Unit I Title: World Englishes and Global Communication

Lesson 1: Varieties of English Language

This unit is primarily designed for the students to understand that English has several varieties
and these varieties differ linguistically and socio-culturally and how each variety reflects the
culture of its speakers and writers.
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English language, just like all other languages, is not a pure language untouched by
others. Its popularity and importance being the lingua franca have made it long influenced by
contacts with a wide range of languages in the world. Thus, people all over the world are using
more and more varieties of English now popularly called as World Englishes.

Varieties of English / Classification of World Englishes (Andy Kirkpatrick, 2007)

1. English as a Native Language (ENL)
ENL is spoken in countries where English is used as a native and primary language.
These countries are the United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New
Zealand.
2. English as a Second Language (ESL)
ESL is spoken in countries where English is important, and it is considered the official
language in education, business, and legal worlds. These countries were colonized by United
States or United Kingdom. Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Ghana, and Nigeria are
among those countries where English is used as a second language.
3. English as a Foreign Language (EFL)
The third and final classification is the EFL, which appears in countries where English is
not commonly used either in spoken or in written discourse. These countries include Japan,
China, Korea, Taiwan, Egypt, Indonesia, Thailand and many countries in the Middle East. In
these countries, English is taught and learned at school, but students are not encouraged to use
English outside the classroom, so students have a little chance to use it.

Braj Kachru (2003) represented the growth and spread of English in the world. He views
the world as being divided into different circles. The English Concentric Circles.

1. Inner Circle (ENL)

2. Outer Circle (ESL)
3. Expanding Circle (EFL)
 Kachru’s Concentric Circles
Source:
https://www.google.com/search?q=kachru%E2%80%99s+concentric+circles&rlz=1C1CHBD_enPH90
6PH9 06&oq=&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l8.12376350j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Writers and Speakers from these circles use English in different ways according to the
contexts where English language is employed. The World Englishes has brought peculiarities
that provide opportunities and challenges not only in English language teaching and learning but
also in the International communication.

Peculiarities that cause potential problems to ESL and EFL learners include the following:

1. Phonology – the study of speech sound

There are sounds that are present in the speech inventory of one language which are not
available in the speech inventory of another language. For examples, Japanese do not have /l/
sound, so they substitute the sound of /l/ to /r/ as in ‘gurufurendu’ for girlfriend. Filipinos do not
have long sounds in English language such as /i/ for eagle; /o/ for pole; and /u/ for chew, and
the /ӕ/ which leads, for example, to cat being pronounced ket. Korean do not have the English
consonant sounds /f/ and /v/, and /Ө/ and /ɉ/ which are pronounced as /p/, /b/, /t/, and /d/
respectively, thus phone is pronounced pone.
2. Orthography – spelling of words
It is frequently noted that ESL and EFL students suffer in their English writing more than
the native speakers due to absence of some English vowel and consonant sounds in their native
or local language and the influence of their mother tongue. Research categorize four major
spelling errors of non-native English language learners: omission (leaving letters out),
substitution (replacing letters with incorrect ones), transportation (reversing the letters position),
and insertion or addition (adding extra letters).
Examples:
1. omission gramar (grammar)
2. substitution saksopon (saxophone)
3. transportation beleive (believe)
4. insertion or addition fourty (forty)

3. Syntax–arrangement of words in forming a sentence

English, Italian, French, and other languages use the subject-verb-object (SVO) pattern;
Japanese, Korean, Indian use subject-object-verb (SOV), and Filipinos use verb-subject-object
(VSO) pattern.
Examples:
English: That snake killed the dog.
S V O
Japanese: Sono habiga inu o korosita. (That snake the dog killed.)
S O V
Filipino: Pinatay ng ahas ang aso. (Killed by that snake the dog.)
V S O
3. Semantics – word meanings, meanings of certain words or expressions in one language may
differ in another language.
Meanings of certain words or expressions in one language may differ in another language. For
examples, the English meaning for the word ‘salvage’ is ‘to save’; to Filipinos ‘salvage’ means
‘to kill”.
Moreover, some ideas that are conveniently expressed with a single word in one language may
need an entire sentence in another language. For example, Hawaiian ‘aloha’ is a quick “Goodbye
and/or Hello”, in which Filipinos will normally say “Kumusta ka?” for Hello, and “Paalam or Mauna
na ako” for Goodbye.