Showing papers in "English Today in 2011"

Race and native speakers in ELT : parents’ perspectives in Hong Kong

Abstract: English is used as an important means of international and intercultural communication around the world more than ever. Because of its widespread use in the global context, non-native speakers of English around the world outnumber native speakers by far (Crystal, 1997). According to Kachru and Nelson (1996: 79), ‘accepting even cautious estimates, there must be at least three nonnative users of English for every old-country native user’. A similar phenomenon is also observable in the English Language Teaching (ELT) profession, with the vast majority of teachers of English as a second and foreign language in the world being non-native speakers.

‘Linguistic schizophrenia’ in Hong Kong

Abstract: In the case of the status of English in Hong Kong, most ‘new Englishes’ classification schemes have been either controversial or inconclusive. Dynamic models seem to be more promising, and these predict two things. First, a trend of ‘linguistic schizophrenia’, where people are exonormative in ideal – holding to the ideals of native speaker English – but endonormative in practice – in actual fact, speaking their own local variety. Second, the future ongoing development and eventual acceptance of the new variety. This article aims to shed more light on some of the complexities surrounding the issue of the status of English in Hong Kong. It undertakes an analysis of the attitudes of local English speakers towards the existence and nature of their own variety, perceptions of their own linguistic behaviour, and attitudes towards norms. The significance of the findings is evaluated in the light of dynamic models postulated by Kachru (1983) and Schneider (2003, 2007). The Hong Kong data present a classic case of Kachru's ‘linguistic schizophrenia’, and confirm the placement of Hong Kong English at the beginning of Schneider's Phase 3 of nativization. The future possibilities for the variety are also discussed.

An investigation of English pronunciation teaching in Ireland

Abstract: The global expansion of the use of English throughout the last decade has had significant implications for its instruction around the world. Among the issues that have arisen as a result of this expansion has been the selection of appropriate phonological models in the English language classroom. Specifically this particular issue has hinged on the question of whether it is more appropriate to encourage English language learners to strive towards the goal of a particular native variety of English pronunciation, or to promote an alternative target. This question has provoked much discussion, and has been the subject of occasionally heated debate (e.g. Jenkins, 1998, 2000; Scheuer, 2005, 2008; Seidlhofer & Jenkins, 2003).

English, Chinglish or China English?

Abstract: Roughly 90,000 taxi drivers in Beijing learned English in preparation for the Summer Olympic Games (Beijing 2008) of some 600,000 total residents of the city that have jumped on the English bandwagon in the past few years (People's Daily, 2001). China is a country of nearly a billion and a half people, most of whom now begin learning English at the age of ten (Dong, 2005: 11). A simple Google search for ‘English in China’ yields more than 36,000,000 results! It cannot be argued that English is unpopular in the Middle Kingdom. With so many learners there, it stands to reason that a variety of English peculiar to China would eventually develop, and there is much evidence to suggest that it has already begun.

A comparison of the global status of English and Chinese: towards a new global language?

Abstract: China's rapid development and growing engagement with the rest of the world have prompted much discussion and debate about the Chinese language, especially its prospects for becoming a global language. A report in China Daily (2004), for example, suggests that:there may even come a day when learning Chinese, like present day English, becomes compulsory for business, politics and cultural exchanges – a trend that has become increasingly plausible as more foreign students enrol in Chinese courses and China as a nation takes a more prominent role on the international stage.

The pragmatics of Irish English

Abstract: IntroductionThe utterance It’s raining (of great relevance tothe Irish!) can have a variety of different meaningsaccording to who says it, to whom one is talking,and where it is said, amongst other things. The factthat language in use (whether in spoken or writtenmode) is obviously much more than the sum of itsconstituent parts – the individual sounds that makeup words, the combinations of words that create sen-tences or utterances, the meaning that can be derivedfrom different words and combinations thereof – hasbeen what has driven pragmatics as a discipline,from its origins in the philosophy of language.Initially, what drove the research agenda was thepotential of words to perform acts, or speech act the-ory (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969), and later, the com-plexities of the relationship between what is said andwhat is meant, the study of conversational implica-tures (Grice, 1975) or ‘how people can understandone another beyond the literal words that are spo-ken’ (Eelen, 2001: 2). Pragmatics is now an inher-ently inter-disciplinary approach which has as itscentral orientation this study of, essentially, howspeaker meaning is interpreted in context. Criticalto interpretation is the concept of context itself, acomplex and multi-layered notion involving culturalsetting, speech situation and shared backgroundassumptions (Goodwin and Duranti, 1992).Linguistic choices made by conversational par-ticipants can simultaneously encode situationalindices of position and time, and interpersonaland cultural indices such as power, status, genderand age. Pragmatic research comprises a diverserange of research strands including how linguis-tic choices encode politeness (Brown andLevinson, 1987; Watts, 2003), reference anddeixis (Levinson, 2004) and the relationshipbetween domain specific discourse, such asworkplace or media discourse, and specialisedpragmatic characteristics (O’Keeffe, Clancy andAdolphs, 2011). Thus, pragmatics provides, asChristie (2000: 29) maintains, ‘a theoretical fra-mework that can account for the relationshipbetween the cultural setting, the language user,the linguistic choices the user makes, and thefactors that underlie those choices’.Pragmatics is a young discipline, having rela-tivelyrecentlycementeditspositioninthetopogra-phy of linguistics, and the study of pragmatics inrelation to Irish English is younger still. As thisissue no doubt illustrates, much of the ground-breaking work on the description of Irish Englishhas concerned its phonological, grammatical andlexical features. Many of these features have beenattributed either to transfer from An Ghaeilge, theIrish language, or to the continuation of featuresfrom earlier forms of English taken to Ireland inprevious centuries. This resulted in Irish Englishbeing portrayed as a hybrid variety rather than asa variety valued in its own right, a fact perhapscompounded by the somewhat political overtonesin the recognition of Irish English itself (Hickey,2002: 2).Researchers working within the field of prag-matics and Irish English have recently begun toaddress a general paucity of pragmatic research.In their introduction to The Pragmatics of IrishEnglish, Barron and Schneider suggest that thepragmaticperspectiveonIrishEnglish,incompari-son with the impressive sweep of research on IrishEnglish on other levels, has hitherto represented a‘desideratum’ in the literature (Barron andSchneider, 2005: 3). Their book marked anadditional direction in the study of Irish English,examining language use in the private, officialand public spheres of Irish life and contrastingthis with language use conventions in otherEnglish-speaking cultures.In the following section, we review studieswhich examine Irish English, in specific contexts,

The local flavour of English in the Gulf

Abstract: No matter where you are in the world, English seems to have its own way of cropping up, and the Gulf is no exception. Drive through the Omani–Emirati border crossing at Mazyad and a sign on the Emirati side announces, ‘Helping support AIDS’. Turn on KTV2, a state-run television channel broadcast out of Kuwait, and an English subtitle reads, ‘May God give you long life’; scan the headlines of the Gulf News and read, ‘Emiratisation is vital for the country’; eavesdrop on an expatriate Indian family ordering lunch in the food court at the Muscat City Centre mall and hear, ‘Give me the biriyani chicken’, ‘Give me the thali set’; follow a Bahraini Twitter tweeter and read, ‘say the truth don't fabricate BHR’.

The ‘Outer Circle’ as a role model for the ‘Expanding Circle’: Learning lessons on English worldwide

Abstract: The post-World War II emergence of the linguistic phenomenon called ‘World English’ has given rise to seemingly endless discussion and much speculation among scholars and the lay public alike. The topics of discussion range from horrified exclamations at the mysterious apparition (like Horatio's ‘Look my Lord it comes! It beckons you to go with it, as if it some impartment did desire’, in Shakespeare's Hamlet), to what exactly we should call it or how at all should we otherwise identify it or make it identify itself (as in ‘Stay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak!’) and, finally to an attitude of familiarity breeding – for a change – conviviality and comfort (as in the somewhat resigned ‘Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness’).

Urban dictionary: youth slanguage and the redefining of definition: What's up with meep and other words in the Urban Dictionary

Abstract: In November 2009, Principal Thomas Murray banned the word meep from Danvers High School, located outside of Boston (Netter, 2009). Parents and students received automated e-mails and calls with a warning that saying or displaying the word meep would entail suspension. Students had ignored requests from teachers and administrators to stop, leading to the school-wide ban. This story contains entertaining elements: an overzealous principal who forwarded emails containing meep to the police; references to the meeping Muppet, Beaker; students sporting ‘FREE MEEP’ t-shirts; and Facebook-coordinated meepings. Referring to meep, Danvers High School student Mike Spiewak commented: ‘I think it's unfair that they banned a word that's not even a real word’ (Raz, 2009). According to Melanie Crane, another Danvers student, meep ‘doesn't mean anything in particular’ (Netter, 2009). As a result, its ambiguity allows for countless definitions. The authoritative source in defining the term throughout news coverage of the Danvers incident has been Urbandictionary.com, an online and open-source dictionary for slang and subculture terminology. For those of you who have never meeped, the primary Urban Dictionary (UD) entry deems it ‘the most versatile word in the English language [which] can mean whatever you want it to mean.’ UD lists 93 other definitions for the word, the most popular being.

