Chapter 10

The future of English as a global language

Introductory activities

The following introductory activities are designed to encourage the reader to think about
the issues raised in this chapter before reading it.

The current and future position of English as a global language

Look at Figure 10.1, reproduced from Graddol’s (1997) World Language Hierarchy.

Discussion questions
1 Do you agree with the placement of the different languages?
2 Graddol (1997, p. 13) notes, ‘English and French are at the apex, with the position of
French declining and English becoming more clearly the lingua franca.’ Do you agree
with the other ‘big languages’ that he predicts to replace French by 2050?
3 What do you believe is the future of English? Will it remain at the apex of this
hierarchy or will it eventually fall out of favour?

Case study: the power of Sesame Street

Sesame Street first aired on television in the USA in 1971 and has since been exported to
over 140 different countries. In the 1970s it was seen as entertaining and educational,
with each episode focusing on various letters of the alphabet and numbers. With the
introduction of Sesame Street in places like Australia, Canada, the UK, and New Zealand,
it became apparent that the show was influencing the language that children used,
particularly apparent with the adoption of the pronunciation of zee instead of zed
when naming the last letter of the alphabet. Evidence as far-flung as Canada and Australia
shows that a high frequency of children born in the 1970s used zee as the preferred term
during much of their childhood, but by adulthood many had reverted to zed or used
either interchangeably. The influence was stronger in this generation than in subsequent
generations because television did not have strong competition in the earlier era, and thus
there was more national conformity with the shows that children were exposed to.
Other famous examples of popular media affecting change in language include the
spread of the Australian high-rising tone (discussed in Chapter 4) to UK teens via pop-
ular Australian TV soaps, and the popularization of the expression D’oh! around the
 1997 2050

THE BIG
THE BIG
LANGUAGES
LANGUAGES
Chinese, Hindi/Urdu,
English, French
English, Spanish, Arabic

REGIONAL LANGUAGES REGIONAL LANGUAGES

Arabic, Chinese, English, Arabic, Chinese, English,
French, German, Russian, Spanish Malay, Russian, Spanish

NATIONAL LANGUAGES NATIONAL LANGUAGES

Around 80 languages serve Around 90 languages serve
180 nation states 220 nation states

OFFICIAL LANGUAGES WITHIN NATION STATES OFFICIAL LANGUAGES WITHIN NATION STATES
These are ‘safe’ languages, numbering These are ‘safe’ languages, numbering
600 languages worldwide 600 languages worldwide

LOCAL VERNACULAR LANGUAGES LOCAL LANGUAGES

The remainder of the World’s 6,000+ languages The remainder of the World’s 1,000 or less languages

Figure 10.1 The World Language Hierarchy (source: Graddol, 1997, p. 13 and p. 59)
226 The future of English as a global language

world courtesy of the US animated sitcom The Simpsons, prompting its inclusion in the
Oxford English Dictionary from 2001.

Discussion
1 Can you think of other examples where popular media has influenced the way
people speak?
2 What do you see as the negative or positive sides to exposure through popular media?
3 With distances being further bridged by online communication, consider the impact
of this on English.

Introduction
This final chapter widens the lens of Global Englishes to examine current and likely
future trends in the spread (or decline) of English in important domains. Section 10a
examines the topic of English in the globalization of a more interconnected world. With
the rise of social networking sites like Facebook (with over 800 million active monthly
users), video over Internet protocol like Skype (with over 600 million registered users),
and user-generated media like YouTube (with over one billion unique monthly users),
people communicate differently and in different communities of practice. This section
will examine what this will mean for language use in geographically defined boundaries.
Section 10b will look at the internationalization of higher education in universities
around the world and the role that English will continue to play in this process as more
universities develop a global outlook. This section will also examine the issue of written
ELF in academic settings and English as a global lingua franca for scientific publications.
Section 10c will look at what globalization and a shift in world economic power might
mean for the future of English language use. Following this, the future convergence or
divergence of English will be debated in Section 10d, drawing into question many
notions at the core of linguistic research.

10a The future of English in a globalized culture

The spread of English through globalization, coupled with the introduction of new
online forms of communication over the past three decades, has had a huge impact on
English exposure. As the introductory case study illustrated, Sesame Street spawned a
generation that no longer called the letter ‘z’ zed or who were at least acutely aware that
zee was the American alternative. This event is unsurprising given the numerous histor-
ical and current examples throughout this book of what happens to language when
speakers of various linguistic backgrounds come together. But what about when a child’s
social network is no longer bound by the geography that defines language variation?
What happens in the future when a child’s local community becomes a fluid concept?
A global culture of online communities, of shared YouTube videos, a global network
of Facebook friends, and instant access to global media will surely have an impact on
English language use.
Indeed, changes in communication technologies have spawned new uses of language
in new mediums, such as instant messaging, texting, and emailing. The types of
online English, such as ‘textspeak’, that have been examined in recent linguistic studies
 The future of English as a global language 227

have fallen out of use as quickly as they emerged as new technology, like predictive text,
rendered them obsolete. Thus we will avoid the pitfall of examining language itself for
fear that the world will change faster than the publishing process. Instead, this section
will examine the impact on language use of the increasing interconnectedness of global
culture, driven by technology and globalization.

Technology and Global Englishes

Language spread through developments in communication technology is not merely a
hypothetical argument but one that is historically traceable. Chapters 1 and 2 showed
how technologies, such as the printing press, radio, and television, not only had an effect
on a society but also on the language it spoke. While print showed an ability to transport
written English, more modern communication has caused the spread of spoken language,
with all of its phonological and prosodic features. Now, in the digital age, language is
being transmitted in a much more accessible, immediate, and unedited fashion. This,
together with globalization, has meant a realignment of communities from the physical
to the virtual, allowing speakers to engage in a wide range of communities of practice
without having to leave their homes.
In the past decade, we have seen leaps in technology that have changed the way the
world communicates: in 2002, mobile phones outnumbered fixed lines for the first time
(Graddol, 2006), and these phones are increasingly more internet integrated. The ELF
research presented in Chapter 7 has shown what innovations occur when speakers from
different communities meet. Thus, we are likely to see further innovation and usage of
ELF as technology brings speakers together in new domains. We are entering a new era
of communication, driven by rapidly emerging new technologies. Thus, it is difficult to
predict how uses of English in these new mediums are likely to shape or change it.
Crystal (2006, p. 401) notes,

A new technology always has significant effect on the character and use of a lan-
guage, but, when a technology produces a medium that is so different from anything
experienced hitherto, the linguistic consequences are likely to be dramatic, involving
all areas of English structure and use.

Ironically, as this technology has grown, the world has seen an explosion in spontaneous
written communication, blurring the lines between written and spoken language, and
even challenging previous definitions of language itself. Little more than eight years ago,
Connor-Linton (2006, p. 403) explained a fundamental difference between spoken and
written language:

People speaking to each other can use facial expressions, gestures and eye gaze (and
other paralinguistic cues) to express more than what they actually say. Writers must
rely almost exclusively on their language; they can’t wink to show they are being
ironic, for example.

