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 (/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