Strand 3

World Englishes

Learning objectives

Strand 3Who speaks English today? (A3)The English Today debate (B3)Teaching and testing World Englishes (C3)

Strand 4Variation across Outer Circle Englishes (A4)The legitimate and illegitimate offspring of English (B4)Emerging ‘sub’-varieties (C4)

A3: Who speaks English today?

3 groups of users

Those who speak English respectively as- a native language = ENL- a second language = ESL- a foreign language = EFL

Neat classifications become increasingly difficult

A3

Who speaks English today?

English as a Native Language (ENL)- Language of those born and raised in one of the countries

where English is historically the first language to be spoken (i.e. mainly the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand)

- ~ 350 million speakers

English as a Second Language (ESL)- Language spoken in a large number of territories which were

once colonized by the English (e.g., India, Nigeria, Singapore)- ~ 350 million speakers

A3

Who speaks English today?

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) - Language of those for whom it serves no purposes within their

own countries- Historically, EFL was learned to use the language with its

native speakers in the US and UK - ~ 1 billion speakers with ‘reasonable competence’

A3

Difficulties with the three-way categorization

ENL is not a single variety of English Pidgins and creoles do not fit into the categorization. There are large groups of ENL speakers in ESL

territories and vice versa. It is based on the concept of monolingualism, but bi-

or multilingualism is the norm. It is based on the basic distinction between native

speakers and non-native speakers, with the first group being considered superior regardless of the quality of their language. (cf. McArthur 1998)

A3

Models of the spread of English

Streven (1980): World map of English Kachru (1985/1988): Three circle model of World

Englishes McArthur (1987): Circle of World English Görlach (1988): Circle model of English Modiano (1999): The centripetal circles of

international English

A3

McArthur’s Circle of World English

Kachru’s Three Concentric Circles

The Expanding Circle

China, Egypt, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Saudi Arabia,

Taiwan, Russia, Zimbabwe, South Africa,

Caribbean Islands(EFL)

The Outer CircleBangladesh, India

Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Malaysia,

Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka,

Tanzania, Zambia(ESL)

The Inner CircleUSAUK

CanadaAustralia

New Zealand(ENL)

Three circle model of World Englishes

Kachru (1992: 356) Most useful and influential model World Englishes divided into 3 concentric circles:

1. Inner Circle:

~ ENL countries, ‘norm-providing’

2. Outer Circle:~ ESL countries, ‘norm-developing’

3. Expanding Circle: ~EFL countries, ‘norm-dependent’

A3

Limitations with Kachru’s model

Based on geography and history, rather than the speakers’ use of English.

Grey area between Inner and Outer Circles as well as Outer and Expanding Circles.

The world’s bilingual or multilingual speakers are not taken into account.

Difficulty of using the model to define speakers in terms of their proficiency in English.

Does not account for the linguistic diversity within and between countries of a particular circle.

The term Inner Circle implies that speakers from ENL countries are central, and may thus be interpreted as superior. A3

A3 Study questions

What do the acronyms ENL, ESL and EFL stand for and what do they refer to?

Name some of the difficulties with the tripartite categorisation into ENL, ESL and EFL speakers.

Explain Kachru’s three-circle model of the spread of English. Highlight its advantages as well as limitations.

What are the main characteristics of Modiano’s two models of international English? What are the problems of Modiano’s model?

A3

B3: The English Today debate

English Englishes Outer Circle Englishes still regularly regarded as Interlanguage: learner language which has not yet

reached the target Fossilized language: language used when learning

has ceased short of native-like competence Expanding Circle Englishes even less accepted

B3

The English Today debate

Controversy between Randolph Quirk and Braij Kachru, Journal English Today, 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

B3 Study questions

What is Quirk’s position with regard to the English spoken in Outer Circle countries? Which role should Outer Circle Englishes play in education and language teaching according to Quirk?

What are Kachru’s arguments against Quirk’s position? According to Kachru, which false assumptions underlie Quirk’s position? How does Kachru see the role of English in Outer Circle countries?

