Kachru and Nelson's slight misconception towards EIL
Kachru- Nelson’s Slight Misconception Toward EIL Perspective
Introduction The role of English as global language has urged the emergence some new point of view in English study such as World Englishes, English as Lingua Franca (ELF) and English as an International Language (EIL) (Jenkins, 1998). These perspectives have attracted the scholar attention in nowadays. In their book World Englishes in Asian Context, Yamuna Kachru and Nelson argue that World Englishes perspective is different from EIL as they claimed that EIL is to idealize a monolithic entity called ‘English’(Kachru and Nelson, 2006:2) . As EIL also emerged from global language phenomenon, this paper reviews those two perspectives and compares the features of World Englishes as well as EIL to find out whether Y. Kachru’s opinion is acceptable. I begin by defining how a language can be considered as a global language. Then I will describe briefly about World English and EIL, following by explaining the related features and comparing them.
English as Global Language
The fact of the increasing number of English speaker, as the result of its spread and diffusion has undeniably brought English becoming a global language. However, the huge number of speaker and wide spread area is not the most significant factor that makes a language become a global language. Crystal points out that global status is achieved when a language plays an important role in several country (David, 2003). For English, this evident is obviously seen in the term of its use as the first language in several country such as in USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa where English is used as a means of communication in the whole aspect of social life. However, not only limited in those country English is also spoken as the second language, as a complement to the mother tongue, yet it plays role as an official language. In other country, where English is not mother tongue nor an official
Introduction The role of English as global language has urged the emergence some new point of view in English study such as World Englishes, English as Lingua Franca (ELF) and English as an International Language (EIL) (Jenkins, 1998). These perspectives have attracted the scholar attention in nowadays. In their book World Englishes in Asian Context, Yamuna Kachru and Nelson argue that World Englishes perspective is different from EIL as they claimed that EIL is to idealize a monolithic entity called ‘English’(Kachru and Nelson, 2006:2) . As EIL also emerged from global language phenomenon, this paper reviews those two perspectives and compares the features of World Englishes as well as EIL to find out whether Y. Kachru’s opinion is acceptable. I begin by defining how a language can be considered as a global language. Then I will describe briefly about World English and EIL, following by explaining the related features and comparing them.
English as Global Language
The fact of the increasing number of English speaker, as the result of its spread and diffusion has undeniably brought English becoming a global language. However, the huge number of speaker and wide spread area is not the most significant factor that makes a language become a global language. Crystal points out that global status is achieved when a language plays an important role in several country (David, 2003). For English, this evident is obviously seen in the term of its use as the first language in several country such as in USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa where English is used as a means of communication in the whole aspect of social life. However, not only limited in those country English is also spoken as the second language, as a complement to the mother tongue, yet it plays role as an official language. In other country, where English is not mother tongue nor an official
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