asked is should we be grateful for our linguistic diversity or hope to return to our former state. Multilingualism Monolingualism, that is, the ability to use but a single language code. However bi/multilingualism is not so easily defined, for instance, one who speaks Hindi and Urdu may well say they are bi/multilingual, on the other hand, an Arab who speaks the colloquial and classic Arabic will insist that they are merely speaking different varieties of the same language (Wardhaugh, 1992). One might face similar problems in terming a nation a bi/ monolingual state. A nation de facto may have many languages spoken within its boundaries however; de jure may not be bilingual. The idea that multilingualism is divisive, while monolingualism is a normal and desirable state of affairs has been with since biblical times. In more recent years, Rupert Murdoch, in an Australian radio show, claimed that multilingualism is the cause of the Indian disunity, and monolingualism is the reason for the unity in the English speaking world. However, the false notion of a common language goes hand in hand with political, economical or any other

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form of unity can be easily repudiated. A very high linguistic and religious uniformity in Somalia did not prevent a brutal civil war from breaking out there. (Romaine, 2000 ) It is generally believed that countries in the west are monolingual and the third world is multilingual riddled with languages and dialects.(Canning, 2004). This coupled with the economic prosperity in the western world, little wonder monolingualism and homogenous speech communities are seen as recipe for success. In actual fact, however, most if not all western countries are multilingual despite bias towards monolingualism. In London today, as a result of the arrival of migrants and refugees in the second half of the last century, it is estimated by Baker & Eversley (2000) that approximately 300 languages are spoken. Even China, which claims to be a monolingual homogenous society, is dialectally diverse where there is no mutual intelligibility across the varieties of spoken Chinese. (Canning 2004). A distinction is usually made between societal and individual multilingualism. Canada, for instance, is officially a bilingual state in English and French. However, not all Canadians are bilingual. There are more French speaking Canadians who learn English than there are of English speaking Canadians who learn French. Countries such as India and Papua new Guinea, most of its speakers know at least two languages. The connection between individual and societal multilingualism becomes evident reason why individuals are or become multilingual. From a pedagogical point of view the learning of a language other than one's mother tongue would increase cognitive flexibility and help the learner understand the universals of language (Lambert, 1990). There have been several research studies suggesting the positive aspect of multilingual acquisition and pedagogy in terms of additive bi/multilingualism (Cook, 1992). The curriculum responses to multilingualism have also been varied e.g. The immersion programme in Canada, Biliteracy-bilingual programmes, the three language programme in India and the PEEB (Proyecto Experimental de Educacion Bilingue- Puno) in Peru (Hornberger & Lopez, 1998) have been researching and refining mother-tongue based pedagogical approaches to language learning in a multilingual society. The key to the preservation of multilingualism has been the recognition of the first language of the child, the language that the child brings to the classroom. Languages, such as English, are the language of commerce in many parts of the world and the acquisition of it is seen as an integral for economic and social prosperity. For instance the Gaelic speakers' and Hungarian speakers' abandonment of their mother tongues in favour of English and German respectively is common where the new language offers economic incentives and educational opportunities (Cannan, 2004). Due to the spread of a few world languages many smaller languages are dying out. It has been estimated that eleven languages are spoken by about 70 percent of the worlds population. Boundaries of modern-nation states have been arbitrarily drawn in line with the political and economic interest of the elite. Many indigenous people are living in nations in which they had no say in creating and are controlled by groups who dont represent their interest and in some cases like the Kurds in turkey and Iraq, who actively seek their extermination More than 80

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percent of the conflicts in the world today are between nation-states and minority people (Jacob, 2009). While not all states are pursuing the extermination of the minorities, there are policies that are designed to assimilate the minority into the dominant culture. Many minorities are brainwashed into thinking that their language is inferior therefore abandonment of it is necessary for becoming American. This leads to the death many minority languages within three generations. The survival of languages e.g. Catalan in Spain and Bhojpuri-Hindi in Mauritius is an example of the communities' resilience for language maintenance against various discriminatory political and educational policies (Romaine 2000). While some communities strive for a monolingual and homogenous society, there are others who strive for diversity in language. One such example exists among the tukano of the northwest Amazon (Sorensen 1971). The Tukano are a multilingual people because men must marry outside their language group. Marriage with some one of the same language is viewed as a kind of incest. In this community no effort is made to suppress the flourishing multilingualism, there diversity of language is seen as source of strength, for it enables the various linguistic communities to maintain contact with one another (Wardhaugh 1992 ). While others multilingualism is a necessary tool to function in the society. Singapore has four official languages, each having a specific function. English is the language of trade, a variety of Chinese is used between family members, Malay is the language of the region and Tamil the language of one important ethnic group. Each individual uses his/her languages, available to him/her, dynamically to perform their daily chores. For many centuries, governments and states were of the opinion that monolingualism equates to unity and prosperity. Despite the fact that most of the communities in the world are multilingual, many governments continue to characterise multilingualism as a problem and a threat which could lead to instability and poverty. As we have seen, monolingualism does not guarantee unity and prosperity, on the other hand, the pursuit for the establishment of homogenous society has lead to marginalization of communities and conflict between nationstates and minority people. The fact is that multilingualism is a natural product of language spread and development.

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Bibliography Romaine, S., (2000) Language in society an introduction to sociolinguistics. second edition. Oxford: oxford university press Wardhaugh, R., (1992) Blackwell publishers An introduction to sociolinguistics. Second edition. Oxford:

Canning, J. (2004). "Disability and residence abroad." Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies Good Practice Guide. [online] Available from: <http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/gpg/2241>. Mey, Jacob., (2009) Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics. Second edition. Amsterdam: .elsevier
Lambert, W.E. 1990. Persistent issues in bilingualism. In Harley, B. et al. 1990. The Development of Second Language Proficiency. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Cook, V. 1992. Evidence for multi-competence. Language Learning 42. Hornberger, N.H. and L.E. Lopez. 1998. Policy, Possibility and Paradox: Indegenous Multilingualism and Education in Peru and Bolivia. In Cenoz J. and F. Genesee. 1998.eds. Beyond Bilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Ashfaq Aslam 1346524