This document discusses standards, codification, and varieties of World Englishes. It notes that while English varies regionally and within groups, standards of English are defined in grammars and dictionaries. Standard British English developed over the 12th century and was associated with privileged southern English private schools. Similarly, American English emerged as its own variety. The document also discusses the positions of Quirk and Kachru on models of English spread, and debates standards, teacher education, and notions of foreignness in teaching English as a foreign language.

1. STANDARDS, CODIFICATION AND WORLD
ENGLISHES

2. INTRODUCTION
• The global spread of English and its unprecedented success as a
language used in many domains by almost all sections of human
societies have created both elation and consternation among language
experts.
• There is a great deal of variation in the language; there are regional
variations and there are variations related to geography, age, gender,
education, socioeconomic class, ethnicity, and other factors within
regional varieties.
• Overarching all the variation, however, is the notion of General
American English or Standard British English codified in grammatical
descriptions, dictionaries, and manuals of usage. It is the standard
language which is in danger of being diluted.

3. STANDARD BRITISH ENGLISH
• The notion of a 'standard' arose in the twelfth century between the English and the
Scots at Cowton.
• There were some attempts to establish academies, comparable to the ones in France,
Italy and Spain, to set the standards for English.
• A number of phonetic and grammatical descriptions and compilations of dictionaries
devised the standards over a period of time, the model in Britain, was associated with
the pronunciation acquired at the British 'public schools' (in fact, private schools) by the
privileged classes from the South of England.

4. CONTI…
• That Standard English was more a matter of grammar than of pronunciation, however,
was recognized by many authorities. For instance, Henry Wyld (1907; quoted in Crowley,
1989: 178) observed, '[t]he Grammar of Standard English is practically fixed and uniform,
so that among educated speakers, no matter how much they may differ in other
respects, Pronunciation, Vocabulary and Idiom, they will generally agree in using the
same grammatical forms.
• It has also been pointed out that the issue of standard has more to do with matters of
power and ideology than with language. As Marckwardt (1942: 310) observes, the
acceptance of one type of speech over another as standard is not based upon linguistic
considerations; it is based upon political, cultural, and economic factors.

5. EXTERNAL VS. INTERNAL MODELS IN
OUTER AND EXPANDING CIRCLES
• The argument that there should be one world-wide standard does not entail choosing,
say, UK or US English to be that standard; yet, that is the usual presumption.
• Similarly, an assertion that learning and using any sort of English in any context
inevitably involves users in one or another Inner-Circle culture is a matter of belief, not of
empirically verifiable fact.

6. TWO CONSTRUCTS OF STANDARDS AND CODIFICATION
• When English is considered in a national, Inner-circle context, it is easier to preserve a
working notion of a standard' language.
• The first great diasporic schism was American English's emergence as a variety
recognized, not only by its speakers but internationally, as different from BrE. The
spread of English as an institutionalized language in the Outer Circle has raised the
question of recognition once more.

7. THE QUIRK POSITION
• Quirk begins by categorizing into three groups the mechanisms and resulting situations
of language spread (1988: 229–30).
• population spread (demographic model)
• spread of ideas (ecocultural model)
• political domination (imperial model).

8. KACHRU'S POSITION
• Kachru (1985) categorizes the world Englishes into three concentric circles namely:
 the inner circle
 the outer circle
 the expanding circle

9. CODIFICATION AND TEACHER EDUCATION
• Terms with negative connotations are reexamined to reveal their positive meanings for
ELT professionals: double agent, double talk, double think, and double life.
• Non-native EFL teachers should think of themselves as 'double agents', people
grounded in a solid course of teacher training and also members of their communities,
with a thorough knowledge of English as it is used in various domains in their societies.
• The non-native EFL teachers have themselves been non-native EFL learners.

10. THE NOTION OF FOREIGNNESS
• There is so much emphasis on language proficiency in pronunciation and grammatical
skills that well over half the EFL teacher population report that they are not happy in
their profession.
• Non-native EFL teachers are ‘lead[ing] double [lives] in the best sense of the word' with
positive connotations of value and strength

11. CONCLUSION
• The issues of standards and codification, choice of models for teaching, teacher
preparation, and adoption of texts and materials are still being debated vigorously and
will remain a matter of contention in the near future.
• ELT professionals need to be well-informed about the various positions and come to
some conclusions about their own practices in their own contexts.