Native English speakers are often unfairly advantaged in today's multinationals. We look at the problem of linguistic privilege and how companies can deal with it.

"Half the languages of the world are likely to die out in the next 100 years - and if this happens it would be a true intellectual disaster. The world is a mosaic of visions, expressed through language. If even one language is lost, it is awful."

David Crystal, author of English as a Global Language.

Native speakers of English often have an unfair advantage in meetings

One of the prominent features of privilege is that, as well as being unearned, it is unacknowledged. If you are benefiting from the rules you are blissfully unaware that others are disadvantaged by them.

You enjoy a privileged position and because of this you continue to advance and receive benefit while others fall further behind. Probably you are completely oblivious to this privilege, and would deny its existence if confronted.

Australian sociologist Professor Bob Pease says that given that the flipside of oppression and social exclusion is privilege, the lack of critical interrogation of the position of privilege allows those receiving the most benefit to reinforce their dominance. In other words – when you hold all the cards, you don't have to cut anyone else in on the deal.

Think this doesn't happen, or only happens to other people? What's your mother tongue? Chances are if it is English - and in particular if you are working in one of today's multinational firms - you are enjoying the unearned and unacknowledged privilege described above. And your non-native English-speaking peers are falling further and further behind.

How did this dominance develop? According to research done by prominent linguist David Crystal, the present-day world status of English is primarily the result of two factors: the expansion of British colonial power, which peaked towards the end of the nineteenth century, and the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power of the twentieth century. The privileged position of the US combined with rapidly expanding internet use continues to drive English linguistic dominance today.

English is the third most common first language in the world (after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish) and is spoken by around 400 million people world wide. A whopping 600 million more speak it as a second language.  One in five of the world's population speaks English with a good level of competence and presently 250 million Chinese - almost the population of the US - are learning English on TV.

How does linguistic privilege manifest itself? Sometimes it's overt. A German executive in a British multinational firm was part of a 10-person European task force. The language of the meetings was English, and discussions were invariably dominated by the two team members from the United Kingdom (the group's only native English speakers). When she asked one of them to speak a little more slowly, she was told: 'It is assumed if you are at this meeting that you have a language level sufficient to follow the discussions. If not, perhaps you should not be here'.

Linguist David Crystal believes half the world's languages may die by 2100

This same arrogance is often observed at international conferences. The microphones are disproportionately claimed by native English speakers, as those for whom it is a second (or often third, fourth or fifth) language hang back, embarrassed to reveal their linguistic shortcomings in a group of their peers. This often results in a skewed, Anglo-Saxon view of the world and its challenges, and prevents any real diversity of opinion.

The same effect is observed online – chat groups and forums are overwhelmingly conducted in English (60 percent of web pages today are in English, as are 60 percent of all Google enquiries) which in no way reflects the fact that fewer than 10 percent of the world's 6.5 billion people speak English as their native tongue.

One area where the inability to accommodate speakers of other languages is costing real money is in the field of knowledge management. Company intranets, educational journals, global think-tanks and multilateral agencies all use English as their main, or often sole, language.

According to Konosuke Matsushita, founder of electronics giant Matsushita Electric, "Business is now so complex and difficult, the survival of firms so hazardous in an environment increasingly unpredictable, and fraught with danger, that their continued existence depends on the day-to-day mobilisation of every ounce of intelligence." If this is true, what about all the intelligence that we can't even begin to access, because of our insistence it is communicated in English?

Only when those benefiting from English language privilege acknowledge their advantages can an atmosphere of inclusion be created. One way firms can help is by looking carefully at factors which contribute to linguistic privilege. Is mastery of English essential to getting ahead in the company? What privileges do native English speakers get which are denied to non-native speakers? Are native speaker employees tolerant of non-native speakers?

It is important to eliminate 'unearned advantage' at all levels if companies want to capitalise on the wealth of resources, talents and abilities within their workforce. Reducing unearned advantage at the personal level starts with becoming aware.

Mary van der Boon is founder and principal of global tmc international management training & consulting based in the Netherlands (www.globaltmc.com), specialising in international HR, intercultural management and diversity. She is a native English speaker.

April 2005

Updated 2007

Subject: linguistic privilege, native speakers of English