Linguistic colonialism of British rule

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Sub: Linguistic colonialism of British rule
The topic to be chosen for the proposal of the essay is on colonialism of the British
Empire that is one of the most important factors for the development of the English language all
over the world. The impact of this colonization of the British was the way for spreading the
growth of English language all over the world. Along with the English language, the concepts of
capitalism, declining of the moral values and creating a major influence on the world.
Thesis statement: The British colonialism played a grand part in the spread of Christianity
and English language over the world and helping them to establish their dominance on other
countries.
Lester, Alan. "Spatial concepts and the historical geographies of British colonialism." Writing
imperial histories. Manchester University Press, 2016.
The article has discussed on the issues of the British colonial history and the way it led to
imperialism. The imperial history of Britain has indeed created an influence on the language and
religion all over the world. The comparative methods have been used in the article that
undermines the social issues that were created due to this colonial influence.

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Julios, Christina. Contemporary British identity: English language, migrants and public
discourse. Routledge, 2017.
The above mentioned book by Christina Julios published in 2017 discusses on the
influences of English language due to the British colonialism. The British identity had big
influences on the society since migration into different countries resulted in the conversion into
Christianity and transforming English language as their first language in schools.
The essay will look to find out different perspectives on this issue and the influences it
created on various countries due to this colonialism. The effect of British identity was the main
reason for this massive situation among common people of different nationalities.
Essay
The purpose of the following essay is to discuss on the influence of colonialism in
various countries and the spreading of the English language all over the world. It has been
claimed that the British were the first section in the world to speak the English language. The
native speakers of Britain always spoke the language (Loomba: 23). The influence of the English
language is seen when it was delacred as the only official global language. Around five to seven
million people spoke in English language when it first came to practice. In the recent times, more
than 1.8 billion use it. Therefore, the overall dominance of the English language is seen since
they have developed their dominant approach on all the sections of the society. The British
forces were regarded as the superpowers until the 19th century (Jenkins: 88). Therefore, the
spread of the English language and Western culture spread across various continents of the
world.

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The perspectives of the moral issues, capitalism and democratic factors should be
considered as the basic factor for consideration to understand the influence of British colonialism
on the common people of different countries (Motha: 10). The imperialism of the Western
countries had paved the way for the English language. After the thorough use of the imperialism
in the colonized countries, the British people were finally successful in bringing up English
language to be the universal tool that would help people to communicate with each other.
The use of English as the colonial language brought all the societies together. The British
colonizers and currently the American imperialists are regarded as the main powers to execute
the foreign influence on the smaller countries (Loomba: 23). This imperialism of the Western
imperialist countries had been changing their ways of operations to create this global cultural
pandemic across the countries (Macedo, Dendrinos and Gounari: 15). The British forces went on
to establish many schools in their colonies and forced the English language to be the first
language for all the students.
This is definitely one of the major reasons as to why the students of colonized countries
had to learn the English language instead of increasing their depths in their native languages. The
influence has still remained outwardly impactful since those colonized countries use the English
language in the present times also. United States won the Spanish- American war and this
established the stepping stone for English to become the official language of countries like
Puerto Rico and Cuba. In the current times,
English is considered as the third most spoken language in the world. It is also the highest
used second language in the world also. Therefore, once cannot deny the fact that English
language is bearing the fruits of colonialism by British powers over the centuries. Nowadays,

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English is regarded as the most used language for the official reasons(Macedo, Dendrinos and
Gounari: 15). It is taken as a token of honor and prestige when the students use English for their
higher learning courses. Most study materials are also available in English only and
examinations are also taken in the English language. Even Chinese and Spanish workers have to
use English language for the official communication. This shows the strength and influence of
the British colonialism on almost all the countries in the world (Pennycook: 50).
When a company would have to work in the multicultural setting, they will always
convey their messages in English since it is the only official mode for communication. This issue
might have given rise to globalization but it has also led to the social inequality also. This
phenomenon is very easy to understand the issue that global powers should also give priority to
native language of all the regions. The colonialism of Britain on a huge spectrum of countries
has left the poor sectors of the world in a very bad working culture.
The culture of dependence has been created in this scenario because it will be the most
significant victory for British colonial and imperial rulers to leave their mark after hundreds of
years after their death. The English language has come up to be completely synonymous with the
global culture. People believe they will get better future and brighter career opportunities if they
study this language (Pennycook: 50). On the contrary, it has strangled them into the periphery of
using the single language and their compulsion not to use the global language.
All over the world, it has been seen that the people have dedicated a huge amount of time
to the learning process of the English language (MacDonald: 18). During these years, they would
also learn about the perfect knowledge on understanding and analyzing the impacts of this
language on their daily activities (Murray and Christison: 40). Various cultures, traditions and

