Characteristics Of English As An Academic Language

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Language is a meaningful expression of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and passions, ideas, desires, etc. We cannot imagine human civilization without language. Language is the medium by which human civilization has moved from the Stone Age to the present age of science, art, and technology. Language is personal, social, and political, symbolic, systematic, vocal, Non-instinctive, conventional productive and creative. Language influences our world of study. Although there are a plethora of languages in the world, English is undoubtedly a medium of mass communication. For numerous reasons, it is entitled as an international language because, in many countries, English has been being used for international communication for a long time. Whatever profession one may have, s/he must possess something with the English language. The number of English speakers in the world has increased rapidly especially over the 20th century.

Before going deep into the matter of English as an academic subject, let’s try to peep into the history of English literature and language. If we take two pictures of a man, one of his childhood and another of his adulthood, it would be impossible to identify the similarities between two pictures although both the pictures represent the same person. Similarly, the oldest English (Anglo-Saxon), seems different from modern English and it seems that they are two distinct languages but they are not, fundamentally they are the same. (Meiklejohn) The English language is spoken by the Anglo-Saxon race in England, in most parts of Scotland and Ireland, in the United States, in Canada, in Australia and New Zealand, in South Africa, and many other parts of the world. In the middle of the fifth century, it was spoken in the northwest corner of Europe. But it was not then called English; languages belonging to the Keltic group are still spoken in Wales, in Brittany (in France), in the Highlands of Scotland, in the west of Ireland, and in the Isle of Man. (Meiklejohn) A few words from the speech of the Britons, have come into our English language; English tongue belongs to the Aryan or Indo-European family of languages. The Indo-European family of languages consists of several groups. One of these is called the Teutonic Group, German, and Scandinavian. The chief periods in our English language are five in number; and they are ancient English or Anglo-Saxon from 449-1100, early English from 1100-1250, Middle English from 1250-1485, Tudor English from 1485-1603, Modern English from 1603-1900. The grammar of the language was fixed before Modern English, 1603-1900 most of the accidence having entirely vanished. The vocabulary of the language, however, has gone on increasing, and is still increasing; for the English language, like the English people, is always ready to offer hospitality to all peaceful foreigners—words or human beings—that will land and settle within her coasts. And the tendency at present is not only to offer a hearty welcome to newcomers from other lands but to call back old words and stereotyped phrases that had been allowed to drop out of existence. Tennyson has been one of the chief agents in this happy restoration. (Meiklejohn)

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Men are social beings and from the unknown past, people had to communicate among themselves, either for business purposes, for hunting animals or for survival. From the dawn of human civilization, it is always been the main language used for the dominant civilization. It should be mentioned here that the Latin language was progressively expanded by the Roman Empire, the French language attained a popularity for the Napoleon conquests, and finally the English language from the UK expansion to the USA. “In the twentieth century, the study of language and literature blossomed in the field of linguistics and literary analysis. These two may seem as sibling disciplines in that they were born on the same parents. Their paths parted almost immediately after their birth. English should be regarded as equally owned by whichever speech community makes ongoing use of the language in whatever way as a second language, as a “foreign” language, as a specialist language, and no one owns English, but all should agree on an international standard English which is common property” (Gupta 123)

As far as Academic language is concerned, “it means the oral, written, auditory, and visual language competence necessary for learning appropriately in institutions like schools, colleges or universities and academic programs like lectures, seminars, books, and journals. It’s a language in which learners are expected to learn and achieve fluency.” (Education Glossary, 2017) Academic language follows some sorts of principles. Unlike formal language, it is explicit which is gained through a conscious process. Besides being formal, it is also factual and objective. Moreover, unlike informal language, it is analytical. The academic language combines not only productive but also receptive modalities in a precise manner. Where non-academic language deals with general or personal interest, academic language deals with serious thought. Structurally, it is comprehensible and well-planned with the logical flow where grammar is error-free. While the informal language is appropriate for use in casual, social settings, formal language is appropriate for use in all academic and workplace settings. Besides, academic vocabulary includes content related vocabulary. Histories of English studies have repeatedly noticed exit from philology. “Various European countries institutionalized the pedagogy of English soon after the UK institutionalized it In India. English studies’ history completely overlooked philology. But recently, the horizon of philology of both English Philology and Indian Philology has been noticed. English varies, and it depends on groups, situations, and media involved: various parts of language are used and it depends on topics or social groups that are involved, whether it is oral or written and if written whether it is in a text message or a scholarly article, etc. (Gupta 93) “English has over a million words, but not more than 30.000 are used by a single person (70.000 with passive vocabulary), while the number of words required for a B2 language exam is only 3500-3900!”(Mantuska)

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