Today’s discussion questions (29 February 2012)
- English as a International Language
- Standard language (EFL,ESL, ENL)
- Status English in Malaysia
- Native language
- English speaking communities (different models)
PLEASE TYPE YOUR ANSWERS ON THIS POST for easy viewing. Number them according to what you did in class.
Thank you and have a nice day :)
Hello all, this is in response to today's question: Why Is English Such A Powerful Language.
ReplyDeleteI believe that because English is so widely spoken, it has become the lingua franca of the modern world. It may not be the official language of many countries, but everywhere you go in the world you are most certain to find people who can speak English, and comprehend it at the very least. The language had also spread very quickly all around the globe as the British colonised many different countries (Africa, India, Malaysia etc). In doing so, they "exported" their culture and language by implementing it in schools, the government and politics.
We are also able to see English as a powerful and influential language due to the concept of westernization. Undeniably, Hollywood and American TV has been a huge influence since as early as the 1930s and most of these movies depict the American culture (which also became some sort of an ideal people wanted to emulate). The language used is also English, and the influence of Hollywood movies had a role in the spread and exposure of English to the rest of the world. Western books, games, advertisements, music and such also have a very large influence on the world, and these are what that are deemed as "cool" and "popular". With the culture and these elements, the language associated with it also becomes powerful and influential.
Also I think that English is powerful because it is somewhat simple compared to other languages such as Chinese, Korean and Arabic. The English alphabet is romanized, and for a second or foreign language learner to pick it up or "figure it out" it is much easier compared to languages that use symbols e.g the Japanese kanji, Chinese hanzi. With a romanized alphabet it is easier to read thru a sentence and have an idea of how it is pronounced or said, whereas with symbols if you don't recognise it it makes no sense to you! With the language being simple, it encourages people to pick it up; and a language that is easy to learn and use is a language that will be utilised frequently.
Kimberley Chai
Kimlashene Mohan
Jenny Chew
Adam Chong
aaaand i missed out one group member, sorry - Kriba Dini
DeleteHehehe...!!!
DeleteThis group was the first to post their answers...hmmmm..well done !!!
DeleteAnyway,you guys mentioned that English is an easy language to pick up...hmmm,what about BM?Isn't it easier than English?
Mdm, from my opinion as a Typical M'sian yes BM is a easy language to learn...This is because, in Malaysia at most of the common places such as government Hospital, Bank ,restaurant we use BM as a medium of communication .Thus , the culture of using BM as a first language in Malaysia, makes the users to learn the language easily ...Its My opinion ...hehehhehe...:)
DeleteRevatde Nadarajan
DeleteMdm sarada,
any language can be easy to the speakers..no matter it is BM,ENG,TAMIL or CHINESE or any
other foreign language..this depends on how frequent we use the language..if we see here in our country malaysia most commonly used language is malay so of coz malay would be an easy to be learn language..if we compare to other country such as spain than the spanish people would say their language an easy language to be learn..
i agree with u sugha my darling..hehe BM is easy to learn because of the compulsary to learn and for sure to pass in our SPM..we dont have no other choice, they had to learn and understand due to BM as the official language of the country. This will happen also if the Tamil language / mandarin be the official language
DeleteHello all sorry for the late reply.
DeleteIn response to the Q about BM... we have to take a look at how English has been expanding due to colonization of other countries by the British. Off the top of my head, countries that speak Bahasa Malaysia/Melayu or any other similar form e.g Bahasa Indonesia would be... Malaysia and Indonesia! We did not colonise any other countries, therefore the language was no implemented in any form of government or education system apart from our own. Heck, there is a percentage of Singaporeans (this is from personal observation. I have two Singaporean cousins and many Singaporean friends) even that cannot speak BM cohesively because it is no longer taught in their school system. It not only shows how quickly a language can fall out when a government changes, but also kinda gives the impression that BM is a language of little weightage in terms of being a "global" language, dont you think... also tying back to the fact that we were not a huge, powerful armada going about conquering lands, colonizing everybody else and stamping our mark in history. (Not trying to sound offensive, just stating an opinion) It can be argued that hey, we learned in Sejarah that BM had played a role as the lingua franca when Malaysia (Melaka) was one of the main ports for trading, but this was just within Malaysia and between the traders, thats it. It was not taught or implemented back in the homelands of the traders e.g China, Britain, India etc. Hence spread of the language, tho easy to pick up, is limited.
