The Maine

#12th issue 5/7/2013

English as a Medium of Communication

Before English was even used for communication, wellit didnt exist. Historically, the English language started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from Englaland and their language was called Englisc - from which the words England and English are derived. Besides an interesting history, English is now one of the most widely used language in the world with over 250,000 distinct words, not including many technical, scientific, and slang terms listed. Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. This makes English probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. Now we know a little of this and that on English, why use it as communication tool? Why not our mother language? But firstwhat is communication? Verbally, the word communication arises from the Latin word communis which means sharing. Communication is the art of conveying information among one another in order to

create a shared understanding, something we humans do everyday albeit in many different ways and means. Communication is important as it covers most of the aspects of human interaction. The modern man chooses to communicate through different methods like speaking, use of telephones, emailing, blogging, television, art, hand and body gestures and even facial expressions. Now, why use English for communication? Englishor sometimes described as the first global lingua franca is becoming more dominant around the world. English is also the language people with different cultures use to communicate with each other. People who understand English can deal with the Internet more easily as most websites are using English as the main language. On top of that, people from different parts of the world are able to connect with each other through social websites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr using English.

On the other hand , English is also the language of science and technology. Yes science and technology do count as communicationa lot. We now live in an ever growing community which thirsts for knowledge and information, particularly in the world of science. This is because science is all about discovering and finding out things we never knew and thinking the unthinkable, bordering the human logic. What other language should be used to share such a universal subject with others other than using a universal language itselfor something almost globally usedEnglish. There is no denying it, nowadays no matter who publishes a book or a portfolio or a recipe anythingits got to be in English. This shows how widely people are using and accepting English as a medium to reach out and share with other people of different races and religion their knowledge and thoughts Talking about technology, we think mobile phones, laptops, tabs, iPods, and something technology is never technology withoutthe internet. The younger generation arent really keen on stepping out of the safe boundaries that is their home or school or neighborhood unlike the olden days, they now prefer communicating with the outside world mainly through technologies via internet. As we all know, the language dominating the cyber world is obviously English. Because of this, unconsciously people start to use English rather than their mother tongue due to the language being understood by most of the people around the world. Besides that, the softwares we download or buy are mostly in English too. Thus, it proves how important English is regarding information and communications revolution. Malaysia, the country we all live in uses English as a second language. Even though Malaysian English is no longer the official language of Malaysia, it is still used among Malaysians and is recognized as the language of business. About 80% of urban businesses in Malaysia

conduct their transactions in English. There are several English newspapers in Malaysia namely The Star, The Sun, New Straits Times and Malay Mail. There are also many English radio stations such as Hitz.fm, Mix FM, LiteFM, Fly fm, Traxx FM and Red FM. Malaysian students from standard 1 to upper forms till Form 5 are also required to learn and master the language. English is also one of the compulsory subjects in major examinations in this country. To sum it up, although English isnt officially a globally language, people around the world are slowly accepting and realizing the importance of this language. English is also growing to become one of the major language to be used as a medium of communication.