Transcript Document 7171010

Teaching Varieties
of English
Johanna Katchen (柯安娜)
National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
[email protected]
http://mx.nthu.edu.tw/~katchen
The Seven Spheres of
Language Teaching: From
Tradition to Innovation
One of the conference topics is Matter
 One of the questions under this heading is
What language variety should we teach?
 What are the needs of society and what
variety do our students need in order to
find useful careers?

Language Situation in Taiwan
Mandarin Chinese in the language of
school, the national official language
 Many people speak Taiwanese as a first or
additional language, especially toward the
center and south of the island
 Shortly after the end of World War II ,
when the ROC government moved to
Taiwan, the use of Taiwanese in the
schools and official spheres was banned

In the 1990s Taiwanese began to be
revived in the public sphere; now there
are radio and TV stations
 Hakka is spoken by a significant number
of people in some counties, also have
radio and TV stations
 Several indigenous Austronesian
languages are spoken in the mountains
and on some outer islands, but their
numbers are declining as young people
seek careers in the cities

English Education in Taiwan
Everyone studies English in school
 Used to begin in junior high school, now in
the 5th grade of primary school, in some
places in the 3rd grade or even the 1st grade
 Arguments against an early start concern
potential confusion with the other
languages around them because for many
pupils Mandarin is not their first language
 Also have to spend a lot of time learning
the Chinese writing system

Many students still fall between the cracks
and can barely speak after completing
secondary school
 Many go to additional cram schools
 The best are getting better
 Yet even many jobs not requiring higher
education require some English ability

Increase in Tourism
Need English to be a waiter at a
restaurant
 Taipei had special courses in English for
taxi drivers
 In the Southern Taiwan city of Tainan,
garbage trucks, instead of playing the
same familiar music to announce their
arrival, played English lessons!

Foreign workers—
globalization means joint
ventures, investment
Example: Hsinchu, Taiwan, Technologybased Science Park (TSMC, Acer, etc.)—
engineers work with Americans,
Europeans, other Asians, English is the
lingua franca
 Foreign laborers—maids from Philippines
and Indonesia, construction workers from
Thailand, etc.

More foreign students—
trend in Taiwan to attract
international students
Staff in university offices need English
 Clerks in local shops and businesses would
do better with some English
 Even the nurses at the local hospital need
some English when these students injure
themselves or catch the flu

Problem: Textbook English
is not “real” English
Structured “ideal” English is useful and
perhaps necessary for beginning levels of
instruction, particularly in EFL contexts
 However, few real people—except perhaps
for some EFL teachers--talk like the
textbook


While reading works in
English from various parts of
the world can also pose
problems with vocabulary,
usage, and cultural
interpretation, with reading
we have more time to work
out the meaning

While listening or conversing,
there is no time to consult
references—and often
students can’t because they
encounter an
incomprehensible stretch with
no clue how to work it out.
Are they brave enough to ask
their interlocutor?
My University Students
May go abroad for graduate work—to USA,
Britain, Australia
 May take a job which requires them to
travel abroad (e.g., with publishers,
computer companies)
 May work in journalism, translation

What are your students’ needs?
We can guess, but we can’t predict
 Experts have said that a high percentage
of future jobs we can’t yet imagine
 The famous quote attributed to Braj
Kachru “80% of nonnative speaker use of
English is with other nonnative speakers”

Even native speakers may have initial
difficulty with varieties not encountered
before (example Eliza Doolittle’s Cockney
accent in “My Fair Lady”)
 The more different from the native variety,
the greater the difficulty
 Many native speakers are intolerant of
other varieties, particularly nonnative
varieties, often for reasons that are nonlinguistic

Ability to deal with different
varieties or ambiguity may
differ from individual to
individual
 Maybe we can’t predict the
specific varieties students may
encounter, but we can train
them to “stretch their ears” to
deal with ambiguity

Nonnative speakers with different L1 (as
well as kind native speakers talking with
nonnative speakers) may perhaps
mutually make adjustments to understand
each other
 So if it is so that 80% of students’ future
use of English will be with NNS and if NNS
make more adjustments to be understood,
 THEN…

Maybe students have less to fear (“I’m
afraid to talk with native speakers”)
 We have good reason to help sensitize
their ears to variation
 Inner Circle varieties (US, British,
Australian, etc.)
 Outer Circle varieties (Indian, African,
Philippine, etc.)
 Expanding Circle varieties (Thai English,
Russian English, Arabic English, etc.)

Speaking

Students should be taught to speak an
acceptable variety that will not take
away from their face or credibility; e.g.
aiming toward Standard American
English is fine for Taiwan students,
speaking Cockney is probably not a
good idea
Students need not speak like
native speakers; it may not
only be impossible in most
cases, it is unnecessary as well
except for some specialized
professions (spy, diplomat,
interpreter, English teacher?)
 Comprehensibility is the key
element

Listening

Need to comprehend some more standard
regional varieties of USA/Canada, British
Isles, Australia, New Zealand, e.g.
someone approximating RP (Received
Pronunciation, Queen’s English)—Most
Europeans learn the British variety

Need to comprehend
some regional varieties
where English is
nonstandard or
nonnative, e.g., India,
Malaysia, South America,
depending on needs of
society and job (and
WTO)
Sources of Materials to Teach
World Englishes
Did you bring your digital recorders? Talk
to and record people here—at any
international or even regional gathering.
 Ask the people you work with, the people
you know, who use different varieties
 What can/should you record?

