Caracterización de SPARC in vitro

Globalisation and the omnipresence of English as well as the iconic value of English as a sign of modernisation raise many questions for those engaged in language policy and in the management of language education. The aim of this section is to bring together key figures from a range of cultural, commercial, linguistic and educational environments with their perceptions regarding these issues. There is little doubt that English has acquired a status of lingua franca. This is largely a consequence of British colonialism and Americanisation, especially the United States’ post-war advance and dominance in global economy, technology and science, education and even entertainment. People in the international community are communicating in English with professional partners and colleagues, reading English articles, watching American soap operas and movies, listening to Anglophone pop music and surfing the Internet which is 80 per cent English, the de facto language of the Internet. According to Global Reach, an organisation that monitors Internet use around the world, among the 801 million people online in 2004, only 35 per cent were English speakers. Many of the remaining 544.5 million, however, have some English as a second or additional language (http://www.glreach.com/globstats/index.php3). In the daily speech of young people, who are surrounded by global media, local languages are easily mixed with fashionable English codes. Words like ‘OK’, ‘bye’, ‘IC’, ‘email’ and ‘IT’ have become part of Chinese in daily use. Cultural globalisation is evident in the spread of the English language around the world and in the films and TV programmes that are sometimes seen by millions of people in different countries at the same time. As the spread of English progresses, English is bound to reflect a diversity of distinct cultures.

It is in this context that the “hero or villain” dispute regarding the role of English in the struggle between sameness and difference, its power imposed worldwide and power confronted, cultural hegemony and cultural respect has emerged.Pennycook (1995) points out that English carries a set of ideologies, values, and norms based on the history of its development and use. The spread of English thus may benefit the privileged few (including both native and non-native speakers) at the cost of others who have less opportunity to learn it. However, Kachru (1986), who has also extensively discussed the power of English, believes that questions about language and power go beyond linguistics into history, educational sociology, politics and economic considerations. The power of language is intimately connected with societal power; it can be manifested by using persuasion, regulation, inducement or force to add a code to a speech community or by the suppression of a particular language variety and the elevation of another.

Having spread as a result of exploitation and colonisation, English is still the

language of exclusive social elites, especially in ex-colonies of Britain such as India and Hong Kong(Cheshire, 1991, p. 6). The most important reason for the success of English is, according to Kachru (1986, pp. 129-132) and Crystal (1997, p. 53), the historical role of England as a colonial power. In addition, Crystal argues that the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power of the Twentieth Century is another factor that lead to the present-day international status of English. English as the official language of the United States, “with its political and economic underpinnings, currently gives the Americans a controlling interest in the way the language is likely to develop” (p. 53). On the other hand, as a major tool for acquiring knowledge in the sciences and the humanities, English has come to represent modernisation and development, and, as a link language, it has acquired intra-national roles over the years. However, the very growth of English has shifted the balance of forces within it, with second language speakers by some accounts now outnumbering first language speakers (Crystal, 1997).

Phillipson (2001) argued for the huge benefits of the investment in English as a commodity. The English teaching business was worth six billion pounds per annum to the British economy by the 1980s, and has expanded substantially since with the

number of learners constantly increasing. One strand of contemporary global English is the global examinations of proficiency in English (TOEFL in the US, IELTS in Britain and Australia), which facilitate the imposition and maintenance of British and American norms.

Similarly, huge investment in information technology and its marketplace and the remarkable resultant achievements in this area are accelerating the effect of English as an advantage for competition. For decades English has dominated the IT industry, from research and development, to the design of hardware and software. Its

significance is reflected in the competition between China and India in the IT

industry. In 2002, there were signs that the impact of China’s initiatives in respecting international intellectual property rights heralded a new era of China-led technology standards that would inhibit the monopoly of technologies established to the benefit of English speakers. However, more recently, India, which once was very concerned about China’s enthusiasm for changing standards in the IT industry, now sees the threat as fading – partly due to Indian businesses assuming that China will take a long time to catch up in English language proficiency, and that India’s dominance in business process outsourcing was established in large part because of their command of the English language.

