Collections of Professor Dr David Ngin Sian Pau

Fourthly, for centuries men have discussed the need for, and potential value of, an international language. Artificial languages, such as Esperanto and Interlingua, have been invented to help overcome cultural, political and other obstacles hindering scientific communication. However, such efforts have had an insignificant effect on bridging the language gap. On the other hand, for all intents and purposes, in written communication English has become the international language of science. And while many journals still use the vernacular for titles and articles, they do include English language abstracts or publish contents pages in English. The acceleration of this process of establishing English as the international language of science conveys practical benefits which should be seriously considered by journal editors, publishers and authors. For the average scientist today there are plenty of materials to read, regardless of what his native Language may be. Any impediment to reading, such as struggling with an unfamiliar second or third language, will often mean that the article will go unread. This is not to imply that an important article is deliberately ignored when it appears in a language other than English. Indeed, such material when detected will elicit the scientist’s attention to such a degree that he will make considerable sacrifices of time, effort and money to read or have it translated. We conclude, for the present at least, that the only reasonable solution is to publish as many contents pages in English as it is economically and technically feasible. To do this, we need the cooperation of publishers and authors. Many of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals have realized the value of publishing contents pages in English. As the ultimate users and originators of the articles fisted in current contents, our readers can be of immeasurable help by providing English language titles and abstracts for their articles when submitting them for publication. They will also encourage greater readership by scientists throughout the world who have accepted English as the international language of science.

Religiously, 33 percentage of the world’s population, totally 2.1 billions are Christians. All Christians use Bibles written in English or the Bibles translated from the English version. Hymns, gospel songs and love songs used by Christians are written in English. As of the early 21st century, Christianity has between 1.5 billionand 2.1 billion adherents, representing about a quarter to a third of the world's population and is the world's largest religion . Most articles about Christian people, churches, organizations, and so on are written in English which attract other religions such as Muslim, Jewish, and atheists.

Finally, I can say English is the international language because there are many English teachers who, educated in their own countries, teach English in different places in the world though it’s not their native language and at the same time, there are many English learners who want to speak English language all over the world which is why the teaching of English has been the profession of many native English speakers and non-native English speakers alike. I personally saw some people teaching English in Thai schools in 1999 though they could not speak the language properly. It shows that English seems a ‘must’ to learn even in non English speaking societies around Asian countries, where I have taught English in the past. If the teaching of English had been only for native English speakers, it would not have been recognized as the international language, and some people might hate the language, instead of learning it and using it. But almost everyone in this world highly regards the English language instead, and people give respect to people who, especially non-native English speakers, knows the language well. It’s not the native English speakers but non -native English speakers with copacetic English speaking and teaching skills, who make the English language international, For instance, there is an embassy of Russia in Myanmar, where we can learn Russian and their culture. But non native Russian speakers in Myanmar have no interest in the language so, nobody learns Russian though their country is the biggest country in the world, and the nation is richer than Myanmar. Apparently, I have never been taught English by the so called native English speaker before, though I speak the language like a person, who was born in an English speaking country. What I mean is that my interest in learning the language has made me an excellent speaker of English individually, which eventually lead me to a teacher of English as well. Therefore, it’s not the native English speakers who make English the international language but non-native English speakers’ interest that make the English language international, without which there is no way for the English language to become the international language.

Dr.David Ngin Sian Pau
Professor of Teaching English
Cosmos International University
http://www.ciuac.org Submitted on 14^th April, 2009