How are writers becoming tech engineers these days? Their strong proficiency in English has positioned them for new and lucrative roles in AI, such as prompt engineers. In this article, we outline the importance of English language proficiency online, and why English is still the most dominant language in tech.
As of January 2023 and according to Statista, “English was the most popular language for web content, representing nearly 60% of websites”, and outranked the next popular language, Russia, by 10-fold. However, only around 15% of the world’s population speaks English (Source: Lingoda), which suggests that English continues to dominate the digital space.
In the Caribbean region, and in the English-speaking Caribbean in particular, there have been longstanding concerns about the declining proficiency in the English language, evidenced by the low grades students have been scoring in the regional secondary school examination, and the resulting complaints at tertiary-level institutions and in the workplace. Due to the rise of digital media, including social networks, text-to-audio capabilities, the autocorrect features in many software applications, and the still-rising popularity of video content, there has been a sense that we, humans and native English speakers, no longer need to be fully proficient in English.
However, a few months ago, on the heels of the public release of Chat GPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs), Andrej Karpathy, a former Director of Tesla, tweeted, “The hottest new programming language is English”, and he included excerpts of articles to support his claim.
To a considerable degree, the importance of English has been overshadowed by multilingualism and the continuing thrust to ensure that there is language diversity online. Organisations, such as UNESCO, have been concerned that about half of the world’s 6,000 languages could disappear by the end of the 21st century. The internet, where virtually anyone can be a content creator, was seen as a medium through which to not only document those languages, but also share them with the world to keep them alive. As a result, there has not been much focus on English, but Karpathy, comment caused many to re-examine English and its importance in the digital world.
1. English is the language of IT
History, many of the important technological advancements that have emerged in the last half of the 21st century occurred in the United States of America, a native English-speaking country. As a result, much of the technology that has been created has been built with English as the base. Further, new recruits in tech companies, regardless of their country of origin, would need to demonstrate sound proficiency in English, and in many countries, advanced tech courses are taught in English.
Additionally, many of the recognised international certifications and accreditation in the tech space are offered in English. Hence being able to understand and communicate well in English is a strategic advantage for those who are eager to be marketable to international firms or in top tech locations.
2. English is the language of most programming code
Following the previous point, most computer programming languages tend to be English based, such as popular programming languages, such as Java, PHP, Python, Ruby and even C++. In many instances, these languages are developed by English speakers, and those who are not native English speakers would already know in order to code in English, and so continued in that vein when developing new languages.
As a result, most of the popular programmes or software applications are built on an English base and are later upgraded to support other languages. However, to make fundamental changes to an application, at the coding level, understanding English is essential.
3. The main language of prompt engineering is English
With the emergence of LLMs and natural language processing (NLP), prompt engineering – the skill of developing, refining and optimizing Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated text prompts – is being seen as its own discipline. A well-crafted prompt can increase the likelihood that the AI platform will produce outputs that are accurate, relevant and to the quality envisaged, without the need for countless iterations and refinement of the initial question or prompt.
Once again, due to the fact that many of these LLMs and machine learning systems were initially developed in English and so leveraging English-based application programming interfaces (APIs) and libraries, there is a distinct benefit in being able to prepare well-crafted prompts in English. Further, it ought to be noted that good prompt engineers are earning very lucrative incomes these days. They do not necessarily need to have advanced programming skills, but excellent writing and communications skills in English are essential.
4. English is essential to be cutting edge in tech
Finally, this point is often overlooked, but often, articles and reports on the latest development are first written in English. Those who are proficient in English would be able to stay abreast of these developments when they are published. For those who are not proficient, it may take months for conference papers, research articles and content from leading trade publications to be translated into other languages, by which time the information may no longer be as relevant or as topical.
Image credit: Biljana Jovanovic (Pixabay)
