scholarly journals English Speakers in Hong Kong

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Speech Community ◽  
New Variety ◽  
Difficult Time ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Hong Kong English

This paper argues it is no longer possible to refer to Hong Kong English speakers en masse as EFL speakers, nor can we say they speak a fully formed new variety of English called Hong Kong English (HKE). Taking into account the language(s) used for school, for work, for entertainment, and for socializing, we can see that Hong Kong’s speech community is extremely heterogeneous, both regarding levels of English and degrees of English usage. A small but growing number of Hongkongers now report that they speak English as a native language. Hongkongers with white collar jobs have been found to write more English than Chinese while at work, making it reasonable to argue that they write English as a second language (ESL). Many Hongkongers seek out English-speaking social networks and choose to watch and listen to English-medium forms of entertainment, which means their English-speaking experience is very ESL-like. However, in addition to these variations, there are great differences in English speaking and writing abilities that correlate largely with socioeconomic status. Adding to this lack of homogeneity among English speakers is the fact that extremely few Hongkongers speak English among themselves outside of specific work or school contexts. This means that HKE is not yet a new variety of English, and will have a difficult time becoming one unless the linguistic habits of Hongkongers change. English language education should take all these individual differences into account, including potentially wide differences in the speaking, listening, reading and writing abilities among individuals themselves.

scholarly journals Teachers’ Feedback on a New Variety of English: The Case of Hong Kong English

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. p36
Author(s):  
Ka Long Roy Chan
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Short Report ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
New Variety ◽  
Hong Kong Students ◽  
New Varieties ◽  
Survey Responses ◽  
Hong Kong English

The present short report reveals how teachers of English in Hong Kong (HKTEs) react to Hong Kong English (HKE). By employing a mixed method approach consisting of 100 survey responses and 28 interviews, types of feedback and activities teachers use when they encounter HKE in classroom were recorded and reported. The results showed that the two types of teachers of English – Native and Non-native English speakers – provided different kinds of responses because of the differences in attitude they held toward new varieties of English. The current study potentially sheds light on how different varieties of English could fit in traditional ESL curricula. Further research is warranted on how the feedback may affect English acquisition among Hong Kong students and whether the feedback brings positive or negative effects to the students.

‘Linguistic schizophrenia’ in Hong Kong

English Today ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 33-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie M. Groves
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Dynamic Models ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
New Variety ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Status ◽  
Ongoing Development ◽  
Linguistic Behaviour ◽  
Hong Kong English

In the case of the status of English in Hong Kong, most ‘new Englishes’ classification schemes have been either controversial or inconclusive. Dynamic models seem to be more promising, and these predict two things. First, a trend of ‘linguistic schizophrenia’, where people are exonormative in ideal – holding to the ideals of native speaker English – but endonormative in practice – in actual fact, speaking their own local variety. Second, the future ongoing development and eventual acceptance of the new variety. This article aims to shed more light on some of the complexities surrounding the issue of the status of English in Hong Kong. It undertakes an analysis of the attitudes of local English speakers towards the existence and nature of their own variety, perceptions of their own linguistic behaviour, and attitudes towards norms. The significance of the findings is evaluated in the light of dynamic models postulated by Kachru (1983) and Schneider (2003, 2007). The Hong Kong data present a classic case of Kachru's ‘linguistic schizophrenia’, and confirm the placement of Hong Kong English at the beginning of Schneider's Phase 3 of nativization. The future possibilities for the variety are also discussed.

Strategies for building social connection through English

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerry Taylor-Leech ◽  
Lynda Yates
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Social Strategies ◽  
Language Programs ◽  
Communication Challenges ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Ethnographic Data ◽  
English Program

This article draws on ethnographic data from a longitudinal study of newly-arrived immigrants of non English-speaking background in the Australian Adult Migrant English Program to investigate their opportunities for using English and the language learning strategies (LLS) they used to make the most of these opportunities. Analysis of their reports of spoken interactions in and beyond the classroom suggests that many participants had little awareness of the strategies they could use to increase their opportunities to interact with other English speakers. Most participants did not use any LLS and those they did use were largely social in nature and motivation. With a particular focus on social strategies, we consider participants’ use of LLS to improve their English. We identify some constraints on their use of social strategies and some ways in which contextual and individual factors interacted for learners at different levels of proficiency. We conclude with some practical implications for LLS instruction in English language programs for new arrivals. The findings suggest that explicit instruction particularly in social talk and interaction could help learners increase their contact with Englishspeakers. Families and communities could also benefit from information to promote understanding of the communication challenges facing newly arrived immigrants of non English-speaking background.

