TEFL Zaragoza

english is spoken in most parts of the world and is the main language in countries like America, Great Britain, australia, New Zealand and canada. In most African countries english is the main form of communication even though those countries have their own ethnic languages. For example in South Africa there are eleven languages but english is the most spoken and most understood. There are advantages of having a global language for instance in communicating and business. There are also some disadvantages in terms of losing one’s mother tongue. This article will discuss some these issues. The first major advantage is communication. With over two hundred countries in the world, one global language would make communication much easier. This will help people to make more friends, widen relationships with foreigners and can’t get lost. I have travelled to quite a few countries, met different people from different cultures and made good friends because of the fact that I could communicate with one universal language. Another crucial advantage is improving business. There would be more business opportunities as companies become international players. Rich countries would also easier invest in poorer countries as the risks involved would be known and understood. A company and its proponents would be able to discuss, understand and develop projects together. This also leads to job creation in poorer countries. Besides these obvious benefits from using english, there are also some negative effects that arise. First of all there is the issue of losing one’s mother tongue. If english is used as a global language, people may use it at work and in daily life. children and teenagers might only watch english cartoons and movies. The use of their mother tongue will gradually deteriorate as it is used less and less. Another serious disadvantage is that it takes time and money. The older generation might need to study english to be able to communicate with the younger generation. This is quite difficult because learning a new language is very hard because your brain has fully developed when you are older. In addition, educational curriculums would also need to be changed and this will be a lengthy process and a take large amount of money. In my own experience I have seen that for countries like South Korea, english is very important. They are becoming big players in the global economy with companies such as Hyundai and Samsung. They place a lot of emphasis on learning english and almost all children in South Korea study english as a second language. This however also has a negative impact for the students as they are “forced” to study english. This leads to highly unmotivated students and makes the teaching environment sometimes very difficult. Many of the student’s parents have very little knowledge of english, and this doesn’t help at all. Students then get an attitude of “why must I learn, if my parents can’t even speak it.” Their exposure to the language is much less and it doesn’t get applied in everyday use. In conclusion there are both advantages and disadvantages for using english as a global language. It is very important in communication and business, but it threatens the mother tongue of a certain culture as people use it more and more in their everyday lives. Resources: www.essaydb.org www.tienganh.net www.oppapers.com