B3

Activity P.67-70

Whose arguments do you find more convincing, Quirk’s or Kachru’s?

How can we decide whether a non-standard English usage is an ‘error’ or an ‘innovation’?

B3

Activity P.67-70

The main question with innovations is the need to decide when an observed feature of language use is indeed an innovation and when it is simply an error. An innovation is seen as an acceptable variant, while an error is simply a mistake, or uneducated usage. If innovations are seen as errors, a non-native variety can never receive any recognition.

(Bamgbose 1998:22)

B3

Activity P.67-70

What is your response to the comment made by Bamgbose?

What do you see as the advantages and the disadvantages of a pluricentric approach to English, in which there are several global centres, native and non-native, each with its own standard variety of English? How far is the way this enables a variety of English to express the culture of its speakers outweighed by problem such as the threat of fragmentation of English into mutually unintelligible languages?

B3

C3: Teaching and testing World Englishes: teaching English today

Challenging the premise that NS is best teacher: NS is expert informant, but not necessarily expert

instructor (Widdowson 1994a) NNS teachers and students have shared experience

of learning English asset (Seidlhofer 1999)

but: NS teachers still sought most (Kirkpatrick

2007a:185) Authority of NS teacher still upheld in teaching

materials (Nayar 1998:287) C3

Demand for native speaker English teachers

The demand for native speakers is so high in many places that being a native speaker is the only qualification that many teachers require. Thus native speakers who have no specialist training in English language teaching are routinely employed by schools, institutions and universities all over the world.

(Kirkpatrick 2007a: 185)

C3

Authority of native speaker English teachers

The discourse of Applied Linguistics as well as the vast amount of supporting material brought out by the ESL/EFL enterprise have created and perpetuated the image of the native speaker as the unquestionable authority of not just language ability but also of expertise in its teaching.

(Nayar 1998: 287)

C3

Activity P.121-122

You are a learner of English as a second language. To what extent do your experience resonate with the comments made by Kirkpatrick and Nayar?

C3

Activity P.121-122

Kirkpatrick (2007a: 195) has a checklist for teachers who wish to work in Outer and Expanding Circle Countries. How far do you agree with it? Would you add or remove any of the criteria? Which of them (if any) do you think could/should be applied to teachers of L2 English learners in Inner Circle countries?

C3

Testing English today

Students still measured against NS norms (also in international English tests)

washback effect on classroom practices

features which are ‘standard’ in local (Outer and Expanding Circle) contexts but not in the Inner Circle are regarded as deviations and errors (Lowenberg 2000, 2002)

rethinking of teaching and testing goals?

C3

Activity P.124-125

Lowenburg believes that there is an assumption held by many who design English proficiency tests that the native speakers still should determine the norms for standard English around the world. Items in test such as TOEIC do not reflect the fact that ‘normative features in Expanding Circle varieties sometime diverge from Inner Circle norms’.

Lowenburg (2000:81)

C3

Activity P.124-125

Kachru and Nelson (2006:131) argue that the many contexts and norms of world Englishes preclude any simple limitation of ‘correctness’ and make professional test-writers’ task more difficult the more they come to understand about world Englishes.’

Kachru and Nelson (2006:131)

C3

Activity P.124-125

Take a look at some English language tests that are used on a worldwide basis, e.g. TOEFL, IETLS.

How strictly do their writers limit correctness to native English norms?

How far do they demonstrate an awareness of World Englishes by accepting non-native speaker variation of the kind Lowenberg describes and the complex situation to which Kachru and Nelson refer?

C3

C3 Study questions

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having native speaker teachers/non-native speaker teachers of English?

As regards teaching and testing: what is the ‘washback’ effect?

C3

Learning objectives for next week

Strand 4Variation across Outer Circle Englishes (A4)The legitimate and illegitimate offspring of English (B4)Emerging ‘sub’-varieties (C4)