Languages in the contemporary world

1. Major: english language and literature
Applied linguistics
Session 3 (Languages in the contemporary world)
Dr. Badriya al mamari
Academic year 2021/2022

2. Languages
in the contemporary world

3. Language and languages
• Although languages have common properties, from the
point of view of their users, it is the differences that count:
• People do not speak language as an abstraction, but
particular languages
• Around the world, people speak different languages which
are mutually incomprehensible.

4. • To solve the problem of how those people can
communicate with each other, two possible solutions
are used:
• 1.Speakers of one language(s) learn the other’s
language.
• 2.The second is to employ translator(s).

5. Attitudes to languages
• Native speakers of a language usually regard it as
theirs/as their own property and do not resent other
people acquiring it. This is simply because:
• They lose nothing in the process and are flattered to
share something so highly valued.
• It remains familiar and intrinsic to them, whereas it
remains foreign and something apart.
• Furthermore, there is a marked difference between
people’s general characterization of their language and
academic beliefs/linguists views.

6. Linguists regard all languages as equal and arbitrary systems
capable of fulfilling the same functions. This view is far from
how they are perceived by language users.
Some languages are popularly regarded as being less complex
than others, e.g. One reason often given to the spread of
international English is that it is easier to learn.
On the same Vein Latin is widely believed to be more logical,
German is more efficient, or French is more romantic than other
languages.
These are all views which we must consider if we are to mediate
between the two perspectives.

7. Linguists are in a difficult position when compare their views-
on what counts as a separate language and what does not-
with that of language users.
Although linguistics investigates languages in terms of their
history and formal similarities, but neither of these
perspectives determines the boundaries them.
From popular point of view, such languages spoken and
believed to be mutually incomprehensible to their speakers,
though both are described as one.
E.G. “The dialect of Sicily makes little sense in Venice, while
they are both described as “Italian”.

8. E. G: “Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese are mutually
incomprehensible when spoken and they are both referred to as
“Chinese”.
On the other hand, there are pairs of languages, which are mutually
comprehensible but are regarded as different.
E.G:”Russian can guess at the meaning of Ukrainian; Italian may work
for basic transactions in a Spanish-speaking country; readers of
Japanese can make some progress with Chinese characters.
Generally, if people decided that they speak a distinct language, or
conversely that what they speak is a dialect of a larger language, then
it is difficult to argue with them.

9. The languages of nations: boundaries and relationships
• In addition to academic linguistic and popular approaches,
there are other two ways in which languages can be
compared, both of which are of particular importance to the
contemporary world.
• These are by numbers of speakers and by geographical
distribution.
• While the world’s largest languages, such as Chinese, English,
Hindi, Spanish, and Arabic, have hundreds of millions of
speakers and are frequently used beyond their homelands,
the majority of the world’s languages are much smaller,
some with only a few hundred speakers.

10. Smaller languages are limited to restricted areas and specific ethnic
groups, and are often vulnerable.
Among the world’s estimated 6000 languages, Language death
now occurs increasingly frequently, and that half of the world’s
languages are likely to disappear soon.
Languages constantly change depending on historical and political
forces.
Powerful nations have frequently asserted their unity by
promoting one single majority language in a standard written form
while suppressing /ignoring minority languages.
In those nations which have spread their language beyond their
own borders the result has often been a multiplication rather than
a reduction of the languages within them.

11. Unfortunately, the successful promotion of one language and its
spread beyond its homeland led to a state of multilingualism
rather than monolingualism.
A survey of london primary schools in 2000 revealed that a
total of 350 home languages are used by London
schoolchildren.
Meanwhile independence movements, such Scottish one,
associate their cause with the promotion of one of the
indigenous languages which the state has pushed aside.{Scottish
Gaelic, championed by scottish national party, is the official
language}

12. Despite the efforts of nation builders, the monolingual state
remains a myth, because all nations have substantial linguistic
groups within their borders, making cross-linguistic
communication an intranational as well international affair.
On a personal level many individuals of the world population
are bilingual or multilingual. They must change tongue to go to
work or school, to speak to elderly relatives, or deal with
bureaucracy, making this code-switching a salient and
significant part of their daily experience.

