Transcript A comparative analysis of English feature articles written

A Comparative Analysis of
English Feature Articles in
Magazines Published in Thailand
and Britain : Linguistic Aspects
Wannapa Trakulkasemsuk
World Englishes
“A language achieves a genuinely global
status when it develops a special role that is
recognized in every country.”
Crystal (1997)
How?
1.
The language is set as an official language of that
country.
2.
The language is recognized as a special language that is
taught as a foreign language to children in school; or
adults in the country mostly know or learn it as a common
foreign language.
Users of World Englishes
Expanding circle
Outer circle
Inner circle
e.g. USA, UK
320-380
million
e.g. India, Singapore
150-300 million
e.g. China, Russia
100-1000 million
Figure 2.1
Kachru’s three circles of English
EIL or IL
Bickerton’s (1975) language development of non-native speakers
of English
Basilect
mesolect
Thai learners of English
acrolect
Thai competent
users of English
Prestige & Intelligibility
Nativisation and Nativised Varieties of
English
Identification of new Englishes (Platt et al., 1984)
 1.
 2.
 3.
? 4.
It has developed through the education system. This means
that it has been taught as a subject and, in many cases, also
used as a medium of instruction in regions where languages
other than English were the main language.
It has developed in an area where a native variety of
English was not the language spoken by most of the
population.
It is used for a range of functions among those who speak or
write it in the region where it is used.
It has become ‘localised’ or ‘nativised’ by adopting some
language features of its own, such as sound, intonation
patterns, sentence structures, words, and expressions.
Cultural frameworks describing Thai and
British Culture
Hofstede
Hall
Kaplan
Thai
British
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Collectivism
High context
Indirect
Individualism
Low context
Direct
Research procedure
Population and samples
Thai representatives: 30 feature articles
written in English by Thai writers taken from
English magazines published in Thailand
English native speaker representatives: 30
feature articles written in English by English
native speakers taken from English magazines
published in Britain.
Research instruments
• Criteria for identification of the prominent
head nouns
• Criteria for identification of the modifiers
•A statistical method, Chi square
• Concordancing program
Modifiers
Identifying most prominent head noun
Identifying modifiers
•pre-or post- modifiers
•types: word, phrase, or
clause
Frequency Count
Frequencies Comparison, statistical test
Fine analysis of significant modifiers
Findings
Noun modifiers
General findings on noun modifiers
Average modifiers per head noun
TEA : 0.77
BEA : 0.63
Proportion of premodifiers and postmodifiers in
TEA and BEA
Type
TEA
BEA
Premodifiers
48%
55%
Postmodifiers
52%
45%
Comparison of Thai and British writers’ Preference for
Premodifiers and postmodifiers
Premodifiers: c2 = 1.74
Postmodifiers: c2 = 45.03
Cut off value (p<0.05) = 3.84
Postmodifiers
Thai English
British English
- Greater amount of noun
modifiers
- Smaller amount of noun
modifiers
- Higher preference for
postmodifiers than premodifiers
- Higher preference for
premodifiers than post modifiers
- Significantly higher amount of
postmodifiers
- Significantly lower amount of
postmodifiers
- Lengthy and complicated noun
modifiers
- Short and simple noun modifiers
Provision of unnecessary
information is common and
favourable.
-
-
Indirect
Provision of only necessary
information is common and
favourable.
-
- Direct
Conclusion
Factors influencing features of Thai English
 Thai language
Thai cultures
 - Collectivism
 - High context
 - Indirect
Thank You