ENGLISH SECTION B

World Englishes

different varieties of English that have existed for a while, and due to colonial rule by Britain.

English as a lingua franca (ELF)

a language that speakers have in common which is no-one’s first language.

First diaspora

English spread in the British Isles to USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Settled in large numbers as migrants, first language (L1).

Second diaspora

Smaller groups of English speakers settle in South Asia and parts of West, East, and South Africa. Used as means of communication, initially as a lingua franca, then adopted as an official second language (L2).

Dispersal and Migration

• David Crystal: 400M L1, 400M L2, 600-700M ELF

• English as a language coincided with the arrival of people, political trade, religion, and violence. 

• Imposition of language is not just a linguistic decision but a political one too.

• Some view it as a violent, oppressive, colonial regime. Others view it as a tool to give them access to an international future.

Pidgin

Made up of elements of different languages. Generally develop in situations of trade, colonization, enslavement. Ex; pidgins in the Caribbean are deep rooted into slavery. Slaves were separated and grouped with others who did not speak the same language, causing them to develop a contact language to communicate.

Creoles

• When a pidgin becomes a native language. Ex; when children are born to pidgin speakers, and evolves within communities.

• Often seen as inferior forms of language.

Braj Kachru Model of World English

• Native speakers in the centre, World Englishes in the outer circle, and EFL in the expanding circle.

• Developed because the different types of Englishes were being lumped together, newer varieties were seen as deficient.

• Kachru revised his original model by breaking the circles apart and having them as overlapping rings to avoid the suggestion of the inner circle being privileged.

How English Varies Around the World

1. Phonology - accents

2. Vocabulary - often mix English with native language, different meanings exist for the same word in other English-speaking countries (trousers/pants)

3. Grammar - limited marking of plurals and past tense

The Lingua Franca Core

Jennifer Jenkins 

• The focus for English teaching should be on those features which most affect the intelligibility of speakers. 

• Essential elements - consonant sounds, long and short vowel sounds

Cross Cultural Misunderstanding

CASE STUDY

• Chinese and Western speakers have different views of how discourse should be organized.

• Chinese speakers believe information needs to be built up before a conclusion.

• Western speakers set a view then back it up later on.

• Chinese speakers think Westerners will lose the attention of listeners, Western speakers think Chinese speakers are not being straightforward.

Attitudes to English

1. David Crystal: The momentum of English’s growth has become ‘so great that there is nothing likely to stop it’s continued as a global lingua franca’. 

2. Graddol: The current global wave of English may lose momentum.

3. McArthur: English is going a radical change around the world that it is fragmenting into a ‘family of languages’.

4. Nicholas Ostler: English will go the same way as other powerful languages in history. American and British power declines = loses its pre-eminent role. ‘Everyone will speak and write in whatever language they choose, and the world will understand’ due to the rise of technology.

5. Mario Saraceni: Describes the ‘spread’ of English as ‘relocation’ instead. We should stop looking to the UK and USA for the rules of ‘correct language’.

Language Change Around the World

• David Crystal: All languages are subject to change. Languages have no existence apart from those who use them. The English language has changed because it’s users have changed.

TECHNOLOGY & CHANGING MODES OF COMMUNICATION

• John McWhorter: Spoken language has had the opportunity to be made more like written language, but until the advent of digital technology and computer mediated communication (CMC), written language has not had the chance to be influenced by spoken language.

Language Change and the Individual

• Guy Deutscher: Three factors that can drive gradual change;

1. Expressiveness: users feel the need to create greater effect for utterances and extend range of meanings.

2. Economy: the tendency to save effort in communication.

3. Analogy: people invent new terms and make them fit into patterns.

The Way Changes Spread

1. Functional Theory: language changes to suit the needs of its users, so as new words and mores of communication arrive to suit our changing world. Older words drop out of use. 

2. Random Fluctuation Theory: language change is not a logical and ordered process. The spread of a new form of language (ex; slang) might be rapid and widespread or only exist among small groups of people. Language change consists of two stages; innovation and diffusion.

3. S Curve: The new form gradually increases in use before rapidly taking off and becoming mainstream.

4. Wave Model: The new form starts at the centre and its use gradually spreads like ripples on a pond towards users further away, becoming weaker and reflected in fewer people. Measured by; geographic distance, age, ethnicity, social class, etc.