OK. In this video, we’re going to look at the future of global Englishes. Now, I should begin by saying that making predictions for the future is a notoriously problematic process. And probably, most of what I say will turn out to be wrong. But here goes, anyway. So one of the suggestions for the future of English has been the idea that all the different varieties and types of English may converge. And eventually, some kind of international variety of English will emerge from this. Now personally, I think this is very unlikely. One of the reasons that English is successful as a global language is because people adapt and change it for local settings and for particular needs.
So I think it’s very unlikely that we’re ever going to get one particular national– sorry, international variety of English. I think what is perhaps likely is we’re going to get new varieties of English documented. So at the moment, we have obviously, Indian English. We have Singaporean English, Nigerian English. But I think it likely that more countries are going to want to document their own varieties of English and have them in language policy, and have them recognised, have dictionaries, et cetera, that go with it. So I also think it’s likely that amongst the existing varieties of English, the status of the different varieties will change.
So for example, if you just look at the number of Indian speakers of English, then this is much greater than the number, for example, of British speakers of English. And given the current economic power and increasing political power of India as well, many linguists– for example, David Crystal– have predicted that Indian English will rise in status and importance in the future. One of the concerns with the spread of English has been that English displaces or even kills other languages. And this is certainly a concern. The number of languages in the world is in decline. There are less languages. Almost every year, languages disappear.
So clearly, language death, as it’s known, is an issue that all linguists are and should be worried about. But the role of English in this, I think, is quite complicated and quite controversial. Firstly, English, I think, is unlikely to lead to the death of or for killing local languages. In many cases, it’s actually the national language that displaces local languages. So for example, people may have a home language that is a minority language. But when they go to school, they have to learn through the national language. And this displaces the importance and the role of the local language. Now, in a few cases, of course, students may go and learn in English.
But it’s much more likely that they’re going to be learning in their national language. However, where English probably is displacing other languages is as a lingua franca. So English is becoming increasingly used in academia, in business, in media, in entertainment. And here, I think, other global languages may well be being displaced by English. And there is a concern that, particularly within academia for example, people are no longer able to do research or to write research papers in their local language. That they are expected to do so in English. And this may well continue into the future and become more extensive, which is an issue of concern.
So I think it likely that the ownership of English will also change in the future. As people who use English as a second language, and people who use English as a lingua franca, and realise that native speakers of English are not the majority but rather non-native speakers are the majority, ownership is likely to change. So they will realise that they have the power and the influence to use English in a way that they want to use English. Now, this may result in teaching materials or language policy that better reflect the kind of Englishes that they need rather than the Englishes of the native speaker countries or the anglophone world.
Lastly, of course, we shouldn’t forget that English is not the only global language. There are other languages that are also expanding their global role. Particularly, Spanish, Arabic, and Portuguese are rising. And of course, Chinese as well. So I think we shouldn’t assume that English is going to remain as the only global language. And we shouldn’t also assume that English will necessarily remain the most important global languages. All four of those global languages are growing and are growing in importance. And they may, in the future, overtake English. Although, I think personally, this is not likely to happen anytime soon. And we should, of course, remember that the scale of global English use has never been seen before.
So we’re really in new territory here. This is something that as linguists and as people who use language every day, we’ve never experienced before.
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