The English of Englishes: a Threat or an Opportunity? (original) (raw)

English in Europe Introduction

Opening Chapter of the book 'Investigating English in Europe: Contexts and Agendas' which explains the project behind the book and sets out the key themes and contents for what follows

English in Europe: A Selected Bibliography

World Englishes, 1997

Abe leÁ s, Marc (1994) A la recherche d'un espace public communautaire. Pouvoirs, 69. Abbot, Gerry and Wingard, Peter (eds.) (1989) The Teaching of English as an International Language. Collins: Glasgow and London. Adams, Karen, L. and Brink, Daniel T. (eds.) (1990) Perspectives on Official English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Aitken, A. J. (1985) Is Scots a language? English Today, 3, 41±45. Ammon, Ulrich (1989) Schwierigkeiten der deutschen Sprachgemeinschaft aufgrund der Dominanz der englishen Sprache. Probleme der kleinen sprachen in der EG: beispiel DaÈ nisch. Heteroglossia, 5, 83±131. HageÁ ge, Claude (1992) Le Souffle de la Langue: Voies et Destins des Parlers d'Europe.

English in the language ecology of Europe

English does not occupy the same position in all the countries in Europe, nor is it used for the same purposes everywhere. In other words, in order to capture the full complexity of the position of English in Europe’s language ecology, it is important to acknowledge that the picture is not a uniform one. The aim of this opening section is to give a summary of the position of English in Europe, focusing on three key regions: the Nordic countries, Eastern Europe, and Mediterranean Europe.

English in Europe

In the presence of …, 2007

A means of gaining insight into the present status, role, and functions of English in a particular social and cultural context is that of the sociolinguistic profile. Frequently used in world Englishes scholarship, following Kachru (1985) and Berns (1990), this framework takes into account both the users and the uses of the language and brings together its historical context, domains of use, role in the educational system, influence on the media, levels of proficiency, and attitudes toward it among learners and users. In the broadest sense, a profile documents the presence of the language and the breadth and depth of its presence. As these concerns in part motivated our inquiry, we have drawn a sociolinguistic profile of English in Europe to contextualize and establish a background for the empirical study described and reported on in Chapters 3-7.

Intercultural Perspectives of the English Language in Europe

Metodički obzori/Methodological Horizons, 2015

The aim of this study is to draw attention to the change of EL usage from a global lingua franca which has been removing the language barriers to a new cultural phenomenon that is used to enforce the penetration of different cultures and to ensure their promotion. Thus, it is a necessity to tackle the subject of up-to-date and diverse cultural contents brought to Europe via the internet and its implications on the language. The example of Asian pop-cultural phenomenon will be provided. It has been viewed and examined via the survey conveyed among the students of Juraj Dobrila University of Pula whose obligatory foreign language is English. They were subjected to a Personal Questionnaire created by this author in order to tackle the following questions: Do you think English will spread without end? Will countries outside the Anglophone group continue to learn English? What changes of English could we expect due to economic and social changes? The first two questions were answered positively by 61.6% and 64.6% of students. 64.6% of them believe there will be more changes of the English language as such due to dynamic changes that have been influencing it. In the end, students gave different reasons and opinions for their claims which have been further elaborated in this paper.

Cogo, A. 2016. English as a Lingua Franca in Europe

Investigating English in Europe: Contexts and Agendas, 2016

English as a Lingua Franca in Europe Today English is widely regarded as the most widespread lingua franca in the world and this is also true in Europe: English has become an intrinsic part of the European linguistic landscape and it constitutes an important resource for many Europeans. According to the European Barometer (European Commission 2012d) English is "the most widely spoken foreign language" (6), the first language learnt at school after the home language or mother tongue, and it is used outside formal education in international, professional and personal contacts, both in physical spaces and online communication. In fact, despite EU efforts to promote all its languages as equal, English remains the most widely employed language across contexts and modes of communication. The position of English in relation to other languages is a contentious issue in Europe, a fact which lies at the heart of this book, but, as we will suggest in the course of this section, it is less so when English is used as a lingua franca rather than a foreign language. In this section we explore the concept and function of English as a lingua franca, emphasizing its contact nature and multilingual aspects, before analyzing the sociolinguistic work done in this field and moving on to a discussion of the debates surrounding this phenomenon.

Language policy in the European union in the context of the spread of English as a global language

Studium Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej

The article traces the pattern of formation of the language of transnational communication under conditions of globalization.It shows the global role of English and considers the essence of language policy in the EU, with its core efforts being aimed at maintaining the principles of multilingualism. The article reveals the essence of multilingualism and its role for the deepening of European integration. The objective necessity to introduce the language of international communication into the linguistic space of the EU is highlighted. The existing contradictions in some language programms of the EU policy are elucidated.

7. Between Linguistic Diversity and the Dominance of English – Languages in Europe from the Political, Cultural and Educational Perspectives

2018

The paper presents and critical analyses the political, cultural and educational dimensions of the European language policy. Its primary aim is to discuss the tension between the necessity of sustaining linguistic diversity in Europe and the accompanying rise in importance of English as a global language of economy, politics, education and science. There is a visible contrast between the global tendency to cultural homogenization, with the accompanying dominance of English, and the European policy of supporting cultural diversity and multilingualism. On the one hand, the discourse on linguistic identity in Europe is focused on national and supra-national protection of minority languages. On the other though, English is supported as well, mostly for pragmatic and utilitarian reasons. Therefore, a certain balance is to be maintained between both trends. Especially from the perspective of the development of students' linguistic skills in the age of global economy and science Betwee...