A discussion on the emergence of World Englishes - varieties other than the US or UK standards and the proposition of Global English as a lingua franca. The implications of these issues on English Language Teaching are consequently considered.

1. English Worldwide – A look at varieties of
English and the impacts on ELT
Stephan Hughes – M.A. in
Linguistics, Specialist in Distance
Education and E-moderation.
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

2. Aims
• Talk about the spread of English (from Kachru's 3
circles to today)
• Examine the (symbiotic) relationship between British
and American English
• Explore the rise (in larger or minor scale) of other
varieties e.g. Australian, Canadian, Indian, South
African, Caribbean
• Study the case for Global English or ELF as a teaching
resource
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

3. What is/are World English(es)?
• According to Bolton (2006):
– tterm that refers to the differing
approaches to describe and analyze English
worldwide
– The “new Englishes” from the Caribbean, West
and East African societies to Asian Englishes
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

4. Different spreading phases
• The British Empire up to the Victorian era
• The rise of the US as superpower
• The advent of radio, film and TV
• The birth of the computer and the Internet
• The social media boom and the generation Connect
craze
• The status of English as language for business,
politics, global issues of all kinds
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

5. • Norm-providing: USA, UK
The 3 groups of English
speakers (Kachru, 1992) • Norm-developing: India,
The spread of English
conceived in 3 concentric
Nigeria
circles. At the core is the
Norn-providing group, the
• Norm-dependent: Brazil,
Norm-developing group forns
the middle layer and the
China
norn-dependent the outer
crust.
This representation, however,
fails to depict the fluidity
betwwen these so-called
layers.
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

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7. With the Outer Circle continually expanding,
The vast majority of ESL and EFL teachers are non-
native speakers.
This leads us to the perennial debate
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

8. Who is a native speaker?
And is that important?
What can a NNEST do better? What can a NEST do better?
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

9. Canagarajah (2006) argues
• The circles are leaking
– Reasons:
– Human migration
– Technology (ICTs)
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

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11. The Americanization of British English
The Britishisation of American English
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

12. Americanisms the Brits don't like
• Where you at?
• Take-out food
• Bi-weekly
• Alphabetize
• They’ve got issues
See the article “Americanisms: 50 of your most noted examples”,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

13. Britishisms that amuse Americans
• Go missing
• Chat somebody up
• Sell-by date
• Spot on!
See the article “Britishisms and the Britishisation of American English”,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

14. Conclusion: The two varieties mutually affect
each other.
Does that mean the intralingual
differences no longer exist?
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

15. What about the differences in other
Englishes?
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

16. Which English should be taught in language
classrooms?
• Watch the videos to find out:
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0XT04EO5RSU
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hd6rjsxs5U
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=dxbDwmclUcM
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

17. One thing must be pointed out
• Despite the phonological, lexical and (to a lesser
extent) syntactic differences, speakers of each
variety have little or no difficulty understanding each
other.
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

18. For Kandiah (1998a), the reasons for
varieties are twofold:
• Development of language in ‘new and unfamiliar
contexts’
– Contexts marked by different ecological, cultural,
linguistic, social, etc. characteristics.

19. Is it always easy for English speakers of different
varieties to understand each other?
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

20. Simon. G'day Peto.
Simo you too. G'day
Les. Good morning gentlemen good morning gentlemen I find you both well.
You are very well.
Yes I'm yih absolutely dynamic. Chipper is the phrase I believe.
Is that right. I I'm the best I've been for ages. Hey good good. Grr.
Oh he is too hubba hubba wing ding that carpenter's got everything.
Pete how are . Who was that singer recently that kept singing. Oh Chubby
Checker.
No no the the woman singer with the the uh the vamp y'know that that the sh
not I forget her name.
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

21. Canadian English
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

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23. Indian English
Classic 19th-
century literature
European words
that have been
Indianized
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

24. Caribbean Creole English
Varies from
country to
Lexicon from British English
country
Lexcion from Indian languages –
Morphology, phonology and syntax Hindi, Urdu, Persian (Trinidad and
from West African languages Guyana)
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

25. Examples of CCE (phonological –lexical-
syntactic)
• He rich
• She tell meh everyting
• I wash de clothes yesterday
• Students does go on like that
• He does go to church every week
• My fadder workin 2 job
• We limin tomorrow?
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

26. CCE along a continuum (Gibson, 1986)
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

27. Standard
English
Acrolect
Mesolect
Basilect
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28. Trinidad English
• We get the redeye, not the pinkeye.
• Overweight people have big skin, not big
bones.
• When friends meet, they say wha’ going on,
not wassup?
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

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32. Caribbean Overlap (Clachar, 2006; Le Page, South
1985; Nero, 2000) African
Creole
English English
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

33. In both varieties
• Hand refers to the arm
• Foot refers to the leg
• A next one means another one
• Object pronouns generally replace subject
pronouns
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

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35. Why are two billion people learning English?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxbDwmclUcM
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

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37. Global English
The pros and cons of
internationalizing the language
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

38. In the words of Canagarajah (2006)
• There is no such thing as a universal English
Language, nor a World Standard English (WSE)
• People construct English according to the
communicative purpose and context
• Functionality and pragmatics dictate communication
in English today.
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

39. Global English – implications
• Need for a global language in a globalized world
• Decadence of other languages (cultural genocide)
• Practicality of learning English
• Reduction of problems in translation (gain on one
end, loss on the other)
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

40. What is Global English?
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

41. English as a Lingua Franca
• The manager don’t like when people arrive late
• The company who has grown steadily over the past
years now faces its biggest challenge to date.
• They have a respect for all of us
• The knowledges we gain from learning another
language is undeniable

42. English as a Lingua Franca
• Can you take a look at this files?
• There are some points of the contract we need to
put more attention to.
• You’ve met the new CEO, isn’t it?
• Could you please ask him to phone to me as soon as
he gets in? We need to discuss about the new
project.

43. Global English seems to present forms
generally considered incorrect
These changes or imperfections are not
limited to only one aspect of language.

44. Bibliography
• BOLTON, K. Current perspectives on teaching world
Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca. TESOL
Quarterly. (2006)
• CANAGARAJAH, S. Negotiating the Local in English as
a Lingua Franca. Annual Review of Applied
Linguistics, 197-218, CUP. (2006)
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

45. Bibliography
• CLACHAR, Arlene. Re-examining ELL Programs in
Public Schools: A Focus on Creole-English Children’s
Clause – Structuring Strategies in Written Academic
Discourse. Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the
Oxford Round Table (Fall, 2006). 1-38.
• GIBSON, Kean. The Ordering of Auxiliary Notions in
Guyanese Creole. Linguistic Society of America.
(September 1986) 571-586.
• KACHRU, B. The Alchemy of English: the spread,
functions and models of non-native Englishes.
University of Illinois Press. (1990)
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

46. Bibliography
• KANDIAH, T. Why New Englishes. In: English in New
Cultural Contexts: Reflections from Singapore, J.
Foley, T. Kandiah, B. Zhiming, A. Gupta, L. Algasoff,
C.L. Ho, L. Wee, L.S. Talib, W. Bokhorst-Heng (eds), 1-
40. OUP. 1998ª.
• LE PAGE, R.B. & TABOURET-KELLER, Andree. Acts of
Identity. Cambridge , Great Britain; CUP, 1985, Print.
• NERO, Shondel J. The Changing Faces of English: A
Caribbean Perspective. TESOL Quarterly. Vol. 34,
No.3 (Autumn, 2000) 483-510.
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes

47. For more on World Englishes
• Varieties of English around the world:
http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-
bin/t_seriesview.cgi?series=veaw
• World Englishes:
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/produc
tCd-WENG.html
Stephan Arthur Solomon Hughes