A world view Present-day world status of English  The expansion of British colonial power> past (end 19th)  US leading economic power 20th >present and future >USA = 70% of all English mother-tongue speakers in the world

Kachru’s circles expanding circle outer circle inner circle

 inner circle: traditional basis of English (L1)> U.S., Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and several Caribbean countries  outer circle: English as a second language (L2) > India, Singapore, etc.  expanding circle: English used as an international language or taught as a foreign language (EFL) > China, Japan, Italy, etc.

 “expanded” circle?  impressive number of speakers  a quarter of the world’s population speaks English  remarkably short period of time

List p > a few observations  Variety of sources  Indirect methods (percentage of people over 25 + secondary education)  ‘Variety of English’ includes pidgins and creoles (as opposed to varieties of French)  ‘official’ (p.67 Rwanda and Burundi)

List p > a few observations Totals:  329 million (conservative > L1)  400 million (includes pidgins and creoles)  430 million L2 (anyway ahead of L1 total!)  EFL > estimates vary enormously (command?) 1997 a billion people learning English (Br C) Ratio of native : non-native 1:3

Situation without precedent No other language has spread around the globe so extensively SPEED with which the expansion has taken place since the 1950s What happened in 60 years?

The cultural foundation  P. 72  Writers speculating about the future of English > always a dangerous activity!  ‘English is the language of the future’ > hundreds of quotations in  Not a single quotation to suggest a different view

The language’s social usefulness  Geo-historical survey > past  Socio-historical > to understand  Cultural account > can give us a sense of what is likely to happen in the future  ‘in the right place at the right time’ > Note 10 arguing against Phillipson (see bibliography on the website)

Civilizing influence of Britain (…?)  Unpalatable triumphalist attitude of quotations on p.78-9  English as a guarantor, as well as a symbol, of political unity.  English to communicate between speakers of indigenous communities  When unity feels threatened > language used as a symbol

Two sides of the coin Colonialism  Desire for national linguistic unit  Desire for international linguistic unit Language of colonial power introduces a medium of communication BUT it reflects the bonds between that colony and the home country > post-colonial literature