Create a 5 pages page paper that discusses the spread of english. There is evidence that the spread of English does tend to create difficulty in areas of cultural identity and language diversity as we

Create a 5 pages page paper that discusses the spread of english. There is evidence that the spread of English does tend to create difficulty in areas of cultural identity and language diversity as well, therefore partial agreement to this statement would be justified.

An expert in education offers that English media from developed countries, such as the UK or the United States, often “penetrates the media of developing nations” (Pennycook, 1994, p.21). When this occurs, Pennycook argues that this “one-way flow of (media) information erodes the sovereignty, cultural identity, and political independence of developing nations” (Pennycook, p.21). What this essentially means is that English media saturates the media of lesser-developed countries, thus imposing certain values or beliefs on domestic, non-English culture. Since English is becoming the preferred choice for global communications, it would seem a somewhat natural evolution that English values and lifestyles would maintain the ability to erode the existing, mother culture. In a developing country where lifestyle is not as sophisticated or as comfortable as Western living, English media may provide more incentive to adopt the foreign lifestyle values and reject the mother heritage. In this situation, English as the global choice of communications could create the potential for less-developed societies to stop the exploration of other languages and cultures in favour of English, which might appear to be more opportunistic in the long-term.

However, despite the negative influences of English and English media, language diversity can actually be enhanced through the globalisation of this language. Language diversity includes the ability to successfully use more than just one’s mother tongue and also successfully apply these new language skills in areas of business, socialisation, education or even career. In Singapore, schools teach British English as a mandatory learning lesson, however on the streets of Singapore the use of English in this country has been called Singlish, which is a blend of English, Malay and Chinese (Farrington, 2008). Over time, local Singapore slang has been adopted which combines English words with other languages to create unique, diverse social discussions. For example, in the UK, when an individual pretends not to understand a situation, they are said to be playing dumb. However, in Singlish, this is translated “to act blur-blur” (Farrington, 2008, p.W.8).