Date: 03-Dec-2011
From: Marc Deneire <marc.deneireuniv-nancy2.fr>
Subject: English in Europe Today
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Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/22/22-868.html
EDITORS: Annick De Houwer and Antje WiltonTITLE: English in Europe TodaySUBTITLE: Sociocultural and educational perspectivesSERIES TITLE: AILA Applied Linguistics Series 8PUBLISHER: John Benjamins Publishing CompanyYEAR: 2011
Marc Deneire, Nancy Université, France.
SUMMARY
''English in Europe Today'' is a collection of articles dedicated to KarlfriedKnapp on the occasion of his official retirement from the University of Erfurtin 2011. As noted by the editors, the contributors to the volume all have apersonal and/or professional connection with Knapp, whose research focused onintercultural communication and English as a Lingua Franca.
In their introductory chapter, Wilton and De Houwer point to the fact thatEurope has always been a multilingual territory, where power relations have hadan influence on the nature of language contact. However, in spite of theambivalent attitudes toward high prestige languages and linguae francae -- Greekamong the Romans, Latin in the Roman Empire and in the middle ages, French as alanguage of diplomacy, English as a lingua franca today -- none of theselanguages has ever threatened the linguistic diversity of Europe. On thecontrary, internal migrations and the vitality of lesser-spoken languages havegreatly added to that diversity in all European regions.
In her article on ''The increasing role of English in Basque education,'' JasoneCenoz looks at the impact of two main trends in the Basque country: theintroduction of English in pre-primary education and the use of Content andLanguage Integrated Learning (CLIL) with English. 90 percent of schools thereteach English from the age of 4 and 25 percent of primary schools participate inCLIL programs, which makes them an ideal testing ground to measure the effectsof these variables. Results for both factors are mixed: Children who startlearning English early do not perform better than those who start later (age 8)and CLIL programs only outperform traditional programs when traditional Englishclasses are maintained. Cenoz concludes that the amount of exposure may be moreimportant than age or CLIL, if the purpose is to raise the English proficiencyof Basque learners.
In the third article, Susan Gass and Daniel Reed chronicle the development of anEnglish test in Greece. They show that the main difficulties they encounteredwere not related to language issues but rather to intercultural sensitivitieslinked to differences in political and administrative contexts, to culturalcontent, to different testing cultures, and to the role and importance ofdifferent stakeholders. They conclude that in any collaborative approach,contexts and cultures contribute to shaping the final product in a way thatcannot be fully predicted at the outset.
In her analysis of English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) in German universities,Annelie Knapp reports that even though 50 percent of her sample had studied atforeign universities, there is a notable tendency for students to avoid EMIcourses at their own German university. More than 70 percent of the studentsreport occasional or frequent problems in understanding, which results in lessparticipation and discussion and a reduction in the amount of course content.Knapp further discusses samples from an applied chemistry class in an ELFcontext and notes that instructors tend to have difficulty using everydaylanguage to explain technical concepts and often make false assumptions aboutshared knowledge. She concludes that the technique of ''letting it pass'' (Firth1996) is often inappropriate in academic contexts and that adequate supportneeds to be made available by administrators if they want to use EMI to attractinternational students.
Kurt Kohn's article explores the conflict generally perceived between non-nativespeakers' claim of ownership of English and their preference for StandardEnglish models. Using a social constructivist perspective, Kohn explains thatall non-native English speaker-learners develop their own English (which hecalls ''the My English condition'') depending on the communities of practice theybelong to and the requirements of performance they impose on themselves or thatare imposed on them. Kohn also uses Karlfried Knapp's distinction betweenparticipation and membership to argue that while individuals participate incertain communities, they may also develop a communal identity, which resides in''attitudes and values that form part of the speaker-learner's construction ofotherness'' (p. 88). Thus ELF speakers may well develop their communicativecontacts with other non-native speakers while feeling communally attracted tonative speakers and Standard English values.
In chapter six, Li Wei observes and documents the early acquisition of Englishby three Chinese children who were one year old when they arrived in Britain.His study supports the view that context of acquisition should be fully takeninto account in explaining early bilingual development. There is, for example, aclear link between parental discourse and children's development. In hisconclusion, Li Wei proposes two hypotheses for further research: thecomparability hypothesis, which assumes that structures that are completelysimilar or completely different are acquired more easily than more ambiguousstructures, and the input style hypothesis, which states that the quantity andvariety of input have a direct impact on the number and type of words structuresthe children learn to produce in spontaneous conversation.
