THE
UNIVERSITY OF DODOMA
|
THE UNIVERSITY OF DODOMA
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|
UDOM
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SCHOOL
OF CURRICULUM AND TEACHER EDUCATION
DEPARTMENT
OF LANGUAGE, FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS
COURSE
NAME: HISTORY OF ENGLISH IN EAST AFRICA
COURSE
CODE:
EL 106
COURSE
INSTRUCTOR: MR. MWAIPAPE, J.
NATURE
OF WORK: GROUP PRESENTATION
PARTICIPANTS’ DETAILS
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S/N
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NAME
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REG.
NO.
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DEG.
PRO.
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SEX
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SIGN.
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1
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AUSI
S. MBWANA
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T/UDOM/2015/01609
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BED
ARTS
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M
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|
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2
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DORAH
WILLIAM
|
T/UDOM/2015/15563
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BED
ARTS
|
F
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|
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3
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HUSSEIN
JUMA
|
T/UDOM/2015/15469
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BED
ARTS
|
M
|
|
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4
|
ASIIMWE
ASTED
|
T/UDOM/2015/01440
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BED
ARTS
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F
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|
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5
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HILDA
KAYWANGA
|
T/UDOM/2015/15573
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BED
ARTS
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F
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|
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6
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KAYOMBO
CATHIBERT
|
T/UDOM/2015/01545
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BED
ARTS
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M
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|
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7
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SAYUNI
M. MGENI
|
T/UDOM/2015/15595
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BED
ARTS
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F
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|
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8
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ELIKANA
G. SIMON
|
T/UDOM/2015/01486
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BED
ARTS
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M
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|
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9
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MINAEL
AGGREY
|
T/UDOM/2015/15579
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BED
ARTS
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F
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|
|
10
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HAPPY
MWANTIMWA
|
T/UDOM/2015/01677
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BED
ARTS
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F
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QUESTION:
Whereas
some African scholars believe that English language supremacy is unrivalled,
other anticipates that, it will one day diminish. What is your stand?
English
is the west Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian Dialects
brought to Britain in the 5thto 7th by Germanic invaders and settlers. The
development of English went through different phases including the old Frisian
that included Indo-European and Germanic Old English (Anglo-Saxons), middle
English and modern English. It is self-evident that, the development of English
in the world passed over different phases and revolutions. In case of Africa,
the arrival of English took place during the movement of European for searching
raw materials, labor and areas for settlement at the end of 18th century. After
the African continent to be colonized, the language that was used for
communication with European was English, so African were required to learn and
to be competent with English language in order to facilitate the communication.
Concerning the future of English whether it will continue with its hegemonic
complexity or will one day perish has been undisputed debate among many
researchers who has not reached the defined stand. There are those who believe
that, English language is unrivalled on one side, and for the other side, some
scholars believe that English language will one day diminish. The following
below are the arguments of both the two parts. Starting from the positivity of
English, the following arguments below support that English will not diminish,
Colonial
legacy, It is well understood that colonial power brought and spread their
language in each territory they governed and it was made to be the language of
administration, commerce and education, but their goals differed from one power
to another ranging from assimilation to the culture of the occupying power.
After then the elites emerged from colonial education imported by colonialists,
for example, English by Britain in East Africa in east Africa. Since these
African countries has attained independence, they have promised English to be
official language that until today has gained a very high status, so to diminish
is not easy.
Modernization
and economic development, Because the post African independent leaders
concerned very much with Modernization ideas that they were willing to
sacrifice the roles formerly occupied by
their languages. Modernization was the strong factor in diminishing the status
of African languages. Due to this reason, English language is currently used in
science and technology together with other services thus it is difficult to
diminish.
Globalization,
Globalization involves contact between countries and regions of the world in
terms of communication, trade, technology, information, culture etc. As far as
language choice is concerned the language of globalization has to be language
of wider communication such as English, since it is only such language that can
facilitate maximum access and participation in the global village. The study by
Levisohn (2004) shows that the return acquiring to those speaking English
increased overall, particularly in terms of employment and wages.
Regional
integration, The integrations among different countries each country find to
have its own national language, through that each country become ambition in
spreading her language example hence when they want to discuss different
matters on their groups the fail to reach the consensus on which language should be used as and group should use one to unify
them. These situations make them to turn back on using English language as to
avoid biases among them hence English develops.
Negative
perception of multilingualism, This is due
to the fact that English language is being spoken widely over the world
for example in south Africa in spite of
having Zulu and Afrikaans as languages but English is leading to have many
speakers and is used as official language. Also the perception that operating
in one language is productive than in several, as it is found that most of
African countries are having many languages but at the end in order to choose
one language to operate most of them find themselves choosing English language
which is an international one so as to benefit even in other opportunities such
as in international trade competitions. Other people think that using many
languages is a problem than one language is a problem that one language hence English
becomes a language of choice. On the other side the face that English language
is a prestigious. Some people use this language just for prestigious reasons
for example in Tanzania the educated people when they want to show themselves
and/or look peculiar from others who are uneducated start using English
language. By doing so English language develops, hence it will not diminish.
Apart
from the positive view of English language as it has been discussed above, the
following below are some arguments on the negative future of English, that is,
it will diminish due to the following reasons.