In parallel with the process of globalisation, it is notable that there has been a growing discussion among academics, educationists, journalists, business professionals about the nature and use of English as a ‘world language’, an ‘international language’ and as a ‘global language’, often expressed as ‘World English’, ‘International English’ and more recently ‘Global English’. When scholars like David Crystal promote the idea of World Standard Spoken English, there is no doubt that the standards were of Anglo-American norm represented by global media conglomerates like BBC, CNN, HBO, and VOA. Phillipson (2001) argued that the idea that English had been taken over by its users worldwide, who can decide on their own norms, independently of Anglo-American gatekeepers, was naive. Local Englishes that are distinctively different, in East Africa or Pakistan for example, have local rather than global legitimacy. Thus there are the legitimate offspring of English, meaning pedigree white English in, say, Australia or Canada, and the illegitimate black offspring, Creoles and pidgins. Phillipson (2001) went on to criticise this

hierarchisation as racist and held that it was not only unethical, but also indefensible on linguistic grounds, in that all types of English, including the initial British variant, have experienced changes throughout the long history of development of the

language. This inevitably raises the question of whether English is an international asset or a tool that influential cultural entities like America have been utilizing for the promotion of Western values, ideologies and the like (Crystal, 1997, pp. 35-36). To some extent, English has become a polycentric language, one with different norms in different countries. The journal World Englishes has the sub-title ‘Journal of English as an International and Intra-national Language’ to stress that it deals with a language that serves purposes between countries as well as within them. The international purposes are not ideologically neutral, but rather essential to the

functioning of globalisation (Phillipson, 1992). English interlocks with a wide range of immensely complex global processes, including, for example, the US military presence globally, the growth of multinational corporations, and the prominence in the past decade of non-government organisations and champions of human rights who are trying to modify globalisation. As a global language, English has long been seen as a tool to disseminate value concepts of world powers that are mostly English speaking countries. It is a phenomenon which is essential to globalisation: English is redefining national and individual identities worldwide; shifting political fault lines; creating new global patterns of wealth and social exclusion; and suggesting new thinking of human rights and responsibilities of citizenship (Graddol, 2006, p. 12). Because language and culture are inseparably coupled, when teaching a language one invariably teaches more than just a code of communication. Authentic materials or texts used in English classes expose students to cultural messages and values associated with the native English-speaking societies to some extent. When

Phillipson (1993) formally introduced the term ‘linguistic imperialism’, it was with strong connotation of ownership and conquest by military or economic means. He focuses on the way in which ELT policy and strategy developed in postcolonial countries, heavily influenced by government-funded agencies like the British Council. He argues that well-educated elites in different countries may have encouraged education in English, directly or indirectly, not only as a means of overcoming perceived problems arising from linguistic pluralism, but also of

consolidating their own advantage through privileging a language that they were already proficient in themselves.

It is in this context that Graddol (2006, pp. 13-20) associated the current enthusiasm for English in the world with the complex process of globalisation. He argued that English is closely tied to at least two of the three major phases in human history: modern and postmodern. English has played a most significant role in the transition from modernity to postmodernity. An English factor is found in almost every key macro trend: be it business process outsourcing, the rise of urban middle class worldwide, the development of new communications technology, the changing nature and control of news media, or the reform of higher education.

China, managing simultaneously both modernity and postmodernity, relies much the process of globalisation for its ‘peaceful rise’. China has experienced steady and fast growth since its entry into WTO. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, China could overtake the USA and Germany to become the largest exporter in the world in the next five years. In 2005, China revised its estimations of economic growth, showing that it had already overtaken Italy in Gross Domestic Product and was likely to become the world’s fourth largest economy, overtaking the UK by the end of 2006. The English language, in the same way, attributes to its economic development and growth of international influence. A case in point is the connection between English and China’s services sector, which was principally underestimated and probably already accounts for over 40 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product. Services are of linguistic interest since they often require much higher levels of communication than manufacturing. Exported services – which include receiving international students and tourists – often require

international communication (Graddol, 2006, p.32). Graddol noted that a prominent recent feature of globalisation has been the outsourcing of services to countries with cheaper labour costs. Global English has helped accelerate this phenomenon and India has gained a competitive edge because of the official status of English in that country. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, close to 20 per cent of total employment in the 15 pre-expansion EU countries, America, Canada and Australia could ‘potentially be affected’ by the international sourcing of services activities (The Economist, 30 June 2005). The desirability of

English in the outsourcing business results from the fact that most of the offshore contracts come from English-speaking corporations.