A person today would find such a comment absurd due to the recent explosion of smi-
leys and emoticons (graphic representations of emotions, actions, and objects) in elec-
tronic communication. While there is evidence that the still popularly used emoticon for
228 The future of English as a global language

a wink ;-) dates back to as early as 1982, its use was, apparently, not widespread enough,
even in 2006, for Connor-Linton to see the shortcomings of his example. As technology
continues, we are likely to see new innovations with how language is used online.

Localization, globalization, and glocalization

Despite arguments that globalization is bringing the world closer together, current and
future trends actually indicate that popular media is fragmenting global audiences, and
businesses are returning to localization strategies (adjusting products to meet local
needs), causing more diversity in what is on offer. As a result, television today is having
less of an impact on global culture and language due to this fragmentation of audiences.
Compared with the days of Sesame Street, when there were few alternative channels, TV
shows no longer have the same level of national impact. As Graddol (1997, p. 47) states,
‘when there are 500 channels to choose from – some showing the same film, but at
different starting times, others showing the same film, but in different languages –
national viewers will no longer have a shared experience’. We are unlikely to see the
national viewership of shows such as M*A*S*H in the US, EastEnders in the UK, Roque
Santeiro in Brazil, or Friends globally (through TV syndication) in the fragmented TV
viewing experiences of tomorrow.
Moreover, even within individual channels we are seeing more localization. MTV are
producing more local content, news channels are branching out into local languages, and
movies are often made available in dubbed languages at the press of a button. Similar
trends can be seen in online media, where localization of content and use of other lan-
guages is eating into the market share held by English language content (see Chapter 3),
although ELF still remains the preferred medium for online discussions (Danet and
Herring, 2007).
This synchronicity between localization of products and globalization of markets has
been termed glocalization, which Block (2012, pp. 59–60) has defined as follows.

In the social sciences, glocalisation is associated with the cultural theorist Roland
Robertson and it is used to capture the idea that the global does not merely over-
whelm or swallow the local; rather, syntheses emerge from contacts between the
global and the local … Importantly, glocalisation entails a synergetic relationship
between the global and the local as opposed to the dominance of the former over
the latter and the homogenisation which would result from such dominance.

Block (2012) goes on to warn that glocalization might oversimplify the processes
involved, and warns against an idealized view that localized forces shape globalization
rather than the other way around. Indeed, there is much indication that local cultures
are homogenizing across markets in certain domains despite maintaining local iden-
tities, and that we are witnessing the emergence of new demographic groups that
transcend national borders. Many business experts point to the fact that there is a
global youth culture emerging that constitutes the world’s largest truly global market
segment – that is, a clearly defined demographic in the world population that is not
bounded by geography. The global youth segment has meant that similar demands
for popular media and consumer products exist across the world, even though the
demands are localized.
 The future of English as a global language 229

While the global youth culture is considered the biggest global market segment, it is
clearly not the only one. Pennycook’s (2007) theories on language and culture – which
propose that global languages and cultures offer alternative identities and forms of
expression while at the same time being reshaped to meet local needs in what he terms
transcultural flows – are of relevance here. Transcultural flows describe the movement
and adaptation of cultural forms to create new identities in a globalized world. More-
over, these transcultural flows are not moving from America to the world, as some
pundits once feared when coining the term ‘Americanization’ (see Chapter 3). YouTube,
for example, reports that as of 2013 the site was localized in 61 languages, and that over
80 per cent of user traffic came from outside the USA. Because of the interconnected
interests of these global segments, we can see how a South Korean pop song (Gangnam
Style), a Japanese animated TV show (Naruto), or a Norwegian comedy duo (Ylvis) can
transcend national borders and obtain an instant global following.
Global Englishes are bound up with these transcultural flows, as are other languages
and cultures (Pennycook, 2007). Young people are great experimenters, and new
coinages and creative usages of language catch on quickly in the globalized segments
(e.g. the proliferation of the word selfie to describe taking your own photo and posting
it to social networking sites). It is also not unusual, for example, for varieties of
American English to find their way into youth vocabulary worldwide, particularly if it
is packaged to represent an identity of music, fashion, or sport (Graddol, 1997).
Moreover, popular media delivered over the internet provides opportunities to use
English in briefly emerging and disappearing virtual cultures, which was impossible
with previous technologies. These new cultures emphasize the hybridity, fluidity, and
the emergent nature of Global Englishes communication as speakers construct new
communicative possibilities that are not tied to a specific culture or language, nor is it
viewed as deficient in any way.
Moreover, these transcultural flows are not resulting in the spread of English into
youth pop culture, as once predicted – at least not in the traditional sense. The global
and local are mixing together, causing a seamless use of ELF which includes other lan-
guages. In Hong Kong, for example, Cantonese pop music has seen the integration of
Cantonese, Mandarin, and English over the years, and there is a ‘virtual absence of
“monolingual” singers’ (Chik, 2010, p. 514). Pennycook’s (2007) study into language
and hip hop also shows how the use of English in hip hop is not just imitative of its
American origin, but brings Global Englishes and a global culture into the local sub-
cultures, with the English used representing both a global and a local identity.
There are many ways to view the relationship between language and culture in rela-
tion to Global Englishes. There have been a number of studies that examine the con-
struction of culture in communication (e.g. Meierkord, 2002; Baker, 2009) and argue
that all languages, particularly one like English that is used as a lingua franca, can take on
new cultural meanings or languacultures (Risager, 2006, p. 110). It is argued that lan-
guage and culture are created in each instance of communication, and are fluid and
unfixed. Canagarajah (2005) refers to cultures as hybrid, diffuse, and de-territorialized,
pointing out that English learners today are not learning the language in order to join a
single language community, but are ‘shuttling between communities’, between the local
and the global, where a variety of norms and a repertoire of codes are to be expected.
World Englishes and ELF research clearly has implications for how we view the rela-
tionship between language and culture, suggesting that it cannot be viewed as a fixed
230 The future of English as a global language

homogeneous entity. As with the language itself, in the Global Englishes paradigm cul-
ture is viewed as hybrid and fluid, with cultural references negotiated in situ.
In a more recent publication, Canagarajah (2013, pp. 7–8) draws into question terms,
such as ‘multilingual’, as being poor descriptions of language use in many of these com-
munities, positing the term ‘translingual’.

The term multilingual typically conceives of the relationship between languages in an

additive manner. This gives the picture of whole languages added one on top of the
other to form multilingual competence … What should be clear is that the term
multilingual doesn’t accommodate the dynamic interactions between languages and
communities envisioned by translingual. In other words, the multilingual orientation
to language relationships is still somewhat influenced by the monolingual paradigm …
The term translingual conceives of language relationships in more dynamic terms.

While it is clear that globalization and new communication technology are changing
the ways English is being used, it would be foolish to make any long-term predictions of
what this will mean for future English usage. Instead, we will conclude by stating that
technology – that makes the world smaller, creates geographically unbound virtual
communities, and creates innovative uses for language – has the power to change language
dramatically. There is strong indication that notions such as the drawing of national
boundaries around varieties of English, as popularized by World Englishes research, may be
an exercise of the past, as geographic boundaries will no longer be an indicator of language
exposure, linguistic choices, or communities of practice. Future users of ELF will likely
need to negotiate language use as they shuttle between local, global, monolingual, multi-
lingual, translingual, physical, and virtual communities of practice.

