World Englishes
The concept of World Englishes has been receiving a lot of attention since the past few years. This literature review presents some of the recent studies that were focused on this topic.
The local forms of English that gets developed because of the local language blended with English, which eventually turns into the standard language of a particular society or a religion, are defined as World Englishes. Also, the terms ‘World English’ & ‘World Englishes’ are different from each other. While the term ‘World English’ denotes English language as a lingua franca (ELF), the term ‘World Englishes’ is something which denotes different forms of English adopted by various global societies.
World Englishes vary drastically from the Standard English language – the world’s highly popular form of English. Standard English possesses specific grammar and terminology, because of which it is different from the World Englishes. Standard English is the global language that is extensively used in education, business, aviation, entertainment and many other industries that have global establishments.
This Standard English is also known by the name EIL (English as International Language), which is popularly referred to as EAL (English as Additional Language). EAL typically is based upon the either the American Standard English or the British Standard English. The primary objective of EIL is to learn and teach English with various intelligible forms – rather than relying or following one standard form and this form of teach is believed to equip learners with the necessary accommodative ability that would further enable them to communicate globally.
The contemporary concept of EIL is not a new one that has emerged overnight, but is rather a subject that has evolved in a progressive manner in English language’s history. Language and culture, being relatively independent phenomena, are connected via the meaning of the linguistic signs that ensures the ontological entity of language and culture. Each language is the unique system that produces significant impact on the consciousness of its speakers and forms their linguistic world-image that reflects reality via the cultural world-image.
International English is typically used to denote the local Englishes of those non–mother tongue nations where it has an intra-national institutionalized role, despite a few researchers also having included the nations having English as mother tongue in their definitions. Contrary to this, international English is also referred to in a different connotation wherein English is used as a medium of global communication across national as well as language boundaries.
As English gets its existing status at a global level and creates for itself a pivotal role that is being acknowledged by each and every global nation, different terms related to its various features appeared, encompassing English as an international language. “English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), World Englishes (WEs), and English as an International Language (EIL) are a few such variants of the English language.”
With each of these variants of the English language focusing on different features of the role played by English, EIL is achieving the status of a global standard and is being established as the most suitable form used to refer to the most of the usages of the English language.
In his article titled World Englishes and Applied Linguistics that was published in the year 1990, Karachu highlights the fast paced spread of English globally as a primary language for communication has certainly inspired the increased interest on the subject while in the same breath, it has also aided in stirring a debate in relation to the status of English language in its variety of forms that are popular globally, which are popularly known as World Englishes (WE).
In this article, Karachu explores the issue of the relationship that is present between WE and Applied linguistics. English, as mentioned by Karachu, has diffused in relation to three different concentric circles. These are namely:
The Inner Circle (L1 varieties, e.g. the USA and the UK),
The Outer Circle (ESL varieties), and
The Expanding Circle (EFL varieties).
Karachu’s discussion is primarily limited to the Outer Circle wherein the traditional non-native varieties of the English language are used in both the multilingual as well as the multicultural contexts. The author’s highlights four important issues. They are the theoretical angle, applied, societal and ideological contexts.
Since the early 1950s, there has been considerable activity in the field of linguistic sciences, specifically in terms of analysis as well as depiction of two pivotal forms of the English language. They are namely American English and British English. Widespread data banks have been established on English language at the research centers at the Birmingham, Brown, and London universities, among others.
Likewise, it was also reported in this study about the development of similar data banks in a few Asian as well as African universities. The highest number of applied linguists in different global nations are essentially working in contexts related to ESL/EFL. Also, at a few locations, ‘applied linguistics’ as a term is often erroneously associated with ESL/EFL teaching.
The research in relation to second and first-language acquisition, as well as various other aspects of sociolinguistics has essentially focused on English. In addition to this, the interdisciplinary areas of “stylistics, and bilingual and monolingual lexicography” have also intensely focused on the English language.
The major inferences that were obtained from the translation theory are essentially a result of the translation of texts that were written originally in English, into other world languages, and vice-a-versa. Oversimplifications about natural languages, their fundamental aspects as well as the like groups of language universals normally are initiated with exploration of and examples from English language.
In summary, in terms of linguistic and sociolinguistic contexts, the study inferred that the field of linguistics as well as its practical applications are closely association to one predominant language of our time and the same is English. In addition, almost the entire range of applied linguistic research, its merits and demerits, can be elucidated with reference to the English language. It can even be stated that in the last forty odd years have been the era of English globally.
Karachu also mentions that the strength of English lies in its multicultural specificity rather than in its culture-specificity like being referred to as American English or British English, or its non-culture-specificity in relation to the formal and functional characteristics displayed by the language as in the case of South Asia or the Philippines. It is these specific characteristics that have given the English language its distinct cultural identities in various parts of the world like Africa and Asia along and also it is important for any profound research on WE to recognize this fact.
The debate related to World Englishes resulted in various related spin-offs of research related to English as a lingua Franca, teaching World Englishes along with increased focus on teacher education. The increased usage of English in the global platform is not just linked with just the Expanding Circle, but it also comprises of native speakers along with a few members of the Outer Circle English. Today, English is considered to be the most appropriate form of communication among people hailing for various cultural backgrounds who native language is not English, thus garnering the name as “‘English as an International Language (EIL)’ or ‘English as a Lingua Franca’.”
Scholar like Jenkins (Jenkins J., 2000) and Seidlhofer have made substantial amount of contributions to this particular issue through their insightful research, the results of which have been made available to the world in the form of articles and books. The most notable among these is ‘The phonology of English as an International language’ authored by Jenkins and the “Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE)” of Seidlhofer.
