3. The English Learning History and Development in Taiwan and in China
3.1 Why learn English
3. The English Learning History and Development in Taiwan and in China
3.1 Why learn English
Because of the proliferation of globalization, the transportation vehicle progresses, along with the rise of Internet, people get closer and communicate one another more often. English becomes the global humanity's common language for communication after World War II32.
With the growth of the British Empire since eighteen centry, English began to spread and reach to truly global by the late nineteenth century.33 Indian linguistic Braj Kachru34 (1985) has proposed a widely-used concentric model of English which can be categorized by three circles: the Inner-, the Outer-, and the Expanding-circle countries. In the Inner-circle countries, English is the main language (e.g., the U.S.A., Canada, Britain, and Australia). In the Outer circle, English has spread as a result of colonization and has been used there mainly for administrative purposes.
As the Expanding circle, it encompasses all countries in which English is being taught as a foreign or additional language (e.g., Taiwan, China and other Asian countries.
Now the population of the Outer circle and Expanding circle are bigger than the Inner circle and it is still increasing. The concept of “English is a world language” has
32 Wikipedia, English Language from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language
33
EHistLing. Lecture 7: World-Wide English. from http://www.ehistling-pub.meotod.de/01_lec06.php
34 Kachru, B. (1985). Standards, codification, and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the Outer circle. In R. Quirk & H. Widdowson (Eds.). English in the world, teaching and learning the languages and literatures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, P.11~30
35 Cristal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University press.
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rapidly. The famous British linguist David Graddol36 (1997) forecasts the future language environment must be multilingual communication since the frequent international communication and trade, the rise of the BRICs, the technology and the corpulence of people. People who only use a language will probably meet the difficult on work, trade, research or politics. But “the global popularity in English is in no immediate danger and it pre-eminent position as a world language will not be changed in some world regions and domains use as the economic demographic and political shape of the world is transformed.”37 He also analyzed that the relationship between English and globalization was a complex one: economic globalization encouraged the spread of English but the spread of English also encouraged globalization.
Figure 3: Kachru (1985) The Three Concentric Circles of the English-Speaking World with estimates of speaker numbers in millions according to Crystal in 1997
In 2006, David Graddol38 forecasts that a massive increase in the number of people
36 Graddol, David (1997a). The Future of English? The British Council 1997. 2000. P.2 , P.10~11
37 Graddol, David (1997b). The Future of English? The British Council 1997. 2000. P.2
38 Graddol, David. (2006). English Next. London: British Council. Available for free from the website of the British Council. Retrieved March 16th, 2008, from
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-english-next.pdf P.14~15, P19, P41~49
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learning English has already begun, and is likely to reach a peak of around 2 billion in the next 10-15 years. Over the next decade there will be a complex and changing mix of learner ages and levels of proficiency. The situation will be one of many ages and many needs. He argued the rise of Chinese and Spanish will appear the importance of bilingual. Multilingualism will be normality and affect the economy, education and national policy making. It is necessary to learn English and native language as well. With the prosperity of innovation and information technology, English will be the international tool of communication.39 English language will continue to grow in popularity and influence in the future.
There are many reasons that people learn English:
(1) Participate in international official language: English involves deeply in various domains like international politics, the communication media, the economics and trade activity, the sightseeing trip, international education. Observing the situation, almost important international organization like OECD, WTO, APEC, EU and important international active like Olympic Games, the world expo, as well as many kinds of international conferences, English occupies the official language the first place. English is also prominent in international politics, business, technology, media, medicine, education, tourism, culture and so on.
(2) Get information from Internet: most government official websites, most international organization's websites and international displays use English as official language. The different cultures exchange and fuse unprecedentedly. The boundaries between countries become vague because of using the common language - English. The global various corners' news, the different groups’ advocation and their positions transmit to the world by the international language - English. English dominates computers and the Internet. Those who want to use computers or the Internet must learn English first.
39 Modiano M. (1999). International English in the global village. English Today 58, vol.15, No.2.
UK:Cambridge University Press.
Crystal D. (1999). The Future of English? English today 58, Vol.15, No.2. UK: Cambridge University Press.
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(3) Get access to knowledge: most books, press, reports and the most important theses in the world are written in English or translated in English. People who want to access to the important knowledge from all over the world must have the ability to use English or at least they meet the problems of translation. Most of the information on the Internet are written in English or translated in English.
(4) Communicate with people: nowadays most people use English in conferences, travel, and education, etc. Global migration is higher than ever before. People migrate at liberty and will surprisingly find that they can easily communicate with people everywhere in English. With convenience of transportation and information, lots of people travel on business or on vacation. The proportion of global tourism is growing. The employees from all over the world in transnational firms or global firms communicate mutually without any barriers for the reason they use the common world language -English. The spread of transnational goods also spread the language and culture.
(5) Push individual career forward: with the ability to use English, people may enrich their lives on work, social lives, and leisure. Learning to speak English well may be the best thing to improve our life. The employees in many international enterprises and joint ventures communicate each other in English. Then different nationalities employees discuss their work without language barrier.
(6) Share the different cultures and the circular of entertainment. American popular cultures and media contribute the spread of English. People can easily receive the popular entertainment and news from MTV channel, CNN, even the cartoon network or Disney channel.
In order to participate in the globalization opportunity and the challenges, many governments around the world stipulate English as one of the official languages in their countries or adopt English as very important foreign languages. English no longer becomes a legacy of certain countries. The skills of using international languages become a part of international competitiveness.
Because of the trend of globalization, whoever owns the ability of English proficiency
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owns the competitiveness. The trend of globalization leads the cities like Soul, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taipei to international stages. Thus, many countries around the world try their best to promote their people with English. English native speakers will face more competition since more bilingual elites owns the abilities of languages and profession. The western will no more occupy the superiority of leading the world. Not only the enterprise but the schools face the unprecedented competition. Many countries’ governments manage various policies and plans to promote their people’s English ability and to improve their people’s international perspective. In Taiwan, the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Excusive Yuan manages a plan in September 23, 2008 which is under the proposal of the twelve “i Taiwan” (I love Taiwan) to improve citizen’s English proficiency. The government advocates that English proficiency is the key competitiveness in the future. The Excusive Yuan set goals to carry out from 2010 to 2012 in order to improve people’s English proficiency and build a circumstance which can attract international professional expertise to Taiwan. Taiwan is an economy which highly depends on export. It goes without saying that language is important in trade, especially English.
Though some schools of scholars bring up their critical respective on language hegemony40, culture hegemony41 and infiltration of capitalism, we can not deny English provide people a channel to learn new knowledge and news and provide people the conveniences when they travel around the world and communicate with people internationally.