Classical versus vulgate/popular English. (On-going topics).

Abstract

This article explores technological change affecting international English. Before broadcast media, both educated and non-educated people relied on print news and entertainment. After that, popular media, mostly U.S. and U.K. provided common international English vocabulary of brand names, products, and personalities. The information age also brought new international English vocabulary, but cost and educational requirements limits availability to advantaged speakers of English whether native, second or foreign language. Consequently, two international English vocabularies exist. One is popular and widespread; the other concerns finance, technology and the academy.

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Industrial developments in 18th and 19th century Anglophone nations accompanied trade-union and public-education growth, and newspaper preeminence before broadcast media. Class-conscious Britain marked social status by accent, grammar and vocabulary, but people with enough money could hire tutors like Eliza Doolittle. (G.B. Shaw, 1999-2000) Others--in domestic service, sales, and other contact with genteel speakers--could upgrade if they could model speech. Standard U.S. speech reflected less overt class-marking.

Lawyers, doctors, diplomats, financiers, and others used vocabulary, opaque to laypersons, even after higher education dropped Latin. However, professions demanded less preparation as fewer began work in their late twenties or early thirties.

Literacy, widespread in what became Anglophone G-7 nations, did not simply serve employment. Everyone obtained news through print; the illiterate had notices and articles read to them. Novels, short stories, and serialized works entertained both less and more educated.

The Rise of Technology

The 20th century brought change though film, record players, and radio. Videos did not exist; commercial radio began in 1926; fewer stations existed, and "portables" were not very portable. ("Broadcasting," 1999-2000)

The 1950s saw mass-produced affordable American televisions. ("Broadcasting ... Television," 1999-2000) Also, MIT's Lincoln Laboratory's first computer network, Semi-Automatic Ground Environment linked missile sites. ("Telecommunications ... SAGE," 1999-2000)

The first time-sharing computer operating system, also MIT designed, began in 1961. In 1969, the Advanced Research Projects Agency's first network, ARPANET preceded the Internet, linking heterogeneous computers on military installations and tertiary institutions. ("Telecommunications ... Advances in Telephony," 1999-2000)

Throughout history, income disparities have created various inequities like unequal access to information. In the present, computers--crucial to international e-commerce and to lucerative professions--are costly. E-globalization has denied many English speakers international English vocabularies, limited to higher education and specialized work environments. Canada, the U.K. and the U.S., G-7 nations, affect world economic superstructure beyond their speakers' numbers. For example, the 1944 Bretton Woods conference begat the World Bank (2000) and International Monetary Fund (2000 [I.M.F.]), both later attached to the U.N. The former's board of governors is elected from every member nation. However, five of 24 directorships are permanent for the most financially supportive nations like the U.S. and the U.K. The I.M.F.'s 24 member board of directors operates similarly. Washington D.C. hosts both, and governors meet and directors conduct business twice or thrice weekly. Banking, business, and investment English is spoken, the international financial English of Anglophone Canada, the U.K. and the U.S. Similarly, delegates to the U.N.'s General Assembly work and reside in English-speaking New York City. The internet-served stock exchange in the city harboring the U.N., descends--ironically--from the military network ARPANET mentioned earlier.

After ARPANET, The U.S. National Science Foundation ran the internet's backbone, later privatized; file-transfer protocols, e-mail, and search-engines ensued. When Appletm and Microsofttm traded alphanumeric code lines for graphic interfaces, non-specialists gained access. Web browsers and hypertext transfer protocol followed and common digital-mediation with elements of Japanese and European innovation. This shared medium has made audio systems, cameras, p.c.'s, telephones and t.v.'s, facets of one digital whole.

