Linguistic Imperialism

Linguistic Imperialism in Education 

Linguistic imperialism is the concept that a dominant language is being passed through and transferred to other people. In this case, English is now the second most spoken language for first speakers and is the most widely spoken language in the world with up to at least 1.8 billion people speaking it and is the most widely taught foreign language. Therefore we can see how English takes an important dominant role in the world from things like pop culture, education to economic power which are all aspects of the dominant culture that are passed alongside the language.

This puts some communities who don’t speak English at all in a disadvantage and has an impact on them and thereby prohibits them from fully contributing to the rest of the world. This is where education comes in. A majority of people want to be able to get into a very high standard and adequate university in the world and be able to receive the optimum and ideal education yet nowadays to be accepted into such prestige higher education, you require the full and foremost fluency in the English language which is to proven through a test if English isn't a first language for people and the top of universities are found in English speaking countries and universities do reject students who don’t show the required English needed to enter the university. English is seen as the undisputed global language. Countries across the globe feel the need to empower their citizens through education by using the English language. Books and journals and all worldwide education tools are in English but that in fact is a self-accomplishing prognostication that helps continue develop the dominance of the English language.

English can be seen as a barrier, when it cuts off certain communities from fulfilling their dreams and pursuing their educational desires. Nowadays to take all these literary English exams to get into universities, students require paying fees; therefore again prohibiting poorer communities from being able to gain a higher education even if their levels are incredible. Naturally parents want to be able to send off their kids to get a good education and therefore a good job which again naturally requires higher education to be studied at western universities that require English exams.
When we live by this idea that English is a main requirement to get into those universities, we’re limiting our focus and cutting off potential geniuses or scientist, lawyers or doctors who could have had a major impact on the world because what they know in their own language is knowledge that the world could require in the future.

Although the idea of having English as such a dominant role playing language in the world seems like an ideal concept but what we don’t realize that it slowly causes less languages to exist and lets people mainly focus on their English which has a major impact on communities. This is evidence of linguistic imperialism in the Anglophone world but the impacts that go along with it are greater than people would know or expect them to be and can have an increasing impact in the world to come.