ASSIGMENT 8 : PENNYCOOK

Alastair Pennycook mantains that “English is an unfair language” because:

-It acts as a gatekeeper for education, jobs and social mobility, favouring a monolingual élite, both in the Centre and in the Periphery.

-It makes certain domains inaccessible to many people.

– It is causing many minority languages to disappear and prevents many people from identifying with their mother tongue.

– It hinders literacy in the mother tongue for speakers of minority languages.

– It is not receptive to the needs of many people.

– It privileges the figure of NS in the ELT profession, together with many other fallacies.

– The prevailing, barely communicative, pedagogical orientation of EFL education in Spain tended to silence & marginalize learners (even though those coming from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds).

 If we only take into account these statements, we will finally arrive to the conclusion that English is an unfair language, a communication barrier which is also eradicating other languages.  I do not say that these statements are false, however, sometimes we should analyse the advantages and drawbacks of something, and then, to make decisions and arrive to solutions.

 In this case, I think that if we analyse the pros of this fact, we finally agree that English is more a helpful tool than a barrier or obstacle. What would happen if we could not communicate with people from other countries? Thanks to this language, we have a common instrument of communication and international relationships. Therefore, we can develop any kind of communication, social but also economical, political and cultural levels. So it is clear that we need a common language to communicate and maybe, the question is more like: why English? To answer this question I also think there are lots of reasons:

- Historical reasons: because of the legacy of British and American imperialism, institutions of many countries carry out their proceedings in English.

-Internal political reasons: because English has a role in providing a neutral means of communication between its different ethnic groups

- External economic reasons: The USA’s dominant economic position acts as a attraction for international business and commerce.

- Intellectual reasons: English is the main language of the scientific, technological and academic information of the world.

- Leisure reasons: English is the main language of the popular music, videogames, technology, etc.

- Practical reasons: English is a simple and easy language that facilitates its learning.

 My conclusion is that the creation of a global language has numerous disadvantages, but we have to recognize its advantages as well (mutual intelligibility, great career opportunities and reduced administrative costs, etc..). We are in need of an international language for communication, politics, trade and security, but at the same time we are worried about language death, the advantages native speakers will have and all the disadvantages non-native speakers will face. But my opinion is that if we have to choose an international language, English is the best option. It is a strong, well developed language with millions of speakers. On the other side, even though a global language could be considered necessary, different languages are of fundamental importance  for their culture and for the development of their native speakers. Languages make the world more interesting and more alive.