Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
English as an universal language
English as a Universal Language
by Carlos Carrion Torres - Vitoria ES - Brazil
English is without a doubt the actual universal language. It is the world's second largest native language, the official language in 70 countries, and English-speaking countries are responsible for about 40% of world's total GNP.
English can be at least understood almost everywhere among scholars and educated people, as it is the world media language, and the language of cinema, TV, pop music and the computer world. All over the planet people know many English words, their pronunciation and meaning.
The causes for this universality are very well known and understandable. English first began to spread during the 16th century with British Empire and was strongly reinforced in 20th by USA world domination in economic, political and military aspects and by the huge influence of American movies.
The concept of a Universal Language is more significant only now, in the era of world mass communication. Before this era Greek, Latin, French were to some extent universal languages, though mainly in Europe.
By a lucky coincidence due to factors above, English, the Universal language, is one of the simplest and easiest natural languages in the world. The only other simple and easy languages are constructed ones.
Of course the concept of easiness is relative, and it depends on which language you know already. However the concept of simplicity is undeniable: English in an easy language to learn, understand and speak. A complex language such as Hungarian would be a very unlikely candidate for a universal language.
First of all, English Language uses Latin alphabet, the most universal, simple and short one (only the Greek alphabet is shorter and simpler). In addition, in English, the Latin Alphabet presents its most "clean" form as a true alphabet with only 26 basic letters and no diacritics;
Verb conjugation is very simple and easy. Even for irregular verbs, there is almost no variation in person (except 3rd singular in present tense).
Regular verbs have only four forms: Infinitive + Present, Past Tense + Past Participle, 3rd person singular Present Indicative, Present Participle.
There are almost no Inflections. No number or gender inflection for adjectives, articles, adverbs. For adjectives there is only comparative and superlative, almost only number for nouns. In pronouns there are gender and number inflections and only three declension cases (Acc/Dat, Nom, Gen).
English is one of the most analytical languages, with no significant synthetic, fusional or agglutinative characteristics.
Could be there any other alternative for Universal Language, instead of English?
There are other languages that are quite simple and synthetic, with almost no verb conjugation, no declension, such as Asian languages like Thai and Chinese, but they are written with complicated scripts and are tonal languages. However if Chinese were to be written with the Latin alphabet, it could potentially become a univeral language.
There are other strong languages that, due to population and economic power, could be univeral languages, but they have a number of disadvantages when compared with English.
Some examples:
- Japanese: has very regular verbs but also a very complicated script.
- Chinese: no conjugations or declension, but a very complicated script and tones.
- German has many more inflections than English.
- The major Romance languages, such as French, Spanish and Portuguese, have fewer inflections than most of languages, but their verb conjugation is very complicated.
- Russian has both complex verb conjugations and numerous noun declensions.
In conclusion, it is lucky for us that our universal language is the simplest and easiest, even though that simplicity and easiness weren't the reasons that lead English to that condition.
The importance of English language as an international language
English is part of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It is spoken as a native language by around 377 million and as a second language by around 375 million speakers in the world. Speakers of English as a second language will soon outnumber those who speak it as a first language.
Around 750 million people are believed to speak English as a foreign language. English has an official or a special status in 75 countries with a total population of over 2 billion.
The domination of the English language globally is undeniable. English is the language of diplomacy and international communications, business, tourism, education, science, computer technology, media and Internet. Because English was used to develop communication, technology, programming, software, etc, it dominates the web. 70% of all information stored electronically is in English.
British colonialism in the 19th century and American capitalism and technological progress in the 20th century were undoubtedly the main causes for the spread of English throughout the world.
The English language came to British Isles from northern Europe in the fifth century. From the fifteenth century, the British began to sail all over the world and became explorers, colonists and imperialists. They took the English language to North America, Canada and the Caribbean, to South Africa, to Australia and New Zealand, to South Asia (especially India), to the British colonies in Africa, to South East Asia and the South Pacific.
The USA has played a leading role in most parts of the world for the last hundred years. At the end of the 19th century and first quarter of the 20th, it welcomed millions of European immigrants who had fled their countries ravaged by war, poverty or famine. This labor force strengthened American economy. The Hollywood film industry also attracted many foreign artists in quest of fame and fortune and the number of American films produced every year soon flooded the market. Before the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which ended the First World War between Germany and the Allies, diplomacy was conducted in French. However, President Woodrow Wilson succeeded in having the treaty in English as well. Since then, English started being used in diplomacy and gradually in economic relations and the media.
