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english as a global languageThis paper shall ask the question "Is english a global language?" The question will be answered by comparing and contrasting two seperate articles on the subject, which take opposing viewpoints on the subject. The first article is 'Why a global language?'. This article is actually the first chapter of a book entitled 'english as a Global Language.' by David Crystal. The second article is entitled 'What Global Language?', and was written by Barbara Wallraff. Complete bibliographies are included at the end of this paper. David Crystal argues very convincingly that not only does the world require a global language, but that we already have one. This language, Crystal argues, is english. Crystal begins by defining a global language in very general terms. A global language is one that can be given official status by government agencies, and is one that is made a priority in any particular nation's foreign-language teaching cirriculum. Crystal does make exception for the united states, which is an english-speaking nation by any measure. The debate on making english an official language in the U.S. Is a very controvertial one. That being said, this paper shall not delve too deeply into the domestic language politics of any one nation in particular. Citing statistics from various sources, David Crystal goes on to argue that the rise of english as a global language is inevitable. The author suggests that some 1.5 billion people speak english world-wide, compare to 'only' 1.1 billion speakers of the chinese language. This writer feels that the Author's statistics do not accurately reflect the true situation. The total population of the worlds english-speaking nations is significantly less than 1.5 billion people. Adding in the number of people who speak english as a second language may bring that number significantly higher, perhaps even to the figure quoted by the author. However, it should be pointed out that the author's figures do not include all those who speak chinese as a second language. This is not to say that the author is completely wrong, nor is it meant to dismiss his arguements out of hand. David Crystal states, correctly, that languages usually become international as a reflection of the political, military and economic power of the nations and peoples who speak these languages. The first example cited by the author is Latin. The dominant military-economic powers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were first Britain, and then the united states. The author goes on to cite several examples and reasons why a common international language is needed. Most reasons being political and commercial in nature. This is made both easier and more neccesary due to revolutions in both travel and communications in the post-war world. In the opinion of the author, the modern world is unprecedented in human history. The vast number of people communicating with each other, and travelling all over the world, make a global language an increasingly urgent neccesity. "Within little more than a generation, we have moved from a situation where a world language was a theoretical possibility to one where it is an evident reality." This belief is contrasted by the second author. In her article 'What Global Language', author Barbara Wallraff argues that english is not, and probably never will be, the global language. Wallraff does this by using a different set of sources and assumptions than Crystal, and arrives at a completely different conclusion. Barbara Wallraff begins her article by citing some impressive facts about the spread and useage of english around the world. Some of the most striking of these facts are that english is the working language of the ASEAN trade group, and that english is the official language of the European Central Bank. Niether of these organizations is comprised of english-speaking member nations. The author then cites a set of facts which contradict the standard assertion that english is on the way to becoming the global language of choice. The most startling of these is that even in the united states, the percentage of non-english speakers continues to grow. Most U.S. Cities now have spanish newspapers and television stations. In one case, the local spanish station has a larger audience than its local english rivals. This author uses a combination of demographic studies and technology studies to make her point. Wallraff uses a different set of statistics to begin her arguement. She cites the number of chinese speakers at an estimated 1,113 million people as of 2000. english, by contrast, is the first language of only 372 million people. According to one projection that Wallraff uses, the english language will be overtaken by the Hindi-urdu language family by the year 2050. If these numbers and projections are even close to being factual, it is difficult to concieve of english emerging as the principal global language. Technological paradygms are also cited by the author. Most technological breakthroughs have occurred in the english-speaking nations of the world, which has resulted in a english-heavy technological experience for most users. This, however, does not mean that it will be yet another logical reason for everyone to start learning and speaking english. "No matter how much english language there is on the web, then, or even how much more english material there is than material of other languages, it is naive to assume that home computers around the world will, in effect, become the work stations of a vast english language lab." Technology provides yet another example of why english may not emerge as the principal global language. Computer language translation software is currently available in a wide variety of languages. Software is available that can translate speech-to-text and text-to-text. Some software packages can even translate text-to-speech. This is an excellent way of being able to go through life without having to learn english. The final point that this author makes is that the main reason why the english language continues to dominate the internet is that most of the technological breakthroughs are still being made in english-speaking countries. If and when more breakthroughs are being made in the non-english speaking world (Japan and Korea, for example), this situation will probably change. In conclusion, english is a global language. There can be no doubt about that. I mearly have to consider my own personalexperiences speaking english in places as far apart as continental Europe and North-East Asia to confirm this fact to myself. The two authors contrasted in this report are simply arguing whether or not english will become the main global language. Of course it will not, nor does it have to. It is the height of arrogance to assume that any one language or family of languages will be spoken by the overwhelming majority of people on this planet for any reason what so ever. That being said, the english language will not fade away any time soon. People all around the world will still want to learn english, and will still want their children to learn english. I am not on a crusade to make the entire world speak english, nor do I want to be. My skills as an english language instructor will still be in high demand for the forseeable future, and that is good enough for me. BIBLIOGRAPHY english as a Global Language. Second Edition. David Crystal. Cambridge University press, 2003. What Global Language? Barbara Wallraff. The Atlantic Online. November, 2000.