Critical Response: ‘How Much English Is Enough?’ of Jane Cuthbert and ‘Globish? It Just Doesn’t Make Sense’ of Peter Jackson

Critical Response to two texts

Roy 27/11/13

Topic

1. How much English is enough?

2. Globish? It just doesn’t make sense.

Summary

1. The article “How much English is enough?” is written by an English teacher in ELC (English Learning Centre) named Jane Cuthbert. This article is about her personal experience on teaching Globish and how the perspective of Globish changed.

At first, when she heard about the language which only have 1,500 words with basic grammar and pronunciation, she thought is must be an informal and pointless way for non-native speakers to communicate. Then she stressed the importance of vocabulary during her teaching experience---students in her class must learn 30-40 new words per a week. She cannot image that people can communicate only with 1,500 words. When the English learning centre named Talkfest will be the first language centre to teach Globish she thought the manager must be mad.

Three months later when she found the students from different regions with different first language can communicate quite effectively by Globish; she admitted that she changed her view of Globish. The students are confident and relaxed because they do not need pay attention to the difficult grammar or rules of pronunciation and stress, they just focus on communication. In addition, Globish as a language without culture elements can help students focus on message across. From a teacher position, she can save much time on preparing teaching materials and only teach simple rules and 1,500 words of Globish.

Finally, Cuthbert admitted that simple words and sentences are also good for communication.

The article “Globish? It just doesn’t make sense” is written by Peter Jackson, a linguist. It is about the critique for Globish.

Firstly, he showed his serious concern about Globish and think he must bring a reality check to the people who think international languages can be manufactured. Then he stated that both grammar and vocabulary are...