英语全球化的影响

Impact of English Globalization on Vernaculars’ Survival 英語全球化對當地語言存續之影響

二水國中教師蕭建峻1. Introduction: English Globalization 1. 緒論：英語全球化

Because of the influences of former British Empire and the USA’s

political/economic power, English nowadays is used in a lot of areas around the world. Once called as the “sun-never set country” in the 19th century, the British Empire owned about 1/4 land of the world. At that time, the language of the ruler, the English, was the language chosen for communication between different colonies and within the British Empire. However, the power started shifting from the British Empire to the USA during WWII as the USA became the armory of the whole free world. After WWII, the USA successfully grabbed the opportunity to become the super power of the world in politic and economic stages as the European countries worked hard to recover from the war. While the British Empire and the USA stretched their power to the world, both countries also brought the language, English, to the whole world simultaneously. English now is the official language for more than 80 countries (https://www.360docs.net/doc/431907954.html,/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English_is_an_official_langug e 2009) and becomes the most favorite language for international communication.

With the globalization of English, English is popular in many fields, such as academy, international political meetings, entertainment, business, and even personal social interaction. (Buck, 2005)

In the field of mass media, English is the most favorite language. Take the TV news as an example. CNN and BBC are good choices to get information about the current international news. The possible reasons are not only the giant organization of these two news agencies but also the language CNN and BBC use for spreading news,

i.e., English.

In the entertainment industry, English has an unparalleled position. In the movie field, Hollywood plays an important role and produces lots of movies every year. Among the movies from Hollywood, most are in English or come with English subtitles. In the music field, having English communication ability seems to be the basic requirement for the artists to compete in the global market. The reason of choosing English is mainly due to its wide acceptability in the world.

According to the estimation (Swales, 1987), among all the academic papers published each year, more than 50% were written in English. The more amazing fact is that the percentage of English written papers is still rising year after year. English is preferred to any other language in the field of science and technology. (Crystal, 1997).

Besides being used in books, newspaper, academic conferences, and science technology, English is also the main language employed in international settings, e.g., international airports, advertising, and organizations. In international airports, English signals are almost everywhere. Within most international organizations, such as UN, GATT, and NATO, English is usually the first language people employ when interacting with others who have different languages.

In all the above cases, English globalization makes English become the international lingual franca for communication. A lingua franca is used as a tool for communication. When two speakers with different first languages want to communicate with each other, each speaker has to choose a common language to make himself/herself understood. The chosen common language is the lingua franca. Currently, the language chosen most often around the world is English (House, 2003). To these people who choose English as the lingua franca, English is used as a tool to achieve something beneficial to their lives, e.g., for making money, job promotion…etc (Mufwene, 2006). However, some people think that such wide uses of

English bring some negative impacts to the world.

As a lingual franca, English influences some people’s language choices. According to Melitz (2007), English globalization brings threats to the existence of local languages. Some languages thus have limited space for development which later might result in the extinction. Following the extinction is the loss of cultural identity and integrity (Zealand, 2006). Nevertheless, some languages still successfully keep their positions in specific areas. To explore the situation, two research questions are proposed to discuss the impacts of English globalization on vernacular’s survival.

1.Why does English put some vernaculars into extinction in some areas but not

in other areas?

2.If English is not the killer of some vernaculars, how and why do some

vernaculars become extinct without clear personal intervention?

2. Negative impacts of English globalization: English as a vernacular killer

2. 英語全球化負面的影響：英語成為本土語言的兇手

In some contexts, English globalization may pose a great threat to the existence of the vernaculars. According to Swaans’“Q-value”(2001), people usually decide to speak one language that is the most helpful to them to achieve their goals. As the speakers choose English for daily communication, their native languages would be restricted in their development and then would possibly be abandoned. In this way, English could put several languages into extinction.

Take the situation in the settlement colonies as an example (Mufwene, 2006). The settlement colonies are the places where the European colonists planned to stay as homes, such as America, Australia, and New Zealand. In these areas, new immigrants brought their own languages and then the languages competed with each other in the new world. Usually, the winner went to the socio-economically dominant language, i.e., English. The reasons are often attributed to new immigrants’ minority in number

and being weak in socio-economic power. Lose in the competition often led to limited space and few occasions for the development of the new immigrants’ languages. Y ears later, those minority languages were gradually less favored by new immigrants’following generation and sometimes even disdained. With less and less people speaking the minority groups’ languages, their languages were endangered and finally came to extinction in that area.

