“English as the Global Language – A Blessing or a Curse for Germany?”
...y. This development was intensified by an image decrease of German as an language of science (Stark 2002, p.22). It went that far that “international boycotts had taken place against German scientists and the German language after the 1st WW, which lead to the fact that in 60% of all international conferences not a single German scientist was able to participate” (Ahrens 2003, 218). Therefore, the international importance of German at that was at a minimal state; English was of greater importance. However, during the period from 1919 to 1939 German regained its scientific importance. In the field of chemistry, German became the language of importance. German scientists did a lot of research and developed new and important methods. This development led to the fact that nearly half of all Nobel-prizes for chemistry at that time were given to Germans. Furthermore, German scientists for medicine were granted the Nobel-prize for discoveries about the reactions in muscles, respiratory enzymes and embryonic developments. The most well-known German scientists of that time were Albert Einstein with the ‘Theory of Relativity’ and Max Plank with the discovery of the energy quanta. This led to the advancement of physics (Internet 6). Due to that the number of publication in German was very high (see figure 5) and German was again the leading language in science. After World War II, Germany lost more and more its reputation as a country of scientists, scholars and medicine. The Nazi regime started a scientific self-destruction when lots of professors and researchers were expelled from universities (Ammon 2003, p.218). Most of them went to the USA or England, abandoned their country and with it their language. Because of this “Brain-Drain” into the USA fewer scientist published their works in German. Furthermore, Germany did not have any political or economic power anymore. They had to pay reparations to the Allies. Germany’s reputation was bad all over the world. In figure 5, it can be seen that at the end of World War II, the German language was in decline again. This decline is still continuing (Ammon 2003, p. 217). The United States of America, however, developed into a world super power, overtaking all European countries politically and economically. The research capacity of America since World War II has been outstanding (Ammon 2003, p. 219). Developments of new technologies like personal computers and the Internet have contributed to the role of the English language today. With these developments, anglicism found their way into the German language - even into everyday conversation. This process is still continuing. 2.2. What determines a “Global Language”? Headlines like “English – OUR Global Language?” or “English as the Global Lingua Franca” appear in newspapers all over the world. But what actually determines a global language? According to David Crystal, a language achieves a global status when it has a special role recognised in every country all over the world. In his opinion, the number of mother-tongue speakers does not determine this special role but the ‘official status of a language’ in a country and whether it is included in the educational system as a priority foreign language (Crystal 2002, p. 4). Ulrich Ammon, however, states that the ‘number of mother-tongue speakers’ and the ‘official status’ of a language are major indicators for the position of a language in the world. Furthermore the parameter ‘economic power’ of a country, which is shown in the gross domestic product (GDP) of a language community, is another indicator for determining the term “Global Language”. The parameter ‘economic power’ is also an indicator for the technological and scientific standard of a language community. This has a great impact on the attractiveness of a language as a foreign language (Ammon 2002, p. 19 – 20). In the following, we are going to show that there is a close link between the dominance of a language, the economic and technological power, the numerical strength, the official status of a language and the status as a foreign language in the educational system. This link is also reflected in part 2.1. ‘A Historical Overview on the Spread of English around the World’. 2.2.1. Official Languages in the European Union “An official language is a language that is specifically designated to be so in the constitutions of countries, states and other territories.” (Internet 8) There are several ways in which a language can be official. First of all, a language can be the only official language in a country. In Germany, for instance, German has the status as the sole official language. However, in some countries, there are several languages which share the official status. The linguistic situation in Luxembourg, for instance, is characterised by the fact that several languages are spoken and written at the same time in the same place: French, German and Letzeburgish. But a language can also have a semi-official status, where it is used only in certain domains (Crystal 2002, p. 5). In Spain, there is an official language for the country, but other languages are co-official in some important regions. Some countries, such as the United States of America have no official languages, but there are official languages in some US states. A suitable measure for the status as an official language is the number of states in which a language is official. However, in such an analysis, it seems problematic, that the countries have a different size: the United States of America in contrast to Germany, for instance. This, however, is not considered in the following table: Table 1: German and English as Official Languages in the EU and in the World In the European Union In the World German 5 7 English 2 48 Ammon 2002, p. 22: Fischer Weltalmanach 1997 Table 1 shows that the German language has an official status in five countries of the European Union and in 7 countries in total (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, Liechtenstein). According to the Department for Foreign Affairs, the German language has been able to resume its former significance as a regional lingua franca in some parts of Central and Eastern Europe (Internet 9). Furthermore it is a key working language along with English and French within the European Union. In contrast to this, the English language has an official status in two countries of the European Union. However, with regard to the situation in the world, the English language is of much greater importance. 