@Revatde, you are missing my point. Anyone can pick up any language, i agree, and frequent usage of the language would also speed up the process, increase confidence in the language etc. My point was romanized characters vs symbol. Languages like BM, English, Spanish, Italian, French... you name it... come across as "less intimidating" due to their romanized text. Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Thai etc that uses symbols are more complicated and it is very difficult to master all components for the language. E.g you may be able to speak the language with the aid of a phonetic chart, or pinyin (for Chinese), but to read and write it will take much longer. Lets say for ourselves - we speak English and BM which is romanised. Would it be easier to pick up Spanish, or Japanese in terms of reading, writing, and speaking? Or for a non-native speaker of both BM and Chinese - pick up a BM newspaper, and a Chinese newspaper. One you can kind of figure out how to read and pronounce, and the other is a bunch of archaic and complicated symbols. Which would appear more intimidating and "difficult"?
Thank you.
Thnk you ammin drlg..:)
DeleteHello everyone...this is our group opinion for question no2 : Although mandarin has more speaker's than English,why is English more popular and powerful than mandarin.
ReplyDeleteBased on the research that we have done the reason why, although Mandarin has more speaker than English, yet English is more powerful than Mandarin language is because of the historical factor that has influenced the usage of English today. Here, it means, English language is more powerful due to the colonization done by the Europe countries in the era before this to the Asian countries. So the influence of the language still strongly exist among the Asian till this very day. For instance, when British conquered our own countries, Malaysia in the 1940’s, the medium of communication were English. Even education wise, childrens in schools were taught in English.
Besides that, the heavy influence of the Europe countries stil exist in the Asian countries even till this very day is because the Asians are carried away by the Europian culture. Culture here means the ways of the Asian potreying themselves, the delicacies in the sense of fast food such as popular franchises that exist all over the world. For example, Mc Donalds, Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and so on.
On top of that, the population of the Mandarin speakers are on rise as well. In countries like China, japan and Korea, English is known as foreign language. So in order for them to communicate to others outside their region, the only lingua franca used must be the English language because English language is known as the International language as it is recognized in most part of the world.
Nishalny Subramaniam
Rosnina binti mohamad razali
Falourey kuppusamy
Malisa Idrus
Explain each point clearly before going to another...identify your main points first...very confusing...
Deletei would like to add..
DeleteEnglish is entrenched as the language of education and science technology,for example as u all can see all the material in internet are in english. English aso used as medium to convey knowledge. which u all can see all the books in higher education are in english. for example if we take education medicine are taught in english all over the world..even in china where the place pple speak in mandrin also taught in english.
other than that english is also the language of business..international business n economics are done in english..so english plays an important role here..internation conferences also in english..
Another important thing which is LAW are in english too..english is used in all international LAW and courts and judgement..all this factors make english to be more popular compare to mandarin..
Hi guys! Sorry for taking longer time to amend our group’s discussion.
DeleteWhy is English so popular even though Mandarin has more speakers than English?
Is it easy? No. English is one of the most complex languages to learn. It’s not considered the most beautiful language, either. If there is one thing to take away from this, it’s that languages do not thrive because they are “perfect” in any way – they thrive mostly due to cultural (political, economical, religious, etc…) reasons.
The Arts & Amusement.
• People read for fun. There have been many prolific and talented English writers. A lot of contemporary music is in English. Movies, games, advertising, computer programs, plays, and other forms of entertainment are often available first (or only) in English.
Politics & History.
• Some of the most imperialistic countries were English speaking: mainly, Britain and America. Britain colonized most of Africa and India, and with that colonization then came the spread of the English language. When the government or schools in a country speak a certain language (English), the language will permeate through all aspects of a society.
Academic.
• The majority of scientific and technical information is available in English. Did you know that 80% of the information stored in electronic retrieval systems is in English? [Source: Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.] In many parts of the world (where lesser-known languages are spoken), the only way to read famous pieces of literature is to read them in English (Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost….)
Simplicity.
• Nowadays it seems like many people know English, so more and more people learn it to be able to communicate easily…
Communication.
