scholarly journals New Englishes Norms: A Reality or an Intellectual Ideal?

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Chandrik Balasubramanian ◽  
Adel AbuRadwan

It is now widely accepted that English does not belong to the traditional native speaker countries such as the UK or the USA, and that English across the world has diversified and established roots in different parts of the world. Given this, studies have emerged, that focus on New Englishes being systems unto themselves, and not merely erroneous versions of more traditional “native” Englishes (Rajagopalan, 2012). Scholars today are calling for descriptions of New Englishes to form the bases of New English handbooks, which, they claim, could serve as pedagogical models. Linguists like Lange (2011) and Kachru (1994) and literary figures such as Salman Rushdie alike have called for the recognition of New Englishes to be accepted and used in order to better reflect the global nature of the language The aim of this study is to determine whether new international varieties of English are acceptable among language teachers. Specifically, the paper investigates how acceptable certain well-documented New Englishes structures are among English language professionals working at the tertiary level in the Arab world and North America. The results show that while participants are, in general, more tolerant of New English structures in students’ spoken forms than in both students and their own written forms, they stated that they would not use any of the structures in their own writing. Results also show that the respondents’ native language, specialization and educational qualifications are factors that impact their acceptance of these forms.

2022 ◽  
Vol 2022 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Muneer Hezam Alqahtani

This article investigates how “native speaker” teachers define who a “native speaker” is and how they view themselves in relation to the concept. It further explores how they feel about discriminatory practices in employability and the pay gap that are systemically carried out against their “nonnative speaker” counterparts by recruiters. Data were gathered from 10 English language teachers: five males and five females from the UK, Canada, Ireland, and South Africa, who were hired by a state university in Saudi Arabia on the basis that they are “native speakers.” The findings show that although the place of birth and the official status of English in a given country were the main defining criteria for hiring a “native speaker,” the interviewees did not view the concept of the “native speaker” in the same ways as their recruiters did, who they believed used those criteria in an overly simplistic and reductive way rooted in native-speakerism. The findings also show that the participants did not enjoy the unjustified privileges given to them by their recruiters at the expense of their “non-native speaker” colleagues. Instead, in some cases, they attempted to confront their recruiters over such discriminatory practices, and in some others, they attempted to bridge the gap and ease the tension between themselves and their “nonnative speaker” counterparts, although these efforts were hindered by the system’s unfair and unjust practices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Lowe ◽  
Luke Lawrence

Issues surrounding native-speakerism in ELT have been investigated from a diverse range of research perspectives over the last decade. This study uses a duoethnographic approach in order to explore the concept of a 'hidden curriculum' that instils and perpetuates Western 'native speaker' norms and values in the formal and informal training of English language teachers. We found that, despite differences in our own individual training experiences, a form of 'hidden curriculum' was apparent that had a powerful effect on our initial beliefs and practices as teachers and continues to influence our day-to-day teaching.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (21) ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Kristo Karvinen

The 1939 invasion of Finland by the Soviet Union attracted more than just journalists to the frigid north. Thousands of volunteers around the world rallied under the Finnish flag, willing to risk their lives for a foreign country. Over ten thousand arrived before the end of the war, with more on their way, coming from Hungary and Estonia, Canada and the USA, Sweden and the UK. Were they all ardent anticommunists or did they have other motives? This article seeks to answer that question, utilising Finnish and British archives as well as contemporary research into war volunteering. The origins and motives of the volunteers are examined, revealing that their motives ran a wide gamut, including such reasons as anti-communism, linguistic fraternity and spirit of adventure, to name a few.


Author(s):  
Sue Garton

The last 20-25 years have seen a significant shift in the views about what teachers need to know to be able to teach. This shift has led to new developments in the theory of second language teacher education (SLTE) and a growth in research in this area. One area of research concerns the attitudes and expectations of those learning to become teachers. While most studies in this area focus on teacher education programmes in BANA countries, this article looks at data from student teachers studying in Russia and Uzbekistan. The study employed a quantitative and qualitative research design, using a researcher-designed on-line questionnaire. Through snowball sampling, data from 161 students and recent graduates in the two countries were collected, analysed, and compared to investigate the content of SLTE programmes. The study identified what the novice teachers felt were the strengths and weaknesses of their programme, and what changes they would like to see. Results showed that while the respondents were mainly satisfied with their methodology, and theoretical linguistics courses, they felt the need for more practice, both teaching and language practice. The data also revealed that, in Uzbekistan in particular, the idea of global English struggles to take hold as native-speaker models remain the norm. The implications of the study underline the need for SLTE to explicitly link theory to practice and to promote the idea of varieties of English, rather than focus on native-speaker norms.


1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (S5) ◽  
pp. 101-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Deschamps ◽  
G. Valantin

Pregnancy in adolescence is now a very great concern for doctors, teachers and social workers throughout the world and yet about 95% of the publications on this topic have come from the USA. The remainder are mainly from the UK and Scandinavia. Other countries have produced only a small number of papers, focusing mainly on clinical problems such as the pathological events and complications during pregnancy or delivery. In France, the first paper to appear in a paediatric journal was published in 1977 in the French journal of school health (Martin, 1977). On the other hand, teenage magazines often contain articles about sexual behaviour and pregnancy in adolescence. There is now a great concern in the adolescents' press about the problems of sexuality, contraception, abortion and pregnancy, including advertising for pregnancy tests.


