Li Wei (University College London) and Ofelia Garcia (New York State University), prominent experts in bilingualism, argue that it is in EFL or ESL contexts where language separation is imposed, by ‘othering the languages of those who spoke them within the nation’. Although multilingualism has become a global phenomenon, schools are usually the place where languages are contested. The classroom setting is the place where language contact usually happens, particularly between local language or national language and foreign or second language. Then, the question is why do we still teach our students that there are only two varieties of English accents: British and American? Why can’t we be proud of our Javanese, Sundanese, Bataknese, or other local accents? This failure to embrace the multilingual turn in language education could withdraw our students’ participation in the classroom. Based on the latest research from Pew Research Center, Arabic is the fastest growing language in the country, with a total of 1.1 million speakers and Spanish follows in second place. People can communicate through various languages, mixed languages, without having any trouble. UK has now become more multilingual, with roughly 300 languages spoken in schools in London. With the growing number of speakers of English ‘abandoning’ standardized English, it seems that the English language no longer belongs (if it has ever belonged) to the Anglo-Saxons, but it has become the collectively property of diverse ethnicities in almost all countries. Since then, there has been tremendous development in terms of its varieties. It depends on the power of the nation that imposes the language on others.Įnglish is a language that was particularly imposed on the rest of the world, mainly in British colonies. Does it work? It does, at least for some time.
It is called Received Pronunciation (RP), people often call it ‘BBC English’ or ‘Queen’s English’ or ‘Oxford English’. That is why every nation creates their version of standardized language, the most ‘proper’ language that must be spoken by the society. We are made to think that the language that we speak is ours, thus, we are easily irritated if we hear people mispronounce particular words, make grammatical mistakes, or speak in strange and undesirable accents. We are made to think that a certain language exclusively belongs to a certain nation. There are complex factors that can affect the dynamic change of a language, but one certainty is that any language is politically constructed. Who knows whether in the near future, most people in the world will end up speaking Chinese, or Arabic, or Spanish? Who would have thought a thousand years ago that Latin would be barely spoken today? Who would have predicted that English would dominate? Predicting the future of a language is as hard as predicting the future of politics. In the age of multilingualism, can we say that one English language speaker is better than the other? Is there any one true definition of a good language speaker? More importantly, how should we teach English to our students?
#List of monolingual countries free
Monolingualism is thus rarely the subject of scholarly publications, as it is viewed to be an unmarked or prototypical concept where it has the sense of being normal and multilingualism is the exception.Mon, Janu 14:57 2030 9b519824cb3263083aedb70a0ba3a4a3 3 Opinion Education,#education,English,learning,bilingual-education Free This statement reflects the traditional assumption that linguistic theories often take on: that monolingualism is the norm. Romaine pointed out in her book Bilingualism that it would be weird to find a book titled Monolingualism. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Note that mono glottism can only refer to lacking the ability to speak several languages. Being monolingual or unilingual is also said of a text, dictionary, or conversation written or conducted in only one language, and of an entity in which a single language is either used or officially recognized. In a different context, "unilingualism" may refer to a language policy which enforces an official or national language over others. Monolingualism Monoglottism or, more commonly, monolingualism or unilingualism, is the condition of being able to speak only a single language, as compared to multilingualism.