Introduction:
Introducing English as one of the languages that belong to the West Germanic group of languages.
Noting that English is believed to have been first spoken during early period of medieval England.
Illustrating how the language is now a global lingua-franca being official in over sixty sovereign states around the world. It is spoken as a native language in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland. The language is widely spoken in many countries in South Asia, Africa and Caribbean.
Thesis Statement:
As a lingua franca of the world, English is increasingly becoming adopted by various learning institutions as an academic language. Learners in these institutions across the world have to gain certain written, auditory, oral and visual proficiencies for them to undertake other academic programs (Short, et al., 2012; Park, 2013). This study explores how English language is being adopted as an academic language, noting any changing norms and standards with respect to regions or countries involved.
English language is increasingly becoming adopted as an academic language because of its international status in the world.
Many institutions of learning are increasingly adopting English because they would like their students to be marketable abroad and at home (Park, 2013).
It is perceived that English proficiency will play a bigger communicative role when one seeks to study or work abroad.
Most non-native speakers wishing to study and work in countries like the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have been obligated to learn English and do standardized tests for them to be eligible.
This is with a view to ensuring that they acquire sufficient proficiencies for them to undertake academic courses or job duties (Short, et al., 2012; Park, 2013).
Various learning institutions are researching and coming up with more effective methods of instruction.
These methods are not only concerned with academic English used in the university, but also that used in high schools.
It is now emerging that vocabulary acquisition is pertinent for the learner to read and understand in a second language (Cisco & Padron, 2012).
The Krashen and Brown’s 2007 paper proposed cognitive academic language proficiency as the best method of teaching the language (Krashen & Brown, 2007).
In this regard, despite the learner being proficient in academic language, he has also to develop complex discourse style.
The Short et al. (2012)’s study proposed the Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model as the best in teaching English as an academic language among Middle and High School learners.
The scope of adopting English in the world is significantly increasing.
The language is now being taught and adopted in societies that were not speakers like Hispanic, Swedish and Chinese societies.
The study by Bjorkman (2011) has found that English is becoming adopted in most of the Northern European countries as an academic lingua franca. This has, in fact, called for the development of new methods of teaching and testing that will befit members of such societies.
A large scale survey done among Swedish students in Stockholm found that the language was becoming widely adopted in both science and art classes.
However, it is noted that students taking science classes are more stimulated to learn English as an academic language than are those in humanity departments (Bolton & Kuteeva 2011).
4. Standards and norms of teaching the language in areas in which it is adopted depend mostly on the purpose for which it is being studied.
For instance, Bjorkman (2011) has noted that learners in Northern Europe only learn English language as an academic language if they anticipate undertaking an academic pursuit.
For those who have not anticipated using English as an academic language, they have been seen taking ordinary language with tailored lexicons.
The same observation has been shared with Bolton and Kuteeva (2011) who note that teaching of academic English in Sweden has been more pragmatic among science students and teachers.
For those taking humanities, English has been used as just additional language, parallel to Swedish.
Conclusion:
English language is increasingly becoming adopted due to its international reputation as the world’s lingua franca.
The language is now being adopted by non-native speakers like Hispanic and Swedish communities.
Pressured by achieving effective proficiency in the language, researchers are always on the run to find the best model for instructors to adopt.
There has been no standard way of teaching the language in areas where it has been adopted.
Standards and norms of teaching English as academic lingua franca have tended to depend on the purpose of which learners anticipate to use the language.
References
Bjorkman, B. (2011).English as a lingua franca in higher education: Implications for EAP.
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Bolton, K. & Kuteeva, M. (2012).English as an academic language at a Swedish university:
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Cisco, B.K. & Padron, Y. (2012). Investigating vocabulary and reading strategies with middle
grades English language learners: a research synthesis. Research in Middle Level Education Online, 36(4).
Krashen, S.& Brown, C.L.(2007).What is Academic Language Proficiency? Singapore Tertiary
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Park, G. (2013).Relations among L1 reading, L2 knowledge, and L2 reading: Revisiting the
threshold hypothesis. English Language Teaching, 6(12).
Short, D. J. et al. (2012).Developing academic language in English language learners through
sheltered instruction. TESOL Quarterly, 46(2).
