Multilingualism in Europe versus English as Lingua Franca Barbara Lesničar

One world, one language? Barbarians! That's what the Roman Empire, in its latter days, called the Germanic tribes migrating south. The Romans had borrowed the word from the Greek barbaros, meaning 'unable to speak intelligibly', just well enough to stammer 'bar-bar-bar'. In those days, you either spoke Latin or did not exist. Almost two millennia later, the descendants of the Germanic tribes have taken over the civilised world, relocated it outside the Mediterranean, and not speaking English is beyond the pale. Vincent Buck

ENGLISH AS THE GLOBAL LANGUAGE 30% of the world population are “reasonably competent” in English, 670 million have a native-like command of the language 85% of the scientific, technological or academic production in the world today is done in English,

Source: data for EU 25, published before 2007 enlargement

Lingua franca English is merely fulfilling a functional need for lingua franca in this globalised world.

English as a Lingua Franca Mondiano (1999), a model of English as an international language

English is particularly suitable as Europe's lingua franca because of its functional flexibility and spread across the world, and because English is already "de-nativised" to a large extent: the global number of non-native speakers is now substantially larger than its native speakers (about 4:1). English is no longer "owned" by its native speakers because acculturation and nativisation processes have produced a remarkable diversification of the English language into many non-native varieties. Juliane House http://www.guardian.co.uk/GWeekly/Story/0,3939,475288,00.html

Communicative competence Language problems Cultural differences

a contribution to multilingualism or a waste of money MEDIATION a contribution to multilingualism or a waste of money

Problems with multilingualism on any scale Proficiency in at least two languages Education (serious problems occur when the minority language may be forbidden in school) (Frisian children learning Dutch are presented with nothing like the difficulty of Sami children learning Swedish, since Frisian and Dutch are closely related languages)

Slovenia and EU As Slovenia is integrating into the European Union, one of its people's main concerns is that their cultural identity and language are threatened. However, many believe that the fate of the Slovenian language and culture does not depend on the EU, but primarily on Slovenians. Vesna Žarkovič, Government and Media Office, Slovenia

EURO - ENGLISH Typical errors of ELF that do not hinder communication: Dropping third perdon present tense “-s” Confusing the relative pronouns “who and “which” Non - L1 use of the definite and indefinite pronouns Not using correct tag question Inserting redundant prepositions Overuse of certain verbs (“do”, “have”, “make” etc.) Replacing infinitive constructions with that-clauses Overdoing explicitness ( as in “black colour”)

Which English?

At long last, Europe is on its way to becoming one big family, without bloodshed, a real transformation …a continent of humaine values … of liberty, solidarity and above all diversity, meaning respect for others’ languages, cultures and traditions. (Laeken Declaration)

References Crystal, D. 2003. English as a Global Language.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Graddol, D., Chesire, J. and Swann, J. 1996. Describing Language … Buckingham: Open University Press. Holmes, J. 2001. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited. Jenkins, J. 2003. World Englishes. Great Britain: TJ International LTD, Padstow, Cornwall. May, S. 2001. Language and Minority Rights. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited. McKAY, S.L. 2002. Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Trudgill, P. and Chesire, J. 1998. The Sociolinguistics Reader. Oford: Oxford University Press. Wardhaugh, R. 1998. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. USA: Blackwell Publishers Ltd. http://www.guardian.co.uk/GWeekly/Story/0,3939,475288,00.html http:/www.cultivate-int.org/issue4/eurospeak/

THANK YOU barbara.lesnicar@zrss.si