The development of ELF

The English language is the first lingua franca to penetrate countries globally, both through its spread to different continents and through diffusion of values into social groups. Moreover, Seidlhofer (13, pp. 15-17) suggests that English has become an international language partly by the expansion of the British colonies in the past, and partly since non- native speakers have chosen to learn the language because of its usefulness. She also explains that there are more non-native speakers than native speakers of English, which indicates that the English language has reached a kind of globalization that no former lingua franca reached before. Therefore, it seems reasonable to argue that the globalization of ELF includes the gaming world.

To define ELF one can investigate Kachru’s (6, pp. 15-30) ‘Concentric Circles’, where various uses of English are divided into groups. There are three circles, the ‘Inner Circle’, the ‘Outer Circle’, and the ‘Expanding Circle’. In the ‘Inner Circle’ one can find countries where the majority of the population uses English as a first language, as in the UK or the USA. Countries, such as India or Nigeria, etcetera, where English is an additional language, are located in the ‘Outer Circle’. Moreover, countries where they teach English as a foreign language in school, such as Sweden or Denmark, are put in the third circle, the ‘Expanding Circle’ (6, pp. 15-30). Seidlhofer (13, pp. 15-17) concludes that English becomes a lingua franca from these three different ways of language use. Since the use of English within the expanding circle is increasing it is also one of the main reasons why the English language is constantly changing. The changes of the language are predominantly made through electronic communication, such as the Internet and mobile phones, etcetera, and through improved mobility and possibilities of travel between countries (13, pp. 15-17). It seems convenient to incorporate the activity of playing video and online computer games in the category of electronic communication since gamers communicate electronically through chat sites (2, pp. 10-15).

Seidlhofer (13, pp. 15-17) argues that ELF characterized as ‘variety’, ‘community’, and ‘competence’ makes it a part of an operating process since the language is constantly developing. Still, non-native speakers’ linguistic errors often disturb the opponents of ELF. However, she declares that it is crucial to disregard linguistic features, and focus on communicative components when discussing ELF. Furthermore, it could be fair to claim that it is only possible to understand ELF as a language in motion by valuing communication rather than linguistics, as it is through communication that languages develop. Since many video and online computer games require communication between players it seems reasonable to argue that the statements made above are applicable to this activity as well.

According to Mauranen (9, pp. 25-30), the English language is constantly changing but native speakers are not the single responsible source of the changes. Mauranen states that those who are influencing the English language are international speakers of English in combination with native speakers. Hence, it appears that both non-native speakers and native speakers affect the language changes. Languages are variable not static since they are continuously developing and changing when speakers and writers use them. The language used correlates with the developments of today’s society. The Internet is an important component of society’s changes (4, pp. 95-114) and, thus, connecting language use with the Internet seems appropriate. The Internet stimulates users through many domains, by newspaper articles, social networking sites, and gaming sites, etcetera. Since these forms of media require variation of vocabulary it seems unavoidable not to become influenced by the exposure of different language uses. In addition to this, people are influenced by language use around them, not only through the Internet but also through listening to music and reading instructions, etcetera.

Video and online computer games may be a very influential part of language use since players spend many hours playing and are introduced to different vocabularies through the games (4, pp. 95-114). New uses of a language develop through the lack of words for new trends and inventions. Seidlhofer (13, pp. 15-17) brings up various examples of newly created words, such as ‘googling’ and ‘spam’. Today, most new words originate from innovations in technology. Thus, computer games can be argued to be a source for new word-formations, as the expression ‘e-sport’. (When playing an online computer game professionally, and competing in tournaments, it is called an e-sport)

However, such developments of the language do not necessarily have connections to non-native speakers. Coining is an inevitable process of language and all speakers of the language are responsible for the changes, both native and non-native (13, pp. 15-17).

Date: 2016-04-22; view: 984