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English as language for everyone?!

English as language for everyone?!

vrijdag 27 mei 2016 08:23
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Today English is one of the most important languages in the world. There are expectations that everyone in the world can speak this language on academic or non-academic level. For example there are a lot of research papers written in English and documentaries and films are subtitled in English. The aim is to reach a public as large as possible.

For me, English could become THE common and universal language. That’s why it seems a good idea to provide basic English in education. Everyone gets the chance to learn a language that everyone masters in a certain way. By choosing English as a common language, everyone can communicate with each other. Our global world needs a common language because of the technological improvements and international collaboration. For example, in economics there would we progress for the trade and collaboration between different countries. English is used a lot in companies and there’s an increase of people coming on the international labour market. These people can choose to work in other countries without mastering the mother tongue of the country. In education, the common language, would lead to more collaboration and exchange between educational institutions. And the quality in education could increase.

There’s a lot of education that uses English as a second language. By providing English they want to offer possibilities, students can work or study international and could communicate with everyone. Not all countries want to offer English in education. Sometimes quality of education and/or the educational level of English are (very) low. Some institutions doesn’t got the right means to teach English. I plea for a basic level of English so everyone can transmit the language in an understandable way. Students or educational institutions can choose to study English, but students certainly need to see the added value of English.

By using a common language, there could be less misunderstanding between countries and people. But there are some issues about English as a common language. Sometimes there isn’t a good translation from the mother tongue to English. Some concepts aren’t translatable or difficult to explain in another language. Not everyone can communicate their message the same way in English as in the mother tongue. Some countries choose for education with the official language, this isn’t necessary the mother tongue. They want to retain the mother tongue or official language and don’t want to use English in education. One of the reasons is that certain countries want to retain their cultural identity. The language of a country or a cultural group is an important aspect in the cultural identity. By protecting this identity and language, it can’t disappear. They want to protect the mother tongue and the language of minority groups. The risk of using English as a common language could mean the disappearance of the mother tongue or the languages of cultural groups. This could also mean that after disappearing of the language, the cultural groups disappear.

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