World Englishes Jennifer Jenkins

1. World EnglishesJennifer Jenkins A resource book for students

2. B. Development Implications and issues

3. B1: The legacy of colonialism • The devaluing of local language and culture • Assumption of the inferiority of the indigenous language and culture vs. the superiority of the colonisers and their language • Lack of confidence with L2 users of English, inferiority complex (Medgyes 1994) • The loss of ethnic identity • Destruction of the ethnic identities of colonised peoples • Loss of indigenous languages (heritage languages) as markers of identity • Loss of place (ethnic homeland) as markers of identity B1

4. B2: Characteristics of pidgins and creoles • Lexis • Drawn from lexifier language (usually a European language) • Systematic and rule-governed • Concepts encoded in lengthier ways • Extensive use of reduplication • Pronunciation • Fewer sounds • Simplification of consonant clusters • Conflation • Large number of homophones B2

5. Characteristics of pidgins and creoles • Grammar • Few inflections in nouns, pronouns, verbs and adjectives • Simple negative particle for negation • Uncomplicated clause structure • Development of pidgins  creoles • Assimilation and reduction • Expansion of vocabulary • Development of tense system in verbs • Greater sentence complexity B2

6. Characteristics of pidgins and creoles • Social functions • Wide range of social functions beyond the original purpose to serve as basic contact languages • Literature (written and oral) • Education • Mass media • Advertising • The Bible B2

7. B3: The English Today debate • English  Englishes • Outer Circle Englishes still regularly regarded as • Interlanguage: learner language which has not yet reached the target • Fossilised language: language used when learning has ceased short of native-like competence • Expanding Circle Englishes even less accepted B3

8. The English Today debate • Controversy between Randolph Quirk and Braj Kachru, English Today journal, early 1990s • Non-native Englishes as ‘deficit’: Quirk: ‘Language varieties and standard language’ • Non-native Englishes are inadequately learned versions of ‘correct’ native English forms • Non-native Englishes are not valid as teaching models • Non-native Englishes as ‘difference’: Kachru: ‘Liberation linguistics and the Quirk Concern’ • Criticizes Quirk’s deficit linguistics position • Highlights four false assumptions of Quirk’s argument B3

9. B4: The legitimate and illegitimate offspring of English • The naming of the New Englishes • World Englishes scholar Mufwene (1997) • Criticism of western linguists’ terminology • Based on mistaken belief of language contact: mother language gives birth to daughter language without any language contact • Language contact also a feature of ‘legitimate’ Englishes B4

10. The legitimate and illegitimate offspring of English • Innovation – Deviation – Mistake • Distinction by Kachru (1992) • Innovation: concerned with creativity, which is often not granted to Outer and Expanding Circle speakers • Deviation: involves a comparison with another variety • Mistake (‘error’): relates to acquisitional deficiency B4

11. B5: Standards across space Three ‘standard’ Englishes: Britain, North America and Australia  similarities and differences - across the three standards - across varieties of English within Britain and North America B5

12. Vocabulary = most noticeable level of divergence NAmE and BrE • Early settlers introduced new words via • Extending meaning of existing English words (e.g. corn, robin) • Creating new words (e.g. buttle) • Borrowing from indigenous languages (e.g. moccasin, squash, toboggan) • Developments since independence of US • technological innovation (e.g. NAmE: windshield, hood, trunk vs. BrE: windscreen, bonnet, boot) B5

13. Categories of lexical differencesin EngEng and USEng Trudgill and Hannah 2002: • Same word, different meaning • Same word, additional meaning in one variety • Same word, difference in style, connotation, frequency of use • Same concept or item, different word B5

14. Australian English • Borrowings from aboriginal languages (e.g. kangaroo, boomerang) some now widely known; especially for fauna and flora; now regarded as quintessentially Australian • Words with different meanings • Different slang words and phrases • Many abbreviations, clippings B5

15. Differences in grammar USEng and EngEng (Trudgill and Hannah 2002) • Verbs: morphology, auxiliaries • Nouns: noun endings, using verbs as nouns • Adjectives and adverbs • Prepositions B5

16. Standard English and dialects • Lexical and grammatical differences trivial? • Dialects mostly different in pronunciation • Grammatical structures in British dialects • Verb phrase • Adverbs • Negation • Pronouns • Attitudes towards standard and non-standard varieties B5

17. B6: Native and non-native speakers of English Arguments against using the terms ‘native speaker’ and ‘non-native speaker’: • Implies that monolingualism is norm (although multilingualism is widespread) • Multlingual repertoires: L1/L2/L3 increasingly blurry • Implies that order of acquisition determines proficiency • Anglo speaker seen as reference point • Implies a unidirectional power relationship • Encourages simplistic view of what an error is • Negative perception of/among ‘NNSs’ • Image of ideal NS B6

18. The NS as target for language learning: resulting questions • Who is the NS of a standard language? • Speaking English – not related to cultural identity? • Regional accents accepted in NSs, regarded as poor acquisition in NNSs? • Having to sound ‘more British than the British’? • EFL vs. ELF – an important distinction? B6

19. Alternatives to the NS/NNS distinction Rampton 1990: • ‘experts’  expertise • Advantages: does not require identification, learned rather than fixed or innate, relative, partial, can be challenged • Disadvantages: ‘non-expert’  value judgement B6

20. Alternatives to the NS/NNS distinction Jenkins 1996, 2000: • Monolingual English Speaker (MES) • Bilingual English Speaker (BES) • Non-Bilingual English Speaker (NBES) Advantages: • MES less favourable than BES  monolingualism is not the preferable target • Removes L1/L2 distinction Disadvantages: Problematic distinction between BES and NBES B6

21. B7: En route to new Standard EnglishesCodification of Asian Englishes • Importance of codification • Acceptance, prestige, classroom model • Obstacles in codification – SLA perspective: • Indigenised varieties of English (IVEs) regarded as ‘interlanguages’ • Goal of SLA = native-like competence • NS input sufficient for acquisition • SLA process without reference to L2 functions • Role of L1  interference • Motivation for acquisition ‘integrative’, i.e. admiration of NS, desire to become member of culture B7

22. IVE settings differ from SLA concepts • IVE settings: • Target: no longer NS, but other NNSs • Input is IVE (not NS) • Multilingual settings, diglossic situation • English does not serve all functions, other local languages present • Motivation for learning: instrumental not integrative B7

23. The SLA paradigm • SLA: ‘Interlanguage’ (Selinker 1972) • Unstable learner language or • Fossilised learner language • IVEs = fossilised interlanguage (IL) competences • Criticized e.g. by Y. Kachru and Canagarajah B7

24. B8: Possible future scenarios:English Language Complex (ELC) Mesthrie and Bhatt (2008) • Metropolitan standards • Colonial standards • Regional and social dialects • Pidgin Englishes and Creole Englishes • English as a second language (ESL) • English as a foreign language (EFL) • Immigrant Englishes • Language-shift Englishes • Jargon Englishes • Hybrid Englishes B8

25. Convergence or divergence? • Crystal (1997, 2002): • Increased diversification, but • World Standard Spoken English (WSSE) • Trudgill (1998): • Increasing convergence in lexis (American influence) • Unclear situation in grammar • Diversification in phonology • Mainly refers to Inner Circle Englishes B8