Week 11

This chapter focuses on how and why the use of English has spread throughout the United States and the other countries around the world and how it has affected the use of English and other languages. Two terms that affect the use of language are forced language and voluntary language. Forced language happens when populations have to learn the language of the conqueror, whereas voluntary language is when people acquire another language for the benefits they believe that they will acquire from learning this new language. Both of these types of shifts have contributed to the widespread growth of English (Nettle and Romaine 2000). I believe that the voluntary language goes hand in hand with globalization because people have a desire to learn English because of the benefits they will receive from it. There are some people that see globalization as a positive effect on people however there are also people that believe that globalization can have a negative effect on people. Because of globalization, there is a need to have one dominant language that everyone can communicate with. This language is English. Some people view the spread of English as leading to a homogenization of world culture. For those that are proponents of the homogenization and globalization, they believe that having one dominant language will make it easier to communicate with people of various parts of the world. People that are against it believe that homogenization is a negative aspect of globalization, “reflecting imperialism and colonization and leading to the loss of other languages,” (Nettle and Romaine 2000). The reason for which colonialism and colonization are embedded in globalization is because according to Pennycook, they are key factors that played a role in the spread of English. “Colonialism fueled a discourse of the insider and outsider, or the Self and the Other, in which the native Other was often portrayed as “backward, dirty, primitive, depraved, childlike, feminine and so forth” while colonializers, their language, culture, and political structures were seen as “advanced, superior, modern, civilized, masculine, and so forth.” This lead to the use of more native speaking teachers to teach English in the classroom. The negative to this was that people could lose their first language in hopes to trying to acquire their second language.

I believe that globalization has both a negative and positive affect on peoples lives. Just as in the examples that were given in the chapter, there are many people from other countries that are focusing on learning English because they believe what they read in narratives, or see in the media. They believe that learning and knowing English will allow them to progress in their education and economically speaking as well. But to what cost? Some people focus so much on English that they forget their first language altogether that can eventually result in the loss of their culture. As a future teacher, I think that it is important to focus on both languages and not just eliminate the first language altogether. With the loss of language, comes the inability for the students to speak with their elder family members, which can cause them to miss out on learning about their culture, family traditions and identity. Instead, it is important to focus on both languages and not saying that one culture is more important than the other.