English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

English - Essay Example So, for the progress of countries, it becomes necessary to promote English in academic sphere on a wider level. The Journal ‘Language loss, Identity, and English as an International Language’ has been chosen to support the argument that the attitude of people towards English language greatly depend on its socio-economical importance in different fields of life. This is also expressed that the language of a set of people certainly acts as an upholder of their identity and the arrival of English as a major foreign language can endanger the purity of national language because of its flexible nature to become a part of it. Originally, English was spoken as a local language by a set of people living on an island off the western coast of Europe. It had no established identity and it was just one among many languages. Now, the English language has emerged as the most prominent and prestigious language with all its flexibility of accepting great changes with the passage of time. Now English has a great variety in itself because of its exposure to different communities (Seargeant, P., 2012). On an individual level, the value of language is perceived according to the specific context in which the person is using the language as Seargeant describes the personal experience of a man who originally got his education in both Farsi and English in Iran and later moved to Liverpool University for Structural Engineering. When he returned to his homeland, he was more fluent in English and it was hard for him to speak much Farsi and realized that many of the technical terms were not translated in Farsi and were being used in English. . This carries the impact of English as the language for higher and technical studies. Another example, he quotes, of a woman who moved from South of England to the North and her accent was considered as a token of her socio-economical identity which she never thought of and was considered as a role model for her accent and taught English to many students. (Seargeant, P., 2012). So everybody has different experience regarding language and as a result it brings forth a unique value of language and shapes a different attitude towards it. The people who move from one place to another, their language practice get influenced by the new environments they live in. It is also noteworthy that English language does not remain only a mean of communication rather it brings an acknowledgement of how you saw yourself and how other people perceive you (U214, DVD 1, Clip 1.3, Language histories). On a wider level, the history of a country develops a collective attitude towards a language depending on benefits that the practice of language brings. English being an international language tends to bring promising economical future so, for approaching the higher education internationally and opening ways to job opportunities the government and private institutes of many countries introduce English as a medium of their education (Seargea nt, P., 2012). The English language encountered a variety of general attitudes in China. Bolton writes in ‘Chinese Englishes: A Sociolinguistic History’ that after the establishment of Republic, in 1949, the whole setup of the country was subjected to a great deal of changes and English was introduced in schools as a major foreign language. Soon after