The Role of English
as a Central Component of Scientific and
Technological
Success
Dou
Djamel
Physics department, University Center of El Oued
El Oued, 39000, Algeria.
Human beings differ from other creations by the complex nature of their means of communication. On the other hand all types of communication are based on some language. We generally distinguish two types of languages: Human natural language and Artificial Languages specifically for computer [Basic , Fortran….]. The most elementary language is the spoken and audible language which we start to learn from our parents and society in our childhood. Human beings along the history have had to develop more and more complex languages or means for communicating new concepts and discoveries. For instance mathematics is used as language in all sciences to express and describe natural phenomena. Of course all languages must be transferred to audible languages in one way or another. Indeed the spoken and audible language is built in all means of communications. Therefore the audible language is the most fundamental piece of all types of communication.
In this essay we focus on the role of English as the language of science and technology and emphasis its importance as essential tool to access to scientific literature of the world and to technological advances.
As far as science and the known history are concerned we can distinguish five eras for the languages of science.
- The Greek era
- Islamic (Arabic) era.
- Latin era
- German (This is a short period but important).
- English
Of course each stage is characterized by the domination of certain civilization to which that language belongs. Although the first three eras are known to most people, the German era deserves some clarification. During some period of the 19th and 20th centuries most of the important and fundamental scientific discoveries (physics, mathematics, chemistry …etc..) were made by German native speakers or published in German. The impact of the German period is still present in today's scientific literature. As many scientists and historians of science have remarked, it is hard to penetrate deeply into many scientific discoveries without having excellent command (proficiency) or being native speaker of the German language. Actually many scientific terms which were introduced in many fields of science are used today in their original German form, and no one could coin an English term, say, for them. Therefore proficiency in the language in which the scientific discoveries are published and shared is central to any nation to keep up with the rapid expansion of knowledge.
Today we live in world which is completely dominated by the English language. Actually all scientific discoveries and information are available most of the time only in English. According to the recent scientific statistics, over 1,8 billion people live in countries where English has official status.
One out of 5 of the world’s population speaks English with some degree of competence. Over 80% of the world’s scientists read English. About 93% of the world’s mail is written in English. And 95% of all information in the world’s electronic retrieval systems is stored in English. By 2010, the number of people who speak English as a second or foreign language will exceed the number of native speakers.
Linguistic studies suggest that by the 1980s, more than 60% of the journal literature in science was being printed in English. Twenty five years later, the figure is likely closer to 85% (for some fields, over 90%). English has become the language chosen for international meetings of all types, for corporate science, multinational research programs, official Web sites, and much more. On the informal side, "invisible colleges" made possible by the Internet also rely on this tongue—if a physicist from China wants to contact or collaborate with a colleague in Brazil or Germany (or both), they will use English to communicate.
Indeed the English language has become a sort of a universal means of communication "Lingua Franca", not just a Language of certain people or nation. The global spread of English over the last 50 years is remarkable. It is unprecedented in several ways: by the increasing number of users of the language; by its depth of penetration into societies; by its range of functions.
Most countries where English is not already a second language have realized the importance of English as an essential tool and launched short and long term projects and co-operation programs to provide their people [ specially scientific and industrial community] effective English education. China is one example and has been very successful, despite the fundamental differences between the Chinese language and the Latin languages in grammatical, phonetic and logical structure.
The question that we want to address in the rest of the essay is: Where is Algeria in all this?
First of all, it must be said that Algeria does not have any clear and officially declared policy regarding languages. Yet when Algerian politicians speak about the promotion of foreign languages they generally refer to French, and here lies the big drama. Indeed it is a historical fact that the French language has occupied a privileged position in Algeria over all languages including Arabic itself; however we believe that it is time for the country to distinguish between its historical heritage and the scientific, economical and political necessity of the country.
