Chinese Netizens’ reactions to the use of English as a lingua franca

English Today ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Weihong Wang ◽  
Fan (Gabriel) Fang
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Linguistic Capital ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Global English ◽  
Local Varieties ◽  
British English ◽  
Linguistic Imperialism ◽  
The World

With the spread of English around the globe, academics increasingly seek to figure out what global English means to the world. Some accept English globalisation as a reality and take it as natural, neutral and beneficial for international and intercultural communication (Crystal, 2003). Some recognise English skills as important linguistic capital and must-have global literacy (Park & Wee, 2012; Tsui & Tollefson, 2007). However, others associate the global expansion of English with linguistic imperialism and the death of indigenous languages (Phillipson, 2009). Some regard globally spread English as native English varieties, particularly American and British English (Modiano, 2001; Trudgill, 1999), others argue for the rise of local varieties of World Englishes (WE) (Bolton, 2005; Kachru, 1986) and the international use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) (Jenkins, 2007; Seidlhofer, 2011). Although these generic interpretations of English have solid arguments from their own perspectives, none is sufficient to elucidate all the ‘complexity of ideological ramifications of the spread of English in [any] particular locality’ (Pan, 2011: 79).

Cultural conceptualizations of gender and homosexuality in BrE, IndE, and NigE

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Finzel ◽  
Hans-Georg Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Cultural Dimension ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Local Varieties ◽  
Conceptual Metaphors ◽  
British English ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Linguistics

Abstract With the spread of English in many parts of the world, numerous local varieties have emerged, shaped by the sociocultural contexts in which they are embedded. Hence, although English is a unifying element, these varieties express different conceptualizations that are deeply rooted in culture. For the most part, these conceptualizations come in the form of conceptual metaphors, which not only influence our perception of the world (Lakoff & Johnson 1980), but also reveal cultural specifics of a particular society. One of the latest approaches in the field of conceptual metaphor research suggests that conceptual metaphors are actually multimodal, i.e., that they are expressed not only in language, but also, e.g., in gestures, facial expressions, sounds or images (Forceville 2009). Films are an ideal source of data for such multimodal metaphors. In the form of a pilot study, this paper applies this novel approach to metaphor to the field of World Englishes. While adding to the range of research that has already used the methodological toolbox of Cognitive Linguistics or its cognate discipline Cultural Linguistics in the investigation of the cultural dimension of varieties of English (e.g., Kövecses 1995; Liu 2002; Malcolm & Rochecouste 2000; Sharifian 2006; Wolf 2001; Wolf & Polzenhagen 2009), we provide a new exploratory angle to that investigation by using cinematic material for the analysis. Specifically, this study focuses on conceptualizations pertaining to the target domains woman and homosexuality. The data we have selected are from Great Britain, India and Nigeria, because these countries have important film industries, and British English, Indian English and Nigerian English constitute culturally distinct varieties.

scholarly journals Lexico-semantic relativity and versatility in translation and intercultural communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-193
Author(s):  
Victor V. Kabakchi ◽  
Zoya G. Proshina
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
British English ◽  
Foreign Culture ◽  
The World ◽  
Research Schools ◽  
Other World ◽  
Language Environment ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Diverse Cultures

The aim of the article is to discuss translation regularities in correlations of words that denote culture-related phenomena that exist in many cultures or that are specific to certain cultures and languages. The focus is on Russian and English culturonyms. The authors dwell on the principle of functional dualism that claims that language can equally address internal and external cultures. This principle is developed in the new linguistic discipline termed interlinguoculturology (Kabakchi 1998, Kabakchi Beloglazova 2020). Nonetheless, under the impact of the World Englishes paradigm, the article points to blurring the concept of external culture - Russian bilinguals, speaking or writing in Russian English, use this variety for expressing their own culture; the same is true for other world Englishes that have branched from the prototypical British English model. Despite the polemical relations of the two research schools, which are close and yet different in some of their tenets, there is much in common in their semantic and pragmatic research of how varieties of English adapt and domesticate culturonyms, in particular binary words belonging to two languages and often associated with each other in translation. The paper discusses examples of binary polyonyms (universal culturonyms) whose meaning depends on the context of the situation and, therefore, is differently received in diverse cultures; binary analogues whose equivalent selection is based on scrutinizing the dictionary entry and on the knowledge of the cultural background, and binary interonyms that partly help translators and partly interfere with their work, being deceptive cognates differing in their referential or connotational meanings. The article concludes that the interpretation of culture-bound words in foreign-culture-oriented texts depends on various pragmatic and semantic processes and is grounded in a word semantic flexibility and its matter-of-course adaptation in a cultural and language environment.

English or Englishes?

2022 ◽  
pp. 1560-1574
Author(s):  
Aicha Rahal
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
The World ◽  
Considerable Debate

The discipline of World Englishes has been one of the most thriving branches of English linguistics. This branch has become the focal focus of considerable debate. The chapter mainly aims to show the multilingual reality of English. It is an attempt to answer the question “Do we have English or Englishes?” The chapter tries to study the recent situation of English as a lingua franca. It first gives an overview of the spread of English and the emergence of new Englishes. Then, it presents the principals of traditional applied linguistics and second language acquisition. It also discusses the concepts of World Englishes, multilingualism, and pluralism. After that, the chapter presents the World Englishes debate to show the gap between monocentrists and pluralists. Finally, the study sheds light on the fact that Englishes reflect the multilingual reality of English.

English as a Lingua Franca: form follows function

English Today ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 58-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessia Cogo
Keyword(s):  
Research Field ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Form And Function ◽  
The World ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTIn this paper I wish to respond to the article published in ET94 by Saraceni while at the same time providing some clarifications concerning the concept of English as a Lingua Franca (henceforth ELF). In his article Saraceni raises three main questions (and a number of related debatable comments which I will quickly deal with in my final remarks) regarding: 1) the nature of ELF and its speakers, 2) the relationship between ELF and the World Englishes (henceforth WE) paradigm, and 3) the distinction between form and function. I will address each of these questions, and in so doing consider a number of notions concerning the ELF research field.

World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca, and the case of Hong Kong English

English Today ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Sewell
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
The World ◽  
English Pronunciation ◽  
Hong Kong English

ABSTRACTPerspectives from both World Englishes (WE) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) can assist in the description of Hong Kong English phonology. Mario Saraceni's article (English Today 94) provides some useful insights into the current debates about English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). His discussion of the background to this debate identifies three viewpoints: a traditional ENL view with its adherence to native-speaker models; the WE (World Englishes) paradigm with its ‘pluralised and pluricentric view of English in the world’; and the emerging ELF position, with its rejection of native-speaker norms in favour of ‘endonormative realisations of lingua franca varieties’ (Alessa Cogo, English Today 95). However, Cogo believes that the second and third positions are not separate paradigms, and that ELF sits ‘comfortably within a WE framework’, as claimed by Jenkins (2007:17). In this article, I would like to show how the two positions can work together to inform pedagogy by exploring the possible options for English pronunciation models in Hong Kong.

scholarly journals English as a Tool of British Political and Linguistic Imperialism in Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-40
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Chinua Achebe ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
Linguistic Imperialism ◽  
The People ◽  
The World ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Circle Model

The spread of English is considered as a tool of British political and linguistic imperialism in effects of globalization. Kachrus Three Circle model of World Englishes has always played significant role in the categorization of the spread of English. This model is always used as an important tool to critically analyze the distributed circle of English speaking regions in the world where English is dominant over other languages and cultures. In the present study the outer circle from Kachrus model is focused. A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe has been analysed through the lens of Kachrus Three Circle Model of World Englishes. The study finds that the spread of English is basically a tool used for homogenized attack by British imperialism in order to subdue other cultures, politically and linguistically.

scholarly journals A Comparative study on English language teaching to young learners around the world

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 114-118
Author(s):  
Cansu Orsel ◽  
Fatih Yavuz
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
Young Learners ◽  
The World ◽  
Expanding Circle ◽  
Inner Circle

Usage of the English language as Lingua Franca has caused an increasing demand on the English Language Teaching (ELT) in early childhood and according to Braj Kachru’s Three Circles Model of World Englishes as the Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle the approaches to the Young Learners dramatically differs. Besides the features of English as a global language and the nature of early language learning, this paper also focuses on the comparison of the three different examples from the Three Circles Model of World Englishes. They are compared in terms of techniques that are used and the approaches to the Young Learners. The examples taken are from the official websites of the three countries from the Inner Circle, Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle; respectively, New Zealand’s Ministry of Education, Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development, and the Turkish Board of Education and Instruction. Keywords: Young Learners, The World Englishes, Lingua Franca, Braj Kachru, English Language Teaching (ELT).

Interpreting in Tanzania from the perspective of Tanzanian interpreters

Babel ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizaveta Getta
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
The Other ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The One

Abstract The study overviews the role of interpreting services in Tanzania, presenting mainly the experience of practicing freelance interpreters. The two official languages of Tanzania – English and Swahili – have separate roles in the country. Although most Tanzanians accept English as a necessary medium of intercultural communication, Swahili is perceived as an important part of Tanzanian national identity. It is the country’s lingua franca. On the one hand, Tanzania aims to preserve communication in Swahili; on the other hand, there is an inevitable need for intercultural communication with the rest of the world that grows especially in the context of globalization. The paper focuses on the role, status, education, working languages, conditions of Tanzanian interpreters, and the requirements of local and international clients. The study also creates a broader context that mentions crucial historical moments that have influenced the country’s current character of intercultural communication.

Language politics in Latin America

AILA Review ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 76-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanavillil Rajagopalan
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Language Politics ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Linguistic Imperialism ◽  
The World ◽  
Politics Of Language

This paper is an attempt to take stock of the politics of language as it has been playing out in Latin America, ever since the countries in this region were colonized by European powers, mainly Spain and Portugal. Linguistic imperialism is by no means a new phenomenon in this part of the world. In more recent times, the relentless advance of English as the world’s leading lingua franca has only brought to light the difficult North–South relations that have underpinned the geopolitics of the region.

English or Englishes?

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-102
Author(s):  
Aicha Rahal
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
The World ◽  
Considerable Debate

The discipline of World Englishes has been one of the most thriving branches of English linguistics. This branch has become the focal focus of considerable debate. The chapter mainly aims to show the multilingual reality of English. It is an attempt to answer the question “Do we have English or Englishes?” The chapter tries to study the recent situation of English as a lingua franca. It first gives an overview of the spread of English and the emergence of new Englishes. Then, it presents the principals of traditional applied linguistics and second language acquisition. It also discusses the concepts of World Englishes, multilingualism, and pluralism. After that, the chapter presents the World Englishes debate to show the gap between monocentrists and pluralists. Finally, the study sheds light on the fact that Englishes reflect the multilingual reality of English.

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