10b The future of English in ‘international’ education

The spread of English around the world has seen an increase in importance placed on
English language education throughout the world – a concept that has been explored
thoroughly in previous chapters while looking at national language policies and pedago-
gies. This section will build on this foundation through a focus on the internationalization
of higher education. Internationalization can be described as ‘the process of integrating an
international, intercultural or global dimension into the purpose, functions or delivery of
postsecondary education’ (Knight 2003, p. 2). Overall, internationalization has been shown
to positively influence a university’s reputation, research quality, teaching quality, and
graduate employability (Delgado-Márquez et al., 2013). Thus, as a result, many higher
educational institutions are seeking to internationalize through a policy that enables:

! an increase in the international student population;

! an increase in the internationalization of faculties;
! an increase in the reputation and presence of the institution in the global market;
! an increase in student mobility options.

Despite criticisms of commercialization (e.g. Phillipson, 2008), internationalization of

higher education remains a priority for universities worldwide, and movements are
inextricably linked with increasing the role of the English in the university setting. While
 The future of English as a global language 231

English has a firm foothold in the domain of education and scientific research, this sec-
tion will argue that in the future we will likely see a more Global Englishes model of
language use in this important domain.

A Western perspective of international education

Many institutions in ENL nations view international students as ‘“empty vessels” to be
filled with Euro-American knowledge’ (Singh 2005, p. 10). In these institutions, inter-
nationalization is seen as a business transaction where the international students are con-
sumers and the universities provide the product (education). As a result of these financial
gains, a number of ENL nations are in fierce competition to attract international student
numbers. In Australia, for example, international education is considered the nation’s
third most important export industry (Forbes-Mewett and Nyland, 2012) and is treated
as a commodity. In the UK, international students account for 13 per cent of the student
body but one-third of the income from tuition fees – an estimated £5 billion in 2006, in
addition to another £5 billion in living expenses to the UK economy (Brown and
Holloway, 2008).
The dangers of such a business- and Western-centric model of internationalization can
be seen in the case of Australia, where there is very little thought as to what the inter-
national student brings to the university. Forbes-Mewett and Nyland (2012, p. 191) note
that Australia’s attractiveness to international students has diminished in recent years:

The implications of compromising international student support are short-term gain

at the cost of long-term reputational damage. Australian education exporters’ and
regulators’ decision to embrace a ‘no frills’ highly commercial approach to interna-
tional students and their welfare has almost certainly contributed to the major slump
in the number of international students studying in Australia in recent years.

In the UK as well it has been observed that the amount of energy expended on the drive
to increase international student numbers has not been matched with spending on under-
standing the challenges faced by international students, who are learning in a new culture
and, often, in a second language (Dean, 2010). Much research has also shown that many
who attend universities that market themselves as ‘international’ find they are in fact very
nation-oriented, with language expectations bound by local language and cultural norms.
These norms include native English language expectations when evaluating the quality of
academic work, and nationally bound expectations of classroom culture. As Jenkins (2011,
p. 927) notes, ‘while many universities claim to be deeply international, they are, in
essence, deeply national at the linguistic level. And, given that language is such a key
component of academic life, their claim to internationalism rings somewhat hollow.’
Although many universities appreciate the cultural diversity added to the university
campus by international students, sudden internationalization has led many faculty
members to draw stereotypical distinctions between native and non-native students,
whether or not it is warranted (Tange and Jensen, 2012).
Western models of internationalization are also spreading to the non-Western
Expanding Circle nations. In response to the internationalization of education, the Chi-
nese government opened up the education market in recent years and allowed Western
universities to offer programmes in China (Mok and Xu, 2009). Accordingly, a number
232 The future of English as a global language

of Western universities have set up campuses, such as Nottingham University in Ningbo.

Such movements are not new, as Teacher’s College of Columbia University and Temple
University also set up programmes, or campuses, in Tokyo during the height of the
Japanese economic boom in the 1980s. In more recent years, we have seen the inter-
nationalization of universities extend throughout the Expanding Circle, with the
expansion of English-medium programmes in higher education around the world, as
illustrated in Chapters 3 and 6. Jenkins (2013) has noted a trend for internationalization
to be equated with ‘English’ in many of the 60 institutions in her study, with little evi-
dence of internationalization in other facets of the university.

A global and Global Englishes perspective of international education

Tange and Jensen (2012) note that there is a difference between postcolonial views of
internationalization, typical of ENL-based institutions, and those of more globally
oriented institutions emerging in the Expanding Circle. They argue that in other parts of
Europe institutions have a more global perspective of internationalization, seen as a
means to develop a more international knowledge economy. In fact, it has been
observed that Chinese students perceive a difference between British universities and
French, German, and Danish universities, in that the UK views internationalization as a
source of income but European universities see internationalization as a means of
‘attracting and keeping the best brains from around the world to help develop their own
economies’ (Shen, 2008, p. 223). This statement is supported by research in Norwegian
universities which concluded that the rationale for internationalization in higher educa-
tion was deeply embedded in academic, rather than financial, incentives (Frølich, 2006).
Because of this key difference, the future of international education might, indeed, lie in
the Expanding Circle. Chapter 3 has already shown a 1,000 per cent increase in the past
ten years of English programmes catering for international mobility in Europe. Table 10.1
shows such increases in greater detail. Although the Netherlands and Germany lead the
way in the number of English-taught Masters programmes in Europe, this can be some-
what misleading considering that many Scandinavian countries have switched most of their
postgraduate taught courses to English, leaving little room for further growth (Brenn-
White and Faethe, 2013).
According to the same report, the leading disciplines in taught Masters programmes in
English are business and economics (28 per cent) and engineering and technology (21
per cent). However, recent research into nations that made the early switch to English
education, like Sweden, have indicated a return to first language use in higher education,
particularly with parallel language use. Such movements are not out of sync with how
ELF is used in a fluid nature across the region. A similar trend is occurring in Asia, where
domestic universities are integrating English language into domestic programmes not
only for the purpose of allowing international student mobility but also to meet domestic
demand for an ‘internationalization at home’ experience. For example, many of the
leading universities in Japan, China, South Korea, and ASEAN nations have seen
increases in English-taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in recent years, but
where other languages play an important role in everyday university discourse. In other
parts of Asia, the internationalization movement is forcing smaller nations to compete,
causing a knock-on effect. In Taiwan, for example, ‘rising investment in top universities
in other countries (particularly Taiwan’s neighbours) has alarmed the government as a
 The future of English as a global language 233

Table 10.1 Number and percentage of recent increases in English-medium taught Masters
programmes in major European countries
Number of programmes Percentage increase Ranking in total number
in June 2013 2011–2013 of courses
Denmark 327 74% 6
Sweden 708 73% 3
Italy 304 60% 7
Finland 261 52% 9
France 494 43% 4
Switzerland 281 19% 8
Belgium 253 18% 10
Netherlands 946 16% 1
Spain 373 14% 5
Germany 733 13% 2
Europe (total) 6,407 38%
Source: Brenn-White and Faethe, 2013, p. 6

potential threat to the country’s competitiveness in the long run’ (Song and Tai, 2007,
pp. 326–27). Thus, Taiwan is also aggressively pursuing an internationalization policy,
which is indicative of a growing trend throughout Asia in the future.
In Latin America, Berry and Taylor (2013) argue that less attention has been given to
the internationalization of higher education when compared with other parts of the
globe, but this is beginning to change:

The international imperatives observed elsewhere, often based upon fierce market-
isation of higher education and driven by rankings and comparative measures, are
less apparent; nor do institutions in Latin America seem as aware of the financial
opportunities arising from internationalisation. The perceived benefits of the inter-
national campus and the desire of academic staff to work with international students,
not for financial motives, but to enhance the educational and pedagogic experience,
are also less established.