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social events are connected through this mode of communication through the English language.
The political and economic systems of the societies are also determined by the English language
in the recent times. Therefore, it is quite sure that the influence of the British colonialism has
reigned supreme through its acceptance among the common people of the society. When a local
or native language dies in front of the massive dominance of an worldwide language, it can also
be compared to the burning of the entire library also.
The English language nowadays is used as the medium of communication in various
business industries across the country (MacDonald: 18). This language has been used in the
international political relations also. In this scenario, it can be said that other languages like
Spanish, French or Portuguese could also be used in the countries as their official language. It is
because countries like France, Portugal and Spain had also conquered and colonized some
territories at some point of time (Motha: 10). Chinese is the most spoken language in the whole
world. Therefore, it is quite probable that Chinese would have been official language all over te
world. Historically, China very hardly colonized any country in other continents (Childs: 28).
This is the probable reason as to why Chinese is not recognized as the official language of the
globe.
On the other hand, the colonial prowess of the British forces proved their dominant hold
in the global politics and their supremacy was the main reason for English to be chosen as the
most important language through which people would get to communicate with each other. The
official language used by the international news agencies and air traffic control is also English. It
has been acclaimed that around 75 regions all over the world have the special place for the
English language within the social boundaries (Murray and Christison: 40). Some major English
speaking countries in the world are Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Ireland and

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most importantly United Kingdom. Most of these countries like United States, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand had been colonized by British Empire at some point of time (Childs: 28). On
the other hand, countries like Germany, Japan, countries of the Middle East are embracing
English as the language for the mode of communication.
There are several connections between colonialism of the British Empire and the
emergence of English as the universal language in many countries used for the official purposes.
In the later stages, United States also led the political leadership all around the world (Braine:
39). The first proper attempting that England had made to make the entry into the new world was
by the expedition made by Sir Walter Raleigh in the New World (Wisker: 30). He had landed in
the Roanoke Island in the North Carolina of the current times. The settlers of Europe had taken
their grasp over their lands so they wanted to establish their commands on the situation. As per
the records of History, it has also been found that the English settlers came to southern
settlement of Virginia (Motha: 10).
Therefore, it was almost sure that the British colonialism was slowly beginning to
establish their hold on the various parts of United States. They did the same thing in case of
Canada when they took control of Nova Scotia, Province of Canada and New Brunswick. They
assimilated all these three regions into one single Confederation (Braine: 39). In this manner, it
was inevitable that the indigenous people had been compelled to use the English language for
communication with British officials. Slowly, English took over and became the most spoken
language in the Canada. The settlers to Canada came from the British provinces like Somerset
and Gloucestershire (Phillipson: 38). Therefore, the influence of the British colonialism is pretty
clear. The concept of imperialism is looked upon as one of the biggest factors behind this spread
of English language in most countries of Asia, Europe and North America.

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The transmission of the English language has been very important in this discourse. This
transfer or transmission of the language is simply the way of demonstrating its dominating
power. Therefore, it would be better to say, British imperialism had led the path for the growth of
the English language in their colonies (Motha: 10). The English language is looked upon as the
most dominant language during the colonial periods and it created an influence on several people
also. The current situation has been created in a manner that there is no other way than to accept
the dominance of the English language. Critics have argued in favor of the fact that dominant
language of English would be able to survive even after the fall of that particular empire (Heller:
37).
The concluding section of this paper can be drawn by saying that colonial prowess of
British Empire had been immensely impactful in various ways. They demonstrated their power
to show their dominance on their colonies. They spread the English language all over various
colonies and this language has remained to be the single most universal language instead of
Chinese which is spoken by more people. This shows the influence of the British imperialism on
various parts of the world. United States and Canada are such strong examples of this issue. The
British Empire wanted to establish their sole dominance all over the world and they were very
much successful in their quest.

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References
Braine, George, ed. Teaching English to the world: History, curriculum, and practice.
Routledge, 2014.
Childs, Peter, and Patrick Williams. An introduction to post-colonial theory. Routledge, 2014.
Heller, Monica, and Bonnie McElhinny. Language, capitalism, colonialism: Toward a critical
history. University of Toronto Press, 2017.
Jenkins, Jennifer. Global Englishes: A resource book for students. Routledge, 2014.
Julios, Christina. Contemporary British identity: English language, migrants and public
discourse. Routledge, 2017.
Lester, Alan. "Spatial concepts and the historical geographies of British colonialism." Writing
imperial histories. Manchester University Press, 2016.
Loomba, Ania. Colonialism/postcolonialism. Routledge, 2015.
MacDonald, Robert H. "The language of empire: Myths and metaphors of popular imperialism,
1880–1918." (2017).
Macedo, Donaldo, Bessie Dendrinos, and Panayota Gounari. Hegemony of English. Routledge,
2015.
Motha, Suhanthie. Race, empire, and English language teaching: Creating responsible and
ethical anti-racist practice. Teachers College Press, 2014.
Murray, Denise E., and MaryAnn Christison. What English language teachers need to know
volume I: Understanding learning. Routledge, 2019.

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Pennycook, Alastair. The cultural politics of English as an international language. Taylor &
Francis, 2017.
Phillipson, Robert. "Myths and realities of ‘global’English." Language Policy 16.3 (2017): 313-
331.
Wisker, Gina. Post-colonial and African American women's writing: a critical introduction.
Macmillan International Higher Education, 2017.