Similar threats are also posed on the Natives in the settlement colonies. Living in the rural and remote area, the Natives usually lead a poorer life than the general population. In order to improve the living conditions, the Natives either accept the modernization or move to the cities. Both methods bring the civilization of the outside world, inclusive of the possible threats to their mother language from English.

Most Natives choose to move to the cities to melt into the general life of the country but at the cost of losing their culture at the same time. After moving to the cities where Natives are minority group, the Natives have no choice but to adopt the dominant language, i.e., English, to communicate with the other citizens. Because of little space and few occasions for the mother tongues in the cities, the Natives’children view learning and speaking their mother tongues as unnecessary. Gradually, those minority’s languages are marginalized or even die out in the end (Mufwene, 2003).

Outside the settlement colonies, some originally widely-used lingua franca are progressively replaced by English as well (Mufwene, 2006). In Brazil, the favorable foreign language shifted from French to English. Similarly, in terms of international communication, fewer and fewer Francophone countries use French. Instead, more and more Francophone countries choose to use English as their international communicative language. Even in China, the world most populous country, choose to adopt English, instead of the original Russian, as the lingua franca to interact with the

other Western countries after the Cold War.

From the above cases, it seems that English is like a language killer no matter where it is employed. It is hard for the Natives and the new immigrants to resist the trend of adopting English as the communicative language in the settlement colonies. Even in countries where English is not the dominant language, people also utilize English as the lingua franca for international communication. Overall, the cases seem to demonstrate the fact that as soon as English becomes the dominant language in one area, no other language could survive thereafter.

3. Coexistence of English and other languages 3. 英語與其他語言的共存3.1 Examples in Africa 3.1 非洲之例

On the contrary, what happened in exploitation colonies, mostly located in Africa, is different from that in settlement colonies (Mufwene, 2006). In exploitation colonies, the rulers are the European colonists. The population of those European colonists is much less than the local people’s. The colonists usually stay in big cities as business managers. Instances of exploitation colonies are South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Unlike the situations happening in settlement colonies, the European languages, e.g., French and English, do not claim a complete victory over the vernaculars in the exploitation colonies. Basically, there are two groups existing in the exploitation colonies. The first is the European language speaking group who are small in number but responsible for management of big companies. The other is the major local working group with indigenous lingua franca as their communication tool, e.g., Lingala in two Congos, and Swahili in East Africa.

Not to be integrated with the local people, the colonists keep their European languages within themselves and let the local elites learn the European languages. As for the other people in that area, keeping the ethnics identities often makes them loyal to the indigenous languages. So, the situation of two distinctive groups makes those

who learn the European languages still have to acquire the indigenous languages to communicate with the working group. After all, most social interaction is still in the indigenous languages. In conclusion, European languages are for the higher white collars but the indigenous languages are for the lower working blue collars.

Despite of the irreplaceable status of English in business, the local African languages still play an important role in the interaction of local people. Since no overlap between the use of European and the indigenous languages, no competition can be found either. In this way, indigenous languages can survive from the use of the European languages, including English.

3.2 Examples in Germany 3.2 德國之例

English globalization is not doomed to result in language extinction in Germany, either. House (2003) studied the English use in Germany and conducted three projects, i.e., “Convert Translation”, “communicating in English as a lingua franca”, and “English as a medium of instruction in German universities” to discuss the possible effects of English on German.

3.2.1 The project of “Covert Translation” 3.2.1 「隱藏翻譯」計畫

In the project of “Covert Translation” (House, 2003), the main focus is on whether the language used along with the English would be changed by the powerful partner, English. With the wide spread of English around the world, a lot of English vocabulary or phrases enter many languages and even replace certain local language usages, especially in the fields of “mass media, advertising, and youth culture”(House, 2003). Some people think that the replacements are only restricted to the lexical level and only affect the systems that are open to the change of lexis. As for “the heart of the lang uage”, the structure would keep intact and unchanged (House, 2003).