It is meaningless that we keep teaching our students the French language as a second language, giving it also the status of a first language of science and technology, but in the end and when it comes to advanced studies they realize that this language is not of any help. This made most, if not all, Algerian universities and scientists very dependent on the French side. Indeed in view of the above mentioned dominance of English languages the world might get divided into "haves" and "have nots". This means the possibility of severe intellectual isolation. Scientists with little or only moderate command of English may find it more difficult to publish in international journals and thus to reach a corresponding audience.
Unfortunately and despite all the evidences Algeria Decision Makers seem to either ignore or fail to appreciate the central role of the English Language for the development of science and technology and for the country prospering as a whole. In the so called new Reforms of the Algerian Educational System no emphasis is placed on English and its role, yet it has been marginalized even more. It is rather surprising that in the new reforms we find a considerable stress on the use of Latin letters , which are ultimately symbols, in calculus and Mathematics teaching but at the same time ignoring the much more important issue of English as the language in which the world shares its knowledge.
Algeria is in need of an urgent action regarding its scientific and linguistic policy in order to save the future generations from very possible intellectual isolation and certainly the underdog psychology that goes with it.
The country needs to embrace science and its language as an essential part of the national agenda. Therefore there is an urgent need for research and program development to expand and improve school and university English teaching in the country as a means of scientific and technological learning. The English language instead of being an isolated subject, should be functionally integrated into the overall curriculum of our educational system as a central component.
It might be enlightening to end this essay by noting that according to all linguistic, social and scientific studies, English language will have about 100 years (at least) before new language can dominate the world . Therefore, the country should take endless effort to ensure that it is producing a generation that can survive in this competitive world.
References and Bibliography
1- D. Crystal, English as a Global Language (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, ed. 2, 2003).
2- Scott Montgomery, Of Towers, Walls, and Fields: Perspectives on Language Science.
3- Mohamed Salah Nedjai, English Language and Development in Algeria, (2007), Biskra University.
4- Jacques Melitz, English-Language Dominance, Literature and Welfare.
5- Pennycook, The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language (Longman, London, 1994)
6- M. Görlach, Still More Englishes (John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2002).
7- The Economist, 1996. London: The Economist, Profile Books.
8- The Future of English. 1997 London: The British Council
Physics department, University Center of El Oued
El Oued, 39000, Algeria.
Human beings differ from other creations by the complex nature of their means of communication. On the other hand all types of communication are based on some language. We generally distinguish two types of languages: Human natural language and Artificial Languages specifically for computer [Basic , Fortran….]. The most elementary language is the spoken and audible language which we start to learn from our parents and society in our childhood. Human beings along the history have had to develop more and more complex languages or means for communicating new concepts and discoveries. For instance mathematics is used as language in all sciences to express and describe natural phenomena. Of course all languages must be transferred to audible languages in one way or another. Indeed the spoken and audible language is built in all means of communications. Therefore the audible language is the most fundamental piece of all types of communication.
In this essay we focus on the role of English as the language of science and technology and emphasis its importance as essential tool to access to scientific literature of the world and to technological advances.
As far as science and the known history are concerned we can distinguish five eras for the languages of science.
- The Greek era
- Islamic (Arabic) era.
- Latin era
- German (This is a short period but important).
- English
Of course each stage is characterized by the domination of certain civilization to which that language belongs. Although the first three eras are known to most people, the German era deserves some clarification. During some period of the 19th and 20th centuries most of the important and fundamental scientific discoveries (physics, mathematics, chemistry …etc..) were made by German native speakers or published in German. The impact of the German period is still present in today's scientific literature. As many scientists and historians of science have remarked, it is hard to penetrate deeply into many scientific discoveries without having excellent command (proficiency) or being native speaker of the German language. Actually many scientific terms which were introduced in many fields of science are used today in their original German form, and no one could coin an English term, say, for them. Therefore proficiency in the language in which the scientific discoveries are published and shared is central to any nation to keep up with the rapid expansion of knowledge.
Today we live in world which is completely dominated by the English language. Actually all scientific discoveries and information are available most of the time only in English. According to the recent scientific statistics, over 1,8 billion people live in countries where English has official status.