Globalising a local language and localising a global language: the case of Kamtok and English in Cameroon: The contest between English and Kamtok in Cameroon

Abstract: This paper assesses efforts being made to promote and expose a Cameroonian local language, Kamtok, to the global, intellectual community and to integrate and promote a global language in the Cameroonian context. Kamtok carries the ecology, culture and identity of Cameroon, besides being one of the most widely spoken languages in the country. The global language which is the focus of this discourse is English, considering that its use is no longer restricted to any particular country. The language, like other colonial linguistic legacies, was transported through colonialism and transplanted in different parts of the world, including Cameroon, and is now serving communication needs beyond the frontiers of its original seat. It is therefore claimed in this paper that Kamtok, like many Cameroonian indigenous languages, is relegated to the background and hidden from the global community, paradoxically because it carries the ecology and identity of Cameroon, and English, like other global languages, is being localized and promoted in the Cameroonian context with every iota of passion and vigour. This type of tendency is predictably rooted in the colonial history or in what Bokamba (2007: 41) calls a ‘ukolonia’ tendency whereby the colonised people were indoctrinated to believe that everything of theirs, including their indigenous languages and culture, was inferior and barbaric. Interestingly, English in Cameroon, unlike Kamtok, has an official recognition and is one of the official languages used for state transactions; it is taught in most, if not all, Cameroonian schools and the variety spoken in Britain is most often the classroom target, though this is done with little or no success; it has been the focus of many research works carried out by local researchers; and its vigorous promotion has even led to the banning of an important Cameroonian language, as shall be discussed later. Kamtok, on the other hand, has witnessed, and is still witnessing, many turbulent moments, such as the open and official banning of its use in some public circles, the complete absence of educational and political efforts to promote it, lack of standardisation, misrepresentation of its developmental status by both scholars and laypeople, and lack of scholarly interest from local researchers.

Grammatical variation in Irish English

Abstract: Irish English (IrE) was initially learned as a second language as a result of the successive colonizations of Ireland by speakers of English and Scots dialects that began in the Middle Ages and reached a peak during what is termed ‘The Plantation Period’ of Irish history. The scheme persuaded English and Scottish settlers to colonize the island of Ireland, hailing from urban centres like London as well as more rural areas like Norfolk and Galloway. This intensive colonization process created the possibility that a novel type of English could emerge. This new variety is characterized by: (i) innovative forms; (ii) the incorporation of features drawn from Irish, the indigenous language prior to colonization, and (iii) other characteristics caused by the mixing of Irish with the regional Scots and English vernaculars of the new settlers. Interestingly (and not uncommonly when migratory movements of these kinds arise), modern varieties of IrE still retain this mixed heritage. Moreover, the colonization is preserved culturally – particularly in the north of Ireland – by ethnic divisions between the descendants of the migrant and indigenous populations. Thus, Catholics, who reflect the latter group, celebrate events like ‘St Patrick's Day’ while their Protestant neighbours commemorate ‘The Glorious Twelfth’ each July, celebrating the day in 1690 when King William III's victory at the Battle of the Boyne ensured the ultimate success of the Plantation scheme in which their forefathers participated. The linguistic consequences of this contact permeate all aspects of the speech used within these communities (accent, grammar and vocabulary). Moreover, some of the grammatical features that are the focus of this article have travelled to regions that have been intensively settled by Irish migrants. Hence, these features also have important implications for the study of transported dialects, which has recently become very topical and is the focus of a new strand of research in English variation studies typified by the publication of Hickey (ed. 2004).

