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Multilingualism in Europe versus English as Lingua
Franca
Barbara Lesničar
One world, one language?
Barbarians! That's what the Roman Empire, in its latter days, called the Germanic tribes
migrating south. The Romans had borrowed the word from the Greek barbaros, meaning
'unable to speak intelligibly', just well enough to stammer 'bar-bar-bar'. In those days, you either spoke Latin or did not exist. Almost two millennia later, the descendants of the
Germanic tribes have taken over the civilised world, relocated it outside the
Mediterranean, and not speaking English is beyond the pale.
Vincent Buck
ENGLISH AS THE GLOBAL LANGUAGE
30% of the world population are “reasonably competent” in English,
670 million have a native-like command of the language
85% of the scientific, technological or academic production in the world today is done in English,
Source: data for EU 25, published before 2007 enlargement
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Percentage of EU population
Engl
ish
Ger
man
Fren
ch
Ital
ian
Span
ish
Polis
h
Dut
ch
Rus
sian
Swed
ish
Gre
ek
Cze
ch
Port
ugue
se
Hun
garian
Slov
ak
Cat
alan
Language
As a Mother Tongue
As a language otherthan Mother Tongue
Can speak the Language
Lingua franca
English is merely fulfilling a functional need for lingua franca in this globalised
world.
English as a Lingua FrancaMondiano (1999), a model of English as an international language
English is particularly suitable as Europe's lingua franca because of its functional flexibility and spread across the world, and because English is already "de-nativised" to a large extent: the global number of non-native speakers is now substantially larger than its native speakers (about 4:1). English is no longer "owned" by its native speakers because acculturation and nativisation processes have produced a remarkable diversification of the English language into many non-native varieties. Juliane Househttp://www.guardian.co.uk/GWeekly/Story/0,3939,475288,00.html
Communicative competence
Language problems
Cultural differences
MEDIATION
a contribution to multilingualism or a waste of money
Problems with multilingualism on any
scale Proficiency in at least two languages
Education (serious problems occur when the minority language may be forbidden in school)
(Frisian children learning Dutch are presented with nothing like the difficulty of Sami children learning Swedish, since Frisian and Dutch are closely related languages)
Slovenia and EU
As Slovenia is integrating into the European Union, one of its people's main concerns is that their cultural
identity and language are threatened. However, many believe that the fate
of the Slovenian language and culture does not depend on the EU, but
primarily on Slovenians. Vesna Žarkovič, Government and Media Office,
Slovenia
EURO - ENGLISHTypical errors of ELF that do not hinder communication: Dropping third perdon present tense “-s” Confusing the relative pronouns “who and “which” Non - L1 use of the definite and indefinite pronouns Not using correct tag question Inserting redundant prepositions Overuse of certain verbs (“do”, “have”, “make” etc.) Replacing infinitive constructions with that-clauses Overdoing explicitness ( as in “black colour”)
Which English?
50%
25%
25%British English
American English
other
At long last, Europe is on its way to becoming one big family, without
bloodshed, a real transformation …a continent of humaine values … of
liberty, solidarity and above all diversity, meaning respect for
others’ languages, cultures and traditions.
(Laeken Declaration)
References Crystal, D. 2003. English as a Global Language.Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. Graddol, D., Chesire, J. and Swann, J. 1996. Describing Language … Buckingham:
Open University Press. Holmes, J. 2001. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Great Britain: Pearson Education
Limited. Jenkins, J. 2003. World Englishes. Great Britain: TJ International LTD, Padstow,
Cornwall. May, S. 2001. Language and Minority Rights. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited. McKAY, S.L. 2002. Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. Trudgill, P. and Chesire, J. 1998. The Sociolinguistics Reader. Oford: Oxford University
Press. Wardhaugh, R. 1998. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. USA: Blackwell Publishers
Ltd.• http://www.guardian.co.uk/GWeekly/Story/0,3939,475288,00.html• http:/www.cultivate-int.org/issue4/eurospeak/