The title of Jacomine Nortier's article, ''The more languages, the more English:a Dutch perspective,'' summarizes her main argument. In the Netherlands, today 75percent of the people speak two or more languages and in a city like Utrecht, 77percent know three or more languages. The author addresses the question ofwhether Dutch is, as some people argue, in danger of being displaced by Englishas a result. She answers with a firm ''no.'' She notes that (1) the influence ofEnglish on Dutch is superficial and mainly lexical, the grammar remaining almostcompletely unaffected; (2) loanwords have been integrated into Dutch as far asmorphology and pronunciation are concerned; (3) English is widely used in Dutchadvertising, but so was French for most of the 20th century, and (4) mostsurveys are based on self-reporting, but real proficiency is rarely tested.Nortier reports some examples of embarrassingly poor English that show that inEU meetings, the use of translators may be more appropriate than the use ofEnglish by Dutch and Flemish delegates.
Like Kohn, Barbara Seidlhofer argues that ''ELF gets appropriated by itsnon-native users, who then become agents in the processes that determine how thelanguage spreads, develops, varies, and changes'' (p. 140). It is preciselybecause it is emergent in nature that ELF does not enter into competition withother languages and can serve as an intercultural tool in the shaping of theEuropean Union. Unlike other languages, ELF is not attached to a specificterritory, culture, or set of values. Thus, rather than reducing diversity inlanguage choice, it actually enhances it.
In the final contribution Marjolijn Verspoor, Kees de Bot, and Eva van Riendiscuss an attempt to measure the effect of language input outside of school onL2 acquisition. Because most TV programs are not dubbed in the Netherlands,Dutch audiences are exposed to an average of one hour of English a day. However,the authors found a group of Dutch people who for religious reasons are notexposed to the media, which allowed them to make a comparison between ''mediagroups'' and ''non-media groups.'' In each setting, tests conducted in monolingualand in bilingual schools show a positive effect of media exposure in bothsettings with bilingual schooling compensating for lack of exposure.
EVALUATION
The nine chapters in this book testify to the many different facets of Englishin a multilingual and multicultural Europe. I personally found every singlecontribution interesting and valuable, a rare experience in this type ofcollection.
It is of course impossible to comment on all the issues raised in this book.Therefore, I will limit myself to the question of language policy, an issueraised by Seidlhofer and introduced by the editors, who argue that ''patterns oflinguistic change reflect power structures and societal realities'' (p. 1). Eventhough Seidlhofer concludes her paper by saying that ELF enriches the Europeanlinguistic repertoire and contributes to linguistic and cultural diversity, sheseems to take issue with the official multilingual and multicultural policy ofthe EU. ''The rhetoric of the protectionism of linguistic diversity persists,''she writes (p136), and ''[t]he forceful and enforced promotion of multilingualismas an official policy is in stark contrast with the actual practice of Europeancitizens and institutions alike increasingly converging toward one linguafranca'' (p. 137). Finally, citing Coulmas, she suggests that establishing a linkbetween political and linguistic loyalties and between language and culturerepresents ''the ideological dead weight of the nineteenth century'' (p. 137). Itmight be helpful to remember that even though the ELF perspective may haveliberated non-native speakers from the yoke of the native speaker, Englishremains the language of power all over the world. In most European countries, itmay not be the language of politics and administration, but, as recent criseshave shown, the seat of power has shifted from the political to the financialworld. ''Learn English, Wall Street English,'' is not only the slogan of awell-known private school, it reflects that shift of power and reminds us thatEnglish remains the ''language of authority'' (Bourdieu, 1991: 48) in the Europeanlinguistic market. As noted in some contributions to this volume, the number ofspeakers of English may be high in Europe, but the number of people who masterthe language remains small. This may be due to the fact that, just as in theouter circle, ''opportunities for practicing English remain urban and associatedwith white collar jobs'' (Mufwene 2010: 57). As a result, many people lose theirjob or don't get one because of a lack of knowledge of English. It is, I wouldargue, the role of the political sphere to protect the weaker citizens againsteconomic and financial instability. In short, not promoting multilingualism notonly leads to a massive rejection of European institutions, but it ultimatelymeans that the EU refuses to protect its citizens against the financial powersthat govern today's world.
REFERENCES
Bourdieu Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, MA: HarvardUniversity Press.
Firth, Alan 1996. The discursive accomplishment of normality: On ''Lingua Franca''English and conversational analysis. Journal of Pragmatics 26: 237-259
Mufwene, Salikoko S. (2010) Globalization and the spread of English: what doesit mean to be Anglophone? English Today 26(1). 57-59.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER Marc Deneire received his PhD degree in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education (SLATE) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994 and is presently Associate Professor of English at Nancy Université. His research interests include sociolinguistics, World Englishes, language policy, and second language acquisition.
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