I enjoyed a lot when Somer mentioned the question in her marvelous presentation. She ended up her presentation with a wonderful question mark. The question is: what is the role of the language teacher in these kind of English as a threat to national language? What do we think about this debate?
I remember some words like “one eight” that means a “pick up” car. But when we look at the original of this word, we can see the influence of using this word in “Saudi Aramco” in Dammam and Yanbu. Although Saudi workers at that time were uneducated, they spoke fluently in English in order to survive. Some of these words were transformed to the reset of Saudi people. I guess that all because we did not have this kind of invention like (cars, computer, and other technologies etc) and people absorb what in the western countries culture and they consider it right all the time. The other reason was that Arabic language was not dominated and influential at that time. In my humble opinion, I think the main stream would accept the new English words and it is difficult to interpret them and use the Arabic equivalent. We pronounce the new words with different pronunciation and we use it in different context.
Finally, I do not think that there is a threat on my language because most languages borrowed some words from each other and they still have the strong sense like for example the English language.
I agree that English is not a threat to the extinction of other languages, but the spread of it will continue to widen the gap between "the have's" and the "have-not's" worldwide.
ReplyDeleteIn countries where English is needed for economic or social mobility, only those who have access to technology(e.g. the internet)and can afford to attend schools where English is taught will have access to these opportunities.