English tests Swiss identity

Guardian Unlimited, September 15, 1999

The "Swiss malaise⁸" - pessimism about the survival of Swiss culture and identity - has intensified recently with the debate about whether to surrender to or fight off the encroachment⁹ of English as the federation's unofficial fifth language.

Switzerland has four constitutionally recognised national languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh, but educationalists and politicians now acknowledge that English has become the lingua franca of choice between these groups. These days, when young Swiss people from different language areas of Switzerland encounter each other they prefer to communicate in English. Not only are they likely to speak English better than another national language, but it also neutral, allowing them to avoid the thorny issue of whose language to use.

Some commentators are in favour of this trend. A social linguist at the University of Bern argues that Switzerland is becoming more, not less linguistically diverse. He predicts that membership of other linguistic groups, notably speakers of local Swiss-German dialects, will soon surpass¹⁰ that of the Romansh community.

"If one takes Romansh as a yardstick¹¹ for distinct linguistic communities, then Switzerland has 10 languages, not four," he says. "So a common language is essential to ensure communication among these diverse groups."

But for the guardians of Switzerland's existing national languages the prospect of English becoming a lingua franca is viewed as a threat to the very fibre of the federation. If the Swiss lose their familiarity¹² with other national languages, so the argument goes, it will not be long before they lose interest in their neighbours' cultures and communities, and the patchwork¹³ quilt of Swiss identity will fall apart.

The battle over what to do to protect national languages is being fought in schools, where the demand for English language teaching and the pressure to introduce it as early as possible is mounting, especially in German-speaking Switzerland. In Zurich a new language curriculum called "Schools Project 21" has overturned one of the foundations of Swiss language education, namely that all children must learn a national language as their first foreign language.

Under the new scheme English will be taught in Zurich's primary schools from year one, with French classes starting five years later.

The rise of English has exposed a failure to teach national languages effectively in schools. This is the finding of the recently published report, which was commissioned to evaluate and coordinate the teaching of foreign languages in Switzerland. The report concludes that the best way to teach languages is to expose children to them early, not as the subject of lessons but as languages of instruction - geography taught in French or history in English.

But there is a limit to the number of languages that can be introduced in this way, and that is why the Italian-speaking Ticino canton is most vocal¹⁴ in its objection to change. Ticino's schools fear that Italian will be reduced to the status of a minority language in German and French cantons, which will choose to teach each other's languages over Italian.

"The report severely underplays¹⁵ the importance of Italian instruction by degrading it almost to the level of an immigrant language. There is still a big difference between Albanian, Serbo-Croat and Portuguese, and the constitutionally defined national language of Italian," says a school administrator.

The debate in Switzerland over language has revealed that antipathy, not solidarity, between communities is the reality, and the much vaunted¹⁶ multi-lingual society has never existed. As one observer comments: "The Swiss get on so well with each other because they don't understand one another."

7. Translate the sentences below incorporating the vocabulary from the previous exercise.

1. James mulled over the idea and finally decided that it made sense. 2. The proposal to start that community project held no challenge and left everybody apathetic. 3. The country was in dire need of financial aid. 4. Dad is under a lot of pressure, so we have to make allowances for him. 5. It was a popular style in Britain but it never really caught on in America. 6. The draft law was seen as encroachment on the rights of individuals. 7. The outline of the ship blurred in the thick fog. 8. A lot of letters was sent directly to the incumbent President. 9. After a week's practice Melissa became adept with her racquet. 10. Old-fashioned learning of grammar by rote has long been forgone. 11. The deplorable salaries and wages pushed the staff on strike. 12. Applicants are expected to demonstrate high level of proficiency in their area. 13. It's often difficult to broach the subjects that are usually shied away. 14. English serves as a lingua franca in many countries. 15. The officials fudged the issue of illegal arms sale. 16. The Speaker's latest pronouncement on collaboration with the opposition was met with optimism. 17. It needed five fire engines to tackle the blaze. 18. Numerous non-Anglophone countries are now embracing English to keep pace with the technological progress.

8. Match the following parts of word combinations from the text. When in place, render the context where they are used in the text.

mull over	the condition		call for	greater emphasis
fall father	behind		the idea	is catching on
made	national headlines		representative	assemblies
acquire	a working knowledge		adept	at English
calls for	reorganising		global	lingua franca
scores	near the bottom		threat	of encroachment
pulled	ahead of		With an interpreter	in tow
anything	but apathetic		talk in terms of	black and white
rank on	a par with		non-committal	bureaucratic language
broke through	the 500-point barrier		too wishy-washy	to translate
dire	situation		fudge	on the issues
broaches	a subject		overemphasise	the importance
make	allowances		pace	of change
dawning	of the Internet age		teaching	by rote
left out of	the loop		tackle	the challenge
essential	tool		incumbent	Parliament members
take	root