13. For example ;
In africa it is common to switch between a local language or a
dominant regional language, and a former colonial language
such as French, English or Italian.
For immigrants to Europe there is switching between the family
language and that of their new home, for example Turkish and
German, or Arabic and French.

14. The growth of English
• English is now thought as the main foreign language in
virtually every country, and used for business,
education, and access to information by a substantial
proportion of the world’s population.
• French is no longer the international language of air
traffic control, or dominant and diplomacy. German
and Russian are no longer internationally necessary for
scientific study.

15. • In recent years, the growth of English has been further
accelerated by a startling expansion in the quantity and speed of
international corporations, linked to expanding US power and
influenced, ensures an ever-increasing use of English in business.
Films, songs, television programmes, and advertisements in
English are heard and seen in many countries where it is not the
first nor even a second language, both feeding and reflecting this
growth.
• The dominant language of the internet is English and with the
frequent absence of available software for writing systems other
than the roman alphabet, electronic mail is often conducted in
English, even among people who share another language.

16. Globalisation of english
• In addition, both non-native and native speakers are
involved in teaching English as a foreign language
(TEFL) as teacher, planners, administrators, publishers,
and testers. For these reasons alone, the teaching and
learning of English has generated tremendous personal,
political, academic, and commercial interest.

17. English and Englishes
• A language begins to spread beyond its original
homeland the situation changes and conflicts of opinion
begin to emerge. Thus even until surprisingly recently,
many British English speakers regarded American English as
an impure deviation, rather as they might have regarded
non standard forms within their own islands. While such
feeling of ownership are to be expected, they quickly
become, as they are in the USA, more numerous and more
internationally powerful than speakers of the parent.

18. • As English becomes more and more widely used, recognized
varieties might emerge even in places where there is no national
native speaker population or official status.
• We talk of standard American English, standard Australian English,
and so on

19. Native speakers
• What it means to be a native speaker?
• Firstly, there is the question of personal history. Native
speakers are considered to be people who acquired the
acquired the language naturally and effortlessly in
childhood, through a combination of exposure, the child’s
innate talent for language learning, and the need to
communicate.

20. • Secondly, there is a question of expertise. Native speakers
are seen as people who use the language, or a variety of it,
correctly, and have insight into what is or is not acceptable.
• Thirdly, there is a question of knowledge and loyalty. Being
a native speaker, it is assumed, entails knowledge of, and
loyalty to, a community which uses the language.

21. • E.g; in the case of larger and more widely distributed languages
however, and most especially in the case of English, serious problems
with the usual definitions of native speaker begin to emerge
• Traditional native speakerness implies nothing about size vocabulary,
range of style or ability to communicate across diverse community in all
of these aspects of proficiency, it is quite common to find that the
expertise of the non-native speaker exceeds that of many native
speaker.

22. English as a lingua franca (ELF)
• What matters in its use is clarity and comprehensibility
rather than conformity to one of the existing standards.
• Being native speaker in the traditional sense does not
necessarily imply expertise in ELF, and of the purposes of
international communication native speakers may need to
adjust their language to a new norm.

23. • This rapid growth of ELF should be a major concern to
contemporary applied linguistics. We need to consider
whether the current situation has produced a new set of
language related problems. These are pressing issues,
affecting in one way or another everyone who learns or
uses English, native and nonnative speaker alike.

24. Different approaches to teaching English did not just occur by
in response to changing geopolitical circumstances and social
attitudes and values, as well as to shifts of fashion in linguistics
which, for all its apparent objectivity, was itself subject to
social change.
Each successive movement in ELT has had its own particular
stance on language learning, and on what English is, reflecting
the ideology of its time.

25. • Reference:
• Cook, G. (2003). Applied linguistics. Oxford University
Press.