• With so many languages to choose from to learn, people want to pick the one that will be most useful. English is used as a communicating language – meaning that two speakers of other languages (examples; Swahili and German) may use English as a common language to speak in.
Rosnina Mohamad Razali
Malisa Idrus
Nishalny Subramaniam
Falourey Kuppusamy
This is very true, colonization makes English language become powerful and it is used widely. Mandarin language has more speaker than English because in China they have a bigger population than other countries .
ReplyDeleteWhat are you trying to say,Aina?
Deletemam , actually i wanna comment on malisa's post . but there's a technical problem to post it yesterday . hihi
DeleteI have a problem to post my comment here =__=
ReplyDeleteI need to refresh this page at least 3-4 times and close all tabs in order to post anything ;(
Question 1: Why is English such a powerful language?
ReplyDeleteBased on our opinion, yes it is true that English is a powerful language. It is because English can be spoken all over the world. For example, if we travel to other country without knowing their language, English will still make us to survive if we use that. English can be used all over the world because everyone are able to communicate in English so it will make us to interact easily without any language distraction.
English also known as powerful language among other languages because English have been westernization. This is where western concept had contributed for English language such as junk food, costume, services and so on. For example, most of the content from the label of certain product are written in English compared using other languages. It is because English can be understood well by the communities.
Lecthumanan
Vishalini
Valarmathee
Sarasvathy
Rasyid
Very confusing.What are you guys trying to say Valar?
Deletehey every1 this is the answer for Question 5: McArthur's wheel model has an idealized central variety called 'World Standard English' which is best represented by 'written international English' The next circle is made of regional standards or standards that are emerging. the outer layer consists of localized varieties which may have similarities with the regional standards or emerging standards.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the model is neat, it raises several problems. Firstly, the three different types of English - ENL, ESL and EFL, are conflated in the second circle. Secondly, the multitude of Englishes in Europe are also missing in this layer. Finally, the outside layer includes pidgins, creoles and L2 Englishes. Most scholars would argue that English pidgins and creoles do not belong to one family: rather they have overlapping multiple memberships.
So,what do you think Fadwa?
Deletemadam this is my opinion on Mcarthur's wheel model: This model has made an English language as the language of the world by centralized all types of speaking communities(ENL,EFL,ESL)in second circle layer, by that native speaker, foreign speaker, and second language speaker will be used Standard English as medium of interaction especially in formal purpose. what i mean in 'Standard Language' is they use the proper grammar,speaking etc..that's what i mean by standard English..
Deletecorrect me madam..;)
hye evryone..these are the answer for question 5. Tom McArthur’s ‘wheel model’ appeared in English Today In July 1987. McArthur’s wheel conceives of a central variety called ‘World Standard English’ which is obviously an idealization, and perhaps best represented as ‘written international English’, though there are slight differences between written British and American norms. The next circle round the hub is made of regional standards or standards that are emerging. Finally, the outer layer comprises localized varieties which may have similarities with the regional standards or emerging standards.
Deleteurm this is my opinion why English Language such a powerful language. Firstly to get a world language/official language, the language must be taken up by different countries around the world as example English language be used in different countries such as France,Germany etc.
ReplyDeleteerm...for sure it has to have linguistic dominance with tied up with cultural power like madam said before. English is widely used around the world, especially in education, business, medical, etc even though we go to other countries besides the U.S. / Great Britain, we still using English to communicate with people there. This clearly shows that English has become the official language of the world.
please correct me buddies ;)
yurp its true janice..english dominates in all area lately.
Deleteyes Azmi you are right. Moreover English is entrenched as the language of science and technology. Most of the material on the Internet is written in English. We can usually find something written in English almost anywhere in the world.
DeleteAlso, China is not really aggressive in pushing Mandarin as a second language to the world. But English is pushed as a second language to the world.
In other words, English gets more press.
Group 4 (Revatde,Arvint,Rushenthen,Revathi,Sughanya)
ReplyDeleteQ6:should english be the national language YES/No.give reason.
in my group members opinion it is NOT appropriate english to be the national language. why do we say this because, even though english is used very widely but the status of the language is still same as second language. moreover the english speaking community is still less compare to other language.even though all the educational resources in english but not all the subjects are english.only the subject called bahasa english are in language.even now the government has changed back science n maths back to maths.in every office such as bank, tax office,post office they both english and malay communicating officer.this shows that english is not national language.on the other hand in our country we have people who has their own native language such as Malay,Tamil,mandrin and others. so in this case english cannot be the national language.
as to add to my points..in our country the educated community is still less.we still have pple in village whc dont even wat is english.in this case if english cannot became the national language.
