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GLOBAL ENGLISHES GLOBAL ENGLISHES PHAN, THE HUNG Ph D in Linguistics Why a global language? ‘English is the global language ’ • English is a global language, they would say You hear it on television s.
GLOBAL ENGLISHES PHAN, THE HUNG Ph.D in Linguistics Why a global language? ‘English is the global language.’ • English is a global language, they would say You hear it on television spoken by politicians from all over the world Wherever you travel, you see English signs and advertisements Whenever you enter a hotel or restaurant in a foreign city, they will understand English, and there will be an English menu (cont.) • There are two main ways in which this can be done • Firstly, a language can be made the official language of a country, to be used as a medium of communication in such domains as government, the law courts, the media, and the educational system • To get on in these societies, it is essential to master the official language as early in life as possible Such a language is often described as a ‘second language’, because it is seen as a complement to a person’s mother tongue, or ‘first language’ (cont.) • English continues to make news daily in many countries • For what does it mean, exactly? Is it saying that everyone in the world speaks English? • Is it saying, then, that every country in the world recognizes English as an official language? • So what does it mean to say that a language is a global language? Why is English the language which is usually cited in this connection? How did the situation arise? And could it change? Or is it the case that, once a language becomes a global language, it is there for ever? • ➔‘Look what the Americans have done to English’ is a not uncommon comment found in the letter-columns of the British press But similar comments can be heard in the USA when people encounter the sometimes striking variations in English which are emerging all over the world What is a global language? • To achieve such a status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the world They must decide to give it a special place within their communities, even though they may have few (or no) mother-tongue speakers (cont.) • The role of an official language is today best illustrated by English, which now has some kind of special status in over seventy countries, such as Ghana, Nigeria, India, Singapore and Vanuatu • This is far more than the status achieved by any other language – though French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic are among those which have also developed a considerable official use New political decisions on the matter continue to be made: for example, Rwanda gave English official status in 1996 • Secondly, a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even though this language has no official status (cont.) • English is now the language most widely taught as a foreign language – in over 100 countries, such as China, Russia, Germany, Spain, Egypt and Brazil • In most of these countries, English is emerging as the chief foreign language to be encountered in schools, often displacing another language in the process • In1996, for example, English replaced French as the chief foreign language in schools in Algeria (a former French colony) (cont.) • Great variation in the reasons for choosing a particular language as a favored foreign language: historical tradition, political expediency, and the desire for commercial, cultural or technological contact • When chosen, the ‘presence’ of the language can vary greatly, depending (a government or foreign-aid agency) on adequate financial support to a language-teaching policy • ➔Resources devoted to helping people have access to the language through the media, libraries, schools, and institutes of higher education➔ increase in the number and quality of teachers able to teach the language • ➔Books, tapes, computers, telecommunication systems and all kinds of teaching materials will be increasingly available (cont.) ➔Distinctions such as those between ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘foreign’ language status are useful, but not a simplistic interpretation ➔In particular, it is important to avoid interpreting the distinction between ‘second’ and ‘foreign’ language use as a difference in fluency or ability ➔ native speakers vs non-native speakers (dialects and accent) Introduction to Global Englishes • Queen Elizabeth I in 1603 to Queen Elizabeth II in the early part of the twenty-first century ➔ the number of speakers of English : to million to possibly as many as billion • English spoken in the mid-sixteenth century only by a relatively small group of mother tongue speakers born and bred within the shores of the British Isles ➔ now spoken in almost every country of the world • Currently, approximately 75 territories where English spoken either as a first language (L1), or as an official (i.e institutionalized) second language (L2) in fields such as government, law, and education (Crystal 2003a, 2012a) Models and descriptions of the spread of English English-speaking countries in Africa Kachru’s Three Models of World Englishes • • • • • • The “Inner Circle” USA: 245,800,000 UK: 57,006,000 Canada: 25,880,000 Australia: 16,470,000 New Zealand: 3,366,000 The “Outer Circle” • • • • • • • • • • • • Bangladesh: 107,756,000 Ghana: 13,754,000 India: 810,806,000 Kenya: 22,919,000 Malaysia: 16,965,000 Nigeria: 112,258,000 Pakistan: 109,434,000 Philippines: 58,723,000 Singapore: 2,641,000 Sri Lanka: 16,606,000 Tanzania: 23,996,000 Zambia: 7,384,000 The “Expanding Circle” • • • • • • • • • • • China: 1,088,200,000 Egypt: 50,273,000 Indonesia: 175,904,000 Israel: 4,512,000 Japan: 122,620,000 Korea: 42,593,000 Nepal: 18,004,000 Saudi Arabia: 12,972,000 Taiwan: 19,813,000 USSR: 285,796,000 Zimbabwe: 8,878,000 (cont.) • Uniform for all countries within a particular circle? Even within the Inner Circle, countries differ in the amount of linguistic diversity they contain (e.g there is far more diversity in the US than in the UK) • In the Outer Circle, countries differ in a number of respects such as whether English is spoken mainly by an élite, as in India, or is more widespread, as in Singapore; or whether it is spoken by a single L1 group leading to one variety of English as in Bangladesh, or by several different L1 groups leading to several varieties of English as in India Standard Language Ideology in the Anglophone World • Standard language and language standards • the variety of a language that is considered to be the norm • the optimum for educational purposes and used as a yardstick against which other varieties of the language are measured • Being a prestige variety, a standard language is spoken by a minority of people within a society, typically those occupying positions of power • Language standards are the reverse side of the standard language coin These are the prescriptive language rules which together constitute the standard, and to which all members of a language community are exposed and urged to conform during education, regardless of their local variety Four stages Selection: a social and political process, invariably led by those in power, and subsequently reinforces and further promotes their interests over those of speakers of other (by definition ‘non-standard’) varieties Codification • Once selection has taken place, the variety chosen to represent the standard has to be ‘fixed’ in grammar books and dictionaries so that those people who wish to use the language ‘correctly’ have access to its standard forms Elaboration of function • To fulfill its role, the standard variety has to be capable of performing a wide range of institutional and literary functions particularly, though not exclusively, in government, law, education, science, and literature At the elaboration stage, then, new lexical items are added and new conventions developed to fill any gaps Acceptance • Clearly, unless the relevant population accept the selected variety as their standard and, most probably, their national language, all will have been in vain What is standard English? The dialect of educated people throughout the British Isles It is the dialect normally used in writing, for teaching in schools and universities, and heard on radio and television (Hughes and Trudgill 1979, repeated in the second edition, 1996) The variety of the English language which is normally employed in writing and normally spoken by ‘educated’ speakers of the language It is also, of course, the variety of the language that students of English as a Foreign or Second Language (EFL/ESL) are taught when receiving formal instruction ➔The term Standard English refers to grammar and vocabulary (dialect) but not to pronunciation (accent) (Trudgill and Hannah 1982, and repeated in the fourth edition, 2002) Standard English can be characterized by saying that it is that set of grammatical and lexical forms which is typically used in speech and writing by educated native speakers It includes the use of colloquial and slang vocabulary as well as swear-words and taboo expressions [The term] ‘Standard English’ is potentially misleading for at least two reasons First, in order to be selfexplanatory, it really ought to be called ‘the grammar and the core vocabulary of educated usage in English’ That would make plain the fact that it is not the whole of English, and above all, it is not pronunciation that can in any way be labelled ‘Standard’, but only one part of English: its grammar and vocabulary (Strevens 1985) (cont.) Since the 1980s, the notion of ‘standard’ has come to the fore in public debate about the English language We may define the Standard English of an English speaking country as a minority variety (identified chiefly by its vocabulary, grammar and orthography) which carries most prestige and is most widely understood (Crystal 1995, repeated in the second edition, 2003b) Traditionally the medium of the upper and (especially professional) middle class, and by and large of education Although not limited to one accent (most notably in recent decades), it has been associated since at least the nineteenth century with the accent that, since the 1920s, has been called Received Pronunciation (RP), and with the phrases the Queen’s English, the King’s English, Oxford English, and BBC English (McArthur 2002) The kind of English in which all native speakers learn to read and write although most not actually speak it (Trudgill and Hannah fifth edition, 2008) • THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! ... 13, 754,000 India: 810,806,000 Kenya: 22,919,000 Malaysia: 16,965,000 Nigeria: 112,258,000 Pakistan: 109, 434 ,000 Philippines: 58,7 23, 000 Singapore: 2,641,000 Sri Lanka: 16,606,000 Tanzania: 23, 996,000... native speakers vs non-native speakers (dialects and accent) Introduction to Global Englishes • Queen Elizabeth I in 16 03 to Queen Elizabeth II in the early part of the twenty-first century ➔ the... Kachru’s Three Models of World Englishes • • • • • • The “Inner Circle” USA: 245,800,000 UK: 57,006,000 Canada: 25,880,000 Australia: 16,470,000 New Zealand: 3, 366,000 The “Outer Circle” • •