The Three Language Formula

Abstract

This paper is organizes in two parts: theoretical considerations followed by a discussion of the three-language formula with its focus on the teaching of English as a second language in India. For purposes of this paper we would like to look at language as a network of socio-cultural relations. Language examined from this point of view is not a monolithic system but a network polysystemic and multidimensional relations. A multilingual setting, by definition, has not just one network but a number of networks interacting with one another and in that process enriching, modifying, and redefining one another's values. Languages in contact in a multilingual setting form a system network. Each language in this network represents a bundle of features and has a contrastive value based on the role's played and function(s) performed by it relative to the roles played and functions performed by others languages. What we are trying to establish is that each language or language-variety has a system-determined value.