Globalization Of English Language Essay

Globalization ,networking ,economic integration ,internet and MNC’s together have played major roles in giving English the status of major lingua franca of world beyond doubt. English as lingua franca has comfortably taken its role in business, science, engineering and also in various cultural fields. People like Widdowson, Seidlehofer and Jenkins have pointed out that use of English as lingua franca has become the fastest growing function in the world .Most of the scientific ,technological and academic information in the world is expressed in English and 80% of all the information stored in electronic retrieval system is in English(crystal,1997:106).with revolutionary economic growth ELF along with it has emerged as the most vibrant field

The acceptance of ELF happened conveniently in India because English is used on official basis for administrative and business purpose at the same time it also becomes the vehicle of communication for people belonging to different region. In a way it united people for their need of communication belonging to different subcontinent of India. Country like India where more than 30 officially recognized languages are used by different people , needs one common language to unite them, Indian languages could not serve the purpose of one common official language and English emerged as the strong lingua franca. Globalization has made India a potential job market, result of which many multinational companies have been established in various parts of the country. Multinational companies expect English as an important component for getting a job with them. When foreign investor connects with India English is the only lingua franca for both sides to communicate. English as lingua franca also helps the non native speaker to understand the so called western culture and people same way helps them to make the others understand Indian culture and people. In a multinational company it is important to know and understand other people and culture, thus evolved cross culture learning. Again English plays a distinctive role in learning cross

The basic issues could be attitude, acceptance, universality, comprehending and conceptuality. There are Indians with vivid background, multilingual and multicultural also are tied up to their nativity so much that it becomes difficult for them to accept foreign language as their lingua franca. The attitude of orthodox towards English as lingua franca in both sides, the native speaker as well as the non native speaker , is that the former feels it to be a threat to the standard English and later feels it to be threat to the local language and culture. Neither of them wants to accept English as lingua franca. According to the non native speakers English dominates by its universal presence and the local language lose their importance among the local people itself. Their point of view of these people is that English gains so much of attention by locals that their native language is forgotten by them and efforts are also not taken to regain its values. The mother tongue influence is one of the biggest issues in accepting English as lingua franca. The local language unknowingly some time influences the foreign language. Indian English is one great example of such influence. The acceptance of the concept of Indian English by the rest of the world shows the influence of English as lingua franca and the fear of English being the lingua franca. The cultural differences also sometimes