2.2.2. Number of Mother-Tongue Speakers Table 2: Number of Mother – Tongue Speakers in the EU and worldwide In the European Union In the World German 89,413,000 121,000,000 English 61,631,000 470,000,000 Ammon 2002, p. 20: Grimes 1996 The number of German mother-tongue speakers in the European Union is more than one third higher than the number of English mother-tongue speakers. But when the world` s mother-tongue speakers of English are taken into account, the number of people speaking English is four times higher than the number of German mother - tongue speakers (Ammon 2002, p. 20). Figure 1: German and English Mother-Tongue Speakers and Speakers of English and German in Per Cent Internet 8 Although German is the language mostly spoken by mother-tongue speakers, only 8 % of the European citizen speak German as a second language. As figure 1 shows, English is mostly spoken as a foreign language. 2.2.3. Economic Power The parameter ‘economic power’ of a country, as mentioned above, is shown in the gross domestic product (GDP) of a language community. In economics, the GDP is a measure of the size of the economy of a particular territory. It is the total value of all goods and services produced within that territory during a specified period, usually per year. In figure 2 and 3 below, proportions of the languages in countries where more than one language is official were taken into account. Figure 2: Economic Power of the Official Languages English and German in the European Union according to the GDP of the Language Community Ammon 2002, p. 21: Fischer Weltalmanach 1997 According to the parameter ‘economic power’, the German language is more important than English in the European Union. It should be mentioned that Germany is the second largest import country after the United States of America (Ammon 2002, p. 19). Figure 3: The GDP of the German and English Language Worldwide Ammon 2002, p. 21 As it can be seen in figure 3 above, English is the most dominant language worldwide. The GDP of the English language is 2.5 times bigger than the GDP of the German language. 2.3. The Spread of German and English - Language Policy 2.3.1. The German Language The German Language is taught in 109 countries all over the world. About 15 – 16 million people, among those 720,000 students with German as a main subject and 2 million students in university language courses, are learning German as a foreign language worldwide. There are more than 120,000 teachers and 19,000 higher education teachers who teach the German language abroad. With regards to worldwide language teaching, German lies behind English, French and possibly Spanish; however, it is a language that is taught worldwide. The Federal Foreign Office spends approximately 300 million Euro, which is half of the entire culture budget, on the promotion of the German language. This number also includes German schools abroad. The promotion of the German language is mainly focused on Central and Eastern Europe, the European Union, North America and emerging economies (Internet 9). There are several organizations the Federal Foreign Office cooperates with to promote the German language. The most important is probably the Goethe Institute, which has 128 institutes abroad and 16 in Germany. It offers language courses, helps to inform about the German culture provides trainings and material for German teachers (Internet 10). Another important promoter of the German language is the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which places lecturers of German language in 89 countries and promotes partnerships between German institutes. Furthermore, the Federal Foreign Office promotes 108 German foreign cultural societies in 47 countries, of which two-thirds also offer German courses. There are, however, more organizations that help to promote the German language, but mentioning all of them would go too far. 2.3.2. The English Language Over the last years many nations have made English their official language or chosen it as their primary foreign language at schools. There are different reasons why a language is chosen as a foreign language: historical tradition, political expediency and the desire for commercial, cultural or technological contact (Crystal 2002, p. 5). According to David Crystal, the English language teaching business has become a major industry worldwide since 1960 (Crystal 2002, p. 112). British and American language policy goals were mainly of economic nature. Franz Stark, for instance, wrote that the language policy of English-speaking countries was ‘secretly’ practised by organizing development assistance overseas and using international organisations as a platform (Stark 2002, p. 42). However, Robert Phillipson wrote in his work “Linguistic Imperialism” that America and Britain have pursued this specific language policy. In the so-called “Drogheda Report” from 1954, for example, it was specified that the