ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION

*T.Pushpanathan
*Asst.Professor of English, School of Education, SCSVMV University, Kanchipuram.
Abstract
This article is an attempt to shed light on the effects of globalization, its context in the
importance of English language, how globalization influences standardization and the standard
agencies of English language across the world to standardize the global proficiency of the
English language. It also addresses the commonly acknowledged challenge of globalization with
respect to the area of English language teaching and, more particularly, teaching English to
speakers of foreign languages.
Key words: Globalization, standardization, standards for English, standard agencies.
Introduction
Globalization is a process of the integration of different cultures, languages, organizations,
countries, etc from across the globe. Due to the globalization everyone is connected in the world
for the sake of personal and business. Influence of Globalization is everywhere. English language
has a great impact of globalization. Naturally English Language teaching has its own changes in
globalized world. Because of globalization vast number of students has started learning English as
a second language and foreign language. Arjun Appadurai prefers to define “globalization as a
multi-way process involving flows of ideas, ideologies, people, goods, images, messages,
technologies and techniques.” (Appadurai, 2001, 5).
Impact of English in the context of Globalization
Globalization interconnects people in all domains of contemporary life around the world.
The issues of social and technical interdependence among the countries are resolved by
implementing Globalization. There is a need for improved communication among countries to
enhance these interconnections. English is the prominently used language in almost every field of
study. It is used as an international language for communication in many countries and so it could
be used as the global language too.
Crystal (2003) argues that ‘to achieve a global status, a language has to be taken up by
other countries around the world either as an official language or as a priority in a country’s
foreign language teaching’. Evidently, English is the medium of instruction at many school and
colleges all over the world. It is also extensively used language in the field of research, internet
communication, business, social domains and personal relationships. Chew (1999) puts it, that a
‘lack of a command in English would mean the continued marginalization of their children in a
world that would continue to use the language to a greater degree. It would also deny them access
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to the extensive resources available in English – resources which have developed as a
consequence of globalization.’(41) By implementing advanced technology, globalization
functions quickly on global communication, which enables wider dissemination of ideas and
information. Therefore, Globalization establishes faster linkage among nations, which aids in
shared knowledge and information that are generated at particular part of the countries to other
part of the countries.
Globalization influences Standardization
Globalisation and Standardization have been going hand in hand in the recent past.
Globalization involves in establishing standards in all fields. The central focus of globalization
and standardization is to establish global communication, compatibility on one hand and to
increase the performance level of an individual on the other hand. Due to quality problems during
II world war people seriously concentrated in developing global standards for enriching the
quality of the products. Standardization finds out fundamental similarities conditions in different
parts of the world. Standardization in general favours the expertise and is not limited within
boundaries. The expertise is independent of geography or culture, in which communication and
interaction is possible on a global scale. Standardization is the best technical application, which is
applicable in all areas for refining the quality of the product. Therefore, it is applicable in
education too.
Standardization in Education
Serious thought has been given to standardizing the learning content for various subjects
at various levels during the recent past, which has, bi-implication, taken into account the
possibility of effective learning. Standardizing education became essential after globalization. As
education plays a vital role in transnational communication, it became necessary to educate the
people with standard materials. Standardization aimed at providing standard curriculum, which
has to be followed at every stages of the education. Implementing standardized curriculum in the
classrooms will ensure a systematic learning. Through standardized curriculum, teacher as well as
the students can be aware of the content that needs to be taught in the classrooms at every levels
of learning. By viewing the standardized syllabus, students can prepare themselves for later
classes.
The concept behind the standard education is to enhance the global communication and to
equalize the quality of education. So that, students from any part of the world, tends to have
minimum differences in learning skills. In other word, students can acquire required competences
at all levels of schooling in a similar way. By executing standard general education curriculum at
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Schools and universities, students can receive quality education without differences in learning at
various places. The target of globalizing the curriculum is to establish similar levels of
competences among the students of same class studying at various places. Once global standards
are achieved in education, it opens the platform for wider dissemination of knowledge and
information. As so for education is highly conventional, it is difficult to produce a similar
platform for education throughout the world. This standardized process simplifies the education
system. The teacher as well as at schools and universities can follow same textbooks and
reference materials, which reduces digression in teaching learning process. Recently, serious
measures are taken to globalize standards for education.
Standards for English
As English is treated as the international language, the expansion of globalization among
the countries demands evolving standardized curriculum for teaching and learning of English
language. In order to meet global requirement, the individual have to acquire the global
competences. Therefore, the English language curriculum must incorporate the identified global
competence framework, while framing the national curriculum for languages.
CEFR mainly concentrates on testing of languages at various levels of proficiency to
analyze the competency level of an individual in particular language. ‘CEF wants to promote
international co-operation in the field of modern languages. Therefore, it enhanced the
transparency of the courses, syllabuses and qualifications. It explicitly describes the objectives,
content and methods of the courses to improve the standards of the teaching-learning process. The
various levels of proficiency facilitate the individuals to recognize the qualifications gained by the
learners at different learning context, which will increase mobility.’
ACTFL proficiency levels provide an account of language learning &teaching standards
from kindergarten through post-secondary education (k-16). ‘Standardization and accountability
in language education came out of the collaboration of educators, American council for teaching
of foreign languages and government agencies, including Interagency Language Roundtable
(ILR)’. In 1986, ACTFL proficiency guidelines was released incorporating listening skills,
reading skills, speaking skills and writing skills at four levels; novice, intermediate, advanced and
superior. After ten years, the research on language education moved towards the standards of
learning. The similar kind of research was carried out in other disciplines in subjects like
mathematics, sciences, social studies, and language arts for producing the national standards in
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education. As a result of which ‘national organizations, presented its standards for foreign
language learning: preparing for the 21st century in 1996 and in 1999, the k-16 standards for
foreign language learning in the 21st century.’
Followed by these two standards Canadian Language Benchmarking (CLB) a common
point of reference for language proficiency of adult immigrants is established. The Centre for
Canadian Language Benchmarks (CCLB) is the organization that promotes excellence in the use
of the Canadian Language Benchmarks. The CCLB aids the promotion of these national
Standards in education, community, training and workplace settings. ‘The Centre for Canadian
Language Benchmarks offers the leadership and expertise to safeguard the integrity, promote the
use and support application of the Canadian Language Benchmarks. Canadian Language
Benchmarks establishes the national standards for describing, measuring and recognizing English
language proficiency of adult immigrants and prospective immigrants for living and working in
Canada.’
All these standards in general are organized for specific purposes, but still have unity in
assessing the language proficiency levels. Based on these standards k-12 syllabus for languages
are framed. The significant feature of this k-12 framework is that the pedagogic structure of the
framework, which is more refined than the global standards. The k-12 standards represent the list
competences from class I to Class XII in a pedagogic manner. In the global standards of ACTFL,
CEFR & CLB the competences levels are divided on a broader levels such as basic, intermediate
and mastery. ‘Language competences are the sum of knowledge, skills and characteristics which
empower a person to act using specifically linguistic means’ (CEFR 2001). Unlike the global
framework, the K-12 standards distributed the set of competences in ascending order from class I
to class XII. The competences needs to be acquired at each class are clearly mentioned. None of
the competences is repetitive within the same levels of Schools. It has tabulated the required
competences at each class level in all the skills reading, listening, speaking and writing in a
distinct way as that of the global standards. This K-12 standard is followed by Indian schools
with regard to school education.
As for as English language teaching is concerned such a structural progress has been
facilitated not just through course for a time span of one year, the contemporary descriptors in
CEFR & ACTFL proficiency guidelines have enabled the working out of a framework spread

