Research in ELT

NAME : ANDI SRI MEGA PUTRI

NIM : 1952342009
CLASS : PARE-PARE

Thesis Research Method Finding/discussion

title/author/year problem/Issue
Unequal translingual To shed light on the The data used in Unequal translingual
Englishes in the issues of unequal this article derive Englishes in
Asian peripheries Englishes within the from two larger Mongolia
/Sender Dovchin, mixed linguistic ethnographic
Shaila Sultana & practices of young research projects Unequal translingual
Alastair Pennycook adults, we focus on that looked into the Englishes in
two different linguistic practices Bangladesh
contexts – Mongolia of young people in
and Bangladesh – Ulaanbaatar
addressing not only (conducted between
the lack of July and November
postcolonial English 2010; and between
research on such April and June
peripheral Asian 2011) and Dhaka
contexts, but also the (conducted between
need to understand May and September
the different ways in 2011). Overall 65
which the issues of students from
‘unequal Englishes’ various social
occur. Despite its backgrounds aged
image as a remote between 17 and 29
and grassy land from the National
peopled by semi- University of
nomadic animal Mongolia and the
herders, Mongolia University of
and particularly the Excellence, Dhaka,
capital, Ulaanbaatar, volunteered to
has witnessed a participate in the
major shift in research. Their
lifestyle since 1990. socio-economic and
regional
backgrounds were
diverse, varying
from affluent to
poor and from rural
to urban, before
they gained
admission to the
universities.
 1. Unequal translingual Englishes in Mongolia

1. Naidan: …Minii bodloor bol Geegiin duunuud iluu amidrald oirkhon yum shigee.
Bold bol YOU KNOW ((pause)) jishee ni zugeer yamaa shig gunshaa khooloi goor
oriloool aimar REKLAMNAYA PAUZA shuudee, you know ((Giggles)).
= In my opinion, Gee’s songs are more practical. Bold is, you know, ((pause)) for
example, just screams like a goat with his nasal voice. He is such a ‘commercial
break’ [referring to ‘he is such a show-off’], you know ((Giggles)).
2. Dolgormaa: ((YOOY!)) Chi neeren YOU KNOW YOU KNOW gekhee boli
tekhuu!!! Aimar teneg sonsogdokh iin.
=((Gosh!)) Can you please stop saying ‘you know’ ’you know’? Sounds really lame.
3. Naidan: Yu genee? ((pause)) Chamaig l duuraij yari jii:shd. YOU KNOW:!
=What? ((pause)) I’m actually trying to be like you. ‘You know!’.
4. Dolgormaa: KHUUSH! Bi khezee tegj yarij baisiiin? Naadakh chini
khotsrogdsiishdee odoo ((Laughs)). Aimar teneg sonsogdjiishd. NE:VER!
= Hey! When did I talk like that? That’s really outdated nowa days ((Laughs)).
Sounds really stupid. Never!
5. Naidan: ((Pause)) ((PAAH!)) Chi neeren aimar demii yumand sanaa zovokh yumaa.
Argagui l neg paa:lantai jorlon, paar:tai baishingiin khuukhed munduu: mun…
=((Pause)) ((Wow!)) You worry too much about nothing. You’re really a spoilt kid
living in an apartment with an ‘enamel toilet’ and ‘central heating system’.

This extract concerns two classmates (Naidan, age 19, male and Dolgormaa, age 18, female)
whose conversation took place during a classroom break. The speakers are sharing their
opinions on some Mongolian popular music artists. Naidan’s use of varied semiotic resources
derives mainly from his engagement with media resources (line 1): the usage of the hip hop
genre-specific term‘Geegiin’ [‘Gee’s’], combining the Mongolian hip-hop artist’s English-
inspired name ‘Gee’ with the Mongolian suffix ‘-giin’ [possessive: Gee’s]. The voice of a
Russian television host is also introduced (Naidan’s parody has a distinctive Russian
pronunciation), announcing the next commercial break with the phrase ‘reklam naya pauza’
[‘time for a commercial break’]. Now commonly used and relocalized among young
Mongolians, the phrase has come to suggest drawing attention to oneself, and refers to
narcissistic people obsessed with ‘showing-off ’ as commercial breaks are often associated
with the idea of showing off the particular products in varied ways to attract the consumers

In line 2, Naidan’s interlocutor Dolgormaa clearly objects to his use of ‘you know’,
label ling it as outdated and old-fashioned. Naidan responds in line 3, tongue in cheek, that
using ‘you know’ repeatedly in his own speech is a parody of Dolgormaa’s style of speech,
simultaneously teasing her extensive English mixing practices in her daily linguistic
reper toire. This proposition is strongly rejected by Dolgormaa in line 4 on the grounds that
it is outdated and a lame style of speaking. She emphasizes her point with the distinctively
British ‘Never!’ [‘nevə’], rather than an American-sounding version [‘nevər’], because she
aligns herself with British English due to her previous extensive travels to the United
Kingdom.

The use of English in the translingual practices of these two speakers should be under stood
through both speakers’ socio-economic status. Since its democratic revolution from the
communist regime in 1990, Mongolia opened its internal market to the rest of the world,
allowing economic liberalization, complemented by the free flow of goods, money and
capital into the country (Dovchin, 2011). Like many former socialist regimes, however, this
has also led to increased economic disparities.

2. Unequal translingual Englishes in Bangladesh

Facebook status
1. Ehsan: GothCard exclusive Bat Credit Card Never leave your cave without it :P
2. Aiman: hahah nice, i really need it!
3. Aiman: one of the most cheesiest moments in movie history…((sic))
4. Ehsan: Who doesn’t :P Damn, wish shop Hollywood would sell this as a merchandise,
oder kache nai, (((they don’t have it))) they only have the “1997 Batman & Robin”
Mr. Freeze action figure for sale, 97 production kenner brand toy, still in mint fresh
pack.
5. Aiman: I would pay 5000TK if they have this card

both Ashiq and Nayeem in Extract 3 and Ehsan and Aiman in Extract 4 are
entangled with various translingual practices, even though the intensity of their
engagement with English is starkly different. The language practices of both
groups are closely inter twined with their mobility in space. Ashiq and Nayeem
have diverse exposure to different time and space: from rural/provincial towns
to urban space and from the least privileged education system in rural/provincial
towns to an English-medium education system of the private university. Their
movement in space brings them to abradically different space which becomes a
source of friction and tension. Their language exhibits the socio-cultural
dynam ics of Sheng (a combination of English, Swahili and Kenya’s ethnic
languages, such as Kikuyu, Luo and Luyha) – the language of the urban youth
in Kenya that evolves in the process of youth distancing themselves from the
older generations, the rural traditional population and lifestyle, and from upper
social classes and the rest of the society, as a way to bridge their ethnic
differences in urban spaces (Karanja, 2010). Ashiq and Nayeem, coming as they
do from different demographic backgrounds, develop their own stylized Bangla
which is fluid