Paper 4, Section A

The extract from the BBC World Service website discusses the changes in use of the English language and how the growth of technology plays a major role. The text goes into detail on the international aspect of language use and how multilingualism may no longer be needed. Despite the global use of the English language and the many forms of non-standard English created, technology has taken a much greater role in language.

Linguist David Crystal believes that the reason a language is widely used is because of the people who speak it. However, the text explains that with the growing increase in technology development towards ‘computer translation’ and ‘voice-recognition’, the need to know the most widely used language will eventually not be needed. This prediction presented by the overall concept of the extract refutes Crystal's original theory in regards to English. If a language is widely used due to the people who speak it and people stop learning the language in question, then no language will be spread or ‘widely used’.

Presently, China is the country that ‘boasts’ the most English speakers as mentioned in the extract. This means that there are more people in China who speak English as a second language than Americans who speak it as their first. This also goes with the rest of the world. For example, ‘1.5 billion people around the world speak it- but fewer than 400 million have it as their first language’ when referring to English. This goes to show that the English language has been a primary language, or as the text explains, ‘the world’s favorite language’ since its original global spread.

However, with the development of new technology, people will no longer have to learn new languages in order to communicate with the majority of the world. Kachru’s circle model, developed in 1985, is used to describe the circumstances in which English is spoken. The three circles consist of the inner circle, outer circle, and expanding circle. These circles begin in the middle with the inner circle, containing the countries that use English as their native language, or mother tongue. As mentioned by the text, ‘400 million’ have English as their first language. Therefore, they would be placed here. The outer circle has English as the second language, while the expanding circle has English as a foreign language. This model shows that English has spread around the entire world, becoming the ‘world’s favorite language’.

While Kachru’s model may have been useful in the past, the details from the extract show that the expanding circle no longer needs to focus on learning the English language as much as they did in the past. The text explains that despite this model developed in 1985, times have changed and technology has excessively developed. This model was developed during the time of the English language spread as a way to group the different levels of English use. Now with computer technology, any language is able to be translated in real time. For example, the text gives the scenario of a conversation with a French speaker and a Chinese speaker who both don’t speak the other’s language. In this case, the two would use English in order to communicate. Yet with cell phones and other technology devices, these types of scenarios can be quickly fixed by the touch of a button, putting the English language at a risk of future downfall.

Wonkyum Lee, a South Korean computer scientist for Gridspace, is in the process of helping to develop a type of technology that consists of voice-recognition when calling a ‘customer service helpline’. The text explains that Lee’s technology will make it unknown whether the ‘helpline’ is a computer or human. Another example given from the text is from Christopher Manning who believes that translation technology should be ‘as good as, or better than, human translators’. With these ideas in mind, the future of translation jobs are at risk. The people who work with the government, or even filmmaking, will no longer be needed.

As for the time being, English is still primarily used for many things. As the text mentions, things such as ‘international business’ and the latest video games’ are all still based in English. This also includes all communications for international air and sea traffic, as well as use with the United Nations and many popular films. This goes to show that English is the world's favorite ‘lingua franca’ as mentioned from the text. This means that people from other countries who don’t speak the same language revert to English in order to communicate for many things as of today. Nonetheless, ‘the computers are coming, and they are winning,’ as stated from the text.