Language Variation in EFL teachers

University of Belgrano - B. A. in EnglishVariation in the Language

Ana Laura BozzaniLANGUAGE VARIATION IN ARGENTINIAN EFL TEACHERS

Introduction

“Do you speak English?” Is a question we usually take for granted taking into account that a

quarter of the world’s population is already fluent or competent in English. “British political

imperialism had sent English around the globe, during the nineteenth century. During the

twentieth century, this world presence was maintained and promoted almost single-handedly

through the economic supremacy of the new American superpower.” (Crystal)

It is true that the “coexistence of British and American English as the two most widely

spread varieties of the language creates confusion among learners and teachers around the

world.” (Parini) However, it is also true that as economics has replaced politics as the chief

driving force, American English seems to have been exerting greater influence on British

English than vice versa.

The study examines whether the age factor plays an important role in the preference for

Americanisms in a small number of writing pieces from EFL teachers in Argentina. This

study is consistent with previous research (Parini, 2002) in that “there is inconsistency in the

use of features of British and American English in the language produced by Argentinian

EFL teachers. Furthermore, it is in a rather erratic way that this variety-mixing occurs since

the results seem to suggest that the teachers in the study use features of English without

knowing to which variety they belong.

Theoretical Framework

“There is little question that English is the most widely taught, read and spoken language

that the world has ever known. The uses and users of English internationally have been

discussed profitably in terms of three concentric circles: The inner circle which comprises

the old-variety English-using countries where English is the first language […] the outer

circle which consists of countries where English has a long history of institutionalised

functions and countries in the expanding circle as is the case of Argentina where English is

used as a foreign language mainly in specific fields such as science, technology and

business.” (Kachru)


Ana Laura BozzaniArgentine speakers of English look up for models and standards in the inner circle,

especially British or American varieties of English. Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out

that American English has grown steadily in international significance since World War II

parallel to the growth of U.S. political, economic, technological and cultural influence

worldwide. American English is currently the dominant influence on World Englishes

largely due to its wealth, its population growth, its international political and economic

position and appeal of American popular culture on language and habits as well as its

magnitude of higher education, publishing industry, global mass media and technology.

If this influence is such, therefore, there is no reason why we should not believe that even

though an increasing number of EFL teachers are trained mainly on British English during

their course of studies in Argentina their English may not show-reflect this trend-impact-

force.

Method

The sample consists Argentinian EFL teachers with university degrees from teacher training

colleges. All of them have been trained on British English and are used to teaching mainly

with British material.

The participants were asked to translate a text from Spanish into English within a time

frame?? of twenty minutes. The corpus is unbalanced in gender terms because only one was

male. The key measure used in the paper is frequency of use of American words since there

are 12 words in the text that can lead to the use of either the American or the British variety

of English.

Results

An stated in the introduction, an initial evaluation of the data collected showed consistency

with research done by Parini (Parini 2202: 26) because “the data collected indicated that

although the subjects had been taught British English during their course of studies both at

school and at university, features of American English were present in their productions.”

A first look at the information in Fig. 1 (See Appendix) shows that the use of Americanisms

among the younger teachers outnumbers instances of American words among the elder ones.


Ana Laura BozzaniAt this point it may be useful to point out that despite the corpus consisted of 5 texts – each

of them with 12 words which could refer to American or British English- most features were

common to both varities that is the reason why they are not taken into account in the study.

The same happens with the word programme which shows a difference in spelling rather

than a lexical feature.

On the whole, subject A (22 years ols) seems to have the greater influence of American

English on her writing since 9 words out of 12 show this variety, whereas the text produced

by subject B (27 years old) has more inconsistency because 7 out of 12 words are

Americanisms. The degree of variety-mixing in the written sample of subject C is not as

high as in subjects A and B since only 4 words represent the American variety.

Finally, subjects D and E who are 46 and 51 years old respectively had the same quantity of

Americanisms (only 2 words), which reflects a lower influence of this variety in their

language repertoire.

Since it was not possible to find a variation pattern we might assume that the preference for

one or the other variety may have been erratically.

Conclusion

On the one hand, the results seem to be helpful to cast light on the frequency of

Americanisms in the written production of some EFL teachers. We might say that in

Argentina, the younger an EFL teacher is, the higher the possibility to use American terms

at least when it comes to the written medium. This variety-mixing and specially this

preference for American terms may be due to the great influence of American English by

means of the mass media, the technology as well as the film, music and publishing industry.

However, those teachers with a more traditional background or model seem to be more

reluctant to this influence, which could be related to either a more conservative view or less

contact with all these technological advances. To sum up, the teachers in the study –

specially the younger ones- seem to be “rather in two minds whether to adopt the more

traditional model or the American model,… thus creating a rather confusing picture due to

the fact that linguistic boundaries are …difficult to define.”

On the other hand, it is vital to point out the limitations this study has due to the fact that it

consists of a small-scale project. Therefore, more research should be done on the oral and


Ana Laura Bozzaniwritten language of Argentinian EFL teachers comprising tasks which range from the more

formal to the less.

Taking into account the lexical features examined in the study, we might say that the age

factor could influence on variety-mixing but it would only be once we had enough research

carried out on this that we will be able to state that this really takes place.

Worldwide communication centres on English, which however radiates out into British,

American or many other World Englishes producing clarity here, confusion there, and

novelties and nonsense everywhere. This latter-day Babel manages to work despite its

chaotic result and blurred edges. Nevertheless, it is extremely important that those many

people now learning English should have some idea what they may be getting into when

they choose to learn one variety or another. There is really no way to learn a foreign

language without also absorbing a great deal of its social, political and philosophical

outlook. This is equally true whether one chooses to learn British or American English. It is

for learners themselves to choose, but they must have all necessary knowledge available to

them in order to make informed choice. Whether they ultimately choose British, American

or any other language altogether.

Throughout this study, what we can be certain of is that there is some dynamic linguistic

relativism related to variation and change. As regards this, it would be advisable to bring to

mind what Stravinsky argued in his Poetics of Music (Ch. 5): “ A renewal is fruitful only

when it goes hand in hand with tradition”.

Bibliography

Appendix

Model in Spanish to be translated into EnglishUna mañana en la autopista camino al aeropuerto, Juan piensa en el avión que lo trasportará directo al paraíso: sus vacaciones. De pronto, el golpe de una piedra que rompe el parabrisas del auto comienza a interrumpir su sueño. Decide no permitirlo. Detiene su auto, saca del baúl el equipaje y se dirige hacia una estación de servicio para obtener ayuda. Luego de caminar bajo la lluvia haciendo señas a autos, colectivos y camiones, llega a su destino y gracias al conductor del noticiero se entera que todos los vuelos han sido cancelados a causa del mal tiempo. “¿Alquilar un auto? Imposible.” Escurriéndose los pantalones, se sienta a mirar el programa comiendo galletitas y papas fritas. De su chaleco mojado saca papel y lapicera y escribe una nota que luego mandará por correo. Está dirigida a su jefe y dice: “Este año tampoco me tomo vacaciones. Es mucho para mí.”


Ana Laura Bozzani

Transcription of the handwritten sample produced by subject A (22 years old)One morning in the highway to the airport, John thinks about the airplane, which will take him straight to heaven: his vacations. Suddenly, the impact of a stone, which breaks the car windscreen, starts to break his dream up. He decides not to let it do it. He stops his car, takes out the baggage from the trunk and goes towards a petrol station for help. After walking under the rain, hitchhiking to cars, buses and trucks, he gets somewhere and though the news presenter, he hears that all flights have been cancelled due to the bad weather. “ What if I hired a car? Forget about it.” Draining his pants, he sits to watch the program, eating cookies and French fries. He takes out from his wet vest some paper and a pen and writes a note that he will mail later. It is addressed to his boss and it says: “ This year I am not taking vacations, either. It is too much for me.”

Transcription of the handwritten sample produced by subject B (27 years old)One morning driving along the freeway on his way to the airport, John thinks about the plane, which will take him straight to heaven: his holidays. Suddenly, the hit of a stone that smashes his car windscreen begins to break up his dream. He decides not to allow that. He stops his car, pulls the luggage out of the boot and heads for a gas station in order to get help. After walking under the pouring rain signalling for a lift to cars, buses and trucks, he gets to his destination and thanks to the newscaster he learns that all the flights have been cancelled due to bad weather conditions. Rent a car? Impossible. Wiping the water off his trousers, he sits to eat some cookies and fries watching the news programme. From his drenched waistcoat he takes a piece of paper and a pen and writes down a note, which he will then send by mail. It’s addressed to his boss and it runs: “ This year I will not take my holidays. This is all too much for me.”

Transcription of the handwritten sample produced by subject C (37 years old)One morning on his way to the airport, John is thinking about the plane that will take him right away to paradise: his holidays. Suddenly, a stone smashed on the car’s windscreen and his dream began to shutter. He definitely won’t allow this to happen. He stops the car, takes the luggage out of the boot and heads towards a gas station to get some help. After a long walk under the rain waving at cars, buses and trucks he finally gets to his destination. Thanks to the newsreader he finds out that all flights have been cancelled due to the bad weather. “Hire a car? No way”. He wrings out his pants and sits to watch the program while eating some cookies and fries. He takes out a pen and a piece of paper from his wet vest and writes down a note he will be sending by mail later. It’s addressed to his boss and reads: “I won’t go on holiday this year either. It’s too much for me.”

Transcription of the handwritten sample produced by subject D (46 years old)One morning on the motorway, on his way to the airport, John thinks about the plane, which is going to take him to paradise: his holidays. Suddenly, the knock of a stone, which breaks the car windscreen, begins to disturb his dream. He decides not to allow this to happen. He stops the car, takes the luggage out of the trunk and goes toward a petrol station. It is thanks to a news programme presenter that he gets to know that all flights have been cancelled due to bad weather. “ Hire a car? Impossible.” Unwetting his trousers, he sits down to watch the programme while eating biscuits and chips. He takes a piece of paper and a pen out of his wet waistcoat and writes a brief letter, which will be sent by mail afterwards. It’s addressed to his boss and it says: “This year I will not go on holiday either. It’s too much for me.”


Ana Laura Bozzani

Transcription of the handwritten sample produced by subject E (51 years old)One morning, while driving to the airport, John is thinking about the plane that will take him straight to paradise – his holidays. Suddenly, a stone impacts his windscreen and interrupts his daydreaming. But John is determined not be distracted from his aim. He stops the car, gets his luggage out of the trunk and starts walking trying to find a petrol station to get help. After walking under the rain, waving at cars, buses and lorries, he finally gets to the airport. There, a news program reporter is announcing that all the flights have been cancelled because of the bad weather. He considers hiring a car but rejects the idea. ‘Impossible,’ he thinks. Trying to get rid of the water in his pants, he sits down to watch the news program while eating biscuits and chips. He takes a piece of paper and a pen out of his wet vest and writes a note addressed to his boss, which he will later send by post. It says: ‘I’m not having holidays this year either. I cannot just cope with all that pressure!

Fig. 1 Production of Americanisms in the written samples of Argentinian EFL teachers

Documents

Language Variation in EFL teachers