Chapter 2 - The Diversity of Global Englishes 

ABSTRACT

What makes it so difficult to learn English or any other language? Although you can learn language rules and textbook vocabulary, you may still experience difficulties using English in real-life situations. These difficulties are largely due to the various ways people use English. The same challenge is true for using every language because languages are in a constant state of variation and change. English has always had different varieties even at the time of Old English. Such differences were used later by Shakespeare to indicate a speaker’s social class. As English became a global lingua franca, even more variations emerged. In this chapter, you will learn about the diversity of global Englishes and some reasons for language variation and change. You will also learn about using online tools to investigate the appropriateness of forms for specific purposes, such as writing an academic paper. 

Keywords: Global Englishes, World Englishes, language varieties, language variation, language change, lingua franca


How to cite this chapter: 

Barrat, L. (2023). The Diversity of Global Englishes. In V. Canese & S. Spezzini (Eds.), Teaching English in Global Contexts, Language, Learners and Learning (pp. 49-57). Editorial Facultad de Filosofía, UNA. https://doi.org/10.47133/tegc_ch02 

INTRODUCTION

Speakers of a given language can usually identify the origin and social group of others who speak the same language. For example, if you are a Spanish speaker and meet people from other Spanish-speaking countries, you immediately notice their Spanish as being from another country. If you meet people from your own country, you probably notice language differences associated with age, social class, and ethnicity. Such differences are not unique to Spanish but also occur in English and other languages. 

Each language varies in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. However, standard English was never adopted in England nor any other English-speaking country. Consequently, what is considered “standard” or acceptable varies from place to place. With the global spread of English and the emergence of innumerable English varieties, linguists coined the term World Englishes, also called Global Englishes. The term Englishes encompasses many varieties used in diverse communities and regions around the world such as where you currently live and use English.  

For example, the English spoken in Paraguay can be called Paraguayan English. Used by English learners in Paraguay and native/near-native English speakers, Paraguayan English is a unique variety influenced by both Spanish and Guarani. It is especially useful for talking about local food, customs, and lifestyles. In Paraguayan English, it is acceptable to say, “We need to buy some more yerba,” by using the Spanish word for an herbal tea (called mate) that is sipped through a metal straw from a horn or gourd (see pictures). Also acceptable is saying, “Let’s have some tereré,” by using the Guarani word for Paraguay’s iced tea version of this same herbal beverage. 

Variation exists in all languages. Yet, despite being natural and expected, such variation presents a big challenge for language learners. By understanding the diversity of global Englishes and why and how English varies, you will be better prepared to guide students in developing their English while also further developing your own English.

Background

Languages vary because they constantly change. However, why do languages keep changing? Such changes are from contact with new environments or with speakers of other languages. The Spaniards who first settled in the Americas needed words for local species of plants and animals. Because the Spaniards encountered people already living in the Americas, they adopted new words from local languages with “tomato” from tomatl (Nahuatl language, Mexico) and “piranha” from pira-ñá (Guaraní language, Paraguay). Reciprocally, local people adopted words from newcomers. For example, when British engineers installed Paraguay’s railroad in the 1870s, they planted grapefruit trees, and the word greifu was adopted by the local people. 

Even without human migration and colonization, languages still change. To understand why language change is universal, think about how babies develop language. Babies acquire their first language(s) from people around them in a natural, untaught way (Wosen, 2020). That is, babies all over the world hear conversations and acquire language through daily interactions with children, adults, and especially caregivers. Put simply, children do not learn language; rather they acquire or develop it. Even when others try to correct young children, they proceed in their own way at developing their language based on the varieties spoken in their home environment (rather than a more standard variety). Around the world, whether children attend years of formal schooling or no schooling, they develop the ability to communicate their needs, wants, and dreams just like others by using the varieties spoken in their language community. 

Caregivers and others in a child’s immediate surroundings affect the language being acquired by that child. Later, social groups affect the child’s language (Wolfram, 2014). This results in social varieties of language with differences for class, ethnicity, and age as well as gender and gender expression. However, when a social group undergoes significant changes across generations leading to the need for a different type of communication, an earlier variety might cease to be used. This occurred with the English initially spoken in Cosme and Nueva Australia, which were rural Paraguayan communities founded by Australian immigrants in the 1890s (Perez, 2016). The only remaining language vestiges from those English-speaking immigrants are common Paraguayan last names like Kennedy, Smith, Stanley, and Wood.

Babies and young children actively participate in language acquisition and, by doing so, affect language change. When beginning to produce the language around them, they naturally and unconsciously apply rules from that language variety and, also, use patterns from emerging language change. As children enter larger social groups at school and in the community, these changes spread. Hence, children inherently affect the changes that languages undergo. 

Both Spanish and English have evolved because of natural language change and colonialization. In Paraguay and elsewhere, modern Spanish is quite different from its mother language, Latin, as well as from its Romance sister languages (e.g., Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian). English has evolved greatly from its Proto-Germanic roots through various periods: Old English (5th to 11th century), Middle English (11th to 15th century), and Modern English (since the 15th century). During the Modern English period, significant changes have occurred since Shakespeare’s time (1564-1616), and such changes continue to take place. For example, during the 21st century, English has added technological words such as “zoom,” “google,” “whatsapp,” “upload,” and “download.” Some of these words have been borrowed from English into Spanish (zoom, googlear, wasapear), and others served to expand the meaning of existing words (subir, bajar).

Around the world, most English speakers are multilinguals who have learned English after having previously acquired other languages. This worldwide use of English has produced such extensive variation that English has become viewed as plural: Englishes or World Englishes. An excellent example of widespread variation is 100+ terms for a single item “pen drive” (or “USB drive”). Other common terms for “pen drive” include “jump drive,” “memory stick,” “flash drive,” “driver,” and “handy drive.”

MAJOR DIMENSIONS

To better navigate the constant variation and expansion of Englishes during your lifetime, take ownership of your own continued learning (Barratt, 2014). This will also help you guide your students to take charge of their own learning. To do so, use resources to learn about World Englishes and strategies to assist your students with navigating change and variation. This section will describe some available tools. Though you must always be ready to learn new products, start exploring English varieties by using existing software such as Google, Google Images, Google N-Gram Viewer, and Google Trend. 

Google works well to search single words or simple phrases. When searching a phrase, use double quotation marks (e.g., “xxx”) so that the search mechanism identifies the entire phrase as a single item rather than individual words within that phrase. For example, searching send me a mail (without quotation marks) yields 3,520,000,000 results while “send me a mail” (with quotation marks) yields only 980,000 results. Though much smaller, the number generated by using quotation marks is still too large to analyze line-by-line. However, such a search is not for micro-analyzing but rather for generating usage frequencies to determine whether to consider using the word “mail” to mean “email.”

Google Images is useful for showing English differences between words such as “lemon” and “lime.” To access Google Images, use the general search function of Google and then click the subheading “Images” or go directly to https://images.google.com/. Through Google Images, even young children can learn about differences in language varieties for the meaning and spelling of a given word. 

To learn about historical trends, use Google N-Gram Viewer https://books.google.com/ngrams and Google Trend (https://trends.google.com/trends/explore). Google Trends is more useful as it allows you to see a word’s change and geographic variation. For example, a search for “pen drive” and “USB drive” will show that both have remained popular in the search’s default period, which is the past 12 months. However, to view shorter or longer periods, adjust this time within a range from the past hour to the past 18 years. To see a word’s geographic spread, examine the maps in Figure 1 for “pen drive” and Figure 2 for “USB drive” and then adjust them to search the entire world or a specific country or region.

Figure 1

Global Distribution of “pen drive” in Google Trends

As shown in Figure 1, “pen drive” is used primarily in South America, Spain, Portugal, Italy, India, and a few African countries but not elsewhere. As shown in Figure 2, “USB drive” has a wider distribution and is found across most of the world, including countries where “pen drive” is prevalent. Google Trends will allow up to five phrases for comparison, making it one of the best tools for students who, starting at about 9 years of age, can determine whether specific words or phrases are used outside of a given country. 

Though more difficult to use, corpora (plural of corpus) are extremely helpful to improve one’s language. Use corpora to see if your word choices are appropriate for targeted settings such as academic papers and conference presentations. This can be very insightful to consider when deciding to use the word “kid” to mean “child” (rather than “baby goat”) for submitting to a professional journal in the United States. Results of searches in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) for “child” and “kid” are shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2

Global Distribution of “USB drive” in Google Trends

While “kid” occurs about one third as often as “child” in COCA, “kid” occurs only 584 times in academic texts, which is a miniscule 0.5% of its total and, also, just 0.5% of academic entries for “child.” Obviously, serious academic writing in the United States avoids using the word “kid.” 

Corpora exist not only for American and British English but also for other global English varieties. See Global Web-Based English (GloWbE), Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), News on the Web (NOW), International Corpus of English (ICE), and others. Also useful for seeking input from language users in other parts of the world are online dictionaries and urbandictionary.com as well as social media.

Note. Updated from How Research on Language Can Help All Researchers by L. Barratt, 2015, Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Research in Education, Arts, Management, and Science (I-CREAMS). Rajabhat Roi-Et University, Thailand. 


Figure 3

Results of “child” and “kid” in the Corpus of Contemporary American English

PEDAGOGICAL APPLICATIONS

Textbooks and other teaching materials often provide just one language variety, usually a variety found in the country where the materials are published. To introduce your students to language variation, examine the materials for a given lesson to see if you can find examples where the English being presented does not match what you have encountered before (i.e., what you have heard in your country or elsewhere). For example, the book might contain “Send me an email,” but you might prefer “Send me a mail.” To apply this exploratory approach to your teaching, ask students which expressions they usually say or have heard. After a short discussion, demonstrate how to search using an internet tool and/or encourage students to do their own searches to determine which form is most common and which forms are found in which regions or contexts. Though used more frequently in writing classes, such searches can also be used in general English classes or in classes focused on other skills such as vocabulary or pronunciation. Simple searches can be used by learners of all ages, including those in primary school.

