ENGLISHLANGUAGEINTHECONTEXTOFGLOBALIZATION

1、ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION*T.Pushpanathan*Asst.Professor of English, School of Education, SCSVMV University, Kanchipuram.AbstractThis article is an attempt to shed light on the effects of globalization, its context in theimportance of English language, how globalization influen

2、ces standardization and the standardagencies of English language across the world to standardize the global proficiency of the Englishlanguage. It also addresses the commonly acknowledged challenge of globalization with respect tothe area of English language teaching and, more particularly, teaching

3、 English to speakers of foreignlanguages.Key words: Globalization, standardization, standards for English, standard agencies.IntroductionGlobalization is a process of the integration of different cultures, languages, organizations,countries, etc from across the globe. Due to the globalization everyo

4、ne is connected in the world forthe sake of personal and business. Influence of Globalization is everywhere. English language has agreat impact of globalization. Naturally English Language teaching has its own changes in globalizedworld. Because of globalization vast number of students has started l

5、earning English as a secondlanguage andforeign language. Arjun Appadurai prefers to define“globalization as a multi-wayprocess involving flows of ideas, ideologies, people, goods, images, messages, technologies andtechniques”. (Appadurai, 2001, 5). Impact of English in the context of GlobalizationGl

6、obalization interconnects people in all domains of contemporary life around the world. Theissues of social and technical interdependence among the countries are resolved by implementingGlobalization. There is a need for improved communication among countries to enhance theseinterconnections. English

7、 is the prominently used language in almost every field of study. It is used asan international language for communication in many countries and so it could be used as the globallanguage too.Crystal (2003) argues thatto achieve a global status, a language has to be taken up by othercountries around

8、the world either as an official language or as a priority in a countrys foreign languageteaching. Evidently, English is the medium of instruction at many school and colleges all over theworld. It is also extensively used language in the field of research, internet communication, business,social doma

9、ins and personal relationships. Chew (1999) puts it, that alack of a command in Englishwould mean the continued marginalization of their children in a world that would continue to use thelanguage to a greater degree. It would also deny them access to the extensive resources available inEnglish-resou

10、rces which have developed as a consequence of globalization.(41) By implementingadvanced technology, globalization functions quickly on global communication, which enables widerdissemination of ideas and information. Therefore, Globalization establishes faster linkage amongnations, which aids in sha

11、red knowledge and information that are generated at particular part of thecountries to other part of the countries.Globalization influences StandardizationGlobalisation and Standardization have been going hand in hand in the recent past.Globalization involves in establishing standards in all fields.

12、 The central focus of globalization andstandardization is to establish global communication, compatibility on one hand and to increase theperformance level of an individual on the other hand. Due to quality problems during II world warpeople seriously concentrated in developing global standards for

13、enriching the quality of the products.Standardization finds out fundamental similarities conditions in different parts of the world.Standardization in general favours the expertise and is not limited within boundaries. The expertise isindependent of geography or culture, in which communication and i

14、nteraction is possible on a globalscale. Standardization is the best technical application, which is applicable in all areas for refining thequality of the product. Therefore, it is applicable in education too.Standardization in EducationSerious thought has been given to standardizing the learning c

15、ontent for various subjects atvarious levels during the recent past, which has, bi-implication, taken into account the possibility ofeffective learning. Standardizing education became essential after globalization. As education plays avital role in transnational communication, it became necessary to

16、 educate the people with standardmaterials. Standardization aimed at providing standard curriculum, which has to be followed at everystages of the education. Implementing standardized curriculum in the classrooms will ensure asystematic learning. Through standardized curriculum, teacher as well as t

17、he students can be awareof the content that needs to be taught in the classrooms at every levels of learning. By viewing thestandardized syllabus, students can prepare themselves for later classes.The concept behind the standard education is to enhance the global communication and toequalize the qua

18、lity of education. So that, students from any part of the world, tends to have minimumdifferences in learning skills. In other word, students can acquire required competences at all levels ofschooling in a similar way. By executing standard general education curriculum at Schools anduniversities, st

19、udents can receive quality education without differences in learning at various places.The target of globalizing the curriculum is to establish similar levels of competences among thestudents of same class studying at various places. Once global standards are achieved in education,it opens the platf

20、orm for wider dissemination of knowledge and information. As so for education ishighly conventional, it is difficult to produce a similar platform for education throughout the world. Thisstandardized process simplifies the education system. The teacher as well as at schools anduniversities can follo

21、w same textbooks and reference materials, which reduces digression in teachinglearning process. Recently, serious measures are taken to globalize standards for education.Standards for EnglishAs English is treated as the international language, the expansion of globalization among thecountries demand

22、s evolving standardized curriculum for teaching and learning of English language. Inorder to meet global requirement, the individual have to acquire the global competences. Therefore,the English language curriculum must incorporate the identified global competence framework, whileframing the nationa