The Divisions Facing Global Educators

USA Today (1998) reported that 80% of world computer communication uses English. North American and European magazine racks teem with P.C. magazines, upgrades, specific hardware etc., but many people lack computers, including Americans. American minorities own less computers, and countries outside Australia, Europe, Japan, and North America have vast "unwired" majorities. Most Anglophones lack Web and computer terms, whether native or second language speakers. Two articles appeared in my local newspaper on July 13, 1999, concerning intra- and inter-national fragmentation respectively. The concern is directed toward ownership of computers; however, ownership is the major means through which one understands and communicates by computer.

Shepherd discussed a newly-formed business and social-action group partnership. Partners were the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP], and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company [AT&T]. This alliance addressed growing disparity among Americans in owning and understanding computers. Shepherd quoted NAACP president, Kweisi Mfume, discussing a "digital divide" between white people, and black and Hispanic people. The U.S. Commerce Department, a week earlier, had issued a report on the same issue: "Falling through the Net." Leopold discussed a report released a day earlier by the U.N. Development Program [UNDP]. The average Bangladesh national needs eight-years' compared to an average American's month's income for a computer. Wealthy, industrial nations have 88% of the world's Internet users; the United States has more computers than the rest of the world combined. Dugger (2000) depicted India's dire economic divisions. The hired and wired enjoy income and lifestyles far removed from illiterate, poverty-stricken villagers without paved roads and electricity. East-Indian immigrants' Silicon-Valley successes have inspired hard and software development and high-tech entrepreneurship in India. Nonetheless, Dugger reported a U.S.-India gulf where one third of Americans, but only one of 200 Indians, have internet-access.

Unequal resources separate people, impacting living means, and access to training and educational institutions. How much will international elite Englishes differ from national varieties and local dialects? Will the excluded become less effective speakers in what is nominally their own language? Who can afford not-for-work computers and leisure to experiment? What advantages exist for the "wired" from familiarity with international Englishes? Advantaged children often use computers daily in their bedrooms, so what communication edge do they have in school and board rooms?

Educating the E-Elites

Reich (1992, pp. 227-8) related fortunate young Americans' preparation as information-age employers/ees (termed symbolic analysts). They attend elite private or excellent suburban public schools and select universities or good four-year colleges. They have small classes, stimulating peers, modern labs, interactive computers, wired libraries etc. Parents provide educational books, toys, videos; microscopes, telescopes; computers, recent software; museum and cultural event access; tutors and health care. No one hides elite vocabularies. Television and print advertisements are filled with technical terms. In the U.S., the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and others use English of international commerce. Yet, hearing or reading it, differs from understanding or relating it to one's own life.

Early Warnings

Hirsch (1987, p. 31) foresaw the socioeconomic vocabulary gulf in the fading of the once widely-shared "cultural literacy" vocabulary. He saw cultural literacy won or lost in early grades, with children whose parents lack it, most vulnerable. Hirsch thought familiar fairy-tales, Greek myths, historical images more, not less, crucial in the information age. He worried that, without shared imagery and vocabulary, non-specialists' cannot influence decisions affecting them, imperiling democracy.

Some years earlier, the Norbacks (1979) wrote a book, listing essential vocabulary for success, dividing English into three zones. The first, the survival zone, is for basic communication; The third is what special fields and jobs require. The authors addressed the second zone, common vocabulary for effective public interaction among the successful. Technology has complicated the second zone, so Hirsh's common cultural literacy may not remain as he conceived it. His concept was book-based from a long tradition of educated people sharing familiarity with great works. Levy opines the 20th. century the last for paper-based books as major media. Traditional cultural literacy, general-liberal curricula in higher education, will likely continue among college graduates. However, sources may be e-books, CD's, or Web pages, which means rethinking format, retrieval, intellectual property, and publishing. Bangert-Drowns and Swan (1997) tell their educator-readers:

   ... most Americans get by far the majority of their news, information and
   entertainment through electronic sources ... 4 to 5 times as much time with
   ... (television, radio, and computers) than with ... (newspapers,
   magazines, and books, including textbooks).

