Language Teaching and LPP--Reflection 3

Which norms or why?

                                                                   -----My understandings of Standard English

                                                                           Yang ke

Discussions of the spread of English always arouse nowadays people’s everlasting interests and concerns. According to Graddol (1997), the spread of English is projected to continue; and it is true that the speakers of English as a second, foreign, or other language outnumber native speakers. Thus the issues like the preferences of native speakers and non-native speakers, whose English or whose standards have become heatedly-discussed problems around the world where English is being used. The debate between Randolph Quirk and Braj Kachru (1985) leads to the consideration over the standards of English as an international language.

A lot of scholars have mentioned the importance of Standard English for the development of English in this changing world, such as McKay(2002), Randolph Quirk (1985), but there are also voices against it from Braj Kachru (1985).Quirk (1985) appealed for the common standard of use in all contexts of English language use, on the contrary, Kachru (1985) showed understandings for the varieties of English around the world especially in the outer circle and argued that the variety of norms help mutual communication. In Kachru’s view, local English should be taught, learned and respected as a new variety. Thus some researchers state that Standard English refers to whatever form of the English language is accepted as a national norm in an Anglophone country (Bex & Richard 1999), Trudgill (1999) argues that Standard English is a dialect which is socially superior to other dialects.

During their debate, one important question arises, that is: how can people define Standard English? It is interesting that the term of Standard English was given different explanations in different times. Such as Strevens’s (1983: 88) definition which does not associate the standardized accent with Standard English, later, Quick (1990) mentions Standard English particularly with the written form of language. But The Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics (Richards, Platt, and Weber 1985) defines Standard English as “the variety of a language which has the highest status in a community or nation and which is usually based on the speech and writing of educated speakers of the language (ibid.: 271).” The reality showed us clearly that even different countries have their own ideas about what constitutes standard English, particularly in the “inner circle” of English-speaking countries (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) (Crystal 2003:60). Personally, I will regard the reality that there is no standardized Standard English because of the important influences from the language users. It is always the demands and practical usage of the language user that affect the form and the content of Standard English. Language is shaped by the experiences of the people who use it and changes with their changing needs.

In terms of English language education, scholars showed their concerns about the notions of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) or English as an International Language (EIL). Although the scholars claimed that the term EIL implies there is more emphasis on its international use rather than suggesting that there is a single international variety, for some countries in the expanding circle, EIL implies an assumption of a hegemonic influence of American English or British English. Just like Phillipson (2003 166) says “‘World Standard Spoken English’ is bound to be based on Anglo-American mother tongue norms”. Williams (2008, 2007) states there are negative educational consequences of continuing prejudices against non-standard dialects. Hudson (2000) presents his ideas that Standard English is now highly codified for non-native speakers, but not at all codified for native speakers.

According to Jenkins (2007), the “gatekeepers” (2007:239) such as government institutions, examination boards, universities, publishers, The British Council and other British and American cultural–political institutions control English language policy decisions. Thus the others, such as non-native English speakers and teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards the English language will be influenced, which in turn lead to “linguistic insecurity” among NNES teachers (p. 246)

More importantly, the increasing recognition that regard English as the international language pose big challenges to English language teaching especially in the countries where English is being taught as a foreign language.  So it is time to create possibility of “’appropriate’ Englishes other than the ‘standard’ ones …into the constraints and structures of real classrooms… and …find out what teacher actually know about what they do in the classroom” (Tupas 2010). Also the educational policy maker, those education professionals should realize that in order to guarantee the ideal learning performance, the teacher should combine different teaching strategies according to the actual situation of the students and the practical needs of participants in the practical teaching, but not just follow the so called standard or norms.

References:

Bex, Tony; Richard J. Watts (1999). Standard English: The widening debate. Routledge.

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Crystal, David. (2003). English as a Global Language (2nd edition).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Graddol, D. (1997). The Future of English? [Electronic version]. London: The British

Council. Retrieved April 6, 2007, from http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-elt-future.pdf

Hudson, Richard (2000).The language teacher and descriptive versus prescriptive norms: The educational context. A paper presented (in absentia) to a workshop in Paris on prescriptivism and foreign-language teaching in March 2000. http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/dick/SEhudson.htm

Hymes, D. (Ed.). (1974). Studies in the history of linguistics: Traditions and paradigms. Bloomington:Indiana University Press.

Jenkins, J. (2007). English as a lingua franca: Attitudes and identity. Applied Linguistics Series.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle. In R. Quirk & H. G. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the World: Teaching and Learning the Language and Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Phillipson, Robert (2003) English Only Europe? London: Routledge.

Quirk, R. (1985). Language varieties and standard language. English Today (1990), 6: 3-10

Richards, Jack, John Platt, and Heidi Weber. (1985). Longman dictionary of applied linguistics. Harlow, Essex, England: Longman.

Trudgill, Peter (1999).Standard English: what it isn’t. Published in Tony Bex & Richard J. Watts eds. Standard English: the widening debate. London: Routledge, 1999, 117-128.

Tupas, T. R. F. (2010). Which norms in everyday practice - and why? In A. Kirkpatrick (Ed.). The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes (pp. 567 – 579). New York and London: Routledge.

Williams, Ann. (2008). Discourses about English: Class, codes and identities in Britain. In Marilyn Martin-Jones, Anne-Marie de Mejia and Nancy Hornberger eds. Encyclopedia of Language and Education Vol 3: Discourse and Education. New York: Springer 2008, 237-250.

Williams, Ann. (2007). Standard English and education. In D. Britain, Language in the British Isles (2nd edition) Cambridge University Press 2007, 401-16.