Although there is some indication that the focus on the internationalization of uni-
versities in this region is changing, the movement is not as large as in the USA, Europe,
Asia, and Australasia. This finding is also apparent in Jenkins’ (2013) study, where
she found that Latin American universities do not make the same link with inter-
nationalization and English.
Finally, there is evidence that a Western-oriented view of international education may
erode in ENL nations in the future. Many scholars are pointing to the fact that Western
universities will need to move away from a nation-centric model in the future in order
to compete with institutions that offer a more ‘international’ student experience. Svens-
son and Wihlborg (2010, p. 608), for example, state that they ‘believe that intercultural
experiences and knowledge must become a part of teaching and learning, if higher
education is to become internationalised.’ In the UK, there is more emphasis on catering
to international students’ needs, including the emergence of higher education courses for
dealing with the language issues of non-native English-speaking international students. In
Australia, there is growing awareness of ‘a dissonance between policy makers and
234 The future of English as a global language

implementers, and the students themselves, on “what a truly international higher edu-
cation organisation” in fact is’ (Kondakci, Broeck and Yildirim, 2008, p. 448). There is
also speculation that the internationalization of Western universities is largely the result of
an unregulated international student market, and that in the future these universities
might return to the domestic market if it becomes more economically viable:

Internationalisation observed to date is primarily a product of distortionary govern-

ment policy and, as higher education sectors around the world are inevitably liber-
alised and deregulated over time, the last 15 years may prove to have been a
transitory but rather dramatic ‘blip’ around a much more modest underlying trend.
(Healey, 2007, p. 354)

One large barrier will need to be addressed if ENL nations are truly to continue even
a modest trend of internationalization: the resistance of those adhering to academic
language norms.
The remainder of this section will examine the issue of written academic English, in an
attempt to look for future trends in this formidable barrier to true internationalization.

Internationalization and academic written ELF

Chapter 3 touched on the bottom-up forces that caused many researchers to switch to
English as the primary medium of scientific publication, one simplified reason being that
writing in English meant a wider readership and therefore a larger impact. Figure 10.2
shows the percentage of academic publications by language over the past 100 years, of
which the percentage in English has skyrocketed. Now English holds a near monopoly
of published research with German, French, and Russian publications hardly visible, a
situation unlikely to change in the future.

100

90

80
Percentage of publications

70

60 English
50 German
40 French

30 Russian

20

10

0
1905 1925 1945 1965 1985 2005

Figure 10.2 Language shares in total academic publications over the past 100 years (adapted from
Montgomery, 2013, p. 90)
 The future of English as a global language 235

What this shift means is that academics are coming under increasing pressure to publish
in English, but ‘despite pressure from the university to increase international publication,
where ENL writing standards seem to be the only accepted norm, no official writing
support is offered’ (Ingvarsdóttir and Arnbjörnsdóttir, 2013, p. 123). This fact indicates that
non-native English-speaking academics are at a disadvantage in publishing, hurting their
institutions’ internationalization. Conventions in academic writing are highly standardized
and safeguarded by publishers of scholarly work, and this seems one domain that is resistant
to change. Many journal guidelines still state that non-native English speakers should have
their work checked by a native English speaker. Jenkins (2011) argues that international
journals have an international, rather than an ENL, audience, and thus such practices are
not only unjustified but serve to disadvantage academics based on language alone.
On a more positive note, in recent years some journals are beginning to respond to
changes in English ownership. The Journal of English as a Lingua Franca (JELF), for exam-
ple, aims to respect the linguistic choices of the author and edits language for clarity only.
This journal also advises the abstract to be submitted in a language other than English in
order to respect the diversity of its readership. Moreover, acceptances of variations in
language are being made outside of ELF-oriented disciplines. For example, in the author
guidelines of Cambridge’s Journal of Cardiology in the Young, the editors explicitly state that
manuscripts are evaluated on scientific rather than grammatical content, and they support
publication from non-native English-speaking academics. Such statements offer a glimpse
of a future where the safeguarding of academic English is being wrestled from the hands
of purveyors of academic publishing norms, aiming to be more inclusive of research that
might previously have been dismissed on language grounds alone.
The future might also see a shift in focus away from native-speaker norms in academic
writing as more and more non-native English-speaking writers publish in academic
journals. The total number of scientific papers in English written by Chinese researchers
increased by 174 per cent from 2002 to 2008 alone (Montgomery, 2013, p. 84), and it
has been noted that,

Given recent trends, the Chinese could even match the US levels in peer-reviewed
English-language ‘output’ by about 2025, perhaps sooner … However, interpreted
in political terms, its fortifying impact on scientific English would be beyond ques-
tion. Aside from America, China may well be the most powerful force behind the
spread of English in science.

China, while leading English-language scientific publications in terms of growth, is not

alone in this wave of scientific research emerging from non-native English-speaking
countries. According to the same report, nations such as India have also seen tremendous
growth in English-language publications in recent years.
Just as we have seen ELF research shift perceptions of non-native English-speaker
language to view innovation rather than error, the future may see a loosening of native-
speaker norms in academic writing. Recent years have seen research into ELF usage in
academic settings, and the use of the ELFA (Academic ELF) corpus has shown that in
spoken academic settings speakers use the language in innovative ways, often improving
on superfluous forms found in ENL corpora (as discussed in Chapter 7). Further research
into written ELF, such as through the WrELFA (Written Academic ELF) corpus under
development at the University of Helsinki, may in the future shed light on similar
236 The future of English as a global language

developments in written academic English. History has shown that written (published)
language often plays catch up with changes in vernacular uses of the language, and
usually requires a shift in language ideology. Thus, for the future of academic writing,
‘cultivating tolerance in the academic community for these types of ELF textual char-
acteristics may be less of a hurdle than calling for acceptance of salient surface errors’
(Ingvarsdóttir and Arnbjörnsdóttir, 2013, p.124). Just as World Englishes research helps
legitimize notions of variation in acceptable forms of language, here ELF research is
pertinent to show that surface ‘errors’ are, in fact, characteristic of a language that is being
used to share academic knowledge within this global community of practice.

10c The future of English: spread, recession, or reconceptualization?