spread of English was essential to strengthen the Commonwealth and to make capital investment overseas. However, until 1989/ 1990, German was the most widespread foreign language in communist countries. When Germany was reunited, Britain’s Secretary of State announced that English should become the first foreign language for Europe. The British Government entered the so-called “East European Partnership”, which was financed by the VSO – the British counter piece of the Peace Corps. Since then the British Council has made it their goal to “exploit the English language to the full” (Stark 2002, p. 202). The British Council is an organisation that promotes the British culture and the English language all over the world. During 2003 and 2004, for instance, the British Council worked in • 220 towns and cities in 110 countries, taught English to over 500,000 people • with an average of 120,000 students learning English in 126 teaching centres • administered 1.15 million professional and academic exams • helped over 15,000 young British people aged 15 to 25 to work with overseas partners in more than 600 projects • placed over 1,000 young long-term volunteers in 30 countries • arranged nearly 2,500 work placements and more than 200 study visits in 31 countries across Europe • and employed 1,700 teachers in 126 teaching centres overseas who taught over 1.07 million class hours around the world (Internet 11). The Language policy of the United States used to be financed by private foundations. Since 1960, however, three ministries and four government agencies, among them United States Information Agency (USIA) and the Peace Corps, have been responsible for this (Stark 2002, p. 44). The Peace Corps, for instance, was founded in 1960 when John F. Kennedy asked the students of Michigan University to promote world peace and to serve the country by living and working in developing countries. Since then Peace Corps volunteers have been working in the following areas: education, youth outreach, and community development; health and HIV/AIDS; agriculture and environment; business development; and information technology (Internet 12). By working in developing countries, Peace Corps volunteers promote the English language at the same time. The USIA is an agency that organises educational and cultural activities to promote understanding between the United States and other nations. It maintains 190 posts in 142 countries; 6,352 employees work for USIA worldwide. These examples show, that English is being promoted all over world. More money is spend on the promotion of English than on the promotion of German. One quarter of the world’s population is already fluent in English and the number will grow. No other language can match this growth (Crystal 2002, p. 6). In addition to this, the English language is more suitable as the global lingua franca than German. The basics of English – for simple communication – are a lot easier to learn than the basics of German. There are several differences between English and German, however, the most difficult ones for language learning are the ‘cases’, the sentence structure as well as the existence of gender concerning the nouns. Furthermore, the roots of English are Germanic and Roman and; thus, for most Europeans it does not pose a problem (Clyne 2002, p. 63). Figure 4: European Countries where English and German are Spoken as Foreign Languages Internet 13: Eurobarometer Statistic Figure 4 shows the proportion of European citizens who speak English or German as foreign languages. It shows that even in the European Union, the German language lies way behind English. 2.3.3 European Language Policy The main goals of the European Parliament are to promote linguistic diversity as well as language teaching and learning and to encourage improvements in the quality of language teaching structures and systems. Actions to safeguard and promote the regional and minority languages of Europe have been undertaken and several programmes to raise the awareness and inform about the benefits of language learning have been funded. On 27 July 2003, for instance, the European Commission adopted the so-called ‘Action Plan’ for the promotion of language learning and linguistic diversity. In this plan concrete proposals for 45 actions in three areas were made: • extending the benefits of language learning to all citizens as a lifelong activity; • the need to improve the quality of language teaching at all levels; • and the need to build in Europe an environment which is really favourable to languages (Internet 13). Although there is an official EU policy of equal status for all languages, the English language is favoured in most spheres: According to Franz Stark, after the reunion of Germany, the European Commission in Brussel tried to replace the German language in favour of English and French. For instance, when the EU-Commission advertised a post, only English and French language skills were required but not German (Stark 2002, p. 49). However, German has been one of the three official working languages of the European Commission since 1958 – just like English and French. According to the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, German language skills are hardly prevalent anymore. English has become the dominant language of conferences, almost all the results of science and technology research projects are published in English or French (Internet 14). Since 1998, the German Government has successfully blocked the abrogation of the German language as a working language. The Federal Chancellor Schröder and President Chirac have agreed to work together against the abrogation of German and French as working languages in the European Commission. At the moment, the German Government is trying to encourage learning German by offering language courses for employees of the European Union. According to the speech of the German Minister of State Hans Martin Bury in the Bundestag on May 22, 2003, the German language must be promoted to strengthen the position of Germany in the world (Internet 15). 