Learning English in a global

context
Chris Kennedy

Presented by : Fatema Al-zahraa Adel

• This chapter focuses on the global spread of English and the
consequences of this for learners and teachers of English.

• A number of key concepts are introduced in this chapter,

including globalization, new varieties of English, English as
a lingua franca, and the contrast between ‘centre’ and
‘periphery’.
 The global spread of English.

• English is a world language (Graddol 2006). There are more

people using English around the world than any other language.
• Learning English is certainly social but it influenced by political
and economic forces.
• Although this may change if centres of economic power shift,
English is embedded as the major world language for the
foreseeable future.
• English is a carrier of the globalization process and of the values
and culture attached to it.
What is globalization?

• Globalization means the growth to a global or

worldwide scale. It used to describe the growing
interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures,
and populations, brought about by cross-border trade
in goods and services, technology, and flows of
investment, people, and information.
English is the forces of globalization

o One of the characteristics of globalization is the compression of

time and space enabled by technological advance. Businesses
set up manufacturing operations and service industries
wherever there is a skilled educated workforce and where
labour costs are comparatively low, regardless of national
borders.
 Example : Many UK/US businesses have outsourced their
customer operations to those countries offering a supply of local
educated English speakers, such as India, Kenya, the
Philippines, Malaysia and South Africa, countries with
relatively cheaper labour costs.
o Although globalization is characterized by movements from
‘centre’ to ‘periphery’ with global concerns influencing local
contexts, globalization paradoxically has the effect of increasing
localization.
 Example : This process is occurring in teaching English as a second
or foreign language (ELT) with centres of expertise developing on
the ‘periphery’ and ‘periphery’ countries attracting English-
speaking students from other ‘peripheries’.

o As well as globalization causing a local reaction, there will often be

a hybrid effect, which has been termed glocalization.
 Example : Glocal English in Singapore ‘Singlish’. Singaporeans
have turned the language into a multifaceted one, serving both
global and local needs.
The circles of English :
There are three concentric ‘circles’ of English
: language users (Kachru 1985)
1. The inner circle consists of speakers of
English as a first language, e.g. from the UK,
North America, New Zealand and Australia.
2. The outer circle speakers use English as a
major additional language primarily for use
within their nation. (e.g. Kenya, Nigeria, India)
3. The expanding circle increases year on year as
more nations and the people within them
realize the need for English for international
communication (e.g. Brazil, Spain, Thailand).
Ownership of English :
• Communities have always absorbed elements of a contact language
and made it part of their own culture and language.
• National language academies may try to discourage borrowing,
promoting locally created neologisms instead. The Icelandic
Language Institute, for example, has a wordbank of alternatives to
English loanwords. Rather than computer, it suggests tolva.
• English influence on a host language is externally driven but that the
borrowings may eventually become a part of the host language and
of a local identity, a form of ‘glocalization’.
• English is owned internally rather than imposed externally.
 Local ownership of English
 English has become part of a Japanese marketing style and design.
Sakaguchi (2002) investigated the language of drinks cans sold from
street kiosks and machines in Japan. ‘FOR’ (soda drink) and ‘LOVE
BODY’ (tea) are brands of Japanese drinks. The drinks consumer
market is Japanese and English is a part of the brand. English has
spread to Japan as a consequence of globalization, but has been
reinterpreted in creative, playful ways that make English in these
consumer contexts a specific local variety owned by the Japanese
drinks industry.
 English was being used as part of a clear marketing strategy.
Katsaridi (2003) looked at shop signs in streets in Athens and found
that English was used to create a perception in potential Greek
customers that the shop sold high-quality goods and that they
belonged to the social group that would buy such high-quality
products.
 New varieties of English
• New varieties are an example of the localization processes
that take place in opposition to the centralizing effects of
globalization.
• English language is being used as a medium of
communication and where it is closely linked to the identity
and culture of the users, local varieties, such as Nigerian and
Indian Englishes, develop with their own lexis, grammar,
phonology and discourse, and there will be sub-varieties or
‘lects’ ranging from formal to informal registers within the
variety.
• In some cases these varieties will not be second but first
languages, Singlish, is a good example.
 English as a lingua franca

• English as a lingua franca (ELF) ‘is the use of English among

speakers of different first languages for whom English is the
communicative medium of choice and often the only option’
(Seidlhofer 2011).
• English may even be used among native speakers of another
language if there is someone present in the conversation who does
not understand the other shared language.
 There are certainly those who believe that the time has come to re-
evaluate the power and influence of inner-circle standardized varieties
such as British or American English.
 Seidlhofer (2004) has collected a corpus of spoken English (the
VOICE corpus) which is beginning to provide data for the existence
of a European lingua franca. She lists some of the characteristics:
• Dropping the third person present tense –s
• Confusing the relative pronouns who and which
• Inserting redundant prepositions, as in We have to study about . . .
• Overusing certain verbs of high semantic generality, such as do, have, make, put,
• Overdoing explicitness (e.g. black colour rather than just black).
 Conclusion
Globalization has produced a complex situation regarding English
and the learning of English.
English is one of the facilitators of globalization and as the language
spreads some welcome it and others attempt to control its spread.
As a paradoxical consequence of globalization, English becomes
embedded in local conditions and contexts, and its ownership is no
longer held by the traditionally defined native speaker, but is part of
the culture and identity of all English-users worldwide.
With localization come developments in the vocabulary, grammar
and discourse of the various Englishes, and the emergence of one or
several ‘lingua francas’.
 Key words
•Centre: chiefly British spelling of center.
•Periphery: the outward bounds of something as distinguished from its internal regions or
center.
•Localization: the adaptation of a product or service to meet the needs of a particular
language, culture, or desired population.
•Glocalization: a combination of the words "globalization" and "localization." The term is
used to describe a product or service that is developed globally but is also adjusted to meet the
local needs.
•Singlish: is an informal, colloquial form of English that is used in Singapore.
•Neologism: a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of
entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted into mainstream language.
•Englishes: the many and varied dialects of English spoken in different parts of the world,
including Indian, Pakistani, Australian, and New Zealand English, as well as the English
spoken in various African and Asian countries.
•Lect: a specific form of a language or language cluster: a language or a dialect. The term is
used when it is not possible or preferable to decide whether something is a distinct language or
only a dialect of a language.