To incorporate discussions of language variation in your lessons, be prepared to respond to teachable moments, which is when questions arise from the lesson or when they are asked by students. In such instances, provide insights to language variation. Encourage your students to investigate on smart phones. Another option is for students to investigate as homework and then report their findings at the next class.

Students can learn to research their own questions about English variation. Heng Hartse (2022) described an assignment for which students find answers to their own inquiries in response to questions suggested by Bamgbose (1998). These questions are as follows:

• How many people use the variation? (demographic)

• How widely dispersed is it? (geographical) 

• Who uses it? (authoritative) 

• Where is the usage sanctioned? (codification) 

• What is the attitude of users and non-users to this variation? (acceptability) 

Heng Hartse had his students find answers to their selected questions by using the internet. Heng Hartse had his students find answers to their selected questions by using the internet. Consider thinking of other questions that are relevant or interesting to your own students. However, your goal should be similar, that of opening your students’ eyes to the variations that exist in Englishes, to people’s attitudes towards their own variety, and to the varieties used by others. Help your students become autonomous lifelong learners by first demonstrating online searches and then giving students practice in conducting their own investigations.

Other skills needed by your students include communication strategies to negotiate meaning in English. To understand others and have them understand us, all users of English must be able to request clarification, repeat and rephrase words, use approximations, ask for help, and remain patient long enough to erase misunderstandings that might occur (Pratama & Zainil, 2020). 

Finally, to expand your students’ exposure to other Englishes, reach out to the global community of English teachers. Welcome guest speakers to your classroom, either in person, virtually, or via recordings of World Englishes. Have students read works in English from different parts of the world. Start making these connections by joining the TESOL affiliate in your country such as the Paraguay Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (PARATESOL). And, finally, explore World Englishes to increase opportunities to travel virtually around the globe.

KEY CONCEPTS

Here are some points to help you remember key concepts about World Englishes:

DISCUSSING

Think about the English spoken in your country, and develop meaningful answers to the following questions for which Paraguay is used as an example:

TAKING ACTION

To practice what you have learned about World Englishes, do the following:

EXPANDING FURTHER

To expand your knowledge about World Englishes, visit these websites:

SEE ALSO

Relevant discussions related to World Englishes are addressed in other chapters of this book:

 Chapter 10 Building Language Awareness by H. Lalwani

Chapter 11 Using Social Media to Enhance Language Awareness by S. Terol and J. Amarilla

Chapter 15 Exploring Meaning through Translanguaging Practices by K. Liu and J. Choi

Chapter 18 Teaching English in Different Contexts by R. Díaz

Chapter 31 Using Translation and Interpretation in ELT by S. Terol

Chapter 38 Socio-Cultural Approach to Teaching Grammar by C. Davies, J. Prado, and J. Austin

Chapter 44 Strategies to Teach Pronunciation by S. Spezzini

Chapter 50 Developing Intercultural Competencies by L. Rojas, J. Castañeda, and J. Mosquera 

REFERENCES

Bamgbose, A. (1998). Torn between the norms: Innovations in World Englishes. World Englishes, 17(1), 1-14.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-971X.00078

Barratt, L. (2014). Teaching the expanding universe of Englishes. In A. Mahboob & L. Barratt (Eds.), English(es) in a multilingual context (pp. 99-113). Springer. ISBN 978-94-017-8868-7

Barratt, L. (2015, November). How research on language can help all researchers. Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Research in Education, Arts, Management, and Science (I-CREAMS). Rajabhat Roi-Et University, Thailand. 

Heng Hartse, J. (2022, February 19). Teaching World Englishes vocabulary. Hawai’i TESOL Virtual Conference.

Perez, D. (2016). English and language shift in Paraguay’s New Australia. World Englishes, 35(1), 160-176. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12167

Pratama, V. M., & Zainil, Y. (2020). EFL learners’ communication strategy on speaking performance of interpersonal conversation in classroom discussion presentation. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 411, 29-36. https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200306.006 

Wolfram, W. (2014). Integrating language variation into TESOL: Challenges from English globalization. In A. Mahboob & L. Barratt, Englishes in Multilingual Contexts (pp. 24-31). Springer Verlag. ISBN 978-94-017-8868-7

Wosen, J. (2020, February 13). Out of the mouths of babes. Knowable Magazine. https://knowablemagazine.org/article/mind/2020/how-babies-learn-language 

about the author

Leslie Barratt is professor emerita of linguistics at Indiana State University, having taught 1980-2015, first in the English Department and then in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, where she was chairperson. With graduate degrees in linguistics and education, Leslie taught primary education, undergraduate and graduate linguistics, TESL/TEFL, and ESL/EFL. She was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Hungary (1987-88) and China (1995-96) and, also, Professor of Graduate School at Rajabhat Roi-Et University, Thailand (2015-2018). A lifelong language learner, Leslie investigates language variation and changes that challenge learners, with recent research concerning World Englishes and on-going changes in English. 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4964-7169 

Email for correspondence regarding this chapter: Leslie.Barratt@indstate.edu

Cover Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash