Post #9

            Chapter one in the McKay textbook talks about how English has developed as a global language, and what this does to the status of the language and other languages as well. One of the goals of the chapter is to establish a relationship between globalization and the spread of English. There are many different perspectives of the spread of English. One is the homogeny position which “views the spread of English as leading to a homogenization of world culture” (3). The second position is the heterogeny perspective which “describes the features of World Englishes as a sign of pluricentricism that has been brought about by globalization” (3). To me, the first perspective, the homogeny perspective sounds insane! I can’t imagine a world that includes only one culture and one language. I never thought of this as being a possible consequence of the wide spread of English across the world. It’s a very hard concept to imagine, but I hope it never happens. But there are other people, such as Pennycook, who argue that it is neither of those positions but instead a mixture of many other factors. I really like the quote by Kachru that says, “Knowing English is like possessing the fabled Aladdin’s lamp, which permits one to open, as it were, the linguistic gates to international business, technology, science, and travel” (7). I like how the author is comparing the idea of how English can give people so many opportunities, to the story of Aladdin and his lamp. It’s hard for me to imagine how it would be to not be a native speaker of English. After talking about all these TESOL concepts in class, it really makes me wonder what I would be doing right now if I was never a native English speaker. Would I be learning English instead of Spanish? I’m curious how it would be to be on the other side of things. Would I be forced to learn English, or would I choose to learn it? How would I feel about the idea of English possibly becoming a global language? Then on the other hand, I think how happy I am to be to speak English since it is so important in the world. Crystal states that we can’t stop the spread of English, and that in the next 500 years everyone could be automatically exposed to English. Another interesting concept that the chapter discusses is how there is a belief in the power of English, especially among people who are younger. They have the notion that “English will help them get on in the world” (8). There are many incentives for learning English: economic, educational, mass media, and advertising incentives. The media is definitely something to think about. When I was in Spain, on TV there were so many American channels, like Disney channel, where the English words had just been dubbed over with Spanish. I also saw two movies in the theater when I was there. They were both American movies that had Spanish voice-overs. With the use of English growing so much, there is also the possibility of other languages dying. In my English 341 class last semester we read a book called When Languages Die, and it talked about all the reasons why languages die. One of the reasons was because people start to use the language that is better known and widely used instead of their native languages, and they then stop teaching their children. There are also other dangers that can occur with the spread of English. Two possibilities are the growing of monolingualism among English speakers, and an economic divide in English learning.