Globalization has marked a new era for English language use and leads us to ask the
question: what will happen to the English language in the future? While the historical,
economical, political, and social prestige associated with English resulted in its rise, if the
global power structure shifts as the world moves away from the postcolonial influence of
the UK and the economic influence of the USA, many believe so too will attachment to
English. Also, as geographical distances and national boundaries are bridged in our
increasingly mobile society, new arenas of ELF usage emerge, bringing into question
concepts of ‘variety’ and ‘language’. In addition, ownership of English is shifting to the
Expanding Circle, which is where the growing majority of future English speakers can
now be found. Will the changes in the way English is used by this critical mass of
language users affect the future of the language itself? Based on differing understandings
of the above issues, linguists are in disagreement on the future of English language.

Possible ‘black and white’ directions for the future use of English
The following two subsections will explore two key dimensions linked to the future of
English (see Figure 10.3), before offering a Global Englishes-oriented view of the future.
The first key dimension of concern is whether English will spread or recede in its global
presence in the future. This dimension is represented by the vertical axis in the figure, and
will be discussed in the remainder of this section. The second key dimension is the ques-
tion of whether English will converge or diverge, which is represented by the horizontal
axis and is discussed further in Section 10d. Obviously, this view is a simplification of the
future of English as it looks at the scenarios in extreme terms and ignores the research on
ELF, which shows language use is not occurring in such contained terms. Nevertheless,
exploring the arguments behind each of these ‘black and white’ arguments can help us to
better understand the ‘grey’ area, in which the fate of English will likely fall.

How tenuous or temporary is English’s position as the global lingua franca?

Before we discuss the potential strengthening or weakening of the English language, it is
first important to understand its current position in relation to its future competitors. In
Figure 10.1 in the introduction to this chapter, Graddol (1997) places English (with
French) at the top of his World Language Hierarchy, but acknowledges other languages,
such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish, as unifying regional lingua francas of
numerous national languages. These, in turn, are unifying languages for thousands of
 The future of English as a global language 237

Strengthen
in presence

English
Divergence Convergence
today

Weaken in
presence

Figure 10.3 A ‘black and white’ view of the future directions for English

local vernacular languages. Graddol’s World Language Hierarchy somewhat mirrors

De Swaan’s (2001) Global Language System, which places English in the centre
and relegates French to the second tier, alongside a more exhaustive list of supercentral
languages (see Figure 10.4).
In De Swaan’s Global Language System, the relationships between lingua franca lan-
guages are explored. That is, in the world there are central languages that usually play a
pivotal role in unifying a nation or large community of speakers. When speakers of
mutually unintelligible central (or peripheral) languages come together, they usually use a
supercentral language to communicate. For example, speakers of a number of languages
in east Africa may use English, whereas those in Francophone west African nations may
use French. Likewise, speakers of eastern European languages may gravitate towards
Russian; those in the Middle East may use Arabic; and a Tibetan and a Cantonese
speaker may use Mandarin Chinese. In the centre of the diagram, the hypercentral
language (English) is what speakers of mutually unintelligible supercentral languages use.
For example, Arabic, Chinese, and German businesspeople would most likely conduct
communication in English. De Swaan states that it is also possible that higher-tier lan-
guages are taking over the role of those below them, and this is a likely scenario for the
future. For example, speakers of the central languages of Danish and Dutch may forgo
historical use of the supercentral German language in favour of the hypercentral language
of English in more modern times.
If the connection between English and economic power, prestige, and personal
advantage shifts, we might also see a shift in the preferred language of a newly structured
global community. As Graddol (1997, p. 2) warns,

The global popularity of English is in no immediate danger, but it would be fool-

hardy to imagine that its pre-eminent position as a world language will not be
238 The future of English as a global language

Hypercentral language:
ENGLISH

Supercentral languages:
ARABIC, [MANDARIN]
CHINESE, ENGLISH, FRENCH,
GERMAN, HINDI, JAPANESE, MALAY,
PORTUGUESE, RUSSIAN, SPANISH,
SWAHILI

Central Languages:
Widely spoken languages, such as
URDU, AFRIKAANS, DUTCH,
KOREAN, POLISH,VIETNAMESE

Peripheral languages:
THE REST

Figure 10.4 De Swaan’s Global Language System (source: De Swaan, 2001, pp. 5–6)

challenged in some world regions and domains of use, as the economic, demo-
graphic and political shape of the world is transformed.

Such shifts in world power have caused predictions of changes to the current world
language hierarchy, with many scholars downgrading the future importance of languages
like German, Japanese, and French in lieu of increasingly important languages like
Chinese, Hindi, and Arabic. Based on statistics of world economic trends, such as
those that show Asia will hold 60 per cent of the world’s wealth in 2050 as opposed to
21 per cent in 1990 (Graddol, 1997, p. 29), growing economies in China and India are
likely to spur the study and use of the unifying languages of Hindi/Urdu and Mandarin
Chinese in these areas, in addition to the current use of English. Moreover, the recent
global financial crisis, which put major English-hub economies such as the USA and
Europe into deep recession, has likely hastened the shift towards Asia as the new world
economic centre (Pennycook, 2010). There is some evidence of this shift in markets like
Japan, where more and more youth are reportedly opting to study Chinese and Korean
as their second foreign language, instead of the historically important French or German
(Kobayashi, 2013). The use of Spanish as the lingua franca for the Americas is also
becoming more prevalent, with the added advantage of serving as a lingua franca for
growing economies in South America (with the assumption that Brazil will turn to
Spanish as the unifying lingua franca for the region).
Such movements position other languages as possibly rising to a similar position as
English as alternative global lingua francas in the near future, which does not necessarily
 The future of English as a global language 239

indicate English’s demise. In the distant future, whether English will fall from its perch is
impossible to predict, as Crystal (1997, p. 139) rightly argues that there are ‘no precedents
to help us see what happens to a language when it achieves genuine world status’. In
response to this claim, some scholars point to Latin, arguing that it is a historical example
of a powerful language that receded from use. The simple answer to this claim is that Latin
is not a good barometer of the future fate of English, for the reasons discussed next.

