[ a vocabulary dictionary] PE 2751 .H46 2001. McArthur, Tom

1
English Around the World
2
Resources for Studying World English Books

• Leech, Geoffrey N. and Jan Svartvik. English
  One Tongue, Many Voices. New York Palgrave
  Macmillan, 2006.
• Crystal, David. The Stories of English.
  Woodstock Overlook, 2005.
• Chien, Evelyn Nien-Ming, Weird English
  Cambridge Harvard UP, 2004. PR888.L35 C47 2004
• McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Guide to World
  English. Oxford and New York Oxford UP, 2002.
• Hendrickson, Robert. World English From Aloha to
  Zed. New York John Wiley, 2001. a vocabulary
  dictionary PE 2751 .H46 2001
• McArthur, Tom. The English Languages. Cambridge
  Cambridge UP, 1998.
• Crystal, David. English as a Global Language. New
  York Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997. PE 2751 .C79
  1997
• Dovring, Karen. English as a Lingua Franca.
  Westport CN Praeger, 1997. PE2751 .D68 1997
• Parakrama, Arjuna. De-Hegemonizing Language
  Standards Learning From (Post-) Colonial
  Englishes About "English". New York St.
  Martin's, 1995. PE 2751 .P37 1995
• Pennycook, Alistair. The Cultural Politics of
  English as an International Language. London and
  New York Longman, 1994.

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Resources for Studying World English Websites

• Worldwide Accents of English
• Varieties of English
• British Council (facts and figures)
• Wikipedia entry on dialects of English around the
  world
• English World-Wide (link to BC libraries
  e-journal page - search by title)
• World Englishes (ditto)
• Very fun quizzes on varieties of English

4
Will English go the way of Latin?

• Small wonder that there should have been in
  recent years fresh talk of the diaspora of
  English into several mutually incomprehensible
  languages. The fate of Latin after the fall of
  the Roman Empire presents us with such distinct
  languages today as French, Spanish, Romanian, and
  Italian. With the growth of national separatism
  in the English-speaking countries, linguistically
  endorsed not least by the active encouragement of
  the anti-standard ethos I have just mentioned,
  many foresee a similar fissiparous future for
  English. A year or so ago, much prominence was
  given to the belief expressed by R.W. Burchfield
  that in a century from now the languages of
  Britain and America would be as different as
  French is from Italian.
• Randolph Quirk, English in the World
  (1984), p. 3

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How many people speak English?

• 1500 4 million
• 1600 6 million
• 1700 8.5 million
• 1800 20-40 million
• 1900 116-123 million
• Today (first language) 375 million
• (second language) 375 million
• (foreign language) 750 million
• Total around 1.5 billion (of the 6 billion in the
  world, about 1 in 4)
• (source British Council Website - now down!)

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Venues for the spread of English

• Books
• Newspapers
• Airports/air traffic control
• International business
• Academic conferences
• Science
• technology

7
More venues

• Medicine
• Diplomacy
• Sports
• International competitions
• Pop music
• Advertising
• Web

8
More fun facts about English worldwide

• English has official or special status in at
  least 75 countries with a total population of
  over 2 billion
• English is the main language of books,
  newspapers, airports and air-traffic control,
  international business and academic conferences,
  science, technology, diplomacy, sport,
  international competitions, pop music and
  advertising
• over 2/3 of the world's scientists read in
  English
• 3/4 of the world's snail mail is written in
  English
• 80 of the world's electronically stored
  information is in English
• 80 of web sites are in English (German 4.5
  Japanese 3.1)
• of the estimated 200 million users of the
  Internet, about 35 communicate in English
• (source englishenglish.com)

9
One clear advantage

• English does have one clear advantage,
  attitudinally and linguistically it has acquired
  a neutrality in a linguistic contexts where
  native languages, dialects, and styles sometimes
  have acquired undesirable connotations.It was
  originally the foreign (alien) ruler's language,
  but that drawback is often overshadowed by what
  it can do for its users. True, English is
  associated with a small and elite group but it
  is in their role that the neutrality of a
  language becomes vital.
• Braj Kachru, The Alchemy of English (1986)

10
A couple of definitions

• Structuralism a modern intellectual movement,
  based in linguistics - emphasizes the systematic
  interrelationships among elements in any system -
  in language, built around phonemes (a unit of
  meaningful sound - defined by differences from
  other phonemes) - structuralism can extend to any
  system - cooking, drama, human society -
  investigate the internal relations - meant to
  incorporate social production of meaning (shared
  relations in a system), but can avoid larger
  social questions - assumes freedom from larger
  cultural and political implications
• Positivism a philosophy that recognizes only
  positive facts and observable phenomena - doesn't
  get into causes or ultimate origins

11
Ngugi WaThiongo on English in Kenya in his youth

• Nobody could go on to wear the undergraduate red
  gown, no matter how brilliantly they had
  performed in all the papers in all other
  subjects, unless they had a credit (not even a
  simple pass!) in English. Thus the most coveted
  place in the pyramid and in the system was only
  available to holders of an English-language
  credit card. English was the official vehicle and
  the magic formula to colonial elitedom.
• Ngugi wa Thiong'o, "The Language of
  African Literature" (1985

12
Economic Aspects of English Language Learning
(from FAQs on the British Council Website - now
down)

• What economic benefits does English bring to the
  UK?
• British English language products are worth
  over 800 million pounds a year to the UK
• the total expenditure of the 700,000 visitors
  to the UK annually to learn English is over 700
  million pounds - possibly over one billion pounds
• the English language makes it possible for
  British companies to develop markets, sell into
  them and form commercial alliances it brings
  direct benefits through the supply of English
  teaching goods and services.
• What other benefits does English have for the UK?
• tourists are encouraged to visit the UK
• businesspeople are encouraged to invest and
  build partnerships with the UK
• people are encouraged to watch British films,
  read books by British authors, and listen to
  British radio and popular music.