A serious look at the future of the English language

Considering constant reports that Grenadian students are not doing well in English exams, it is our hope that we will catch the attention of teachers as we present the question ‘what will the English language be like in 100 years from now?’

This question asked by University of Oxford Professor of English Language and Literature Simon Horobin, provokes some thought as we explore the content of a BBC programme presented by Robin Lustig on the subject. It is definitely becoming clearer that we are moving away from ‘standard English’ through the use of computers. English is spoken by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, but does the development of translation technology such as Google and “hybrid” languages that come with social media, threaten its status? New programmes are emerging, in which features of English are mingled with those of other native tongues and their pronunciations. The question here is -what will be the correct English for students who are preparing for exams by using computer systems? During the colonial days, most Caribbean students were taught the Queen’s English from Great Britain. Today, the influence of American English is so strong that maybe the time has come for the Ministry of Education to decide which English should be our own.

Despite the Singaporean Government’s attempts to promote the use of Standard British English through the ‘Speak Good English Movement’, the mixed language known as Singlish remains the variety spoken on the street and in the home. Spanglish, a mixture of English and Spanish, is the native tongue of millions in the United States, which may emerge as a language in its own right. It seems the future for English is heading towards multiple ‘Englishes’ which may even include Caribbean English with some African and broken French words. Online, attitudes to consistency and correctness are considerably more relaxed: variant spellings are accepted and punctuation marks omitted or repurposed to convey a range of attitudes. Research has shown that in electronic discourse, exclamation marks can carry a range of exclamatory functions -including apologising, challenging, thanking, agreeing and showing solidarity. Capital letters are used to show anger, misspellings convey humour and establish group identity, and smiley-faces or emoticons express a range of reactions.

 Some have questioned whether the increasing development and adoption of emoji pictograms, which allow people to communicate without the need for language, means that we will cease to communicate in English at all. The fast-changing world of social media is also responsible for the coining and spreading of neologisms, or ‘new words’. It is now observed and accepted to a certain degree, that there is more than one English, even in England.

Looking back to the early 20th century, it was the Standard English used in England, spoken with the accent known as ‘Received Pronunciation’ that carried prestige. A good example is the word bathroom, which was pronounced by small children as baffroom. Today the largest concentration of native speakers is in the US, and the American influence on English has taken root where we hear “skedule” rather than “shedule”. The turn of the 20th century was a period of regulation and fixity – the rules of Standard English were established and codified in grammar books and in the New (Oxford) English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Today we are witnessing a process of de-standardisation, and the emergence of competing norms of usage. The computers are coming and they are winning.

Because so many people speak English as their second or third language, hybrid forms continue, combining elements of “standard” English with vernacular languages. In India alone, one can find Hinglish (Hindi-English), Benglish (Bengali-English) and Tanglish (Tamil-English). Language is more than a means of communication. It is also an expression of identity – giving a sense of who the speaker is. The San Francisco poet Josiah Luis Alderete, who writes in Spanglish, calls it the ‘language of resistance’, a way for Hispanic Americans to hold on to – and express pride in – their heritage, even if they were born and brought up in the United States (US).

English owes its global dominance to being the language of what, until recently were two of the world’s most powerful nations- the US and the UK. But now, especially with the rise of China as an economic superpower, the language is being challenged. There is a school of thought that says that an ambitious young jobseeker in sub-Saharan Africa, might be better off learning Mandarin Chinese and look for jobs in China than relying on school-level English and hoping for a job in the US or UK. Learning Chinese is becoming increasingly popular. In 2015, it was reported that the number of school students in the US studying the language, had doubled in two years and, at college level, there had been a 50% rise over the past decade.

In Uganda however, all secondary schools must conduct classes entirely in English, and some parents teach their young children English as their first language. So, in many parts of the world, English is still regarded as a passport to success. Is the future of English at risk? Its global dominance may well diminish over the coming decades, but like all languages, it is constantly changing and adapting to new needs. Until recently, ‘text’ and ‘friend’ were simple nouns. Now, they are also verbs, as in “I’ll text you,” or “Why don’t you friend me?”  What is seen here is that computerised translation technology, the spread of hybrid languages and the rise of China all pose real challenges for English teachers who must toss reality in, when teaching the subject.

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