Any ordinary conversation could provide
practice
 Could also use particular readings that
bring out differences

If you can’t find real speakers?
Radio
 Internet
 Movies
 Satellite TV

Radio
May be broadcasts in English
 News—short bits with sound bites from
famous and ordinary people
 Interviews
 BBC
 Others?

Internet
More and more resources
 BBC World Service, also educational unit
 Voice of America
 ELT materials
 Podcasts, YouTube, others
 Quality of reception can be an issue
 Materials may suddenly be removed

Movies
Rather hit and miss
 Can you find the variety you want?
 Is there enough representative speech?
 Is the topic appropriate for your students?

Satellite TV
The station may be broadcasting from the
region and variety you are looking for
(e.g., ABC Australia)
 May not be available for the general public
but only in hotels
 Stations like BBC and CNN are more
generally available for a fee

Assume you have only BBC
and/or CNN, what can you do?
Plenty of examples of both American and
British relatively standard varieties—
President Bush speaks, PM Brown speaks
 CNN has British, Australian, and NNS
presenters
 BBC gives more examples of British
regional, Scottish, Irish varieties. More
coverage of the Indian subcontinent

On both you’ll hear Iraqis, various
Europeans, Africans, Asians speaking in
English on various news broadcasts
 Both have interview and documentary
programs where you can find longer
segments from various NS and NNS
varieties

Programs may have themes not of breaking
news and disasters
 Theme-based segments are often better
than breaking news because the material
does not get old as fast—can use it year
after year
 CNN—Talk Asia, Inside Africa, Inside the
Middle East
 BBC—Asia Today, Earth Report, Middle East
Business Report
 Regional MTV interviews???

What differences can we teach
or should we teach?
Vocabulary is the most
flexible of linguistic features
 Words come and go—who
had heard of USB and flash
disc a few years ago?

Words vary from region to region
 Show or sensitize students to regional
differences in vocabulary in their own
language
 Show differences among major varieties,
e.g., lift/elevator; loo/toilet; tricky ones
like first floor, subway, rubber

If you entered a subway in
Britain, what would be the likely
result when you exited?
(a) you would be in another part of the
city;
 (b) you would be on the other side of the
road;
 (c) you would have a sandwich;
 (d) you would be leaving a boat.

Vocabulary can have some special
meanings in different cultures, e.g.,
Do you have a rubber?
 British: small item used to remove a
pencil mark made on paper (AmE. eraser)
 American slang: condom
 A pair of rubbers refers to rubber
overshoes
 Best we can do is sensitize students
that vocabulary will may differ and
they should ask when they don’t
understand or find contradiction

Syntax, Morphology, Grammar
Not as fast-changing as vocabulary
 Differences not systematic, more
idiosyncratic
 Example: the government is/are …
 Tell students to they may encounter such
differences

Discourse, Other Patterns of Speaking
and Writing, Cultural Differences
Can’t predict what students will need even
if we knew how to teach the differences
 Give a few examples (e.g., party invitation
for 7 p.m., when do you arrive? “I think it’s
time for me to go home.” “Okay/No,
please stay longer.”)
 Tell them they will encounter other
differences

Pronunciation
Pronunciation differences are most
commonly noticed
 There are systematic differences between
varieties
 Stress and intonation also work together
with pronunciation

For English, a big split is in the treatment
of post-vocalic /r/ (e.g., fourth floor)
 Standard American pronounces it,
Standard British doesn’t, but some
American varieties don’t, some British
varieties do
 Generally speaking, vowels show far more
differences and variety than consonants
do

English of Lowland Scotland and
Northern Ireland
Purer, non-diphthongized vowels (e.g., No)
 Stronger presence of retroflexed and trilled
[r]
 Bright [l]
 Velar fricative, e.g., loch, technical
 Rising intonation
 Specialized vocabulary

South Africa (Black variety)
Syllable timed
 Purer vowels, less reduction to shwa
 Non-rhotic
 Bright [l]
 th as [t] or [d]
 Specialized vocabulary
 Some special grammar use

Indian English
Syllable timed
 Purer vowels
 Non-rhotic
 Bright [l]
 Retroflex consonants
 th as [t] and [d]
 Exchange of [w] and [v]

Special intonation pattern
 Special grammatical use (e.g.,
progressive terms, standard tag “is it?”;
“only” as an intensifier)
 Special vocabulary

To Conclude:
We can’t predict what challenges our
students will face in the future
 We can teach them that there is variation
in language and give them some tools for
how to deal with that variation

Some Sources
American Tongues. (1986). Center for New
American Media, New York. 55 minute
videotape, good examples of American English
varieties.
 McCrum, R., MacNeil, R, & Cran, W. (1986).
The Story of English. BBC Books.
Accompanying 9-part video series—good
examples of worldwide spoken varieties.
 Trudgill, P., & Hannah, J. (1985). International

English: A guide to varieties of Standard
English. Second Edition. Edward Arnold.