The English language as a lingua franca: todays endangered Anglo-Saxon supremacy Over the last century, English has

been said to be the worlds global language, given the political and economic power of England and the United States of America. These two countries have claimed a hegemonic power over the language, so that their standards were expected to be adopted and applied wherever it was used. However, this dominance seems to have been challenged, of late, by the emergence of new world powers, their fast population growth and a marked drop of the number of native speakers of English as against those who speak it as a second or foreign language. It is the purpose of the present paper to explore the factors that might endanger the supremacy of countries such as England or the USA with regard to the English language. Firstly, the mentioned challenge may come from new emerging world powers whose native language is not English, namely China, India, Russia and Brazil. This is because of the process of urbanization which is taking place within these new powers' territories, and thus new varieties of different languages emerge which are not only spoken by a growing number of people but also gaining powerful economic status. [Brazils, Russias, Indias and Chinas] economies are growing fast. [...] they form a group referred to by economists as BRICs. (Brazil, Russia, India, China) (Graddol, 2006, p. 32). This portrays that these regions are gaining a stronger cultural, economic and political power and, as they develop, it is likely that a new language hierarchy will appear. Secondly, the increasing number of young people in these countries experiencing social and economic change is of significance with regard to the development of the English language. This is due to the fact that adolescents are key agents for language change as they are flexible about speech patterns, as opposed to older people who tend to be more stable. An understanding of which languages the next generation of teenagers will be speaking and learning is an important step in identifying future trends (Graddol, 2000, p. 16). In this way, young people are the ones that might frame new language patterns which could be spread around the world and internalized by different speech communities in the future. Thirdly, the people who speak English as a second or foreign language have largely outnumbered its native speakers and they are becoming aware of this
Melisa Godoy I.S.P. Dr. Joaquin V. Gonzlez 2011 1

linguistic imperialism; thus posing a further challenge to central supremacy. As Crystal (2003, as cited in Seidlhofer, 2005) explains, only one out of four speakers of English is a native speaker. For this reason, English has become a contact language (Firth, 1996, as cited in Seidlhofer, 2005) among people who do not share their mother tongue. In addition, Graddol (2000) states that places in which English is spoken as a second or foreign language are developing different varieties of English which are largely influenced by the other languages spoken in the area. Furthermore, language varieties have been valued or devalued, of late, according to the power their users portray (Fairclough, 1992). In this way, there is an increasing feeling towards the first language as a synonym of solidarity or intimacy, whereas English is considered of social distance or formality. In conclusion, it can be stated that the English language is beyond any doubt currently challenged mainly by the fact that new economic powers are emerging and that the number of native speakers of English is rapidly decreasing in relation to second or foreign language speakers. Therefore, it allows people to wonder which the next global language will be.

Melisa Godoy I.S.P. Dr. Joaquin V. Gonzlez 2011

References Fairclough, N (1992). Discourse and social change. Cambridge, UK: Polity. Graddol, D. (1997). The future of English? A guide to forecasting the Graddol, D. (2006). English Next. London: British Council. Seidlhofer, B. (2005) English as a lingua franca. ELT Journals, 59.

popularity of the English language in the 21st century. London: British Council.

doi:10.1093/elt/ccio64

Melisa Godoy I.S.P. Dr. Joaquin V. Gonzlez 2011