The future of English as a global language will depend very largely on the political, economical, demographic and cultural trends in the world. The beginning of the 21st century is a time of global transition. According to some experts, faster economic globalization is going hand in hand with the growing use of English. More and more people are being encouraged to use English rather than their own language. On the other hand, the period of most rapid change can be expected to be an uncomfortable and at times traumatic experience for many people around the world. Hence, the opposite view, that the next 20 years or so will be a critical time for the English language and for those who depend upon it. The patterns of usage and public attitudes to English which develop during this period will have long-term effects for its future in the world.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Traditional teaching vs modern teaching
Our society these days are divided in to two different way of thinking on the education. Some believe that modern methods are better than the traditional method of teaching but yet these two methods are both a successful way. In my opinion, every method in teaching is the same for they deliver the same message to the students. Therefore there are pros and cons to it as well in these ways of teaching.
The pros for traditional methods are that teaches shouldered too much of responsibilities for teaching in the classroom to make sure everything they thought were understood by the student. Thus it was a good method, where there was efficient communication between teacher and students. There was also the typical way and a controllable class where the teacher would teach on the blackboard, explained, asks students to copy and made sure students paid attention and listen. Besides that, the traditional way in disciplining students in school and teaching them was an effective way in building a good characteristic student where students were afraid of their teacher and respect them.
Talking about the pros there are cons to traditional method way where students were to afraid to ask their teacher questions. Thus students get board of the same way of teaching method done by the teacher which is on the blackboard and listening to the teacher talk while they sit down in class and heat up their chairs. Besides that, disciplining the students with canning and scolding is not a sufficient way for students get traumatizes in school.
On the other hand, the pros of modern method in teaching help a lot where there is a centered classroom which is created by the teacher and accepted by the students. In modern method students are aware of their learning process through the computers. Thus with the help of computers teachers prepare their work in their thumb drive and present it to the class through slides show which is an easier way. And students can do their studying and their work all in the computer without depending 100% on their teacher in schools. Besides that, there is also classroom contract which consists on agreement between teachers and student regarding on how each will contribute to and behave in the classroom to start building a student’s expectation towards independence. Therefore students even have a bonding relationship with their teacher to be their friend so that they can share their problems to the teacher without being afraid.
As for the cons of the modern method of teaching students become too independent where they think they don’t need guidance from anybody because they think they can accomplish anything by themselves. Thus with the use of computers in school children gets distracted with online games and websites to browse on besides their studies which will cause them distraction. . Besides that saving all data’s in the thumb drive can be a problem when there is a virus which can also cause the students and teacher to get to comfortable and depend too much on technology and forget other better tools in teaching. Thus students also begin to be too comfortable with their teacher as their friend in schools and forget their responsibilities and respect over the teacher.
Lastly, I feel that the teaching methods should be balance because it both brings good intentions in educating a person for the better future of everyone. Thus it sends out the same message even in different way but yet it is useful.
The pros for traditional methods are that teaches shouldered too much of responsibilities for teaching in the classroom to make sure everything they thought were understood by the student. Thus it was a good method, where there was efficient communication between teacher and students. There was also the typical way and a controllable class where the teacher would teach on the blackboard, explained, asks students to copy and made sure students paid attention and listen. Besides that, the traditional way in disciplining students in school and teaching them was an effective way in building a good characteristic student where students were afraid of their teacher and respect them.
Talking about the pros there are cons to traditional method way where students were to afraid to ask their teacher questions. Thus students get board of the same way of teaching method done by the teacher which is on the blackboard and listening to the teacher talk while they sit down in class and heat up their chairs. Besides that, disciplining the students with canning and scolding is not a sufficient way for students get traumatizes in school.
On the other hand, the pros of modern method in teaching help a lot where there is a centered classroom which is created by the teacher and accepted by the students. In modern method students are aware of their learning process through the computers. Thus with the help of computers teachers prepare their work in their thumb drive and present it to the class through slides show which is an easier way. And students can do their studying and their work all in the computer without depending 100% on their teacher in schools. Besides that, there is also classroom contract which consists on agreement between teachers and student regarding on how each will contribute to and behave in the classroom to start building a student’s expectation towards independence. Therefore students even have a bonding relationship with their teacher to be their friend so that they can share their problems to the teacher without being afraid.
As for the cons of the modern method of teaching students become too independent where they think they don’t need guidance from anybody because they think they can accomplish anything by themselves. Thus with the use of computers in school children gets distracted with online games and websites to browse on besides their studies which will cause them distraction. . Besides that saving all data’s in the thumb drive can be a problem when there is a virus which can also cause the students and teacher to get to comfortable and depend too much on technology and forget other better tools in teaching. Thus students also begin to be too comfortable with their teacher as their friend in schools and forget their responsibilities and respect over the teacher.
Lastly, I feel that the teaching methods should be balance because it both brings good intentions in educating a person for the better future of everyone. Thus it sends out the same message even in different way but yet it is useful.
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