A Critical Analysis of Liguistic Imperialism Essay

After the civil war, United States took a turn that led them to solidify as the world power. From the late 1800s, as the US began to collect power through Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines, debate arose among historians about American imperialism and its behavior. Historians such as William A. Williams, Arthur Schlesinger, and Stephen Kinzer provides their own vision and how America ought to be through ideas centered around economics, power, and racial superiority.

American Imperialism has been a part of United States history ever since the American Revolution. Imperialism is the practice by which large, powerful nations seek to expand and maintain control or influence on a weaker nation. Throughout the years, America has had a tendency to take over other people's land. America had its first taste of Imperialistic nature back when Columbus came to America almost five hundred years ago. He fought the inhabitants with no respect for their former way of life, took their land, and proceeded to enslave many of these Native Americans. The impact of the 1820's and 1830's on American Imperialism is undeniable. Although the military power was not fully there during this time period, their ideals and foreign

Language plays a significant role in defining who we are. It is a method of communication in a structured and conventional way. “Language reinforces feelings of social superiority or inferiority; it creates insiders and outsiders” (p. 242) states Robert MacNeil (2012) in his article “English Belongs to Everybody”.

Imperialism was a time period in which more developed nations colonized less developed nations. The developed nations took advantage of the less developed nations resources, people, lands, and much more. Many countries lost their freedom and independence due to imperialism, however, they also received new technologies and innovations.

“Intrinsic arguments describe the English language as providential, rich, noble and interesting. Such arguments tend to assert what English is and what other languages are not”. As mentioned previously, notwithstanding that the english language is widely-spoken around the world, diversity is important and for many individuals language is the basis of their culture. Making english the global language is essentially

English has become the most widespread and powerful language on Earth. The imperial English Empire spread English across the globe; from America to Asia. English’s position in the world was cemented by US cultural and diplomatic dominance; evident in American movies, fast food, and clothing. English has proven it is not moving anywhere anytime soon, as English only grows in use over time. Thus a debate has arisen: Should English be the official Universal Language? On one hand, English can harm other cultures, international relations, and scientific development; however, English is very flexible and widely used, making it the perfect candidate for a global language.

Wallraff is concerned about the future of the English language and has started assuming what would happen if English became the global language. She further forecasted the situations that may occur if everyone started speaking English. The work, research and time Ms. Wallraff has devoted to the article demonstrate her attitude and concern about the English language and its future. The article that she has written basically targets people of new generation X who are firm believer of English being a Global language ignoring the fact that other languages are outnumbering English. Besides targeting the younger generation, the article is also targeting those for whom English is not primary

Fundamentally, he shows the effects of social factors to the language and describes how Americans` way to speak their language varies by regions. When it comes to education, unlike MacNeil who neutrally observes the change, McGray focuses on Americans` perspective on language that has changed by social and political issues. He claims that American education did not react to the growing internationalism and let Americans be indifferent to other countries, especially languages (McGray 354). For example, 25 luminaries proposed plausible educational reforms, but government officials did not adopt them (McGray 355). Ultimately, the author suggests that to be competitive in national fields, Americans need to realize the seriousness of their indifference to foreign countries and cultures, understand their indifference to other foreign languages, and change the American education system and policies for foreign languages. Similar to McGray and contrast to MacNeil, Simon worries about the usage of modified English. He recognizes that English has inevitably changed by social circumstances, such

“English is now a global lingua franca. English is an

     Throughout American History the U.S. has sought to expand its boundaries. This need increased greatly during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century with the start of the industrial revolution. This Expansion was a big departure from earlier attempts to expand the boundaries of the U.S. The needed for Natural resources forced the U.S to look for places that could supply them with the natural resources they needed and markets where they could sell their goods in. The need to imperialize caused the U.S. to look to foreign places to gain resources to better the nations industries.

Last Night I was reading the newspaper while drinking some tea and eating a biscuit. The paper really gave me insight into the tragic realities of the world. There are a plethora of countries that don‘t have the opportunity to read “Garfield” because they cannot understand English. Due to this, English should be the global lingua franca. It is assumed that wherever anyone goes in the world, someone will speak some sort of English. It may be extremely choppy and broken but it is English nonetheless. English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Many people speak it as a primary or secondary language. In fact, an estimated 1 billion people speak English (PBS). There are two sides to having English as the lingua franca of the world. On one side, there is easier communication for business as well as innovation. On the contrary, the influence of English can destroy small languages and cultures.

English language is a language globally recognised due to colonialism and western supremacy practiced throughout centuries. Specifically, in Singapore, English language attained supremacy due to colonialism, which promulgated English to be dominant as it was used to design legislatures in the island during the British occupation. In today’s society, English is preached for its economical benefits as it allows access to the global world, giving way for English language to maintain dominance in Singapore. However, these practice of hegemony results in the disruption of ethnic identity. For the purpose of this essay, I would be focusing on how the English language is dominant in Singapore due to its economical benefits and thus the resultant effect of ethnic identity being non-represented and disregarded. Economy is the driving factor of Singapore’s policies, which is why I am taking an economical perspective on the reason for English language’s prominence.

Although there are many other important factors, the main cause of the rise of imperialism was most certainly economic. The Age of Empire, by Eric J. Hobsbawn, provides an interpretation of New Imperialism. Hobsbawn calls imperialism “a natural by-product of the international economy” (Sherman pg 177). He is basically saying that imperialism is dependent on the rivalries of competing industries, which continually drive the international economy. Hobsbawn also dictates the need for external markets. The Industrial Revolution created many products that needed markets, thus creating a need of colonies. Hobsbawn believed that the overproduction of the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression could be solved. He also realized that

Globalization has also contributed to an increasing interest in English-language education worldwide. In response to the emergence of English as a world-linking, global language, an increasing number of schools have stepped up English–language requirements, even at undergraduate levels. The argument is that a universal teaching language is necessary as a natural consequence of globalization.

     “In the world were over seven thousand languages have exisisted, one language had become dominate. This dominant language is English.” “In the majority of countries throughout the world speak English as their second or first language, no longer just America or England.” English has taken many forms, American English, the Queen’s English, Australian, Canadian English, and several others. Even American English has taken several types of English, Jersey English, East Coast English, West Coast English, Southern English, slang English, and Ebonics. All of these languages have major variants between them, but are all of them are still understood aboard. Without English the world couldn’t operate,