Workplace perceptions and attitudes toward standard English use

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Yeok-Hwa Ngeow ◽  
Keng-Soon Soo ◽  
Avon Crismore
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Behavioral Intentions ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
Civil Sector ◽  
Insight Into

This study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of Malaysian civil sector and private sector workers toward the use and acceptance of Malaysian English, a variety of nonstandard English. A survey using a 20-item Likert Scale questionnaire highlighted some language issues: current perceptions and attitudes about and use of standard English, international intelligibility, public models of language use, and behavioral intentions of civil sector and private sector Malaysians toward standard English. The major findings for the combined sectors were 1) a recognition of the importance of attaining international intelligibility of English in their interactions with foreigners and 2) mixed reactions toward the use of standard English language within their Malaysian society. Differences were found for some items between the civil sector and private sector workers as well as for the factors of age, gender and ethnicity. Studies like this one can be used as a model for replication to find out more about language perceptions and attitudes in other countries and are significant for raising the language awareness needed by educators to better help their students succeed in finding employment, by employers to gain insight into employees’ perceptions and attitudes toward and use of English in order to enhance communication. In addition, the study raises important questions and issues such as about the growth and acceptance of non-native varieties of English in Malaysia and other countries.

scholarly journals The Impact of Texting on Standard English: The Students’ Perspective

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamal Kaid Mohammed Ali ◽  
S. Imtiaz Hasnain ◽  
M. Salim Beg
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
English Second Language ◽  
Esl Learners ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Academic Year

Overindulgence in social networking, in general, and texting, in particular, is much in practice. It is cutting across various population boundaries and has almost assumed an endemic proportion. Its consequential impact on the standard language has acquired greater importance. This paper aims to determine the perceptions and attitudes of English Second Language (ESL) learners at Aligarh Muslim University towards the consequences of texting on Standard English. The data were collected through a five-point scale questionnaire from ninety students who were enrolled at Aligarh Muslim University during the academic year 2010-2011. The respondents completed a 16-item questionnaire. The students from which the data were collected were grouped according to their levels. The results indicate the negative impact of this new usage of the language in breaking the rules of English language and influencing their literacy. Moreover, the questionnaire results from respondents' point of view show that regardless of their heavy use of texting, most respondents have a negative attitude towards texting and they viewed it as a threat to Standard English.

Language ideologies and self-Orientalism: representing English in China Daily travelogues

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoxiao Chen
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Language Ideologies ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Incorrect Usage ◽  
China Daily ◽  
East West

Abstract While there is plenty of scholarship on the spread and study of English in China, scarce attention has been paid to representations of English in tourism discourses about China. This article aims to explore language ideologies undergirding representations of English language use in 253 travelogues from China Daily published since 2000. Findings show that most prominently in China Daily “standard” English was represented as a lingua franca for travel in China, a language of prestige, and a means of Othering. Some places are demarcated from others due to the lack of English-language services. Chinese people’s way of using English was reduced to Chinglish, a pejorative term indicating inappropriate or incorrect usage of English. Chinese use of English was thus ridiculed as an inferior Other. This critical discourse analysis of tourism discourses about China emanating from within the country demonstrates one facet of Orientalism – self-orientalism. CD’s self-orientalist strategies were embedded in oppositional East-West ideologies that set an inferior China against a superior West.

scholarly journals English Words and Phrases in Croatian: A Small-Scale Study of Language Awareness and Attitudes

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-98
Author(s):  
Marija Perić ◽  
Sanja Škifić
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Endangered Languages ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Historical Factors ◽  
Younger Generation ◽  
Linguistic Purism ◽  
Insight Into

The focus of this paper is on language attitudes towards English words and phrases in the Croatian language. In order to prevent loanwords, linguistic purism has arisen as a theory about what languages should be like. The tradition of linguistic purism in Croatia has been shaped by various socio-historical factors. English may be viewed as a language of opportunity, or as a threat to the survival of other, usually minority and endangered, languages. In order to provide an insight into the use of English words and phrases in the Croatian context, a questionnaire about language attitudes and awareness was conducted on 534 participants. The aim of the questionnaire was to determine participants’ language attitudes and familiarity with English words and phrases. The results show that although people in Croatia generally like English, many of them are not familiar with English words, especially older participants and those with little or no knowledge of the English language. Moreover, the results indicate that the younger generation is more inclined towards English than the older generation; however, they are not as familiar with Croatian equivalents as they claim.

The marginalized positions of Thai professional writers on the global hegemony of English

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adcharawan Buripakdi
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
The Political ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Thai English ◽  
Professional Writers ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Nature Of Teaching

This qualitative study investigated the positions of the Thai professional writers towards Thai English. Data was collected from in-depth interviews of 20 Thai bilingual writers. The findings revealed that most of the writers had different ways to distant themselves from Thai English. The majority of the participants expressed a marginalized view toward their English. Their attitudes were greatly influenced by the hegemonic Standard English. Evidently, Thai perceptions of the English language conformed to a colonial, hierarchical standpoint which privileged the types of English spoken and written within the U.S. and Great Britain and denigrated spoken and written Thai English. The study not only reflected the reality of World Englishes but also addressed political aspect of language use related with identity, power, and hierarchical discourse. It clearly indicated the political nature of teaching English and called for a reconsideration of teaching practices in countries where English is not the native language.

scholarly journals An Evaluation of Communicative Language Teaching in Pakistan: A Study of Undergraduate English Learners of Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-264
Author(s):  
Aila Noor ◽  
Amna Shahid ◽  
Shehzad Ahmed ◽  
Minaa Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
Positive Effects

The research was focused on the use of a communicative method of teaching. Through the use of such an advanced approach, students are unable to be considered proficient speakers of the English language. Various factors were highlighted in this research that causes a hindrance in the success of communicative method teaching. It was also identified how this approach can have positive effects on the students that would help them become proficient speakers of the English language (Nazir, Abbas, & Naz, 2020). A 5-point Likert scale was used in the questionnaires that were filled by 100 students of only one private sector in Lahore. The results deducted the positive effects of this approach along with the reasons for its inability to produce proficient speakers and how it can be sorted out.

An historical analysis of species references in American English

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Craig Frayne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
American English ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Google Books

This study uses the two largest available American English language corpora, Google Books and the Corpus of Historical American English (coha), to investigate relations between ecology and language. The paper introduces ecolinguistics as a promising theme for corpus research. While some previous ecolinguistic research has used corpus approaches, there is a case to be made for quantitative methods that draw on larger datasets. Building on other corpus studies that have made connections between language use and environmental change, this paper investigates whether linguistic references to other species have changed in the past two centuries and, if so, how. The methodology consists of two main parts: an examination of the frequency of common names of species followed by aspect-level sentiment analysis of concordance lines. Results point to both opportunities and challenges associated with applying corpus methods to ecolinguistc research.

Brendan Behan's Borstal Boy: Politics in the Vernaculars

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Schrank
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Great Variability ◽  
The Political ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Cultural Assumptions ◽  
Language And Literature ◽  
Autobiographical Fiction ◽  
Literature And Language

This essay examines the political uses to which Behan puts language in his autobiographical fiction, Borstal Boy, both as an instrument of domination and a means of liberation. Identifying Standard English language and literature as important components of the British imperial project, Behan creates, as a linguistic alternative, ‘englishes’, a composite language in which differences of geography, class, age, education, and occupation create a demotic speech of great variability and expressive force. In so doing, Behan sabotages the cultural assumptions and justifications for colonial exploitation embedded and validated in Standard English literature and language.

English language schooling, linguistic realities, and the native speaker of English in Hong Kong

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Government School ◽  
The Impact ◽  
At Home

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.

Developing conversational competence through language awareness and multimodality: the use of DVDs

ReCALL ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 283-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Moreno Jaén ◽  
Carmen Pérez Basanta
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Language Awareness ◽  
Multimodal Texts ◽  
Conversational Interaction ◽  
Conversational Competence ◽  
Oral Interaction

AbstractThe argument for a pedagogy of input oriented learning for the development of speaking competence (Sharwood-Smith, 1986; Bardovi-Harlig and Salsbury, 2004; Eslami-Rasekh, 2005) has been of increasing interest in Applied Linguistics circles. It has also been argued that multimedia applications, in particular DVDs, provide language learners with multimodal representations that may help them ‘to gain broad access to oral communication both visually and auditory’ (Tschirner, 2001: 305). Thus this paper focuses on an exploratory study of teaching oral interaction through input processing by means of multimodal texts.The paper is divided into a number of interconnected sections. First, we outline briefly what teaching conversation implies and examine the important role of oral comprehension in the development of conversational interaction. In fact, it has been suggested that effective speaking depends very much on successful understanding (Oprandy, 1994). In this paper we pay special attention to the crucial role of context in understanding oral interactions. Therefore, we outline the theory of context in English Language Teaching (ELT). The discussion draws on approaches to teaching conversation and it also offers a brief reflection about the need for materials which might convey the sociocultural and semiotic elements of oral communication through which meaning is created.We then discuss the decisions taken to propose a new multimodal approach to teaching conversation from a three-fold perspective: (a) the selection of texts taken from films, and the benefits of using DVDs (digital versatile disc); (b) the development of a multimodal analysis of film clips for the design of activities; and (c) the promotion of a conversation awareness methodology through a bank of DVD clips to achieve an understanding of how native speakers actually go about the process of constructing oral interactions.In sum, the main thrust of this paper is to pinpoint the advantages of using multimodal materials taken from DVDs, as they provide learners with broad access to oral communication, both visual and auditory, making classroom conditions similar to the target cultural environment (Tschirner, 2001).

Singaporeans' reactions to Estuary English

English Today ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia Boh Peng ◽  
Adam Brown
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Personal Communication ◽  
The Other ◽  
Standard English ◽  
Teaching Model ◽  
Received Pronunciation

A consideration of whether EE could conceivably be an alternative to RP as a teaching model.Since David Rosewarne first coined the term in 1984, much has been written about Estuary English (EE). The definition usually given of Estuary English is that if we can imagine a continuum with Received Pronunciation (RP) at one end and Cockney (an urban accent of London) at the other, then Estuary English is in the middle. This definition is restated by Wells (1998-9) as ‘Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England. This highlights two chief points: that it is standard (unlike Cockney) and that it is localized in the southeast (unlike RP)’. The book English Language for Beginners (Lowe & Graham 1998) contains on p. 156 a diagram giving the actress Joanna Lumley as an example of RP, the boxer Frank Bruno for Cockney, and the comedian and writer Ben Elton for EE. This is ironic, in that Ben Elton himself denies that he is a speaker of EE (John Wells, personal communication).

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