Widening New and Weakening Old Canons

Film, radio, television, audio and video playback devices create widespread shared experiences and vocabulary outside the literary canon. On-line users--whether commercial, recreational, educational or other--share this growing common technical rather than canonical vocabulary. The global-user community has broadened and weakened shared canons of greater earlier consensus, sharing e-English for technology, commerce, and regulation.

Increasing shared vocabulary is not equally shared by all users of English, however. U.S. popular-media images and image-manipulation techniques in Hollywood, video and Madison-Avenue practices are influencing World Englishes. This success was not lost on Britons, Canadians, Australians and other Anglophone countries' businesses.

Pepsi,tm Coca Cola,tm McDonaldtm and Burger Kingtm mass sales reflect mass advertising. U.S. and British films expose English and other speakers to non-Standard and regional English dialects. Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and other Anglophone nations have fine film industries, though often lacking comparable capital access. U.S. Rock music, denims, videos, and sneakers are found worldwide. American t.v. series interest non-Americans; Americans enjoy British and others' comedies, mysteries, and literary dramas. Products accompany English that sells and explains them. Though Americans and Britons use local dialects and languages in non-domestic advertising, English sometimes has a cachet.

Hilgendorf (1996) relates how English influences German advertising and business, and has become the German national psychology association journal's publishing language. Martin (1998) reports French advertisers' sneaking in English despite laws forbidding and penalizing its use. Martin notes, additionally:

   ... In global advertising campaigns in particular, English is clearly
   functioning as a language of wider communication used by non-Anglophones to
   convince other non-Anglophones to buy products which have nothing to do
   with any Anglophone country. (pp. 15-6)

In like manner, Naisbitt (1994) notes:

   60 of the world's radio broadcasts are in English. 70 percent of the
   world's mail is addressed in English. 85 percent of all international
   telephone conversations are in English. 80 percent of all the data in the
   several 100 million com-puters in the world is in English. (pp. 24-5)

Strevens (1992) notes how many former colonies kept English which served as a

   ... "window on the world of science and technology," or as the only
   language not rejected by one section of the population or another." [He
   notes further that] ... using English suddenly has nothing to do with one's
   nationality or with the historical facts of the spread of English-speaking
   colonies. (pp. 24-5)

Global-English venues include international air-traffic control, U.N. service agencies, and space and computer technology. The Anglophone world shares popular-culture, mostly U.S. and U.K., through global English of radio, TV, magazines, newspapers and pop-music. Other limited-venue terms, are being restricted to the privileged by birth, by personal industry, or both. English--as Latin did--is begetting a dual international vocabulary.

Gupta (1997) notes an unforseen consequence of the wide-spread Asian view that English mastery is an educational necessity. Many Asians have better Internet access through English than their Eastern European peers. Crossette (2001) cites Joseph Chamie, a N.Y. U.N. official. He has concluded that 97 percent of the World's elites have chosen English as their "international link" language.

Ammon's collection (2001) of over twenty articles addresses scientific English's impact. Issues include several nations' decision for their science graduate students to speak, read, and write assignments in English. Authors concede that English accesses both a wider range of literature and audience for publications. However, some worry that relying on a foreign tongue may impoverish the native tongue's scientific vocabulary.

Since both technology and mass media are forming shared global English vocabulary in specific spheres, a bifurcation is happening. A narrow and wide audience exist for the respective Englishes, an elite and a mass English. Between these are unshared national Englishes of sports, politics, local culture, and indigenous diets and religions.

A New Literacy

Both diverging shared Englishes' reflect technological change. T.V. brought home news and entertainment, reducing film, radio and newspaper audiences. Transistors made radios, video and recording devices truly portable; internet-linked p.c.'s have ended print's hegemony. For example, Bible-reading polls show that, despite widespread Bible reference, most American Christians own one, but very few read it. (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, 1987 and George Gallup, 1996)

News, weather, sports and entertainment from video and audio devices require minimal reading. Yet, word processors, number crunchers and spread sheets users need even more literacy. Contemporary literacy demands familiarity with software iconography and features, hypertext use, hardware configurations, and support resources assisting or interpreting for the user. Bangert-Drowns and Swan (1997) note:

   ... What once was tangible, relatively permanent, invariably sequenced, and
   largely alphanumeric has become insubstantial, more easily transformed,
   flexibly sequenced, and multimodal. Electronic literature might empower or
   hinder the development of English language arts and literate thinking.