The demise of English (the Latin analogy)

The predicted demise of English is often discussed with a Latin analogy (McArthur,
1987). Wilton (2012, p. 342) argues that ‘the history of Latin makes an attractive
backcloth against which the present state of English can be assessed and its fate – or,
more neutrally, its future – predicted.’ Latin was a pervasive language across much of
Europe during and after Roman times, and its fall from widespread usage sparks many to
predict a similar future fate for the English language.
One comparison often made with Latin is that the future will see the fragmentation of
English into a number of Englishes, and the use of a standard form will recede from use
as the political and economic influence of ENL nations recedes. This book has shown
English to be an adaptable language, and thus some linguists question whether the nature
of variation and change in the English language will cause Global Englishes to eventually
diversify so much that they will become separate languages, through contact with other
rising and more important languages. Some linguists predict that English used in Asia
alongside Chinese or Urdu will develop a separate set of norms than the English used in
the Americas alongside Spanish, and that used in western Africa alongside French. As
other languages overtake English in the global arena, will these differences fail to be
reconciled due to a lack of use across speech communities? This is a notion entertained
by Crystal (2003) but dismissed by others (e.g. Pennycook, 2007).
Wilton (2012, pp. 243–44) argues that three problems can be identified with the
analogous comparison of English to Latin:

1 Modern linguists draw comparisons with Latin without a thorough understanding of

the historical development of Latin. Likewise, Latin experts draw comparisons with
English despite a lack of knowledge of ELF and World Englishes research.
2 The historical study of Latin’s development over a long period of time cannot be
compared with the relatively shorter rise of English. While superficial comparisons
can be used – such as both languages’ use in education, science, and as a second
language – this is where comparisons end. One glaring difference is the lack of access
to any ‘standard’ form of classical Latin for large parts of society, compared with the
access to English today.
3 The largely written record of Latin only gives glimpses into its oral uses as a lingua
franca, as opposed to spoken English which has been recorded and codified in much
more detail. Any comparison of English and Latin as a spoken lingua franca is only
speculative, and thus conclusions that English will fragment into separate vernacular
languages like Latin did are tenuous.

In addition to the above arguments, the demise of Latin has been largely attributed to the
distance between its rigid written form and the ever-changing spoken language. While
240 The future of English as a global language

we can see similar divisions between written English and spoken English, such compar-
isons are very suspect. Isolated language communities brought about rapid changes in
vernacular languages across post-Roman era communities, which were not reconciled
in the written form of Latin. As written language among the elite minority and spoken
languages among the illiterate majority grew, the varieties diverged and new vernacular
languages were born. With the highly literate and interconnected world of today, a
repeat of history is entirely improbable. This book has shown the world is getting smaller
and linguistic boundaries are becoming more blurred. Thus, the largely literate and
highly connected world of modern times is vastly different from the fragmented Europe
that saw the demise of Latin. Such evidence appears to suggest that the Latin analogy is
fundamentally flawed.

The ‘grey’ area: a Global Englishes-oriented view of the future

History has shown that languages attached to power, wealth, and prestige have spread at
the expense of those viewed less favourably. Therefore, as the power attached to Mandarin
Chinese or Hindi/Urdu grows, so too will the use of these languages in the global arena.
While we do not deny a future shift in world power, it is unlikely that these languages will
‘replace’ English. The idea of ‘replacing’ seems at odds with ELF research on how language
is used in language-contact situations, where multilingualism is the norm. As Pennycook
(2010) argues, the growth of other languages will not necessarily be at the expense of
English because the trade-off between the languages is not a zero-sum game.
The era of globalization has been well underway for the better part of 60 years, built on
a foundation of centuries of colonialism before it. Block (2012) argues that many applied
linguists mistakenly take on a ‘presentist’ view of the social implications of globalization. In
fact, globalization is not occurring, it has already occurred. As stated in Chapter 1, the rise of
English as the first global lingua franca was almost entirely due to it being in the right place
at the right time in the processes of colonization and globalization, and these times and
places are long past. Even though the power of the USA and the UK has been declining in
recent decades, the spread of English has not halted, with its growth spurred on by the
developing world which has embraced it as its global language. Countries like China and
India are highly invested in English language development, so the role of English is likely
to be maintained even after ENL economic juggernauts, like the USA, are toppled from
the world economic hierarchy. As De Swaan (2010, p. 73) notes,

Even if the hegemonic position of the US was to decline, English would continue to
be the hub language of the world language system for quite some time, if only
because so many millions of people have invested so much effort in learning it and,
for that very reason, expect so many millions of other speakers to continue to use it.

A Global Englishes-oriented view would argue that we need to reconceptualize what we

understand by ‘language’ and ‘lingua franca’. The question of whether English will
weaken or strengthen in the future is flawed from the outset because it imagines lan-
guage to be a static and monolithic entity with clearly defined parameters, so that growth
and recession can be accurately measured. Our argument is supported by Canagarajah’s
(2013) positioning of translingual practice, where he shows text and talk involve the
meshing of diverse codes and languages, even if not superficially evident. He argues that
 The future of English as a global language 241

the separation of language with different labels is problematic as ‘languages’ are always in
contact and under mutual influence.
What this book has shown is that English when used as a lingua franca is a fluid,
hybrid entity used for the purposes of speakers for each separately constructed culture.
If other languages are integrated into these cultures in the future it will not be at
the expense of English, but as a naturally occurring process of translingual speakers in
contact. In the long term, the future of English is harder to predict; certainly the
immovable position of English as the world’s first true lingua franca is dependent on
unforeseeable forces of a political, economic, health, social, and technological nature,
and any world-changing occurrence in any one of these fields could dislodge English
from its current position. However, if the world continues to develop as expected, the
dislodgement of English as a world language seems improbable.

10d The future of English: convergence, divergence, or adaptation?

The previous section examined the key question of whether the English language will
strengthen or weaken as a global lingua franca. It concluded by arguing that, rather
than measuring language spread and growth in concrete terms, we need to reconcep-
tualize the notion that English is a stable or measurable entity, a notion explored
throughout this book. This conclusion leads us to another question: considering
English is a fluid and changeable entity, what will become of this entity in the future?
Now that English is being used alongside more languages and in more diverse contexts
than any other language that has come before it, how will this affect its future
development as a language? Will the plurality of Englishes be further exaggerated as
the language adapts to its surroundings, or will the globalized and connected world
community mean that variation in the language will reduce and we will see emerge
a semblance of a global standard form of English? While Chapter 7 has shown ELF to
be a fluid entity, many linguists view this as a necessary process to stabilization,
and not as indicative of its global use. This final section will examine arguments for
possible future convergence and divergence, before offering an alternative possibility
that it will do neither.

The convergence of a Global English

One future scenario looks at the standardization of a Global English (Crystal, 1997; 2006;
McIntyre, 2009) as the world becomes a more interconnected place. Indeed, there is
evidence of standardization on a domestic and international scale in many studies of
variation in English within the Inner Circle. For example, phonological levelling is
rapidly occurring, such as the Mary–merry–marry vowel merger in the youth segment in
North America (see Chapter 4). Similarly, in the UK the fronting of dental fricatives
(resulting in think and with being pronounced like fink and wif) is spreading rather than
retreating in youth accents. Prosodic features, such as high rising tone, can be found
transnationally in regions as far-flung as Australia, the USA, and the UK. A levelling of
grammatical variation is also occurring, such as the deletion of the adverbial -ly in the
speech of many younger generations around the world, in addition to a global levelling
of tenses in irregular verbs. There is considerable evidence that lexical levelling might
also be occurring, with avoidance of local terms and the adoption of ‘foreign’ ones.
242 The future of English as a global language

Jenkins (2009) uses evidence from Trudgill (1998) to highlight lexical and grammatical
standardization between British and American English, including:

! the spread of the American usage of sentence adverbial hopefully in British English;
! the spread of the American usage of have to contexts where it was not used in British
Englishes;
! the spread of the British do where Americans would have traditionally omitted it, such
as in the sentence I shouldn’t go to work tomorrow, but I might [do];
! the spread of American lexis, such as briefcase, sweater, radio, and dessert.

With increases in population mobility, it is seen as a possibility that the same processes of
koineization, which formed many native varieties of accents, might also result in a more
levelled international English, particularly in major global cities where a mix of immi-
grant accents is already shown to be taking effect. Might, then, an idealized future
contain a more standardized English that is influenced and shaped over time by those
with populous and prestige attached? This is a view of the future of English popularized
by linguists (e.g. Crystal, 2006), who predict a world standard English to emerge.
Such levelling does not necessarily mean converging to existing models of native speaker
language use, and could involve a global community of native and non-native speakers.
McIntyre (2009, p. 33) writes,

World Standard English might avoid the use of idioms (expressions that are common
only to some varieties of English) and colloquialisms, and it might utilise particular
pronunciations. The important point here is that it is not likely to be an Anglo-centric
standard. The notion that English belongs to Britain and America is simply no longer
true (if, indeed, it ever was) and we can fully expect to see other communities world-
wide exerting an influence on the development of any new standard.

ELF research, on the other hand, has showcased how the changing sociolinguistic uses of
the language are resulting in a lot of variation. These uses of English bring into question
concepts of ‘variety’ and ‘language’, throwing a new perspective on language change and
variation that was first introduced in Chapter 2, and explored in Chapters 4, 5, and 6.

The divergence of Global Englishes

If a case can be built for the convergence of a Global English, then one can equally be
made for the divergence of many Global Englishes. A running theme throughout this
book has been that prestige and speaker quantity shape the languages we speak, the
lexical choices we make, and the accents we imitate. Such prestige is likely to differ
according to social and political alliances, and the mix of Englishes found in each region.
In Europe, a more European English than that used in the USA might emerge. The
same might be said for the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Depending on where
future prestige and power is to be placed, many nations where English is spoken as a
foreign language might gravitate towards one or the other, or continue to develop their
own variety with its unique characteristics.
This is a future seen by Crystal (2003), who discusses the possibility of a family of
Englishes in which a central variety, called Standard World Spoken English, might be
 The future of English as a global language 243

used to unite them all. If such diversification occurred, the question arises as to what extent
these Englishes will continue to diversify in parallel – and sometimes in opposition –
to one another. Obviously, the points raised in Section 10c, of a more globalized and
interlinked community, render the fragmentation of English into a number of dialects an
unlikely outcome, and is not the right way to think of language at all.
So we are left with the conclusion that English will not diversify into a number of
Englishes, nor will it converge into a single language. What, then, is the prediction for
the future? It can be argued that notions of identity are a central part of communication,
thus individual identity is constructed in the diversity that exists in language. For this
reason, forces of diversity will always pull at the seams of convergence, and divergence
will always be met by convergence, to meet the demands for an intelligible lingua franca.
It might be true that linguistic boundaries may not be geographically defined in the
future, due to the globalization forces that are bringing the world together, but language
will continue to flow and adapt accordingly to various communities of practice on both
the global and local scale.

The ‘grey’ area: viewing language as a complex adaptive system

When trying to think of an apt illustration of the elastic nature of language and the
future of English, we found it difficult to come up with an explanation of how the
English language might both diverge and converge. At first, we imagined an ongoing
tug-of-war with an elastic bungee cord, with one team representing divergence and
the other representing convergence. This metaphor did not seem right, however, as it
indicates that one would end up a victor and that a pull in one direction was at the
expense of the other. It did not seem to represent the fact that language is diversifying in
many facets; globalization is also causing convergence in others; but at the same time,
each force is not working in opposition to the other. Directionality ebbs and flows in a
somewhat synchronized, fluid way – not the image represented by a tug-of-war, where
movement occurs in fixed and predictable directions.
Larsen-Freeman and Cameron (2008, p. 79) prefer to view language as a complex
adaptive system. They argue that, while linguists ‘treat language as a stable, even static
system’, applied linguists need a very different theory of language: ‘complex systems are
at one and the same time both stable and variable’. Viewing the English language as
a complex adaptive system frees applied linguists from historically limited research
perspectives because,

Change is inherent to most of our concerns as applied linguists, and yet in our the-
ories we, everywhere, find processes converted to objects. A post-modern response
to over-simplification of the world through a focus on entities is to fragment and
disperse, to deny wholeness by making it multiple, hybrid and difficult to grasp.
Complexity theory, in contrast, embraces complexity, interconnectedness and
dynamism, and makes change central to theory and method.
(Larsen-Freeman and Cameron, 2008, p. 1)

Thus, our answer to the fundamental question of whether English will converge or
diverge is that it will do both, and this diversification and standardization will always
move the language forward in creative and unexpected ways. English, in its written form
244 The future of English as a global language

and spoken form, will never be static and thus will not fall the way of Latin, which dis-
appeared due to a failure to contain and preserve that which could not be contained.
English’s position will unlikely be compromised in the foreseeable future, although
other languages will certainly join it in certain domains of society and business as pow-
erful alternative lingua francas, but English will adapt accordingly to its new environ-
ment. Originally, linguists such as Crystal (1997) proposed that such a future English
might mirror General American or RP English, and later hinted that a more Asian
English might emerge (Crystal, 2006). However, the central notion here is not what type
of English will emerge, but that the language will adapt according to the changes
occurring in the complex systems within which it is situated.
Throughout this book, and especially in those chapters connected to ELF research, we
have tried to show that the nature of language itself may need to be rethought. Our
description of ELF in Chapter 7 has shown how speakers are manipulating the language
to suit their varied purposes. Thus, in this respect, we can never expect a global lingua
franca to stabilize entirely in any given direction. Schneider (2007) notes that codification
can only take place when endornormative stabilization occurs, but this is not true in the
case of ELF and is certainly not true of any complex adaptive system. In Chapters 4, 5,
and 6 we showed that the purpose of a lot of World Englishes work was to codify
national varieties as part of a nativization process. But codification also presents a false
notion that language is stable and static, and is reminiscent of the type of thinking that
applied linguists need to be distancing themselves from. In fact, Chapter 7 has shown that
ELF communities are unstable and fluid, and thus the codification of ELF, despite the
misunderstandings of critics, is not the focus of researchers in this field simply because it
does not mirror the true nature of language in use.
However, just as World Englishes has a long history of research, ELF needs more
work, too. More analytical studies are needed to showcase how lingua franca commu-
nication takes place today and enable us to theorize about the nature of ‘language’.
Outside the ELF paradigm, researchers are drawing similar conclusions. Pennycook
(2007, 2010) has questioned whether English as a language, or Englishes as many lan-
guages, exists at all, as the very idea of language constrains us to draw boundaries around
forms and variation.

