Does English take priority in a multilingual Europe?
Incentives deriving from the attractive career prospects that arise from the rights which ever more citizens have acquired following the European Union enlargement through the accession of new member states, part of which managed to shake off the yoke of the communist Eastern bloc, called forth an increase in the mobility of the European population. For most of these people, Romanians being among them, who chose to make their way in countries whose language they did not speak, English was not just a means of communication but also the only tool that, to a greater or lesser extent, helped them become familiar with the vernacular languages. The opening of new horizons prompted Romanians to engage in foreign language study from a very early age, English being favoured. In is turn this language came towards people by the unprecedented global economic and technologic developments. Multilingualism became one of the European Union’s language policy objectives. The paper tackles, on one hand, the problem of multilingualism in the present European context and of the importance English holds in the process of teaching other languages – Romanian especially in the Romanian language departments abroad
Key words: multilingualism, globalisation, foreign language, English, Romanian.
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2. Rita, Franceschini, The genesis and development of research in multilingualism: Perspectives for future research, in Aronin Larissa, Hufeisen, Britta, The Exploration of Multilingualism, Development of research on L3, multilingualism and multiple language acquisition, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2009, p. 30
3. Robert, Phillipson, English-only Europe? Challenging language policy. London and New York: Routledge, 2003, p. 3
4. Rita, Franceschini, The genesis and development of research in multilingualism: Perspectives for future research, in Aronin Larissa, Hufeisen, Britta, The Exploration of Multilingualism, Development of research on L3, multilingualism and multiple language acquisition, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamin Publishing Company, 2009, p. 34;
5. Peter, Graf, Multilingual School Education as a Key Qualification in the European Employment Area in European Journal of Vocational Training 18/1999, p. 39
6. Globalization and americanization are, denounced as causes
of monolingualism, in the sense of using English – ”a kind of linguistic cuckoo, taking over where other breeds of language have historically nested and acquired territorial rights, and obliging non-native speakers of English to acquire the behavioural habits and linguistic forms of English” (Phillipson 2003:4) – as an international language.
7. Robert, Phillipson, English-only Europe? Challenging language policy. London and New York: Routledge, 2003, p. 5
8. Juliane, House, English as a lingua franca: A threat to multilingualism?, in Journal of Sociolinguistics 7/4, 2003, p. 562
9. David, Crystal, English as a global language, Second edition, Cambridge, University Press, 2003, p. 3
10. Mariana, Nicolae, Training and Development in Transition. A Romanian Perspective, in Teachers Develop Teachers Research, IATEFL, UK, 1998, 41
11. Peter, Graf, Multilingual School Education as a Key Qualification in the European Employment Area in European Journal of Vocational Training 18/1999, p. 43
12. David, Crystal, English as a global language, Second edition, Cambridge, University Press, 2003, p. 5
13. House, Juliane. English as a lingua franca: A threat to multilingualism?, in Journal of Sociolinguistics 7/4, 2003, p. 562
14. Although the 2011 census showed that in Romania live 20 ethnic groups (Hungarians, Roma, Ukrainians, Germans, Turks, Russians, Tatars, Serbs, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Greeks, Italian, Hebrews, Czechs, Polish, Chinese, Armenians, Macedonians and the Csango people) only a few languages (German, Russian, Italian, Greek, Turkish, Chinese) spoken by these are taught as foreign languages to Romanians – that form the majority of the population – at the level of the pre-university educational system. This situation, which in our view hardly supports receptive multilingualism and receptive multilingual communication, is to a certain extent redressed by universities that diversify their offer, only that, this time, the targeted group is smaller as long as they address strictly to those interested in majoring in foreign languages. Minority languages, particularly those that are official languages of some European countries, should be taught in schools like any other (Graf 1999:41) foreign language as long as the privilege of knowing them can turn into a passport that would smooth the path to new employment opportunities for the almost 20 million foreigners or EU citizens not living in their home countries. (Graf 1999:42) It is a fact that more and more young people who understood the importance of multilingualism ended by taking private lesson in languages they had not studied in school but that are spoken in countries that open gates for certain professionals that come from abroad. ”Schools face the task of developing this human capital – today’s pupils who are the European citizens of tomorrow – so that social and linguistic differences are overcome and bilingualism is turned into an employment opportunity. Schools (…) were always associated with language learning and are thus in a position, to which no other national institution can aspire, to provide
support to young people as they build Europe (Graf, 1995, apud Graf 1999: 42). This task is not possible, however, unless they are open to new languages (…) Failure to develop the language knowledge of bilingual children means an unimaginable waste of the Europeanness which is already present in this school generation” Peter Graf, 1999, Multilingual School Education as a Key Qualification in the European Employment Area, European Journal of Vocational Training No 18 , p. 42.
15. The enlargement of the EU itself, with association agreements with Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, has benefited not only English but perhaps more particularly German, which is a popular second foreign language in northern and eastern Europe”. David, Graddol, The future of English?, London, The British Council, 2000, p. 44
16. Peter, Graf, Multilingual School Education as a Key Qualification in the European Employment Area in European Journal of Vocational Training 18/1999, p. 40
17. Matthias, Hüning et all, Standard Languages and Multilingualism in European History, Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2012, p. 4
18. Romania signed bilateral agreements with countries in Europe, USA, Canada that included the possibility of exchanges of students and joined Socrates programme and consequently an impressive number of Romanian students have studied or conducted research in universities abroad.
19. House, Juliane. English as a lingua franca: A threat to multilingualism?, in Journal of Sociolinguistics 7/4, 2003, p. 570
20. Most Romanian university centres – Bucharest, Cluj, Timişoara, Iaşi, Craiova, Oradea, Târgu Mureş – adopted the same policy meaning that several bachelor or master programmes of study particularly in Medicine, Automatics, Polytechnics, Informatics, Chemistry, Economics, Finance and banking and Public Administration use English as a medium of instruction for both native and foreign undergraduates.
21. Zeevaert, L & Thije, J.D. ten. Introduction. In J.D. ten Thije & L Zeevaert (Eds.), Receptive Multilingualism. Linguistic analyses, language policies and didactic concepts (pp. 1-25). Amsterdam, Benjamins, p. 13
22. Peter, Graf, Multilingual School Education as a Key Qualification in the European Employment Area in European Journal of Vocational Training 18/1999, p. 40
23. idem
24. Remus, Pricopie et all, Analiza Diagnostic ”Universităţile, în Contextul Europenizării şi Globalizării”, 2010, p. 33
25. idem
26. ibidem
27. Robert, Phillipson, English-only Europe? Challenging language policy. London and New York: Routledge, 2003, p. 94
28. Remus, Pricopie et all, Analiza Diagnostic ”Universităţile, în Contextul Europenizării şi Globalizării”, 2010, p. 33 29. Sarah, Thomason, Language contact. Edinburgh: University Press, 2001, p. 10.
