English in the 21st Century: The Indian Context
In today’s fast growing technology driven globalized culture with global economy, English is the global language of ‘international contact and relations’ to have travelled across cultures and communities, ‘bounds and borders’ to pierce through the remotest corner of the earth and touch the outer most parts of the sky with all its glory to enjoy heyday of power. English in India has for itself established strong links of trust between locals at the deepest level and the people across the globe in the broadest sense. Taking into account the socio-linguistic aspects of language-mixing/ code-mixing in ads, songs, movies, media and in the daily discourse mechanism of any Indian speaker, let us make a comprehensive analysis of these aspects and their effect in relation to the attitude, mode, culture, behavior, taste of locals along with citizens across the cultures around the globe. The paper explores the way English mixes and interacts with regional varieties of Indian languages to capture the essence of Indian spirit and sensibility. The paper analyses how identity of ‘English’ in India has to be reconsidered in the perspectives of the recent trends in its usage in digital platforms, internet, social networking sites, movies, business and corporate market. The paper also suggests some innovations in teaching methodologies to be adopted in the language classrooms to make the students practice writing for online transactions enabling them to develop written abilities for further career prospects and growth of business.
Keywords: digital platforms, social networking sites, language innovations, socio-linguistic concerns, code-mixed English usage, work place competency