To argue for a monolithic version of English is clearly both an empirical and political
absurdity, but we need to choose carefully between the available models of pluri-
centric Englishes, avoiding the pitfalls of states-centric pluralities that reproduce the
very linguistics they need to escape, in order to deal with globalized linguascapes.
This can help us avoid the national circles and boxes that have constrained World
Englishes and, indeed, linguists more generally. In pedagogical terms, this means
treating English less as a discreet object – even with its variations – that can be taught
only in its own presence, and rather deal with English as multilingual, as a language
always in transition, as a language always under negotiation.
(Pennycook, 2010, p. 685)

Thus the title of our book may, in the end, have been somewhat misleading because,
in our attempt to show the plurality of Englishes used around the world, we may
inadvertently be encouraging people to think that Englishes are countable and codifi-
able entities, which has never been the case and will certainly not be the case for the
 The future of English as a global language 245

future of English. Once again, complexity theory seems to work hand-in-hand with a
Global Englishes perspective, where drawing lines around complex systems like lan-
guage is entirely problematic (Larsen-Freeman and Cameron, 2008). This view is, once
again, supported in Canagarajah’s (2013, p. 7) positioning of the translingual orienta-
tion, in that treating language as ‘a tightly knit system’ and ‘a self-standing product’ that
is detached from its environment distorts the real practices underlying how meaning is
created in communication.
We encourage the reader to end this chapter with the view of language as a moving,
breathing, and unpredictable organism – much in line with Larsen-Freeman and
Cameron’s (2008, p. 79) call for an ‘ecological metaphor applied to language use in
context’. English, like any organic system, is capable of changing and adapting to its
surroundings; it is made up of many distinct parts that give it its whole interconnected
form, but is entirely dependent on the systems which surround it. It is capable of
morphing to such a degree that it is entirely possible that, in the future, it will
adapt and change into a completely different-looking organism in response to its ever-
changing environment.

Chapter summary
This chapter has examined issues surrounding the future growth and use of English,
based on current and predicted trends. Section 10a examined issues surrounding the
emergence of global culture, where new opportunities to use English have emerged. We
saw that new technologies have not only changed the way that English is used but have
also caused a re-examination of how we define language. Issues of globalization, locali-
zation, and glocalization were explored, which have created a geographically fragmented
but globally interconnected community that has brought into question linguistic
boundaries defined by national borders. In Section 10b, the use of English in education
was discussed in order to analyse how English will be used in the future. In particular, we
saw a dramatic trend of English monopolizing academic publications at the expense of
the other big languages that had been prominent in the twentieth century. Unlike online
and popular media content, which is becoming more multilingual, education is one area
where English has placed a firm foothold, particularly true in the internationalization of
higher education. The danger of equating internationalization with native-English norms
in such programmes was discussed at length. However, we concluded with a somewhat
optimistic view that the formidable barrier of a standard academic English, based on
native-speaker norms, might be showing signs of cracking as internationalization moves
away from its Western centre.
The final two sections of the chapter examined the future, or fate, of English,
according to key questions posed throughout the book. The questions of English’s
future expansion or recession, and its future convergence or divergence, were dis-
cussed. Some bleak ‘black and white’ scenarios were explored in order to understand
the ‘grey’ area in which the future of English will most probably lie. In the end, we
predict a future where English will remain a global language but we do not see this as
a zero-sum game; thus other viable, alternative lingua francas might grow in certain
domains. We also concluded that the emergence of a standard global English was
as equally improbable as the fragmentation and stabilization of many Englishes.
Such a view ignores ELF research that suggests a third alternative. We considered the
246 The future of English as a global language

out-of-date and futile linguistic practice of drawing boundaries around something that
is as fluid and ever changing as language.
In our view, the English language will continue being moulded and adapted by its
users to fulfil immediate purposes; it will always be influenced by exposure to alternative,
creative uses of language. English, or Englishes – plural, though uncountable – has a
definite place in the world’s future as a global lingua franca, even if its future form is less
predictable.

Further reading
Globalization and Global Englishes:

! Pennycook, A. (2007). Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows. Abingdon and

New York: Routledge.

On English in international education:

! Jenkins, J. (2013). English as a Lingua Franca in the International University: The Politics of
Academic English Language Policy. Abingdon: Routledge.
! Jenkins, J. (2011). ‘Accommodating (to) ELF in the international university.’ The
Journal of Pragmatics, 43(4), 926–36.

On the future of English:

! Pennycook, A. (2010). ‘The future of Englishes: one, many, or none?’ In A. Kirk-

patrick (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes. Abingdon and New York:
Routledge.
! Crystal, D. (2006). ‘Into the 21st century.’ In L. Mugglestone (ed.), The Oxford
History of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Closing activities

Chapter discussion questions

Section 10a
1 Current trends indicate the use of English on the Internet and in popular media is
decreasing, in terms of its share of content. What do you think is driving this trend?
2 Do you think online communications are changing the definition of language? Are
the already-fuzzy lines between spoken and written language being blurred further?
3 Can virtual communities really have the same influence over language as physical
ones?

Section 10b
1 What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of having English as a unifying
language for academic scholarship?
 The future of English as a global language 247

2 What do you think of Jenkins’ (2011) advice to international students that they edu-
cate their lecturers about ELF?
3 Some people are worried about the decline of academic writing standards. What is
your opinion on this?

Section 10c
1 Ignoring the conclusions drawn in the section, which of the ‘black and white’ futures
of English do you perceive as most convincing?
2 Compare Graddol’s 1997 and 2050 World Hierarchy (Figure 10.1). Using De
Swaan’s Global Language System (Figure 10.4), what adjustments would you make to
the model to represent the year 2050?
3 Do you agree that English is unlikely to topple from its apex position, but might be
joined by other global lingua francas in certain domains?

Section 10d
1 In the distant future, do you think a kind of global koineization would be theoreti-
cally possible?
2 Schneider (2007) notes that codification can only take place when endornormative
stabilization occurs, but this is not true in the case of ELF. Crystal (2003) sees a family
of Englishes emerging (of which a standard spoken form is one branch). Are the
authors in disagreement?
3 Pennycook (2010) argues that drawing circles and boxes around Englishes has
constrained linguists, thus criticizing linguistic practices of codifying varieties of the
English language. Do you think there is no longer worth in such study?

Debate topics
1 With a more connected global community, the emergence of a World Standard
Spoken English, as outlined by Crystal (2003), is a real possibility.
2 Within 50 years, the use of English in academic publications grew from 50 per cent
to over 90 per cent. In the next 50 years, this trend can just as easily reverse, as other
languages take over in importance in research and publication.
3 Jenkins (2011, p. 934) is right in her assertion that ‘it is a contradiction for any
university anywhere that considers itself international to insist on national English
language norms’.

Writing and presentation prompts

Below are ideas for writing and presentation tasks to apply the knowledge learned in
Chapter 10.
248 The future of English as a global language

Assignment topics
Personal account How has the role of English in education and popular media been changing in
a context you are familiar with? How will it likely change in the future?
Research task Copy a sample of online English (e.g. blog posts, messenger chats, comments
on videos, twitter feeds). Analyse your sample in terms of grammatical and
lexical complexity. (See the companion website for ideas.)
Basic academic Conduct secondary research on an emerging national economy. Using this
information, propose the impact of this emerging market on the language
used as a lingua franca with its close trading partners.
Advanced academic Explore the arguments for the future convergence or divergence of the
English language. Examine competing theories of historical linguists with
those engaged in ELF research.