English as a Global Language (Canto Classics) by Crystal David

Author:Crystal, David [Crystal, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Education

It follows from what has been said in this chapter that English is the medium of a great deal of the world’s knowledge, especially in such areas as science and technology. And access to knowledge is the business of education. When we investigate why so many nations have in recent years made English an official language or chosen it as their chief foreign language in schools, one of the most important reasons is always educational – in the broadest sense. Black South African writer Harry Mashabela puts it like this:24

learning and using English will not only give us the much-needed unifying chord but will also land us into the exciting world of ideas; it will enable us to keep company with kings in the world of ideas and also make it possible for us to share the experiences of our own brothers in the world . . .

And Sridath Ramphal adds an anecdote:25

shortly after I became Secretary-General of the Commonwealth in 1975, I met Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike in Colombo and we talked of ways in which the Commonwealth Secretariat could help Sri Lanka. Her response was immediate and specific: ‘Send us people to train our teachers to teach English as a foreign language’. My amazement must have showed, for the Prime Minister went on to explain that the policies her husband had put in place twenty years earlier to promote Sinhalese as the official language had succeeded so well that in the process Sri Lanka – so long the pearl of the English-speaking world in Asia – had in fact lost English, even as a second language save for the most educated Sri Lankans. Her concern was for development. Farmers in the field, she told me, could not read the instructions on bags of imported fertiliser – and manufacturers in the global market were not likely to print them in Sinhalese. Sri Lanka was losing its access to the world language of English. We did respond. I believe that today English is doing better as the second language in Sri Lanka.

Not everyone has viewed the arrival of the language in such a positive light, as we shall see in chapter 5; but the dominant view is certainly that a person is more likely to be in touch with the latest thinking and research in a subject by learning English than by learning any other language.

It is important to appreciate that the use of English does vary, in this respect. A 1980 study of the use of English in scientific periodicals showed that 85 per cent of papers in biology and physics were being written in English at that time, whereas medical papers were some way behind (73 per cent), and papers in mathematics and chemistry further behind still (69 per cent and 67 per cent respectively).26 However, all these areas had shown a significant increase in their use of English during the preceding fifteen years – over 30 per cent, in the case of chemistry, and over 40 per

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