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over 12 years of schooling revealed in overlapping forms across the globe to advantage at school
education.
Global Proficiency Standards for Languages
One of the first steps towards standardization and accountability in language education
came out of the collaboration of educators, American council for teaching of foreign languages
and government agencies, including the interagency Language Roundtable (ILR). In 1986, they
produced the first set of language proficiency guidelines. The ACTFL proficiency guidelines, a
descriptive metric intended to guide proficiency in multiple languages, including listening,
speaking, reading and writing performance at four levels; novice, intermediate, advanced and
superior. After some ten years of reorienting the entire rays of language education, the field
moved towards the articulation of standards of learning. This process involved proficiency
indicatory and performance driven goals, objectives, and outcomes on the field. Concurrently,
other disciplines, mathematics, sciences, social studies, and language arts, were producing their
national standards within most of the fifty states. For foreign languages to maintain their place in
a standards driven arena, language educators needed to delineate clear, attainable, mutually agree
upon goals and learners out comes. These produce learner standards from kindergarten through
post-secondary education (k-16). The national standards in foreign language education
collaborative project, a consortium of nine language associations endorsed by 46 states were
organized. This national organizations, presented its standards for Foreign language learning:
preparing for the 21st century in 1996 and in 1999, the k-16 standards for foreign language
learning in the 21st century.
Conclusion
Experts in ELT and Teacher education hold the responsibility to develop a standard teacher
competency framework for teaching English. Through this standardized competence framework,
teachers can recognize and meet global demands. The framework would provide a platform for
teachers to test themselves and finds out the inadequacies in their competence. Once the teacher is
aware of the competencies that are necessary for teaching a global audience, it may be less
difficult for them to excel in teaching English. Regardless of time and experience, any teacher
should be able to study and improve their competence based on a standardized competence
framework. Even educational institution could assess the levels of proficiency of teacher at the
time of interview. Furthermore, experienced teachers could assess their teaching performances

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before appearing for promotion and if necessary could train themselves for an applied post. Thus,
a standardized framework for teacher competence and performance would lead to quality
educators in the field of English and to better job opportunities for the educators themselves.
References
1. Appadurai, Arjun. (2001). Globalization. Duke University Press, Durham, NC.
2. Chew, P. (1999). Linguistic Imperialism, globalism and the English language. In D.
Graddol & U. Meinhof, English in a changing world [AILA Review 13]. United Kingdom.
37-47.
3. Crystal, D. (2003). English as a Global Language. 2 nd Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.