In the translation field, the tradition is that the norms of the source languages should be modified into the norms of the target languages. Take English and German

as examples. In the past, those who wanted to translate English literature into German usually chose to modify the norms in the English language into the ones in German. In this way, the readers would feel easier to read the translated articles. However, as English becomes more and more powerful and influential these years, it seems the translators do not always follow the conventions.

In order to check if the German translators give in to the English norms during the process of translation, the researcher collected lots of data for later deep analysis. The source of the collected data included 500 texts related to economic, science, and computer information. To make up the short of the written data, several interviews with the editors and translators followed afterwards.

With the collected data, the hypothesis about the changes of German norms in translation is not confirmed. Although lots of English words were borrowed into German, the German translation norms in terms of “interpersonal orientation” and “addressee orientation” still differ from the ones in English. Besides, the translators prefer to use “dialectic manner of information presentation” when translating English into German. Similar results were also got from the interview with the editors and translators. In sum, the German norms in discourse change little under the influence of English.

3.2.2 The project of “communicating in English as a lingua franca”

3.2.2 「英語為通用語」計畫

In the project of “communicating in English as a lingua franca”, House (2003) wanted to discuss how speakers with different first languages communicate with one another in English. The participants were international students aging from 25 to 35 in Hamburg University in Germany. The data were collected by recording the participants’ interaction within themselves and sometimes with local German people. Besides, the conductor later also made interviews with the participants as a chance to

make sure the “metapragmatic” strategy usage during the interaction.

The first finding of the project is that speakers of different first languages tended to duplicate their conventions of discourses construction into the English discourses. For example, one Indonesian participant always came back to the original topic no matter how far the discourse was away from the starting point. What’s surprising is that this action did not break down the communication. The employed strategy demonstrated the transfers from the participant’s first languages, i.e., “topic recycling”strategy. The topic management strategy, correspondent with the norms in Indonesian, was also double checked in the later interview with the participant.

The second finding of the project is the participants’ frequent showing of “solidarity” and “consensus-orientation”. Being classified as non-native ELF speakers, the participants usually helped each other to construct the discourse by finishing speakers’ unfinished sentences or showing agreement. This collaboration is a sign of solidarity especially belonging to the non-native English speakers. Among the Asian participants, they showed a preference to neglect the possible bothersome discourse and refused the “argumentative talk” which might disturb the German participants in understanding. However, to the German participants, their opposition to the refusing “argumentative talk” was another sign of the transfer from the participant’s first language.

From the above findings, it is true that the ELF users incorporated some strategies from their L1s when using English in communication. But, in order to make the ELF users communicate more successfully, the ELF users still need to work hard to improve their “pragmatic fluency”.

3.2.3 The project of “English as a medium of instruction in German universities”

3.2.3 「英語為德國大學授課媒介」計畫

In the project of “English as a medium of instruction in German universities”,

House (2003) tried to discuss two things at the same time. The first is about the “diglossic situation” of using English in class but employing German in daily life. The second is international students’ perception toward the “diglossic situation” there. In Europe, more and more colleges try to use English as the instructional language to attract more foreign students. Hamburger University is no exception. However, the general public outside the classroom still choose German as the main language for daily communication. Such a “diglossic situation” might have some impacts on international students’ studying motivation and their language choices.

The researcher collected the data mainly from class observation, interviews, and recording. In classroom, data were collected from observation of the English use which was followed by retrospective interviews. The following interviews were used for confirmation about the observed situation. Another method is the interviews with the students from overseas. International students had to share their personal view about the “diglossic situation” in Hamburger University. Still another method is to record the real daily life interaction with the Native German speakers.

The result showed that international students still preferred German while interacting with German people and used English as a tool for making up their initial shortness in German. At the very first, international students liked to study in “English only” class. However, they wanted the class gradually to be “more German” or “German only” as soon as their language ability allows. The reason for “more German” class is that the international students still need German to survive in the German society. English is a useful instrument to facilitate initial communication, but turned to be a reserved tool for avoiding possible communication difficulties. After all, German is still the language used most often in the society. A gradual movement from “English only” to “more German” is therefore the favorite of the international students.

