English in the 21st century December 2015 by Ma. Elena Delgado Ponce de León
English in the 21rst century ¨English is global¨ . The previous remark may look like an irrelevant statement because we have become used to the idea of English becoming an ever growing language around the world for quite some time. When people think of English as a global language they may picture scenarios where English is being used around the world for a variety of purposes such as business transactions, technology reports, and by communications among scientists, educators, broadcasters, politicians on all the topics that matter to everyone worldwide. This is right , but as David Crystal , a well known linguist, describes it, a language becomes global when it has a special role that is accepted by many other countries. The key drivers of change that have made this happen may need to be considered carefully to better understand the complexity of this phenomenon. Some of the factors that have made English global are political, others are practical issues and there are also demographic changes that have added strength to this tendency. Let´s consider first the political factors. English,an international language , is now considered the most important language in schools in Western Europe. Countries like Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway to name a few offer university programs in English. The Bologna process has made it possible for more than 40
european countries to incorporate a common higher education agenda based on knowledge economies in the last decade. English has also been added as a fundamental subject of the school curriculum in Asian countries like Japan, China and South Korea. Also, in a great number of African countries, English is used as a medium of communication in government affairs, education and media . In Latin America, the case is similar, in countries like México, the government is prioritising education and the learning of English.The Secretaría de Educación Pública launched a programme in 2009 called Programa Nacional de Inglés en Educación Básica (PNIEB) in which learners from 1000 schools in 32 states from pre primary to secondary school would receive English instruction to attain B1 level of English proficiency MCRE at the end of their studies. The second factor that has contributed to the spread of English is the need to communicate among people from different countries whose mother tongue is not English. Such is the case of scientists, technologists, educators, businessmen from different countries who decide to use English as a lingua franca. A different case is India with over 122 major languages where English is also used as a lingua Franca. Another pointer to the use of English as lingua franca is the relevance of English among people from different cultures who have been using it over the internet. Over 26 percent of internet users communicate in English, 54.5 percent of web content is in English and the highest number of users are located in Asia. Finally, the third driver of English as a global language is demographics. English language learners are increasing in numbers and decreasing in age. Age structure in developing countries is varied with a median age around 15. This means there is a high population growth in world areas where English instruction has become a goal to achieve competitiveness.There is an urgency to prepare more people starting since early days of schooling and English is now in the agenda of most of these countries. In conclusion, political, economic, educational policies and demographics have contributed to the momentum English has as a global language. There is no doubt that the spread of English has transformed us and the world.
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