Yael Albizu Baliño

Universidad de Hurlingham

Linguistics I

Juan José Arias

May 21, 2022

Is it possible to achieve intelligibility without losing ourselves?

 English is the dominant language of our days. This is spoken by more than 2 million
people and is the official language in at least 75 territories scattered on all continents and in
the three major oceans (Crystal, 2019, p.112). Its expansion is a result of multiple factors
such as British and American Imperialism and the hegemonic power of the USA in the
market. These and other aspects have contributed to the high demand for the use of English
throughout the world and have turned it into a lingua franca. In Argentina, the debate on the
use of English as Lingua Franca and the use of a Standard language has resurfaced after the
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Santiago Cafiero, delivered a speech for Argentina
Day at Expo Dubai 2020. He was harshly criticized for his performance in English
pronunciation and was accused of not being educated enough to be a public official.1

The use of English as a lingua franca generates controversy because living in a globalized
world can undermine national identity and also create a gap between those who know how to
speak that language and those who do not. It is an arduous task, but it is possible to achieve
intelligibility without losing the traits that characterize us culturally.

Argentina leads the Latin American ranking of English proficiency. The domain of
English has been associated with higher income, better quality of life, greater ease of doing
business and greater innovation.2Proponents of the use of English as lingua franca declare
that the adoption of a common language is inevitable because it boosts innovation, facilitates
communication, and can be an engine of inclusion since it equalizes the conditions of those
who come from different circumstances and origins. However this mindset can be
problematic. As the British linguist David Crystal (2019) says, internationalism and identity
conflict. While identity implies individuality and includes the development of a national
language or a national variety of an international language, internationalism implies
intelligibility which also involves understanding the English of that world (p. 118). While
some people claim that English has a role in providing a neutral means of communication and
empowering the marginalized societies, some others argue that English exceeds the
instrumental perspective of communication and it is the means used by hegemonic powers to
spread linguistic and cultural representations and exercise domination. That brings us to the
questions, what is the variety of English that we should know and the world that we should
embrace? How can we maintain our national identity in a world where intelligibility is
demanded?

The censure suffered by the Interior Minister Santiago Cafiero was a clear example of
linguicism. That event revealed that many people think that his English pronunciation was
"tainted" by the native language. That implies a mental image of hierarchies as if one
language were better than the other. This idea should not take us by surprise as it leads us to
think of what Phillipson describes as linguistic imperialism, which is "the dominance

1 https://www.ef.com.co/epi/regions/latin-america/argentina/
2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozQPt4tKgo8

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affirmed and maintained by the continual establishment and reconstitution of structural and
cultural inequalities between English and other languages" (qtd. in Arias,2018, p.16).

For years, we have been exposed to dominant linguistics representations through media
and taught by teachers who tend to reproduce, assume and naturalize the idea that certain
cultures are more adaptable and evolved because they have shown more economical and
political achievements. In fact, the use of English throughout the world is a consequence of
countries like England or the United States being economic powers and having a long history
of domination. This idea of superiority is aligned with the theory of social Darwinism and
expresses that there is a natural selection in favor of the strongest and those who demonstrate
social progress. The ideology of natural selection can lead us consciously or unconsciously to
equate culture with language. As Mare & Silva Garcés (2018) warn, the equation is very
risky since if a certain culture is believed to be superior, so is its language (p.27). This fact
helps us understand the reason why the minister was criticized. His English did not meet the
standards of the dominant English-speaking nations, and the idea of inferiority flourished in
the minds of those who criticized him. Moreover, what began as a criticism of his
pronunciation ended up in a voracious criticism of his education, and he was accused of
incompetence. It implies what Arias (2018) says that, in order to become more educated, one
has to learn the language of mainstream culture, and the omnipresence of hegemonic
languages in the educational systems causes linguistic self-hatred and self-censorship on the
part of those marginalized (p.6-7). This mindset is already an intrinsic part of our culture
which is strongly influenced by hegemonic forces that have been working from within for a
long time.

Despite the fact that these ideologies are so embedded in our way of thinking, at least
three things must be taken into account. First, as Moreno Cabrera mentions (2016), there is
no scientific evidence of any linguistic characteristic that determines that a language, dialect,
or linguistic variety is better or worse, more useful, richer, more flexible or adequate (p.20).
Second, a totally uniform, regionally neutral, and unarguably prestigious variety of English
does not yet exist worldwide. Third, the notion of a ‘standard pronunciation’ is useful in the
international setting of English as a second or foreign language, but it is inevitable that, when
English is in close contact with other languages, “it adopts some of the characteristics of
those languages, especially their vocabulary and prosody” (Crystal, p.120). It is evident then
that there is no single acceptable variety of English. Moreover, intelligibility must be
achieved, especially in the international setting, but it is not necessary to divest ourselves of
the accent of our mother tongue, which is the color that distinguishes us from others in "the
cultural melting-pot."

In conclusion, it is possible to acquire an international language without losing our

personal imprint or cultural identity. However, it requires real intention and action on the part
of the rulers and members of the educational system. From the rest of us, it takes critical

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thinking and instruction to understand that we can achieve intelligibility without denigrating
our language, much less our culture.

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 References

Arias, J.J.(2018). Brushing History Against the Grain to Unearth the Origin of Linguistic
Representation. UNCOMA.

Arias, J.J.(2018). English (hegemony) under the microscope. A countercultural alternative

for ELT in times of linguistic imperialism. Tejuelo. Didáctica de la lengua y la
literatura, 28 (2018): páginas del artículo ISSN: 1988-8430

Crystal, D. (2019). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English language. Cambridge

University Press.

Mare, M., & Casares, M. F. (2018). ¡A lingüistiquearla! Editorial EDUCO Universidad

Nacional del Comahue.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331929392_A_linguistiquearla

Moreno Cabrera, C. (2016). La Dignidad e Igualdad de las Lenguas: Crítica de la

discriminación lingüística. Alianza Editorial.