The
grand shift in the inner circle. There is the vast shift in the circle that
Braj Kachru explained. Within the inner circle, the part constituting native
speakers of English language, there is the shift in the way that, there are
people who formerly were using English as the first language are now departing
and try to seek linguistic alternatives and sometimes for the sake of identity.
David Crystal (1950) puts it clear that, the
whole population that formerly used English language as their first language
and now using as the second language is 1:3, which is 2.5 times the population
which use English as the first language. Furthermore, Graddol as quoted in
Crystal’s The Future of English in the same year goes beyond to projectile the
future of English that, the world’s population in which they use English as
first language will decline from 1950 over 8% to less than 5% in 2050. Much
will depend on what in large countries-China, Japan, Indonesia, Russia and
Brazil to mention few) happens and thus a clear drop out of English language as
the global language.
The
increase of relationship between China and developing countries. The rapid
China’s expansion into the developing countries threaten the supremacy of
English due to the fact that, China is now imparting her language in many
African countries through higher learning Institutions. Good example is the
University of Dodoma in Tanzania which currently offer the Chinese course. Also
the Egerton University in Nairobi. In Mauritius, the Nouakchott University
offer the Chinese language as the compulsory course, as Zhu Zhongai, the Head
of department of the said University complimented this saying, “…in spite of
short history of Chinese language, teaching in Mauritius just 10 years, but the
development of this study is rapid and students are generally enthusiastic on
learning Chinese…” (People’s Daily, November 8, 2006). Also
Chinese language in Tunisia was introduced in 1998 as it put clearly by the
then Head of Chinese department, Lue Yingfei, “…the Tunisia Ministry of
Education…then established the elective Chinese language in 2003. The next
year, large number of applications received from the students who wanted to
learn Chinese language…”(OP. CIT). The presence
of these high institutions that offer Chinese language indicates that, the
future of English is thorny.
Economic
importance of other languages like Japanese, Spanish and French. The changing
of economic relationship between the developed and less developed countries is
growing fast. India and China are likely to overtake US to become the largest
exporter in the world in the next 5 years. In December 2006, China revised its
economic growth estimation showing that, it has all along overtaken Italy in
term of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and finely becoming the forth economic
largest country (Graddol, 2006). Chinese enterprises are acquiring a control
over the global important resources and this control is a threat to the future
of English language.
The
need of the societies to expand the indigenous languages. The then president of
Kenya, His Excellency Jomo Kenyatta on the issue pertaining on language once said; “The basis of any independent government is
national language, and we can no
longer continue aping our former colonizers” (Quoted in Crystal’s The
future of English). As the effect of this notion, many elites in Kenya started
to favor the said national identity and good example is Ngugi wa Thiong’o who
then decided to write all of his literary works in Kikuyu and Kiswahili for the
sake of this identity. This is simply that, if these elites for the coming
years will go on with this linguistic cold war, English hegemony is thorny.
Irrelevance
of English learners to the cultural exposure. As it is today in teaching and
learning classical languages like English, it is very important to learn/teach
the culture of the learnt native speakers and from these natives, people learn
about the behavior. In these days, the culture of natives is becoming less
relevant to the learners’ environment so long as English becomes component of
basic education in many countries. This is to say, the on-going irrelevance of
this aspect tend to decrease the number of English language learners, hence the
stumbling block to the supremacy of English.
Rising
of competition from other languages. English language is facing great
competition from other foreign languages due to the fact that, the countries
that are no longer user of English language as official language are now using
other foreign language, for example,
Arabic, French and Portuguese, the languages which are used in African
countries like Benin, Senegal and Niger all using French. Also Morocco, Tunisia
and Algeria use Arabic as official language. All these tend to threat the
hegemony of English.
The
emerging other languages on the computer software industry. It is often claimed
that, English dominates the computer software industry which pushed the learner
to learn English thoroughly before using this software. But in nowadays, the use of English language
in internet publishing materials is declining.
The study by Byte conducted in November 2005 shows that, other languages
on internet materials like Russia, Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese are now used
in publishing materials more importantly than English. The study shows that, in
2000, English language was used for about 51.5% on the internet publishing
materials, but the use declined to 32% in 2005. So this is self-evident that,
the decline of English language use in computer software is a threat to the
triumph of English.
.
Therefore,
as it has been discussed of both parts of the arguments, the study is persuaded
to the stand that, as other languages emerge and ultimately die, English also
will one day diminish due to the factors that have been well elaborated. So
long as the economy of the powerful nations that are hosts of English language
like US become competed by other coming powerful nations like China gives the
negative trend of English survival. Also the political greatness of other
nations that are now struggling to control the world like China is another
reason convictive to say that, English will one day diminish. The role of
international media like BBC SWAHILI, DW and VOICE OF AMERICA are now becoming
the campaigners to facilitate other languages like Kiswahili to grow and
spread, so gives the trend that one Day, English will diminish.
Reference
list
Crystal,
D.(2003). English As the Global Language. (2TH Ed). Cambridge
University Press
Graddol,
D. (2006). English Next. Plymouth. The English Co.(UK) Ltd.
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