Nonstandardized Englishes in Mainstream Literacy Practice

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patriann Smith
Keyword(s):  
Literacy Instruction ◽  
English Language ◽  
American English ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Literacy Practice ◽  
Standard American English ◽  
Mainstream Classrooms ◽  
Cultural Boundaries ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Many

The term Englishes refers to the many different varieties of the English, and represents both standardized and nonstandardized forms. Nonstandardized Englishes is used to refer to Englishes that do not adhere to what has been determined to be Standard English within a given context, such that they are referred to as dialects, Creoles, or New Englishes (e.g., African American English). Standardized Englishes is used to refer to the counterparts of the nonstandardized Englishes that have been typically adopted for use in literacy classrooms (e.g., Standard American English). The field of literacy has addressed nonstandardized Englishes by either focusing on the nonstandardized varieties in isolation from standardized Englishes or by advancing literacy instruction in mainstream classrooms that emphasizes dialect-English speakers’ mastery of standardized Englishes. This approach reflects standard monolingual English ideology and traditional notions of the English language. Operating based on standard monolingual English perspectives implicitly reinforces the view that standardized Englishes and their users are privileged and that speakers of nonstandardized Englishes and their users are inferior. In addition, adhering to traditional notions of English based on their geographical and nation-based use, as opposed to their function based on school, offline, or online contexts regardless of geography, reinforces the concept of the English language as a system and fails to emphasize its communicative and contextual purposes as demanded by our postmodern era of globalization, transnationalism, and internationalization. A translingual approach to Englishes can serve as an alternative to current ways of thinking about literacy instruction because it addresses the needs of both standardized and nonstandardized English-speaking populations. Literacy instruction reframed based on this approach is critical for students’ successful interaction across linguistic and cultural boundaries in the context of the 21st century.

scholarly journals Non-native English-speaking English language teachers: History and research

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucie Moussu ◽  
Enric Llurda
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
English Speaking

Although the majority of English language teachers worldwide are non-native English speakers, no research was conducted on these teachers until recently. After the pioneering work of Robert Phillipson in 1992 and Peter Medgyes in 1994, nearly a decade had to elapse for more research to emerge on the issues relating to non-native English teachers. The publication in 1999 of George Braine's bookNonnative educators in English language teachingappears to have encouraged a number of graduate students and scholars to research this issue, with topics ranging from teachers' perceptions of their own identity to students' views and aspects of teacher education. This article compiles, classifies, and examines research conducted in the last two decades on this topic, placing a special emphasis on World Englishes concerns, methods of investigation, and areas in need of further attention.

Language Teaching in New Zealand

1981 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 189-202
Author(s):  
Grameme D. Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Education ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
British Colonization ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
National Boundaries ◽  
Almost All

Language teaching in New Zealand as it relates to the theme of this volume, the movement of people across national boundaries, has had two main directions. The first, arising from the nineteenth century British colonization of tribal Maori society with the subsequent ceding of the land to the British crown, focused on the language education of the indigenous Maori people primarily through the schooling of children. In the 1980's almost all Maoris speak English and a minority are actively bilingual. Language teaching in New Zealand as it relates to the theme of this volume, the movement of people across national boundaries, has had two main directions. The first, arising from the nineteenth century British colonization of tribal Maori society with the subsequent ceding of the land to the British crown, focused on the language education of the indigenous Maori people primarily through the schooling of children. In the 1980's almost all Maoris speak English and a minority are actively bilingual. The second direction, occurring particularly over the last decade or so, has focused on the English language education of immigrants speaking English as a second language and coming as adults or children to a largely English speaking country. This review deals particularly with these two major directions in language teaching and does not, therefore, cover the teaching of foreign languages such as French or German as academic subjects in New Zealand.

A multifactorial approach to gerundial and to-infinitival verb-complementation patterns in native and non-native English

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra C. Deshors
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Regression Model ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Abstract Knowledge ◽  
Multifactorial Approach ◽  
Infinitival Complements ◽  
Hong Kong English ◽  
Semantic Parameters

This multifactorial corpus-based study focuses on verb-complementation constructions (Marcus started to draw a picture vs. Marcus started drawing a picture) and contrasts 3,119 occurrences of gerundial and to-infinitival constructions across native and non-native (ESL) English varieties. Using logistic regression modeling, I analyze how grammatical contexts constrain the syntactic choices of American and Hong Kong English speakers. The regression model reveals a level of complexity in the uses of gerundial/to-infinitival complements that had so far remained unnoticed. Specifically, speakers make syntactic decisions based on comprehensive grammatical contexts rather than single isolated semantic parameters (as previously reported). Further, for the two types of speakers different grammatical features play an influential role in the association of a given predicate with a particular complement type. This suggests that the two speaker populations do not share the same abstract knowledge of the semantic and morpho-syntactic constraints associated with each of the investigated type of complementation. Ultimately, this study shows that combining cognitively oriented theoretical frameworks with rigorous empirical corpus approaches helps distinguish what motivates native and ESL speakers’ syntactic choices.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document