The Uses Of English

The uses of English

One of the reasons that the demand for English classes and especially English for Special Purposes has been increasing in recent years is the fact that English has indisputably become the world’s lingua franca.When many people around the world meet and do not speak each other’s native language, they choose, or are forced, to speak English – or some form of it. This group has been estimated to be as large as two billion people.

 What then is the difference between the situation some years ago, when the focus of ELT was the Anglo-American standard, and the present situation, in which speakers of English as a second language are playing a greater role, comprising the majority of those using English? What is the relationship between teaching English in the classroom and the phenomenon of English as a global force? Resources in the classroom to accommodate such changes are limited but the purpose of language acquisition is always to enable learners to apply their knowledge in situations beyond the classroom. Consequently, the instructor cannot be indifferent to the changing linguistic challenges which his/her students may have to face.

Exchanges between non-native speakers often bear little resemblance to those between native speakers and yet function perfectly well as a tool of communication. The main focus of such a tool and thestandard by which it is judged is that of mutual intelligibility.The question that such encounters pose is to what extent this level of communication is adequate for the most learners’ needs and should consequently serve as a point of reference in language teaching.

Is native-speaker proficiency still the goal which learners should seek to attain? That is, of course, the goal we are used to and take for granted, yet if we remember that 80% of English usage is between non-native speakers we may we preparing our learners for a situation which they may rarely or never encounter, while ignoring the more likely situation in which non-native speakers dominate the exchange and set the linguistic standard. Even the BBC, once held up as the gold standard of English, is increasingly granting non-native speakers opportunities to express their opinions and have their say with a less than perfect command of the language. This change of broadcasting policy may serveas an incentive to change teaching policies too.