Thursday, September 09, 2010 17:27 PM
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A discussion Wednesday on the English language highlighted the fact that native speakers of English accounted a small portion of the total number of English speakers around the world.
The rest are non-native speakers of English who use the language for communication with native speakers or other non-natives who come from different linguistic or cultural background, language expert Gloria Kismadi said in a conference to mark the anniversary of language school LBPP LIA.
"Communication in English today no longer belongs to its native speakers alone, but also to a larger majority of English speakers who generate variations in English due to meanings and interpretations that are unique to their culture," Gloria said.
"To ensure real communication takes place between them despite their diversity, sociocultural aspects play a crucial role. This is what English learners and teachers should take into account," she said.
Hing Kong Institute of Education professor of English Andy Kirkpatrick spoke of the implications of variations in English and their multilingual speakers to English language teachers.
"As the majority of English users are multilingual, English teachers should also be multilingual. They should be not only role models, but also linguistic models for learners," he said.
Alastair Pennycook, Professor of English at Sydney's University of Technology, explored in his paper the diversity of English and different contexts in which it may be used.
"New technologies and communications are enabling immense and complex flows of people, signs, sounds and images across the world that demands us to rethink the ways we consider English," he said.
"We need to understand language in terms of local practices. Once we start to consider English as a local language, questions about varieties of English become less important than an understanding of language as something we do rather than something we use."
Fuad Abdul Hamied, deputy minister for education at the Coordinating Public Welfare Ministry, said in his keynote speech that Indonesia was exposed to various local languages, adding that this was a positive asset for acquiring new languages, including English.
"There are more than 700 living languages spoken in Indonesia, with 18 of them spoken by more than 1 million people each," he said.
"This is why linguistic problem and misunderstanding sometime arise."
However, he said that many Indonesians were able to grasp English well.
He contributed this development to the country's rapid advancement in the use of information and communication technology that he claims made Indonesians familiar with English as a foreign language.
"Indonesia has some 30 million Internet users, it's a huge cyber population compared to other countries in Asia," he said.
"As 80 percent of web pages are in English, Indonesians have daily contact and exposure to English. This is a good thing."
