The Ecology Of English Language In Saudi Arabia Article

The Ecology Of English Language In Saudi Arabia Article The Ecology Of English Language In Saudi Arabia â€" Article Example > According to Haugen, language ecology refers to the study of communications between any given languages as well as its environment. The range and scope of the application of the known concept of ‘ecology’ has widened dramatically. The ecology of English in Saudi Arabia is closely linked to 19th century. It was established by the British protectorate during the colonial era. Saudi Arabians are known to be Arab speakers. However, due to British trade interest in various regions of Saudi Arabia, English began to develop. Even though, the Arabic language is still used, survey shows that English is widely spoken, especially in areas such as businesses (Haugen Pp 12-24). Saudi Arabia population is estimated to be over 18.7 million in the year 1995. According to the 1992 census, ¼ of its population were particularly the expatriate workers from the Middle East, Asia or Africa. An estimate of about 90% its population is basically Arabs, either Saudi citizens or workers. Their official language is Arabic. The remaining 10% speak English language. English is a language that is mostly used in a wider communication among the multilingual workforce. Arabic is commonly referred to as ‘the language of the government, education as well as commerce, but English is used at tertiary level to teach science and medicine (Cry Pp 427-456). 1. Classification of EnglishEnglish is a Germanic language which originated from Anglo-Frisian dialects. English refers to an indo-European language of Germanic branch which has had several significant contributions from other languages. It is mostly influenced by every other language family, including Romantic (French, Romanian, French, Italian) and even Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic) language family. Basically, the original English language was influenced by two waves of invasion, these includes; the Germanic language family and the Normans. People spoke Norman language before English developed. Consequently, the two invasion developed Engli sh which become ‘mixed’ to some extent. Cohabitation with the Germanic language resulted in a significant grammatical and lexical of English. English is a member of the indo- European family. Indo-European are said to have lived in the western Asia or rather the Eastern Europe. It belongs to the Germanic branch; its closet relatives are Dutch, Yiddish, Afrikaans and Frisian. English has adopted different words from other languages. Some of the examples of Indo- Iranian language, includes; Urdu, Hindi etc. the influence of Indo-European language can be seen today. The word for father, for instance, is vater in German. This is a clear indication of where English developed as a language. There is a close correlation between English words and those of the German (Pennycook Pp238-289). 2. Learners and usersLearners and Users of English in Saudi Arabia include students, religious purposes, business men, immigrants, ordinary people and many more. For example, Saudi Arabian student ob tain this studies either at their home place or as part of the school curriculum in an Anglophone nation that they mostly visit as educational tourist. Students were taught the funder mental of the Islamic faith- for instance, the correct performance of the five daily prayers. Teachers encouraged most of their student to learn English as a foreign language. Its benefits have allowed learners to develop ecological and interpersonal perception in the language.