Although all of three previous projects indicate the fact that English influences the German in some aspects, German still successfully keeps its linguistic features and its own living space. In the part of translation, the German norms are still preserved. In the field of ELF, strategies from speakers’ L1s are frequently observed when

non-native English speakers communicate in English. Even in the class where English is used as the language for instruction, students would like to have more German speaking classes. In sum, English truly claims some territory in the former German functioning field. Nevertheless, German still successfully keeps its privilege in specific fields in Germany.

3.3 Taiwanese in Taiwan 3.3 台灣的台語

English globalization has few impacts on the vernaculars in Taiwan. In a

trade-orienting country, Taiwanese pick up English as a tool to communicate with their foreign partners. Students in Taiwan learn English from the third grade of primary school with the aim to acquire the lingua franca as early as possible (Ministry of Education, 2001). But, English learning does not harm the development of vernaculars.

Rather, curriculum for supporting the vernaculars is developed as a reaction to the local dominant language, i.e., the Mandarin instead of English (Graddol, 1996; Malzahn, 1997; Mao, 2008).

Take the Taiwanese as an example. In Taiwan, Mandarin was highly held as the “national language”. Being favored by political reasons and having united written form, Mandarin is widely accepted and used in Taiwan. The flourishing of Mandarin leads to the limited space for Taiwanese to develop. In the past, kids were even beaten for speaking the vernaculars at school (Malzahn, 1997).

However, from Ilan County in 1990, teachers there started to teach the vernaculars at public schools. Later, several other counties followed the step and

finally a complete curriculum related to native culture came into existence. All of these curriculum reforms are reaction to the pressure of Mandarin and can be explained as a process of “identity construction” (Mao, 2008)

4. Conclusion 4.結論

English often puts other vernaculars into extinction in English speaking areas. For the first research question, the major reason for languages extinction is that English competes with vernaculars or other languages for the same goal no matter for communication or identification. In English speaking areas, English is the only language that people can employ to do things. Thus, without room for developing, the vernaculars and other languages are marginalized and gradually forsaken by their speakers. Finally, extinction of vernaculars comes. The languages of new immigrants and the Natives are victims of English globalization in this way.

In contrast, when no competition exists between English and the vernaculars, usually in non-English speaking areas, English is not a threat to the vernaculars then. The reason is that the domain for English usage does not overlap with the one of vernaculars which are used mainly for identification (House, 2003). English is usually chosen as the lingua franca for international communication. So it can be found that English replaces the world language, e.g., French, in Brazil and some Francophone countries (Mufwene, 2006). The reason is that both French and English compete for the same goal: international communication, and there can be only one winner in the competition. (Mufwene, 2006)

However, the Portuguese in Brazil and French in these Francophone countries are still kept for communication within the group and even for identity indication. (Mufwene, 2006) Similar things happen to Taiwanese in Taiwan, Lingala in Two Congos, Swahili in East Africa, and German in Germany. All of these local languages are used for inner group communication and group identification. In sum, for the

second research question, English hardly damages the living space of vernaculars in areas not having English as the first languages. In those places, both English and the vernaculars have complementary different functions and needs.

In non-English speaking areas, it is not English but the local dominant languages that kill the minority languages. Taiwanese in Taiwan is the vernacular that is pressed by its strong local dominant language, Mandarin. Although English is highly praised to be helpful for international communication or job promotion, people seldom use English for inner group communication or identification.

Still other examples are about vernaculars in Africa. Being not internationalized or being marginalized, vernaculars in sub-Sahara and South Africa still keep their vernaculars as usual. Nevertheless, like Taiwanese, the vernaculars in sub-Sahara (Mufwene, 2003) and South Africa (Mufwene, 2006) are endangered not by English or other Europeans languages, but by their strong local dominant languages.

So, the conclusion is that no simple link can be made between English adoption and the extinction of vernaculars. English is not the only one that should be blamed for the extinction of the minority languages. English globalization puts several vernaculars into extinction mainly due to their competing in the same domain. Sometimes, the local dominant languages are the killers of the vernaculars. Since language extinctions can not be avoided, further research might try to study how to stop or slow the speed of extinction to save the diversity of world languages.

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