CONTINUITY IN THE DISCOURSE ON THE PROMOTION OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FROM THE 19TH CENTURY UNTIL NOW

Abstract

The article compares the documents defi ning the priorities of the UK language policy in relation to the English language. The study is relevant for understanding the prerequisites and principles of language planning. The object of the study is the offi cial discourse that substantiates the spread and promotion of the English language. Research methods include conceptual-textual analysis, retrospective-diachronic and comparative methods. The key document that recorded the essence of the language policy of the British Empire was the “Minute on education in India”, prepared by Thomas Babington Macaulay in 1835. Macaulay carried out political technological manage-ment of the process of spreading the English language, which was called upon to enlighten the Asians. In 2010, the report “English Next India” by David Graddol was published, which made the case for maintaining the position of the English language training industry. A comparative analysis shows signifi cant strategic continuity between these documents, which is also confi rmed in the actions of the British Council as a conductor of British language policy abroad. Both works make the case for the importance of English in the Indian educational system. Macaulay argues that English should become the main language of education in India as it provides access to information and educa-tion and facilitates economic linkages. Graddol, in turn, emphasizes that introducing English into every classroom and every home in India will signifi cantly improve the country’s prospects in all areas. In 2008, Gordon Brown, then Prime Minister of Great Britain, expressed his commitment to spreading the English language around the world, which he believed could boost the UK economy by billions of pounds. As part of this strategy, the British Council launched a program to recruit “master trainers” to improve the skills of 750,000 English teachers. However, despite British commercial interest in the Indian and other English language markets, there are concerns about the mono-lingual paradigm promoted by proponents of English-medium education. This paradigm may lead to restrictions on the use of national and minority languages and potentially have a negative impact on multilingual education