scholarly journals Contemporary English – a challenge for non-native speakers

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Jana Beresova
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
British English ◽  
New Words ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Grammatical Structures

The paper focuses on contemporary American English and its challenge for those who are exposed to it as non-native users. Due to globalisation, the two main varieties of English (British and American) are becoming closer than they used to be as native speakers of both communicate directly and influence their varieties significantly. The traditional differences between British English and American English are less meaningful, however, English nowadays develops rapidly. The focus of research is based on current trends in both grammar and vocabulary, analysing contemporary American literary prose as many new words and new ways of using grammar in British English come from American English due to the influence of American popular culture and media. Contemporary literary prose is a valuable material of natural written and spoken language. In the paper, both speeches (that of the narrator and characters) are analysed, focusing on expressions and grammatical structures which are likely to attract a non-native reader. The selected samples of the language are discussed and systemised with an aim to generalise some trends typical for contemporary English. Keywords: contemporary English; vocabulary; grammar; informal language;

A rose by any other name? Learner English and variety–status labelling: the case of English in South Korea

English Today ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Jung Song
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
British English ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
The Face ◽  
Inner Circle

One of the major achievements of Braj Kachru's (1991) ‘liberation linguistics’ is that it has squarely placed Outer Circle varieties such as Indian English, Nigerian English and Singaporean English on a par with Inner Circle varieties such as American English and British English – in the face of negative attitudes, ranging ‘from amused condescension to racist stereotyping’ (Bruthiaux, 2003: 160). Following in Kachru's footsteps, many scholars have demonstrated that these Outer Circle Englishes are legitimate varieties of English, with distinct characteristics and with growing numbers of native speakers (e.g. Deterding, 2007; Jowitt, 1991; Sailaja, 2009). Indeed these Outer Circle English varieties are increasingly used, in respective countries, not only as the major or default medium of communication but also in the context of important domains such as education, media, government, literature and popular culture. The Kachruvian perspective has also given rise to the ‘egalitarian’ view that Inner Circle English speakers are no longer the only ones who can lay claim to the ownership of English. Outer Circle English speakers are now thought to be as much custodians of English as Inner Circle English speakers are.

scholarly journals Transfer, Similarity or Lack of Awareness? Inconsistencies of German Learners in the Pronunciation of LOT, THOUGHT, STRUT, PALM and BATH

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Kautzsch
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
First Year ◽  
Close Approximation ◽  
Advanced Learners ◽  
British English ◽  
English Vowels ◽  
Vowel Systems ◽  
Acoustic Analyses ◽  
University Level

The current study presents acoustic analyses of non-high back vowels and low central vowels in the lexical sets LOT, THOUGHT, STRUT, PALM and BATH as pronounced by German learners of English. The main objective is to show that learners of English at university level are highly inconsistent in approximating the vowels of their self-chosen target accents British English (BrE) and American English (AmE). To that end, the acoustic qualities of the English vowels of learners are compared to their native German vowels and to the vowels of native speakers of BrE and AmE. In order to facilitate statements about the effect of increased experience, the study differentiates between students in their first year at university and in their third year or later. The results obtained are highly variable: In some cases the learners transfer their L1 vowels to English, other cases show clear approximations to the target vowels, while other cases again document the production of new vowels neither found in German nor in English. However, close approximation to the target vowels only sometimes correlates with higher proficiency. This might be an indicator of a low level of awareness of systematic differences between the BrE and AmE vowel systems. But the data also indicate that the more advanced learners produce more distinct AmE BATH vowels and BrE THOUGHT vowels than the less advanced learners, which points to a partial increase of awareness resulting from increased experience. All in all it seems that raising the awareness of differences between target accents in L2 instruction is necessary if the envisage goal is for learners to reach near-native pronunciation.

On the variation of fragmental constructions in British English and American English post-match interviews

2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 217-241
Author(s):  
Elisabeth Reber
Keyword(s):  
Communities Of Practice ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
American English ◽  
Football Players ◽  
British English ◽  
Specific Analysis ◽  
Grammatical Variation ◽  
Grammatical Structures

Abstract This article takes a cognitive, interactional perspective on pluricentricity and examines the use of fragmental constructions in a mid-sized dataset, drawing on recordings of British English and American English post-match interviews (PMIs), i.e. media interviews conducted with football players after matches in the British and North American top leagues. It examines what types of fragmental constructions are deployed in the PMIs and whether the use and distribution of such constructions vary between the British and American “communities of practice” (Lave/Wenger 1991). The study finds that the quantity and quality of fragments largely differ, with the British English data showing a higher relative frequency of fragmental constructions, more grammatical variation, and a use of fragmental constructions which do not necessarily draw on latent grammatical structures from the prior speech for meaning-making. It has been suggested by Biber et al. (1999) that clausal elliptical structures are generally less typical of American English. The present genre-specific analysis suggests an interdependence between fragmental constructions and their routinisation and frozenness, interactional constraints, as well as deviant sports and media cultures shared by these communities of practice, which can be treated as a form of “enregisterment” (Agha 2007).

scholarly journals A Comparative Phonological Study of Elision in Standard British English and Central Kurdish

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Khalid Ali Abdullah
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
British English

This study investigates speech sound omission by native speakers of Standard British English and Central Kurdish. It aims to explore how a sound or sounds can be dropped in a spoken language to simplify it. The study compares English and Kurdish to determine similar and dissimilar features related to the elision of sounds. Additionally, the study attempts to ascertain the reasons for omitting of a sound or sounds in each language.

scholarly journals VIETNAMESE LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS AMERICAN AND BRITISH ACCENTS

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huong Le Thu Phan
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
British English ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Inner Circle ◽  
Efl Classrooms ◽  
Received Pronunciation

English possesses different varieties due to its worldwide usage which challenges the tendency of favorite accents among EFL classrooms in non-English speaking countries. However, learners show more positive familiarity and preference for General American English (GA) and British English, Received Pronunciation (RP) which are grouped as the inner-circle of English. This study investigated 53 students in a university in southern part of Vietnam. They were asked to complete an online questionnaire which examined their evaluations of two accents on different traits of status and solidarity, their preference and familiarity. A verbal guise technique is employed with two female native speakers. The data was analyzed by SPSS with different T-tests and ANOVA. The study revealed that the respondents showed greater recognition and evaluations for GA which associated with prestige, familiarity and social attractiveness. Nearly two-thirds of participants revealed a preference to the American speaker although more than half of them did not recognize where she was from.

scholarly journals What's in a word: Sounding sarcastic in British English

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aoju Chen ◽  
Lou Boves
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Functional Data ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Speech Rate ◽  
British English ◽  
Telephone Conversation ◽  
Contour Shape ◽  
Direct Support ◽  
Key Word

Using a simulated telephone conversation task, we elicited sarcastic production in different utterance types (i.e. declaratives, tag questions andwh-exclamatives from native speakers of the southern variety of British English. Unlike previous studies which focus on static prosodic measurements at the utterance level (e.g. mean pitch, pitch span, intensity), we examined both static prosodic measurements and continuous changes in contour shape in the semantically most important words (or key words) of the sarcastic utterances and their counterparts in the sincere utterances. To this end, we adopted Functional Data Analysis to model pitch variation as contours and represent the contours as continuous function in statistical analysis. We found that sarcasm and sincerity are prosodically distinguishable in the key words alone. The key words in sarcastic utterances are realised with a longer duration and a flatter fall than their counterparts in sincere utterances regardless of utterance type and speaker gender. These results are compatible with previous reports on the use of a smaller pitch span and a slower speech rate in sarcastic utterances than in sincere utterances in North American English. We also observed notable differences in the use of minimum pitch, maximum pitch and contour shape in different utterance types and in the use of mean pitch and duration by male and female speakers. Additionally, we found that the prosody of the key words in sarcastic utterances and their counterparts in sincere utterances has yielded useful predictors for the presence (or absence) of sarcasm in an utterance. Together, our results lend direct support to a key-word–based approach. However, the prosodic predictors included in our analysis alone can achieve only an accuracy of 70.4%, suggesting a need to examine additional prosodic parameters and prosody beyond the key words.

scholarly journals English as a Second Language for Americans?

2008 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-101
Author(s):  
Alison W. Conner
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
Coffee Shop ◽  
British English ◽  
Fear Of Missing Out ◽  
American Popular Culture ◽  
Language Problems

Most travelers eventually realize that they are the foreigners, and for me language was an early clue. From the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s, I spent eleven years teaching in Singapore and Hong Kong, where—despite the broad reach of American popular culture—some form of British English ruled. In Singapore, it is true, many people spoke “Singlish,” full of local words and expressions such as kopi tiam (coffee shop), kampong (village), “can or not” (yes or no), lah (untranslatable word of emphasis) or kiasu (the fear of missing out). But terms like these were rarely the source of my language problems.

Which English Should We Teach for International Technical Communication?

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kirkman
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
British English

There are differences of vocabulary, grammar, and usage in American English and British English. As international interchange of information increases, we must alert writers and editors to these differences, and encourage them to find forms of expression common to both versions of English. If they do not, their texts may create difficulties, not only for readers using English as a foreign language, but also for native speakers of American English or British English.

Have went– an American usage problem

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-312
Author(s):  
INGRID TIEKEN-BOON VAN OSTADE ◽  
VIKTORIJA KOSTADINOVA
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Standard Form ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Status ◽  
British English ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Text Corpora ◽  
Close Analysis

Have wentmay seem a straightforward non-standard grammatical form today, but it evidently has a different status in British and American English. While in British English it developed into a non-standard form after the codification of the strong verb system by the eighteenth-century normative grammarians, in American English it became a usage problem. This we concluded from its appearance primarily in usage guides published in the United States over the years. The current status of the variant in the region was confirmed by evidence we encountered both in anonymous surveys and in face-to-face interviews with native speakers of American English. Our findings for the differences in status ofhave wentin the course of its history were supported by corpus-based analyses of historical and modern text corpora for British and American English, while a close analysis of selected modern instances ofhave wentandhave goneshowed a different distribution between the two that appears to warrant a perceived difference in meaning noted by some of the American informants.

scholarly journals Attitudes Towards Exogenous and Endogenous Uses of English: Ugandan’s Judgements of English Structures in Varieties of English

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Christiane Meierkord
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Population ◽  
American English ◽  
The West ◽  
Indian English ◽  
British English ◽  
International Media ◽  
The North ◽  
Language Variety ◽  
Grammatical Structures ◽  
Over Time

Uganda is a former British protectorate, where English has contributed to the country’s linguistic ecology since 1894, when the British established a protectorate over the area of the Buganda kingdom. Over time, Ugandan English has developed as a nativised second language variety, spoken by Uganda’s indigenous population. At the same time, due to migrations, globalisation and the influence of international media and the Internet, its speakers have increasingly been in contact with varieties other than British English: American English, Indian English, Kenyan English, and Nigerian English may all influence Ugandan English. This paper looks at how Ugandan English can be conceptualised as a variety shaped by other varieties. It reports on the results of acceptability tests carried out with 184 informants in the North, the Central and the West of Uganda and discusses how speakers assess individual grammatical structures used in Ugandan English and in those varieties they are potentially in contact with.

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