Academic and public attitudes to the notion of ‘standard’ Canadian English: On Standard Canadian English, those who speak it, those who study it, and those who discuss it

Abstract: This paper reflects on ‘standards’ in Canadian English in scholarly research and the public debate about English in Canada from a number of viewpoints. The goals of these reflections are three-fold. First, I aim to characterize the chasm between scholarly and public debates about a language ‘standard’ in Canadian English (CanE). While this debate is not new (e.g. Kretzschmar, 2009: 1–5 for a recent example), its application in the Canadian context is a desideratum. Second, I aim to characterize the standard in CanE from a demographic point of view: what is this standard and, above all, which Canadians (and, more importantly, how many) presently speak it? And third, what can linguists who research Canadian English offer to the public, and how can the perceived gap in knowledge be bridged?

‘Irish isn't spoken here?’ Language policy and planning in Ireland

Abstract: A 2003 Irish short film called Yu Ming is Ainm Dom (My name is Yu Ming) by director Daniel O'Hara describes the experiences of a young Chinese man called Yu Ming who comes to Ireland in search of work. As he prepares to leave China he reads in a travel guide that Gaeilge (or Irish) is the first official language of Ireland and therefore sets out on an intensive learning course. On his arrival in Dublin Yu Ming is delighted to see public signage in Irish that he can understand. At the airport he finds his bealach amach (Way Out) and catches a bus to an lar (the city centre). However, his initial communication with local people in perfect Irish is met with strange looks and confusion with many Dubliners under the impression that they are listening to Chinese. Yu Ming eventually begins a conversation in Irish with an old man in a pub who explains to a perplexed Yu Ming that “Ni labhraitear Gaeilge anseo, labhraitear Bearla anseo – o Shasana!” (“Irish isn't spoken here – English is spoken here, from England!”). Yu Ming leaves Dublin and finds work in rural western Ireland where the old man has suggested he should go.

What is Irish Standard English

Abstract: Standard English need not be a matter of prescriptivism or any attempt to ‘create’ a particular standard, but, rather, can be a matter of observation of actual linguistic behaviour. For Hudson (2000), standard English is the kind of English which is written in published work, which is spoken in situations where published writing is most influential – especially in university level education and so in post-university professions – and which is spoken ‘natively’ at home by the ‘professional class’, i.e. people who are most influenced by published writing. In the papers in Bex and Watts (eds, 1999), it is recurrently claimed that, when speaking English, what the ‘social group with highest degree of power, wealth or prestige’ or more neutrally ‘educated people’ or ‘socially admired people’ speak is the variety known as ‘standard English’. However, ‘standard English’ may also mean that shared aspect of English which makes global communication possible. This latter perspective allows for two meanings of ‘standard’: it may refer both to an idealised set of shared features, and also to different sets of national features, reflecting different demographic and political histories and language influences. The methodology adopted in the International Corpus of English (henceforth ICE – cf. Greenbaum, 1996) enables us to observe and investigate each set of features, showing what everybody shares and also what makes each national variety of English different.

Unlocking the encoded English vocabulary in the Japanese language

Abstract: The Japanese linguistic landscape is a dynamically vibrant area with words and phrases appearing in a vast array of locations written in a wide range of scripts, fonts, sizes and colours, and all serving a complex and interconnected array of functions. This visual landscape of shop signs, street signs, advertising posters, information boards and vending machines is complemented by a similar vibrancy and dynamism in more private domains such as restaurant menus, product packaging, clothing, newspaper articles, magazine stories and TV advertising. Immediately striking an observer of these contexts is the fact that, although the Japanese language has a highly complex writing system incorporating an admixture of logographic, syllabic and alphabetic characters, a great many of the words and phrases in Japanese social contexts are transcribed in Latin alphabet characters. Because the vast majority of these lexical items are either direct imports of words from the English language (often termed ‘loanwords' or ‘borrowings') or domestic creations based on English vocabulary (often termed ‘wasei eigo'/‘Japan-created English'), those who are familiar with the English language are assisted in their orientation around Japan by this pervasive use of English-based vocabulary.

Revisiting CEWIGs: A reflection on the usage of collocations of ‘English’ with ‘world’, ‘international’ and ‘global’

Abstract: As regular readers of English Today would probably be aware, in the early years of the 21st Century, when applied linguists discuss the world-wide significance of the most widely learned and used language, it is not always enough to simply refer to it as ‘English’ or ‘the English language’. On the contrary, it has become almost de rigueur to collocate the word ‘English’ with ‘world’, ‘international’ or ‘global’. Thus, we have the six commonly used expressions set out in Table 1. At the risk of adding further to the crowded landscape of abbreviations in applied linguistics, I will refer to these as ‘CEWIGs’ (Collocations of ‘English’ with ‘world’, ‘international’ and ‘global’).

