English as Means of Communication

Importance of the English Language Education By: Ashok Sapkota Department of English education Kathmandu Sikshya Campus Kathmandu, Nepal Language is a system of communication, medium of thought, and a vehicle for expression of thoughts, a social institution, a matter of political controversy and a catalyst for nation building. All human beings normally speak at least one language and it is hard to imagine much significant, social, intellectual or artistic activity taking place in its absence. Language makes human species-specific property and not possessed by other living beings. The English language is taken as an international language and lingua franca in the world today. Crystal (1997, p. 360) says: In the minds of many people, there is no longer an issue. They argue that English has already become a world language, by virtue of the political and economic progress made by English-speaking nations in the past 200 years and is likely to remain so, gradually consolidating its position…Surveys of range of use carried by UNESCO and other world organizations reinforce the general statistical impression. English is used as an official or semi-official language in over 60 countries, and has a prominent place in a further 20. It is either dominant or well established in all six-continent. It is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and air-traffic control, international business and academic conferences, science, technology, medicine, diplomacy, sports, international competitions, pop music, and advertising. Over two-thirds of the world's scientists write in English. Three-quarters of world's mail is written in English. Of all information in the world's electronic retrieval systems, 80% is stored in English. People communicate on the internet largely in English. English radio programs are received by over 150 million in 120 countries. Over 50 million children study English as an additional language at primary level; over 80 million study it at secondary level (this figures exclude China). Kachru (1985, pp.12-15) suggests the division of English speaking people into three concentric circles. The classification is widely used and many people help to think about English around the globe. In the first inner circle Kachru puts countries like Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Britain and United States where English is spoken as first language (i.e. 320-380 million). In second, outer circle are all the countries where English is spoken as a second or significant language like ours. Such other countries are Singapore, India, Malawi, Malaysia, Nigeria. (i.e. 150-300 million). In the third expanding circle we find the countries where English has acquired cultural or commercial importance (China, Sweden, The Czech Republic, Greece, Japan, Israel, etc) having approximately 100-1000 million speakers (as cited in Harmer 2001,p.8). Asher (1994) highlights the need and importance of the English language even in the period of war. He writes: Since the first world/ third world development gap appears to be widening, this function of English will probably continue to grow. Improvements in the technology of travel brought commerce and tourism to a point where a single common language was needed, and the world chose English. Advances in electronics produced global networks for sound world's news: in repressed societies British, American and Australian news in English was relied upon its accuracy. Politically English became the international language of protest and economic development (p.1121). Regarding the importance of the English language in Nepal, Sharma (2006), writes: … the best evidence of Nepalese young generation's passionate longing for English can be seen in the enrollment around two thousand students in M.A. in English and almost the same number of students in M.Ed. in English, in the current session of 2006/7 at Tribhuvan University. In fact, the English language has created its unique culture empire; millions of people round the globe who use it either as native language (L1) or second language (L2) or as a foreign language (L3) are respectable members of this empire. Nepal has joined the group under L3 "English as foreign language" (p.5). Thus, the number and interest of the people to study the English language either as formal education or in the form of informal education is increasing day by day. In case of Nepal Crystal, (1997, p.361) writes out of country population having 20,093,000; the first language speakers of English were 5,927,000. So, the need of the English language education is growing per day. It is taken as a basic means of communication and instruction in this global world. It has become an inevitable source for native and non-native speakers.