Page 18 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

LINGUISTICALLY DIVERSE EDUCATIONAL CONTEXTS
conditions it is difficult to speak of an egalitarian and learner-friendly dimension of language education in our country.
In Poland, pupils usually learn English as a foreign language. Language education starts as early as kindergarten. Nowadays, the terminology of ESL (English as a Second Language), referring to the education of English as a second language, has been expanded to include English as a Foreign Language (EFL), also called English as an Additional Language (EAL), or English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL). These terms reflect the target audience of language education. David Crystal in 1997 introduced the concept of English as a global language: the main language spoken in a globalising world, a language that has become a common language (the modern lingua franca) among all nations. English plays a huge role in science, technology, and business, and is a military, political, economic, cultural, and technological force. The fact that English has become the lingua franca of the world is not a negative in itself. The fact that only 34% of English vocabulary is of Anglo-Saxon origin, as much as 40% comes from French and the rest is taken from Latin, Germanic, and other Indo-European languages, may explain why it is so popular and why it is so easy for so many people to learn it12. Nevertheless, the fact that English has become the dominant language, crowding out other languages, can be seen as something negative. Could linguistic diversity be under threat? David Crystal, in his book Language Death (2005, p. 15), points to this threat. He warns that half the world's population collectively speaks only 20 languages, which indicates that many languages are disappearing. If we accept the statistics that Crystal presents, it is clear that the other half of the global population speaks 6,000 languages between them. English is chosen in many countries as the first foreign language to learn at school or as the language of instruction in elite bilingual schools and universities. In addition, nowadays most scientific articles are written in English, or at least include an English-language abstract. I think it is safe to say that research that is not published in English is not taken into account by the international scientific community. When we look at language education in Poland, we see that English, and in fact only this foreign language, is taught throughout the entire education structure from kindergarten to university level, while German is usually taught from the 7th grade of primary school. However, why do pupils in border areas, especially in southern Poland, not learn Czech or Slovak? After all, their lives follow the rhythm of these areas. They often work abroad in later life, they have friends from those countries, they shop there. Why, in this case, is the first foreign language they learn English? Should the key to deciding on language education in border areas not be the needs of the people living there? I believe that this example is influenced by the monoculture that prevails in our country.
In Europe and North America, researchers interested in second or foreign language pedagogy have studied both internal and external factors that play a role in language acquisition, including the age of language acquisition, the motivation and conditions for teaching and learning, as well as social issues that affect language teaching and language teacher education. Research also covers curriculum design, language immersion, bilingual and multilingual education, literacy levels, and language assessment and testing.
In recent years, researchers in Anglo-Saxon countries have noticed that language education needs new conceptual tools to move beyond an approach in which this education is largely based on language knowledge and skills, where the aim is to master speaking, writing, reading, or listening. Levine and Phipps (2012) argue that it is the deep language learning or translingual and transcultural competence
12 Richler, 2006.
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