2.4 English in every Sphere English has become the medium of communication in the whole world. The English language plays an official role in many areas: 2.4.1 Science German has once been the international language of science – equal to French and English. But this has changed since the World War II when Germany’s basis for economic growth was destroyed. The international boycott against the German language and the decay of scientific advance during the Nazi regime are the main reasons for the situation of German in science today. This can be seen in the number of research papers published in English and German worldwide. According to David Crystal, a study from 1980 showed that 85 per cent of all scientific periodicals for biology and physics were published in English. 73 per cent of all medical papers and approximately 67% all mathematics and chemistry papers were published in English at that time (Crystal 2002, p. 111). Figure 5: Proportion of Publications in Science in English and German over the Last One-Hundred Years Ammon 2002, p. 24: Tsunoda 1983 Figure 5 above shows the proportion of publications in English and German over the last one-hundred years. 2.4.2 Communication David Crystal wrote in his book ‘English as a Global Language that “without a strong power-base […] no language can make progress as an international medium of communication” (Crystal 2002, p. 7). Whether English is the global language of today can only be analysed when one looks at the different mediums of communication: the post system, the telephone system and the Internet. However, according to David Crystal, it is difficult to analyse in which language people write their letters and talk on the phone (Crystal 2002, p. 114). That is why we analysed the most powerful medium of communication: the Internet. The Internet is the largest computer network that connects several networks. It provides several services to its users, such as: e-mail, data transfer, newsgroups, chatting, video, telephoning, the world wide web and so on. The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) was founded by the American Minister of Defence as one reaction to the Sputnik Shock in 1958. The goal of the ARPA was to develop new technologies. In 1964, Paul Baran developed the first Distributed Network for the Airforce. In 1968, ARPA authorised the development of the first communication network. The ARPANET went online in 1969: the first four Internet users exchanged information. In 1971 more than 30 Internet users were connected to ARPANET. Since then the net has grown steadily. ARPANET was not only the forerunner of the Internet but also the core network in the collection of networks in the Internet. Twenty years after the first exchange of data via a network, the ARPANET was switched off and with it the development of the World Wide Web in the nuclear research centre Cern in Geneva started. During the 1990s, the Internet successfully accommodated the majority of previously existing computer networks. Since then, there has been a boom of the Internet all around the world (Internet 16). Because of the origin of the Internet, it is not surprising that most Internet hosts, about 64 per cent are to be found in the USA. A further 12. 7 per cent are to be found in other English-speaking countries (Crystal 2002, p.115). English-speaking countries have captured the online market. According to David Crystal 80 per cent of the world’s electronically stored information is in English. That includes privately stored information as well as information which is available through the Internet (Crystal 2002, p. 115). The following statistic shows the growing number of Internet users over the last seven years. Figure 6: Number of Internet Users in Million Internet 17 It is also of interest to look at the figure below, which shows the proportions of online language populations in September 2004. Figure 7: Online Language Populations (Sept. 2004) Internet 18 The figures are estimated figures of the number of people online in each language zone (native speakers). It is classified by languages instead of by countries because people speaking the same language form their own online community - no matter what country they live in. About 801.4 million people worldwide are online with 295.4 million from English-speaking language zones (equals 35.2%) and 544.5 million from non-English-speaking language zones (equals 64.8%). Among the non-English-speaking language zone 55. 3 million speak German (equals 6.9%). Therefore, the English language zone is the largest and the German is the fifth-largest of the whole language population (Internet 18). 2.5 English as a Global Language – A Blessing or a Curse for Germany? In an article from The Guardian, April 18 2001, Robert Phillipson made the following statement: “The market forces that are propelling English forward impact on the vitality and viability of other languages.[…] In several member states [of the European Union] there are voices protesting against Americanisation and cultural and linguistic homogenisation. […]Several countries are […]registering that the advance of English is a problem.” (Internet 19) Nobody could have known that English would have such an impact today. In the Middle Ages, Latin was the Global Language; in the 18th century, French had the status of a world language. And only one century ago, the German language was the leading language of the natur...