Many Tongues Called English

“The Adventure of English”(2002), film 8 “Many Tongues Called English”

“The essence of education is not to stuff you with facts but to help you discover your uniqueness, to teach you how to develop it and then to show you how to give it away”.

Leo Buscaglia

Section I American English

Before you watch the film read the text anda) make a list of the key points presented in it; b) discuss: 1. Why does the modern world need a common language? 2. What kind of attempts were made at the end of the 19^th century to make the dream come true? 3. What do you think are the major questions of this film?

A World Language

The movement of English around the world began with the pioneer voyages to the Americas, Asia, and the Antipodes, continued with the 19^th-century developments in Africa and the South Pacific, and took a significant further step when it was adopted in the 20^th century as an official or semi-official language by many newly-independent states. English is now the dominant or official language in over 60 countries, and is represented in every continent and in the three major oceans – Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific. It is the spread of the representation which makes the application of the term ‘world language’ a reality.

The present-day world status of English is primarily the result of two facts: the expansion of British colonial power, which peaked towards the end of the 19^th century, and the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power of the 20^th century. It is the latter factor which continues to explain the position of the English language today. The USA contains nearly four times as many English mother-tongue (EMT) speakers as the next most important EMT nation (the UK), and these two countries comprise 70% of all EMT speakers in the world. Such dominance, with its political and economic underpinnings, gives the Americans a controlling interest in the way the language is likely to develop.

With over 60 political and cultural histories to consider, it is difficult to find safe generalization about the range of social functions with which English has come to be identified. General statements about the structure of the language are somewhat easier to make. The problem is not so much in relation to those countries where English is a first language, and where be definition it is available for all communicative situations, but for those where it has status as a second foreign language, and where its role is often defined by a conscious process of language planning, and not by the natural course of linguistic evolution. Sociolinguistic generalization is especially a problem in those countries where English is used simultaneously as a first and a second language (e.g. Canada), or where a history of language contact has produced a legacy of language conflict.