DeleteBraj Kachru
ReplyDeleteBraj Kachru is jubilee professor Emeritus of Liberal Arts and Science at the University of IIIinois at Urbana-Champaign. To better understand the use of English in different countries. Kachru conceived the idea of three concentric circles of the language, which is known as inner circle, outer circle and expanding circle.
Inner circle
The inner circle is basically the traditional base of English includes countries such as United Kingdom, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Anglophone, Canada and South Africa.
Outer circle
The outer circles are those countries where the English has official or historical importance. This includes most of the countries of Commonwealth of Nations and including populous country such as India, Pakistan and Nigeria. Here English may serve as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and language groups.
Expanding circle
The expanding circle refers to those countries where English plays no historical or governmental role, but it is widely used as a foreign language or lingua franca. This includes much of the rest of the world's population: China, Russia, Japan, most of Europe, Korea, Egypt, Indonesia. The total in this expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limited purposes, usually business English.
Group 9,
Vaishnavi Mariappa
Devipriya Maran
Umapriya karuppiah
Kamini Ratinakumar
Prema Subramaniam
Q2: Although Mandarin has more speakers than English, why is English more popular than Mandarin?
ReplyDeleteIt is because English is an international language which is recognized by every country around the world. If the number of speakers makes a language an international language, then Mandarin would have been an international language too. However, the point in becoming an international language has nothing to do with the number of speakers of the language. It is more important to who the speakers are. For example, America has linguistic dominance with their culture, strong political, military and economic power. Therefore English has become an international language. One of their greatest influences is the use of new technologies such as internet and phone which helped to spread English all around the world.
-Group 6-
Pang Suh Ting
Rozanna
Muhd. Addin
Hasanah
additionally, English is the language of business. this is referring to English is used for business purposes. not to mention, American culture like movies, McDonald's and music influence the usage of English widely.
DeleteMandarin has more speakers than English, it is because there has a bigger population in the China than other countries.The reason why English more popular than Mandarin, it is because the colonization make by European countries early than Asian countries, it had made the strongly influence in Asian countries. In other for them to communicate without their region, English language must be use as lingua france because English language is known as international language.
DeleteGroup 1:GEETHA NAIR,RAJES,AMIN,FADWA
ReplyDelete(Q5) English speaking communities (different models)
Strevens's World Map of English
The oldest map of the spread of English is Strevens's world map of English. His world map, even predating that of Kachru's three circles, showed that since American English became a separate variety from British English, all subsequent Englishes have had affinities with either one or the other.[13]
McArthur's Circle of World English
McArthur's 'wheel model' has an idealized central variety called 'World Standard English', which is best represented by 'written international English'. The next circle is made of regional standards or standards that are emerging. Finally, the outer layer consists of localized varieties which may have similarities with the regional standards or emerging standards.
Although the model is efficient, it raises several problems. Firstly, the three different types of English - ENL, ESL and EFL, are conflated in the second circle. Secondly, the multitude of Englishes in Europe are also missing in this layer. Finally, the outside layer includes pidgins, creoles and L2 Englishes. Most scholars would argue that English pidgins and creoles do not belong to one family: rather they have overlapping multiple memberships.[14]
Görlach's Circle model of English
Manfred Görlach's and McArthur's models are reasonably similar. Both exclude English varieties in Europe. As Görlach does not include EFLs at all, his model is more consistent, though less comprehensive. Outside the circle are mixed varieties (pidgins, creoles and mixed languages involving English), which are better categorized as having partial membership.[15]
Modiano's model of English
In Modiano's model of English, the centre consists of users of English as an International Language, with a core set of features which are comprehensible to the majority of native and competent non-native speakers of English. The second circle consists of features which may become internationally common or may fall into darkness. Finally, the outer area consists of five groups (American English, British English, other major varieties, local varieties, foreign varieties) each with features peculiar to their own speech community and which are unlikely to be understood by most members of the other four groups.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete