World Englishes, Global English:Phonology for International English

Rebecca Haag

IH Manzoni Rome Anniversary ConferenceOctober 22 and 23, 2010

Biodiversity?

Biodiversity?

Biovariety!

•What should learners’ pronunciation goals be?

•What aspects of pronunciation should teachers focus on?

•How can teachers promote biovariety?

Objectives for today’s seminar:

World Englishes….

Which pronunciation? Whose pronunciation?

English as a majority language….

English as an official language….

English as a lingua franca….

Let’s listen…

Can you guess where they’re from?

Extract:

Well, here's a story for you: Sarah Perry was a veterinary nurse who had been working daily at an old zoo in a deserted district of the territory, so she was very happy to start a new job at a superb private practice in North Square near the Duke Street Tower.

Comma Gets a Cure and derivative works may be used freely for any purpose without special permission provided the present sentence and the following copyright notification accompany the passage in print, if reproduced in print, and in audio format in the case of a sound recording: Copyright 2000 Douglas N. Honorof, Jill McCullough & Barbara Somerville. All rights reserved.

They’re from:

CameroonIndiaCroatiaWales

IDEA - The International Dialects Of English Archive

 web.ku.edu/~idea/

•No single variety of ‘native speaker’ English is preferable (RP, GA, etc.)

•English is an international language

•Out of 1 and ½ billion speakers, 80% are non-native speakers

•A great deal of communication is between non-native speakers only

•English “belongs” to ALL of its speakers, and “native” speakers may have to adapt, too

Whose pronunciation?

Let’s try this quiz…

Saying:

•the to in ‘I went to LONdon’ as /tu:/ rather than as the weak form /tƏ/

•beans as /b nz/ not /bi:nz/ɪ

•think as tink, sink or fink

•‘I drink more than you DO’ (stress on DO not YOU)

•hat to rhyme with met not mat

•perfectionist as PERfectionist, not perFECtionist

© Adapted from E. Spicer

Which of these pronunciation features would be problematic in EIL?

•the to in ‘I went to LONdon’ as /tu:/ rather than as the weak form /tƏ/

•think as tink, sink or fink

•hat rhyming with met not mat

•perfectionist as PERfectionist, not perFECtionist

(c) Adapted from E. Spicer

Not a problem:

•beans as /b nz/ not /bi:nz/ɪ

•‘I drink more than you DO’ (stress on DO not YOU)

© Adapted from E. Spicer

Problematic:

•Based on research by Jennifer Jenkins (The Phonology of English as a Second Language, OUP 2000)

•Criteria for inclusion is mutual intelligibility between non-native speakers (NBES)

•Aspects of pronunciation not included in the LFC consitute “variation” and not “error”

•No unnecessary complications

•Keeps close to spelling where possible

The “Lingua Franca Core” (LFC)

•All consonants except for voiced and unvoiced “th”

•Aspiration of /p/, /t/ and /k/ at the start of words

•In consonant clusters:No omissions at the start of words (street)Only certain consonants elsewhere (facts as facs)Adding vowels is preferable to deleting consonants

•Long vs short vowel contrast (‘Bird’ sound especially important)

•Production and placement of nuclear stress

Learners get to keep all L1 features of their English apart from these. In particular….

Some core features of the Lingua Franca (The LFC)

•Voiced and voiceless “th”

•Vowel quality, like /ae/ vs /e/

•Weak forms and stress timing

•All other features of connected speech

•Directions of pitch movements, especially to indicate attitude

•Word stress placement

Some non-core features:

Rationale: these feature do not affect NNS mutual intelligibility and/or are ‘unteachable’

Speaking of connected speech.....

Features of connected speech are time-saving devicesMost learners don’t speak fast enough to need them

May actually obstacle communication by impeding ‘recoverability’

BUT: awareness of these features still important for comprehension purposes

Productively, learners need to stress, not de-stress

EFL vs ELF

• Part of modern foreign languages

• Deficit perspective

• Metaphors of transfer, interference, fossilization

• Code-mixing and switching are seen as interference errors

© Adapted from J. Jenkins (JACET Conference presentation

• Part of World Englishes

• Difference perspective

• Metaphors of contact and evolution

• Code-mixing and switching are seen as bilingual resources

Learners’ L1: not a ‘problem’ but a resource and a source of legitimate linguistic variety

The bad news:

Many aspects of phonology are ‘unteachable’

The good news:

The important stuff (for intelligibility) is teachable

Perhaps because learners are more motivated to learn the important stuff

Classroom implications

For core features, learners need to work on all three

For non-core features, learners need the first two to aid with

(a) awareness of the ‘unteachables’ (should help with acquisition later on)

(b) comprehension

The standard steps are:

“Discovery” > “Recognition” > “Production”

• A wide range of ‘native speaker’ varieties

• A wide range of ‘non-native speakers’ from other L1s

First and foremost: lots of extensive listening to:

Help with the core....

Minimal pairs—still important!

For phonemes:

A says:

Where did the driver leave his cap? orWhere did the driver leave his cab?

B replies as appropriate with:

On the table. orOutside with the engine running.

((c) Adam Brown 1997)

For phonemes:

A says:

Where are the beans? orWhere are the bins?

B replies with:

Outside. orIn the fridge.

Nuclear stress is key (both ‘normal’ and contrastive)

To do this, learners need to ‘chunk’ appropriately

For contrastive stress: A places stress on one word:

How long have you worked here?

B identifies the intended meaning:

1I want to know how long you’ve worked here, not how long you’ve lived here!

2I’ve told you how long I’ve worked here, now you tell me.

For ideas, Davis & Rinvolucri “Dictation”

Dictation:

These activities provide feedback for both speaker and listener, who can compare written versions at the end of the activitiy.

Obviously useful in multilingual groups

Back to.....

.....reading aloud?

....integrating pronunciation work into grammar work through drilling, etc.

Criticisms of the LFC:

Without reference to a native-speaker variety, there’s no clear model

Many learners want to approximate some native-speaker variety

The LFC is a ‘watered down’ version of English that NS experts want NNS to use to keep them in their place

Criticisms of the LFC:

Without reference to a native-speaker variety, there’s no clear model

Research has tried to identify what is in fact necessary to communicate effectively internationally

Criticisms of the LFC:

Many learners want to approximate some native-speaker variety

Fair enough! Talk about it with your learners (but, see below….)

Criciticms of the LFC:

The LFC is a ‘watered down’ version of English that NS experts want NNS to use to keep them in their place:

Important sounds must be right: In NNS communication, individual phonemes are more important due to increased reliance on bottom-up processing

Learners are free to approximate whatever variety they want to

1) As a language learner, what do want your pronunciation to be like?

2) How do you feel about hearing ‘foreign’ accents in your own L1?

3) Are some native speaker varieties of your L1 more or less prestigious than others? If so, why?

4) If you lose your accent, do you lose your identity?

Subjectively speaking…….

1) People do have positive and negative attitudes to L1 and L2 varieties

2) Listeners’ attitudes and expectations affect their understanding and willingness to help out

Beyond teaching phonology….

• Sensitize learners to the value of all pronunciation varieties, including their own

• Promote openness towards and acceptance of PEOPLE

So, teachers can and should…..

The Phonology of English as an International Language (Jennifer Jenkins, OUP, 2000)

“Community, Currency and the Lingua Franca Core” (Jennifer Jenkins, OUP)

“English as a Lingua Franca”, (Jennifer Jenkins, JACET Conference Keynote Presentation, 2008)

“The ABC of ELT…-ELF’” (Jennifer Jenkins, IATEFL Dec 2004-Jan 2005 Issue)

“Current Research on Intelligibility in English as a Lingua Franca” (Lucy Pickering, Arelsproofs)

“International Intelligibility in EIL” (Rias Ven Den Doel, Asian EFL Journal vol. 9, n. 4, 1997)

References