1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh Bhugra ◽  
Kamaldeep Bhui

Barring a few exceptions (such as rauwolfia), most of the psychiatric medications have been developed in the West, especially the USA, the UK and Europe. Their safety trials have been conducted in the populations living in these parts of the world. Although these drugs are used all over the world there is a limited research to determine accurate pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic profiles across different ethnic groups. Hence, clinicians usually adopt a ‘universalist style’ (seeing every condition and treatment as similar) of managing psychiatric illnesses, but this appears to neglect the information from the emerging literature which advocates a relativist approach to pharmacotherapy (see Lin et al 1995 for review). Anthropologists have encountered ‘phenomenological absolutism’ in a general tendency of people from one culture to perceive and value other cultures in terms unconsciously based upon their own, but phenomenologically experienced as absolute and universally applicable (also known as ethnocentrism). In addition to ethno-biological determinants of drug response, there are significant cultural factors: the concurrent use of pluralistic health systems, alternative therapies and folk remedies which might support, hinder or complicate pharmacotherapy and treatment adherence. In this paper we highlight some key factors of which clinicians need to be aware. These include pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic principles, and application of these principles in pharmacological management of psychiatric conditions. Ethnic differences in pharmacodynamics are most clearly demonstrated in the greater sensitivity to a variety of drugs in Caucasians than in Asians or in African–Caribbeans.


BMJ Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. e018705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gonzalo Casino ◽  
Roser Rius ◽  
Erik Cobo

ObjectivesTo analyse the total number of newspaper articles citing the four leading general medical journals and to describe national citation patterns.DesignQuantitative content analysis.Setting/sampleFull text of 22 general newspapers in 14 countries over the period 2008–2015, collected from LexisNexis. The 14 countries have been categorised into four regions: the USA, the UK, Western World (European countries other than the UK, and Australia, New Zealand and Canada) and Rest of the World (other countries).Main outcome measurePress citations of four medical journals (two American:NEJMandJAMA; and two British:The LancetandThe BMJ) in 22 newspapers.ResultsBritish and American newspapers cited some of the four analysed medical journals about three times a week in 2008–2015 (weekly mean 3.2 and 2.7 citations, respectively); the newspapers from other Western countries did so about once a week (weekly mean 1.1), and those from the Rest of the World cited them about once a month (monthly mean 1.1). The New York Times cited above all other newspapers (weekly mean 4.7). The analysis showed the existence of three national citation patterns in the daily press: American newspapers cited mostly American journals (70.0% of citations), British newspapers cited mostly British journals (86.5%) and the rest of the analysed press cited more British journals than American ones.The Lancetwas the most cited journal in the press of almost all Western countries outside the USA and the UK. Multivariate correspondence analysis confirmed the national patterns and showed that over 85% of the citation data variability is retained in just one single new variable: the national dimension.ConclusionBritish and American newspapers are the ones that cite the four analysed medical journals more often, showing a domestic preference for their respective national journals; non-British and non-American newspapers show a common international citation pattern.


Author(s):  
Swati Arora ◽  
Rishabh Jain ◽  
Harendra Pal Singh

In Wuhan city of China, an episode of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) happened. during late December and it has quickly spread to all places in the world. Until May 29, 2020, cases were high in the USA with 1.7 Million, Russia with approximately 387 thousand, the UK with 271 thousand confirmed cases. Everybody on the planet is anxious to know when the coronavirus pandemic will end. In this scourge, most nations force extreme medication measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. Modeling has been utilized broadly by every national government and the World Health Organization in choosing the best procedures to seek after in relieving the impacts of COVID-19. Many epidemiological models are studied to understand the spread of the illness and its prediction to find maximum capacity for human-to-human transmission so that control techniques can be adopted. Also, arrangements for the medical facilities required such as hospital beds and medical supplies can be made in advance. Many models are used to anticipate the results keeping in view the present scenario. There is an urgent need to study the various models and their impacts. In this study, we present a systematic literature review on epidemiological models for the outbreak of novel coronavirus in India. The epidemiological dynamics of COVID-19 is also studied. Here, In addition, an attempt to take out the results from the exploration and comparing it with the real data. The study helps to choose the models that are progressive and dependable to predict and give legitimate methods for various strategies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
VASILY I. RADASHEVSKY ◽  
VICTORIA V. PANKOVA ◽  
VASILY V. MALYAR ◽  
TATYANA V. NERETINA ◽  
ROBIN S. WILSON ◽  
...  

The spionid polychaete Boccardia proboscidea Hartman, 1940 is a tube-dweller and shell/stone-borer widely occurring in temperate waters across the world and considered invasive in many areas. It was originally described from California, USA, and later reported from Pacific Canada, the Asian Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, South Africa, and northern Europe. The Bayesian inference analysis of sequence data of three gene fragments (836 bp in total) of the mitochondrial 16S rDNA, nuclear 28S rDNA, and Histone 3 has shown that individuals from the Pacific coasts of Canada and the USA, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Mediterranean France were genetically very similar (maximal average p-distance value, 0.49%, was between 16S rDNA sequences). We consider these individuals to be conspecific and report the earliest records of B. proboscidea from the UK and a possible first Mediterranean record in the Gulf of Lion. The high 16S haplotype diversity of B. proboscidea detected in the north-eastern Pacific suggests a native distribution for the species in the northern Pacific and subsequent introductions through human activities to other parts of the world. The histories of these introductions are reviewed and the hypotheses about times and places of introductions are updated.


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