2.1 Standard English
2.1 Standard English
Embedded Files
- World Englihses: Kachru's Three Circles' of English
English is not only spoken in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as the native language. It is also spoken in India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Kenya, and South Africa as an official or second language. In other countries like China, Russia, Japan, South Korea, English is neither a second nor an official language, however, it is a required course taught at school. Braj Kachru (1985) classified English speakers into three circles: the inner, out, and expanding circles.
English as the first language
English as a second language (ESL)
English as a foreign language (EFL)
According to statistics, the total number of ESL and EFL speakers of English is larger than those who speak English as a first/native language.
With globalization and the advent of the internet, English has become the international lingua franca in almost all social domains such as business, education, and the entertainment industry. So, English no longer belongs to native speakers in the inner circle. It belongs to the whole world. A question of concern for English language education is which English to teach among a wide variety of world Englishes.
2. World Standard English:
2. World Standard English:
Each international variety has its standard dialect. In Great Britain, it is called received English (RP); and in America, it is known as Standard American English (SAE) or General American English.
To make things even more complicated, each international variety of English has its regional and social dialects (discussed in section 2.4) that differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, and even grammar.
Figure 2.3 The Circle of World Englishes (textbook, p. 36)
British and Irish Standard English
American Standard English
Canadian Standard English
Australian, New Zealand, ans South Pacific Standard English
South Asian Standardzing English
East Asia Standardzing English
....
3. Three Myths of Standard American English:
Myth 1: SAE is well-defined variety of English.
As with any standard dialect, SAE is not a well‐defined variety but rather an idealization, which even now defies definition because agreement on what exactly constitutes this variety is lacking.
Myth 2: SAE is a single type of dialect of English.
SAE is not a single, unitary, homogeneous dialect but instead comprises a number of varieties. When we speak of SAE, we usually have in mind features of grammar more than pronunciations.
Myth 3: Only the northern accents are considered standard English pronunciation.
In the US, accents are not prominent markers of socials status. There are varieties of SAE that are spoken with northern accents, southern accents, coastal New England accents, etc., but that is still considered standard.
In Britain, on the other hand, standard pronunciation or Received Pronunciation (RP), also known as BBC English or the “Queen’s English”, takes on the importance of grammar and vocabulary.
Regional and social dialects are two sources of variations of English or any other languages. In the next section, we turn to the two major sources of variations in language.
Recommended Resources:
You can watch the first video to learn more about standard and non-standard varieties of English. The second video is a demonstration of RP and Cockney English, a dialect spoken by the working class living in the eastern part of London. (optional)
Prof. David Crystal talks about standard English and non-standard varieties of English.
RP and Cockney English in GB
Page updated
Report abuse