ASSIGNMENT 8: UNFAIR (Pennycook)

PENNYCOOK- English is an unfair language

- It acts as a gatekeeper for education, jobs and social mobility, favouring a monolingual élite, both in the Centre and in the Periphery.

-It makes certain domains inaccessible to many people.

- It is causing many minority languages to disappear and prevents many people from identifying with their mother tongue.

- It hinders literacy in the mother tongue for speakers of minority languages.

- It is not receptive to the needs of many people.

- It privileges the figure of NS in the ELT profession, together with many other fallacies.

- The prevailing, barely communicative, pedagogical orientation of EFL education in Spain tended to silence & marginalize learners (even though those coming from advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds).

REFLECTION:

If we only take into account these statements, we will finally arrive to the conclusion that English is an unfair language, a communication barrier which is also eradicating other languages.

I do not say that these statements are false, however, sometimes we should analyse the advantages and drawbacks of something, and then, to make decisions and arrive to solutions.

In this case, I think that if we analyse the pros of this fact, we finally agree that English is more a helpful tool than a barrier or obstacle.

What would happen if we could not communicate with people from other countries? Thanks to this language, we have a common instrument of communication and international relationships. Therefore, we can develop any kind of communication, at social but also economical, political and cultural levels.

So it is clear that we need a common language to communicate and maybe, the question is more like: why English?

To answer this question I also think there are lots of reasons: 

•      Historical reasons: because of the legacy of British and American imperialism, institutions of many countries carry out their proceedings in English.

•     Internal political reasons: because English has a role in providing a neutral means of communication between its different ethnic groups

•     External economic reasons: The USA’s dominant economic position acts as a attraction for international business and commerce.

•     Intellectual reasons: English is the main language of the scientific, technological and academic information of the world.

•     Leisure reasons: English is the main language of the popular music, videogames, technology, etc.

And finally, Practical reasons: English is a simple and easy language that facilitates its learning.