Perspectives on the role of English

8
Conclusion
This paper has suggested a division of labour in the roles played by EIL and
Periphery languages in the development and maintenance of society and culture. EIL
seems best suited to social development because it facilitates modernisation and enhances
leisure and career opportunities and choice. It also appears able to develop Periphery
cultures by supplying additional ‘attitudinal’, linguistic and literary resources.
Conversely, social and cultural maintenance are probably best performed by the local
language, because the indigenous code is already finely attuned to the society and its
culture.
The need for adequate and appropriate language planning has also been
highlighted. Without it, the tendency of EIL and the Centre to modify or displace local
languages and cultures would go largely unchecked. Finally, some implications for ELT
professionals in my local context have been highlighted. These go some way to applying
the occasionally abstract and remote concepts of society and culture to the practical
problems encountered in the classroom.
The world is indeed getting smaller and in response to that, more societies are
tending towards bilingualism and biculturalism. ELT professionals, particularly those
from the Centre need to be cognisant of the fact though that knowledge of additional
languages and cultures does not equate to a preparedness to abandon one's own. Further,
that where those in the profession are not sensitive to societies’ indigenous cultures and
languages, they risk eliciting negative reactions.

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Appendix
Quotations used in the original task question.
#1
since no cultural requirements are tied to the learning of English, you can learn it and use it
without
having to subscribe to another set of values [...]
Ronald Wardhaugh (1987: 15)
.
Languages in Competition: Dominance, diversity and decline. Blackwell
#2
English is the least localized of all the language in the world today. Spoken almost everywhere in
the
world to some degree, and tied to no particular social, political, economic or religious system, or
to a
specific racial or cultural group, English belongs to everyone or to no one, or at least it is quite
often
regarded as having this property.
Ronald Wardhaugh (1987: 15).
Languages in Competition: Dominance, diversity and decline. Blackwell
#3
What is at stake when English spreads is not merely the substitution or displacement of one
language by
another but the imposition of new ‘mental structures’ through English. This is in fact an intrinsic
part of
’modernization’ and ‘nation-building’, a logical consequence of ELT. Yet the implications of this
have
scarcely penetrated into ELT research or teaching methodology. Cross-cultural studies have never
formed part of the core of ELT as an academic discipline, nor even any principled consideration of
what educational implications might follow from an awareness of this aspect of English linguistic
imperialism.
Robert Phillipson (1992: 166)
.
Linguistic imperialism. OUP
#4
there have been comments made about other structural aspects too, such as the absence in English
grammar of a system of coding social class differences, which make the language appear more
’democratic’ to those who speak a language (e.g. Javanese) that does express an intricate system
of
class relationships.
David Crystal (1997)
.
English as a Global Language. CUP

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