This document discusses the teaching of English and examines how culture and language intersect. It explores concepts like standard English, native speakers, and how English is used globally as a lingua franca. The document presents case studies that analyze classified ads from newspapers in Calcutta, Singapore, and Yorkshire to show cultural differences in stylistic choices. It also examines how English is presented differently in Singapore through the concepts of Singlish and diglossia. Overall, the document analyzes the complex relationship between English, culture, and language variation around the world.

1. REALISM AND
IMAGINATION IN THE
TEACHING OF ENGLISH
A. Najib Tuanany

2. CONTENT
I. Introduction
II. Standard English
III. A Tale Of Three Cities
IV. Getting A Partner
V. Presenting A Culture To The World
VI. English Linguistic Culture
START

3. I. INTRODUCTION
 English is one of the language
 Languages are not entities with an independent existence, but are social constructs
which linked to what people perform
 Countries do not speak languages- people do
The Background Concept

4. Cont…
 People silently ignore variation within
countries.
Example:
We may say “The majority of indians who
know english have learnt it as second
language” or “English is largely a second
language in India” (both statements are
true) then, we move to say “Indians are
non-native speakers of English”. In fact,
according too Gupta (2001) there are
Indians who are native speakers of
English.
The term of second language varieties acquire more
meaning.

5. Cont…
 Second language speaker and native
speaker is differ.
 The concept native speaker has been
much discussed over the world.
 Term of ‘native speaker’ is refer to one
who acquired the language in infancy
before any other language was acquired

6. II. STANDARD ENGLISH
 Standard English has got itself bad name
over the world.
 Standard English is meaningful as a
concept largely in written language.
 According to Schiffman (1996) as cited
in Gupta (2001) linguist can’t define a
standard- they can only reflect it.
 Many ideas come about the native
speaker who is the one that has an
inbuilt ability to do Standard English
while non-native speaker is doomed to
make errors. (Is that true?)
 English is a learned skill and a skill in
which there is not always an absolute
agreement

9. Cont…
Standard English does not have the same
form around the globe. For instance in
American standard and British standard.
Example :

11. Cont…
 So what is standard English?
According to David Crystal, standard
english is a variety of english- distinctive
combination of linguistic features with
particular role to play. It has no local
base.
 Is standard English better?
Not necessarily. It is important to note
that standard English isn’t superior to any
other variety of English. It is not more
grammatical or more expressive. But, yes,
the use of a single standard form which is
acceptable around the globe minimizes
uncertainty and confusion.

12. III. A TALE OF THREE CITIES
Web-based Texts Outlining The
History Of Three Different Industrial
Cities.
Middleborough,
Mass
Middlesbrough,
UK
Pure,
Maharashtra

13. Middleborough, Mass
Upper Factory (Wareham street)
Lower Factory (Winthrop-Atkins company)
The Muttock (Oliver Mill)
Three areas had the most influence on its growth

14. Middlesbrough, UK
1841
• Midlesbrough
Iron Works
oppened
1842
• Open the
east of
Midlesbrough
1846
• Open a town
hall
1853
• Gain status
as Municipaal
Borough
1862
• Called as
‘Infant
Hercules’

15. Pune, Maharashtra
• Is the state’s cultural capital
• About 170-km from Mumbai
• The bastion of the Maratha empire
1820-1867
• The British establish a cantonment in the Eastern
• Deccan College starts
• Khadakswala Dam is built
1885-1893
• Deccan Paper Mills starts
• Government photo-zinco starts
• Rajabahadur Motial Pittle starts first textile mill

16. Cont…
 These texts are carefully written, multiply
authored texts, with a degree of care
similar to comparable printed texts.
They are all within the range of
expectation of Standard English Text

17. IV. GETTING A PARTNER
 The intersection between stylistic choice
and culture is even more starkly
revealed in ads for partners.
 Within the same publication there is
striking uniformity.
The extracts using:
A. The Telegraph. Calcutta based
broadsheet. 22 August 1999.
Newspaper address and box number at
end of each ad
B. City Weekly. Singapore based
advertising newspaper, issued free. 20
August 1999. Telephone number at
beginning of each ad
C. The Yorkshire Evening Past. Local UK
newspaper. 6 September 1999.
telephone number at end of each ad

18.  Advertiser in all three cultures are
obsessed with height, age and
appearance.
 Singapore and Yorkshire threat ethnic
information rather on a broad sweep
(e.g. Malay, Indian, etc).
 In Calcutta, advertiser are assumed to
be Indian, Hindu and Bangali, but very
precise information on caste.
 Stylistically, the two Indian and UK newspapers are much more similar
 Culturally, Singapore and the UK are closer

19. Linguistically…
 Singapore is the most stands out
 The calcutta and Yorkshire
advertisement are dominated by noun
phrases, with the verb absent are very
weak
 The singapore advertisement are fuller
sentences.

20. V. PRESENTING A CULTURE TO THE WORLD

21. Cont…

22. “English is not tied to specific cultures in the same way - learning
English does not learn English in order to interact with British, American
or Irish people, but as a lingua franca to be used on a much wider front”
Gupta (2001)

23. VI. ENGLISH LINGUISTIC CULTURE
Singapore English (Singlish) Diglossia
- Endonormative
- Exonormative

24. Example of Singlish
Let’s watch
the video
What are the “Netizen” respond to
the video?

25. THANK YOU