23、l curriculum for languages.CEFR mainly concentrates on testing of languages at various levels of proficiency to analyzethe competency level of an individual in particular language.CEF wants to promote internationalco-operation in the field of modern languages. Therefore, it enhanced the transparency

24、 of the courses,syllabusesand qualifications. It explicitly describes the objectives, content and methods of the coursesto improve the standards of the teaching-learning process. The various levels of proficiency facilitatethe individuals to recognize the qualifications gained by the learners at dif

25、ferent learning context,which will increase mobility.ACTFL proficiency levels provide an account of language learning &teaching standards fromkindergarten through post-secondary education (k-16).Standardization and accountability inlanguage education came out of the collaboration of educators, A

26、merican council for teaching offoreign languages and government agencies, including Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR). In1986, ACTFL proficiency guidelines was released incorporating listening skills, reading skills,speaking skills and writing skills at four levels; novice, intermediate, advance

27、d and superior. After tenyears, the research on language education moved towards the standards of learning. The similar kindof research was carried out in other disciplines in subjects like mathematics, sciences, social studies,and languagearts for producing the national standards in education. As a

28、 result of whichnationalorganizations, presented its standards for foreignstlanguage learning: preparing for the 21 century in 1996 and in 1999, the k-16 standardsfor foreignlanguage learning in the 21stcentury.Followed by these two standards Canadian Language Benchmarking (CLB) a common pointof ref

29、erence for language proficiency of adult immigrants is established. The Centre for CanadianLanguage Benchmarks (CCLB) is the organization that promotes excellence in the use of theCanadian Language Benchmarks. The CCLB aids the promotion of these national Standardsineducation, community, training an

30、d workplace settings.The Centre for Canadian LanguageBenchmarks offers the leadership and expertise to safeguard the integrity, promote the use andsupport application of the Canadian Language Benchmarks. Canadian Language Benchmarksestablishes the national standards for describing, measuring and rec

31、ognizing English languageproficiency of adult immigrants and prospective immigrants for living and working in Canada.All these standards in general are organized for specific purposes, but still have unity inassessing the language proficiency levels. Based on these standards k-12 syllabus for langua

32、ges areframed. The significant feature of this k-12 framework is that the pedagogic structure of the framework,which is more refined than the global standards. The k-12 standards represent the list competencesfrom class I to Class XII in a pedagogic manner. In the global standards of ACTFL, CEFR &am

33、p; CLB thecompetences levels are divided on a broader levels such as basic, intermediate andmastery.Language competences are the sum of knowledge, skills and characteristics whichempower a person to act using specifically linguistic means(CEFR 2001). Unlike the globalframework, the K-12 standards di

34、stributed the set of competences in ascending order from class I toclass XII. The competences needs to be acquired at each class are clearly mentioned. None of thecompetences is repetitive within the same levels of Schools. It has tabulated the requiredcompetencesat each class level in all the skill

35、s reading, listening, speaking and writing in a distinctway as that of the global standards. This K-12 standard is followed by Indian schools with regard toschool education.As for as English language teaching is concerned such a structural progress has beenfacilitated not just through course for a t

36、ime span of one year, the contemporary descriptors in CEFR& ACTFL proficiency guidelines have enabled the working out of a framework spread over 12 years ofschooling revealed in overlapping forms across the globe to advantage at school education.Global Proficiency Standards for LanguagesOne of t

37、he first steps towards standardization and accountability in language education cameout of the collaboration of educators, American council for teaching of foreign languages andgovernment agencies, including the interagency Language Roundtable (ILR). In 1986, they producedthe first set of language p

38、roficiency guidelines. The ACTFL proficiency guidelines, a descriptive metricintended to guide proficiency in multiple languages, including listening, speaking, reading and writingperformance at four levels; novice, intermediate, advanced and superior. After some ten years ofreorienting the entire r

39、ays of language education, the field moved towards the articulation of standardsof learning. This process involved proficiency indicatory and performance driven goals, objectives,and outcomes on the field. Concurrently, other disciplines, mathematics, sciences, social studies, andlanguage arts, were

40、 producing their national standards within most of the fifty states. For foreignlanguages to maintain their place in a standards driven arena, language educators needed todelineate clear, attainable, mutually agree upon goals and learners out comes. These produce learnerstandards from kindergarten t

41、hrough post-secondary education (k-16). The national standards inforeign language education collaborative project, a consortium of nine language associationsendorsed by 46 states were organized. This national organizations, presented its standards forForeign language learning:stpreparing for the 21 century in 1996 and in 1999, the k-16 standards for foreign languagestlearning in the 21 century.ConclusionExperts in ELT and Teacher education hold the responsibility to develop a stan