One out of 5 of the world’s population speaks English with some degree of competence. Over 80% of the world’s scientists read English. About 93% of the world’s mail is written in English. And 95% of all information in the world’s electronic retrieval systems is stored in English. By 2010, the number of people who speak English as a second or foreign language will exceed the number of native speakers.
Linguistic studies suggest that by the 1980s, more than 60% of the journal literature in science was being printed in English. Twenty five years later, the figure is likely closer to 85% (for some fields, over 90%). English has become the language chosen for international meetings of all types, for corporate science, multinational research programs, official Web sites, and much more. On the informal side, "invisible colleges" made possible by the Internet also rely on this tongue—if a physicist from China wants to contact or collaborate with a colleague in Brazil or Germany (or both), they will use English to communicate.
Indeed the English language has become a sort of a universal means of communication "Lingua Franca", not just a Language of certain people or nation. The global spread of English over the last 50 years is remarkable. It is unprecedented in several ways: by the increasing number of users of the language; by its depth of penetration into societies; by its range of functions.
Most countries where English is not already a second language have realized the importance of English as an essential tool and launched short and long term projects and co-operation programs to provide their people [ specially scientific and industrial community] effective English education. China is one example and has been very successful, despite the fundamental differences between the Chinese language and the Latin languages in grammatical, phonetic and logical structure.
The question that we want to address in the rest of the essay is: Where is Algeria in all this?
First of all, it must be said that Algeria does not have any clear and officially declared policy regarding languages. Yet when Algerian politicians speak about the promotion of foreign languages they generally refer to French, and here lies the big drama. Indeed it is a historical fact that the French language has occupied a privileged position in Algeria over all languages including Arabic itself; however we believe that it is time for the country to distinguish between its historical heritage and the scientific, economical and political necessity of the country.
It is meaningless that we keep teaching our students the French language as a second language, giving it also the status of a first language of science and technology, but in the end and when it comes to advanced studies they realize that this language is not of any help. This made most, if not all, Algerian universities and scientists very dependent on the French side. Indeed in view of the above mentioned dominance of English languages the world might get divided into "haves" and "have nots". This means the possibility of severe intellectual isolation. Scientists with little or only moderate command of English may find it more difficult to publish in international journals and thus to reach a corresponding audience.
Unfortunately and despite all the evidences Algeria Decision Makers seem to either ignore or fail to appreciate the central role of the English Language for the development of science and technology and for the country prospering as a whole. In the so called new Reforms of the Algerian Educational System no emphasis is placed on English and its role, yet it has been marginalized even more. It is rather surprising that in the new reforms we find a considerable stress on the use of Latin letters , which are ultimately symbols, in calculus and Mathematics teaching but at the same time ignoring the much more important issue of English as the language in which the world shares its knowledge.
Algeria is in need of an urgent action regarding its scientific and linguistic policy in order to save the future generations from very possible intellectual isolation and certainly the underdog psychology that goes with it.
The country needs to embrace science and its language as an essential part of the national agenda. Therefore there is an urgent need for research and program development to expand and improve school and university English teaching in the country as a means of scientific and technological learning. The English language instead of being an isolated subject, should be functionally integrated into the overall curriculum of our educational system as a central component.
It might be enlightening to end this essay by noting that according to all linguistic, social and scientific studies, English language will have about 100 years (at least) before new language can dominate the world . Therefore, the country should take endless effort to ensure that it is producing a generation that can survive in this competitive world.
References and Bibliography
1- D. Crystal, English as a Global Language (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, ed. 2, 2003).
2- Scott Montgomery, Of Towers, Walls, and Fields: Perspectives on Language Science.
3- Mohamed Salah Nedjai, English Language and Development in Algeria, (2007), Biskra University.
4- Jacques Melitz, English-Language Dominance, Literature and Welfare.
5- Pennycook, The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language (Longman, London, 1994)
6- M. Görlach, Still More Englishes (John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2002).
7- The Economist, 1996. London: The Economist, Profile Books.
8- The Future of English. 1997 London: The British Council
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