Assanova A.S.

Regional social-innovational university, Kazakhstan, Shymkent

Secrets of global communication

The article presents the observation of modern directions in research devoted to the problem of changes of the goals in language education, oriented on preparation for effective intercultural and multicultural communication. The purpose of this article is to analyze the influence of the process of globalization on the goals of teaching foreign languages, to describe the ideas of a new approach to the system of foreign language teaching aimed at developing a new type of competence multicultural and to present its practical results. The authors point out that multicultural competence is characterized here as a new perspective in the theory of linguistic education which is based on cognitive linguistics and focused on the fact that teaching foreign languages is not only a language code acquisition. An important component of teaching is a conceptual world picture of native speakers belonging to different cultures. Two aspects are underlined in the article: 1) the growth of the role of foreign language teaching as education for citizenship , 2) confirmation of the new position of foreign language teaching as education for global citizenship. The most important part of the authors’ methodology is an interdisciplinary and integrating approach which includes the theoretical course “Intercultural and multicultural communication” + the theoretical course “Cultural aspects of interpretation” + the practical course “Foreign language (English)”. The results proved the idea that the development of multicultural competence provides the formation of necessary knowledge and skills helping students to become global citizens.
Because English is so widely spoken, it has been referred to as a «global language». While English is not an official language in many countries, it is the language most often taught as a second language around the world. It is also, by international treaty, the official language for aircraft/airport communication. Its widespread acceptance as a first or second language is the main indication of its worldwide status.

There are numerous arguments for and against English as a global language. On one hand, having a global language aids in communication and in pooling information (for example, in the scientific community). On the other hand, it leaves out those who, for one reason or another, are not fluent in the global language. It can also lead to a cultural hegemony of the populations speaking the global language as a first language.

A secondary concern with respect to the spread of global languages (including major languages other than English such as Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, etc.) is the resulting disappearance of minority languages, often along with the cultures and religions that are primarily transmitted in those languages. Language death caused by English has been particularly pronounced in areas such as Australia and North America where speakers of indigenous languages have been displaced or absorbed by speakers of English in the process of colonization. The expansiveness of the British and the Americans has spread English throughout the globe.

The major varieties of English in most cases contain several sub varieties, such as Cockney slang within British English, Newfoundland English, and the English spoken by Anglo-Quebecers within Canadian English, and African American English within American English. English is considered a language with no variety being clearly considered the only standard. Because of English's wide use as a second language, English speakers can have many different accents, which may identify the speaker's native dialect or language.

Just as English itself has borrowed words from many different languages over its history, English words now appear in a great many languages around the world, indicative of the technological and cultural influence of English speakers. Several languages have formed on an English base – Tok Pisin was originally one such example. There are a number of words in English coined to describe forms of particular non-English languages that contain a very high proportion of English words – Franglais, for example, is used to describe French with a very high English content.

The aim of the paper is to investigate the interrelations of English as the language of world-wide communication with other languages and cultures, as well as the effect of the linguistic and cultural globalization on ethnocultural identities. The paper demonstrates that in the period of globalization, the ethnocultural identity is a component of a multiple identity, which includes the language of world-wide communication and the global culture as components of a global identity. In the conditions of the globalizing world, the English language, due to its «communicative potential» (A. de Swaan) transforms from one of the most widespread international languages into the global language of universal communication in all spheres of international activities and, first of all, in science and higher education. The article supports the opinion of a number of researchers in the field of the English language as a lingua franca about the need for recognizing English used as a means of overcoming intercultural and interlingual barriers as a new variety of the English language, which presents a special object of research, differing from the main national standards and new varieties of the English language. The English language as the language of worldwide communication is used in its major communicative function of interlingual and intercultural communication, and, in case of abiding by the principle of subsidiarity, does not lead to the elimination of ethnocultural identities, which are expressed through national and ethnic languages. As a result of the English language acquiring the global status, there takes place a stabilization of the world system of languages, which is expressed in weakening of competition between major world languages in international communication. English as the global lingua franca emerges as a new variety of the English language, free from national or ethnic cultural component, which does not mean, however, a lack of cultural component and, correspondingly, a new identity. Creation of a global society in conditions of globalization leads to the formation of a global culture and creation of a new global identity. To substantiate the thesis about a complementarity of interrelations of the English language as the means of world communication with other languages and cultures, the authors resort to the notion of "multiple identity". In conditions of globalization, the global English language and the emerging global culture become part of the multiple identity of a multilingual and multicultural person of the information society. A possibility of and a need for multiple identities on the basis of mass individual multilingualism open the ways for preserving ethnocultural identities on the basis of functional spheres of use division between languages of different levels and hierarchies in the world system of languages.