The hegemony of English in science and technology

Abstract

Abstract It is clear that English exercises a powerful hegemony in certain transnational domains, including (but not limited to) the international register of science and technology. There are a number of complex issues created by that hegemony of English. Both proximate and distal causes underlying the hegemony of English are briefly explored. A research project (conducted with the cooperation of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) based on a questionnaire survey of all the members of the relatively small Hungarian Academy of Sciences and of a random sample of ‘Doctors of Science’ in Hungary is reported. Dr. Peter Medgyes collected and analysed the Hungarian data, which has been reported in detail in Kaplan & Medgyes (1992); only a cursory summary is presented here. The data show that the ability of Hungarian scientists to be heard beyond Hungary can be differentiated on the basis of their relative English proficiency. The data also show, incidentally, that 40 years of required Russian study in Hungarian educational institutions has not succeeded in disseminating Russian through the Hungarian population. It is suggested that the Hungarian data pose an object lesson for other developing nations seeking access to scientific and technological information as a means to modernisation. Since this paper was initially presented at a language policy/planning conference in Brunei, the implications for that nation are briefly reviewed.