Both the above mentioned works by these two authors assess the usage of ELF speakers from varied cultural backgrounds. Jenkins study highlights the various pronunciation errors that resulted in intelligibility issues while also detailing those which did not result in any such issues. Similarly, Seidlhofer’s focused on the ELF lexicogrammar and attempted to identify those items that had a frequent usage, but in a different way, particularly in the case of native speakers.
Both Jenkins and Seidlhofer apparently have focused specifically on the uses that did not result in any sort of communication problems. This was more an endeavor to highlight the sociolinguistic actuality of specially the Expanding Circle, which is basically the largest group. Even though both these scholars did not intend to showcase ELF as a World English, a few scholars of World Englishes misinterpreted ELF to be serving that purpose. One important aspect that is noteworthy in this particular context is the studies of these scholars is that the affliction- having differentiated World Englishes and Standard English, is not on the Expanding Circle alone, but on both the Outer as well as the Inner Circle as well.
The debate related to World Englishes have also raised questions regarding teaching as well as teacher education. There are also people who wonder on what sort of English or Which style of English is to be taught, specifically in the Expanding Circle. If for instance, Turkish English is being taught to students for proper usage of English in an American school, the most appropriate answer will be none other than American English. However, if the objective is to empower the students in cross-cultural communication, then it is more relevant if English is taught, as it would eventually help them understand and put up with several varieties of accent with increased exposure.
It is also important that teachers create adequate degree of awareness among the students as well also teaching them various strategies that help in effective cross-cultural communication. Another equally important point for teachers to note is they should develop increased tolerance of variations in the language, while also adjusting their expectations based on the situation and environment.
In terms of the use of English in the Middle East nations, a few studies have highlighted the importance of Linguistic landscape (LL), which is believed to be an important guide for foreigners as well as researchers in the field of WE. This is so because LL offers a better understanding of the usage of English language in various global locations, the respective cultures of each location where English is being used, as well as the hierarchical association that has an impact on the local trade, education, tourism, as well as the public perception regarding the same.
In a study conducted by Ali Alfaifi , the pivotal role played by LL and the use of English language in its LL. As already noted above, LL plays a pivotal role in guiding and steering travelers towards a particular area or a locality which the traveler had not planned to visit with considerable ease and convenience. This being the case, LL was used as a double-edge sword for improving the popularity of Khamis Muhayt, a place in Saudi Arabia as this place had transformed into a commercial hub as well as a highly preferred tourist locality for many people visiting Saudi Arabia. Though Khamis Muhayt was a conservative city, it has transformed into what it is today due to the advent of globalization. The study concluded that in the two selected areas within Khamis Muhayt namely the Tourist destination (TD) and the commercial Zone (CZ), the most dominant language in both places of the city was the native language Arabic.
LL also facilitates an interchange of the experiences and evidence along with also playing a pivotal role in offering tourists and foreigners with the correct guidelines that help them in navigating the path they aimed to travel. Thus, migrating through a several multicultural and multilingual global localities like the United States or even travelling in a small village or a Tier-2 city for the first time in life, it is almost an unavoidable circumstance for tourists or travelers to either get lost or at least obtain an inappropriate idea of that particular area in which they are travelling, unless there are clear and publicly visible road signs and street names that are put up in those areas.
References
Aimin, L. (2013). The Study of Second Language Acquisition Under Socio-Cultural Theory. American Journal of Educational Research, 1(5), 162-167. Retrieved January 17, 2016, from http://pubs.sciepub.com/education/1/5/3/#
Alfaifi, A. (2015). Linguistic Landscape: The Use of English in Khamis Mushait Saudi Arabia. Fredonia: State University of New York.
Ecclestone, J. D. (2008). English - Language Literature Review. In O. Publishing, Teaching, Learning and Assessment for Adults: Improving Foundation Skills. OCED Publishing. Retrieved January 26, 2016, from http://www.oecd.org/edu/ceri/40046731.pdf
Elyas, A. M. (2014). English in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. World Englishes, 33(1), 128-142.
Gorlach, M. (1990). Studies in the history of the English language. Heidelberg: Germany: Carl Winter.
Haghani, M. F. (2012). Sociocultural Perspectives on Foreign Language Learning. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 3(4), 693-699.
Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jenkins, J. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching world Englishes and English as a lingua franca. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 157-181.
Jenkins, J. (March, 2006). Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca. TESOL Quarterly, 40(01), 157-181. Retrieved January 26, 2016, from http://people.ufpr.br/~clarissa/pdfs/EFL_ESL_ELF_Jenkins2006.pdf
Kachru, B. B. (1990). World Englishes and Applied Lingusitics. World Englishes, 9(1), 3-20.
Kilickaya, F. (2009). World Englishes, English as an International Language and Applied Linguistic. English Language Teaching, 2(3), 35-38.
Melchers, e. a. (2010). Varieties of English. English Language and Linguistics, 14(3), 485-506.
Rudby, R. (2011). "A Review of “Contending with globalization in World Englishes”". Language and Education, 25(5), 467.
Saraceni, R. R. (2006). Introduction. In R. R. Saraceni, English in the world: Global rules, global roles (pp. 5-16). NY: Continuum.
Seidlhofer, B. (2002). The case for a corpus of English as a lingua franca. In G. A. (Eds.), The roles of corpora of contemporary English in language description and language pedagogy (pp. 70-85). Bologna: Cooperativa Libraria Universitaria Editrice Bologna.
Seidlhofer, B. (2004). Research perspectives teaching English as a lingua franca. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 24, 230-239.