While technology is exacting broader literacy from its user, mass media has paradoxically weakened previous literacy support systems. School systems and families with minimal resources are falling further behind where people with comparable resources were before. Fact books, computer screens, specialized periodicals, databases, and technical journals channel access Englishes. Television, film, radio, audio playback devices, and pulp periodicals convey popular Englishes. Thus, bifurcation grows between Classical/Elite/Access English and Vulgate/Koine/Popular/Mass-Media English.

Jobs affect vocabulary as large corporations' and major government agencies' full-time employees have technical services and resource-management personnel. The latter helps with retirement and investment-plan forms, and--in the U.S.--with competing medical plans and forms. Small proprietors, part-time workers, and temporary workers lack not only certain benefits but also specialized-vocabulary access. Employment-dependent access levels exist even among information-age participants.

Frankel (2000) relates how mere pass-word possession affects economic and social destiny. One's access to specialized data-bases and resources through organizational membership and employment helps insure one's continued membership and advancement within the e-elite.

Changing technology and work conditions, and globalization are making English access economically critical, while fostering a two-tiered global English. Much is outside the control of any government or international agency. Thousands of personal choices by businesses, governments, investors and central banks occur daily. Decisions for diverse reasons in diverse locations, linked through telecommunications, collectively create market-place consequences for people elsewhere on the globe.

People suffering such consequences often lack influence on--or awareness of--forces affecting their health, employment and living conditions. Can anything alter the widening chasm between the two sets of World Englishes? The mass of speakers outside majority English-speaking nations makes bifurcation independent of any nation's or bloc's policies. Where and How can Educational and Governmental Organizations Help? Could any intervention alter the chasm widening between speakers of the two sets of World Englishes? The currently thrust is intranational like programs which Civille (1995) advocates for the U.S. However, people are beginning to explore international remediation for disenfranchised groups' education. McNeely and Cha's essay (1994) explores this: "Worldwide Educational Convergence Through International Organizations: Avenues for Research."

Elite English mastery and maximized e-access intertwine. Moderately mastering elite Englishes in cyberspace benefits more than near-native mastery of popular Englishes. Once, mastering national standards accessed print-information sources, but now telecommunication-device access to commercial, government and academic data-bases is crucial. Such sources use a growing, shared international elite-English or access-English vocabulary, serving businesses, technology centers, cyberusers, and the academy.

Spending for literacy, for computer equipment and infrastructure create problems for both wealthy and poor countries. To help their nations compete in the global megagora, more citizens need higher education to access elite English vocabularies and data sources. Whether and how successful and widespread such education can and will be is unknown.

References

Ammon, U. (ed.) (2001) The Dominance of English as a Language of Science: Effects on Other Languages and Language Communities. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Bangert-Drowns, R. L. and Swan, K. (1997, Fall) Electronic texts and literacy for the 21st century. The National Research Center on English Learning & Achievement Newsletter. http://cela.albany.edu/newslet/fall97/techlit.html

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Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. (1987) http:/www.cbfonline.org/ fellowship/9072bible.htm

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Melvin J. Hoffman, Buffalo State University College, NY

M. J. Hoffman has an Eng. BS & Ling. MS from IIT., Chicago; a Ling. Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo; & a Rel. Studies MA from Canisius College, Buffalo. He has consulted for Buffalo & Chicago Bds. of Ed., Teacher-Corps Peace Corps & other Fed. Agencies. He teaches Ling., Comp. and Biblical. & Classical. Lit.