English in film songs from India: an overview

Abstract: ‘C-a-t, cat. Cat mane billi; r-a-t, rat mane chooha’ went a song from a Hindi film of the fifties (mane = ‘means’, billi = ‘cat’, chooha = ‘rat’). The song, enormously popular with Indian youth of that generation, was scoffed at by the then contemporary purists who found it hard to accept such ‘blatant’ dilution of the Hindi language. This song, like a few more of its times, was merely an exception to the largely acceptable language of songs, then largely a mix of Hindi, Urdu and Persian. English was, thus, used in songs either when it depicted (literally, since songs are acted out as autonomous scenes in Bollywood) a comic actor in a light-hearted situation or a semi-literate character desperate to accommodate to the urban ways of life. A celebrated song from Gopi, a Hindi film of the early seventies, goes a step forward with its novel coinage. The hero is a rustic who tries to impress his fellow villagers by dressing up in city (read English) style and sings:Gentleman gentleman, gentleman/London se aaya mein ban-than ke……Yeh dekh mera suita/Yeh dekh mera boota/Yeh dekh mera comba

Ireland in translation: The tension between Irish and English has led to a creative space for translation and to a unique use of Irish English

Abstract: Translation has long featured as a convenient metaphor for the Irish condition. However, its use as metaphor should not disguise the insights translation provides into the status and formation of Irish English. When Richard II arrived in Ireland in 1394 his problems were not only political and military. They were also linguistic. On the occasion of the visit of the Irish kings to Richard in Dublin that same year, James Butler, the second Earl of Ormond, had to interpret the king's speech into Irish. Loyalty to Richard's kingship did not extend to loyalty to his chosen tongue. The translation skills of another Earl of Ormond would be further called upon in 1541 when the Irish parliament made Henry VIII King of Ireland. The Earl on this occasion interpreted the Speaker's address into Irish for the benefit of the Lords and Commons, although they were predominantly of Anglo-Norman or Old English origin. The act of translation, in this instance, was not without its ironies. James Butler was interpreting into a language that had been outlawed four years previously under the Act for the English Order, Habit and Language.

"Me talk funny": A stroke patient's personal account.

Abstract: If you met me and listened to me speaking English, you might ask yourself why I talk so funny; why I can't find the right words; and why I make so many grammatical errors. I am, after all, the Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and I have degrees in English language and linguistics from Cambridge University and the University of Pennsylvania.

"It isn't geet good, like, but it's canny": A New(ish) Dialect Feature in North East England

Abstract: In recent years, linguists have become interested in ‘interactional’ aspects of English: resources which are used as two or more interlocutors dynamically adapt their expression to an ongoing exchange (Biber et al., 1999: 1045). This process occurs mainly in conversation, but it is also an aspect of informal ‘dialogic’ writing. Features such as intensifiers (They soundreallythick), colloquial discourse markers (You know he'slikeupset that nobody got killed), and quotative forms (Hewent, ‘Gran’, and Granwent, ‘Yeah’) vary so widely and change so rapidly that they have attracted the attention of folk and professional linguists alike, and interesting work now regularly appears in the research literature (see, for example Dailey-O'Cain, 2000, Ito and Tagliamonte, 2003, Anderson, 2006). My purpose in this article is to offer an initial account of geet/git, a vernacular feature used in North East England. Drawing on data from social websites, I explore the range of functions it performs in discourse. In doing so, I hope to contribute to a developing body of research which considers such features not only in terms of their function, but also as markers of geographical identity (see, for example, Macaulay's work on pure in the west of Scotland (2006) and Bucholtz et al. (2007) on hella in Northern California).

Spelling and simulated shibboleths in Nigerian computer-mediated communication: An overview of recent developments in Nigerian electronic messaging

Abstract: Since its coinage by Hiltz and Turoff (1978) the term computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been adapted and broadly conceptualised as interactive communication by and among human beings via networked computers and mobile devices. Several definitions of CMC have been offered in the literature but Herring's (2007) definition of CMC as ‘predominantly text-based human–human interaction mediated by networked computers or mobile telephony’ is adopted in this article because it stresses the textual aspect of the communicative interaction and accommodates all forms of textual language use mediated by the Internet, the World Wide Web and mobile technologies. This approach to CMC focuses on the production, transmission and exchange of naturally-occurring text-based human language and highlights the fact that human beings (as opposed to automated or artificial systems) are both the agents or initiators and recipients of the communication under investigation. Although communication is not unique to humans, the ability to use human language for meaningful social interactions is the exclusive preserve of the human species. Thus the perspective human beings bring to virtual interactions is accounted for in CMC. Internet interlocutors (also known as online interactants, netizens or textizens in the case of regular SMS texts composers/senders) employ textual data to convey and exchange their thoughts, opinions, observations, feelings as well as messages from other people or sources (Ifukor, 2011). These interactive possibilities make CMC a technology, medium, and engine of social relations (Jones, 1995:11) and language use is at the core.

‘English invasion’ in Spain: An analysis of toys leaflets addressed to young children

Abstract: The current spread of English across the globe is, as Schneider states (2009: 1), ‘one of the most remarkable, and perhaps unexpected, sociocultural changes of the modern period’. This author states the wish for ‘a single, universal language which would allow all of mankind to communicate with each other directly, but all attempts at constructing such a code artificially have failed in practice. Now, it seems, one has emerged quite naturally’ (Schneider, 2009: 1). On the other hand, other authors (Anderman & Rogers, 2005: 2) report that the emergence of global English has created a homogenised form of communication, and it has made ‘mother tongue speakers fear that, in the process of becoming common property, their native tongue is turning into a “hybrid” language sometimes referred to as Eurospeak within the European Union and more broadly as “McLanguage”' (Anderman & Rogers, 2005: 2). There are, therefore, controversial viewpoints in Europe as regards the spread of English as the lingua franca or global language.

Teaching and Irish English

Abstract: The first decade of the twenty-first century has been characterised in Irish English studies by a diversification of research agendas. Whereas studies before 2000 were largely concerned with internal issues in the development of Irish English, more recent research has been marked by the desire to view Irish English in the context of international varieties of English, as demanded by Barker and O'Keeffe (1999). Much has changed in the study of Irish English in the last decade or so. This is in part due to a broader perspective adopted by researchers and also to the emergence of new ways of looking at Irish English: see Barron and Schneider (eds) 2005; Hickey, 2005, 2007a; Corrigan, 2010; Amador-Moreno, 2006, 2010. There seems to be a less exclusive concern with Irish English within the strict orbit of British English and the effects of contact with the Irish language. This is perhaps aided by looking at Irish English in the context of English as a global language (Kirkpatrick ed. 2010). A function of this globalisation is variation and that in itself brings richness and diversity. In the context of English language teaching, Irish English is one of many types of English.

Victories fastened in grammar: historical documentation of Irish English

Abstract: In ‘Murdering the language’ Moya Cannon imagines Ireland as a shore washed over by human tides. Each invasion added fresh layers to landscape, community and language, until: […] we spoke our book of invasions –an unruly wash of Victorian pedantry,Cromwellian English, Scots,the jetsam and the beached bones of Irish –a grammarian's nightmare. (Cannon, 2007: 88)

Non-standard features in English in Anglophone Cameroon New Writing: dilemmas for the education system

Abstract: One of the ways a language is learned, especially a foreign language, is by personal extensive reading. When people read widely, they are exposed to the linguistic structure of what they read and so learn it consciously or unconsciously. What they come across in their reading remains in their minds and adds to their general knowledge. This includes knowledge of the language they read. General wide reading reinforces the language students have been formally taught in their language classes. Exposure to grammatically correct language would improve their language skills. On the other hand, exposure to incorrect language would negatively affect the language skills of foreign learners and cause them to use wrong language comfortably, not knowing that they are erroneous in their usage.

Present and future horizons for Irish English: Many forms of English exist in Ireland which illustrate language scenarios relevant to today's anglophone world

Abstract: The English language was first taken to Ireland in the late twelfth century and enjoyed a modest position in late medieval Irish society, a position which betrayed no sign of the later dominance of English in Ireland as in so many countries to which the language was taken during the period of English colonialism. The fate of the English language after initial settlement was determined by the existence of Irish and Anglo-Norman as widely spoken languages in the country. Irish was the continuation of forms of Celtic taken to Ireland in the first centuries BCE and the native language of the great majority of the population at the time settlers from Britain first arrived in Ireland. Anglo-Norman was the form of French used by the nobility in England and particularly in the marches of south and south-west Wales, the region from which the initial settlers in the south-east of Ireland came.

Learning the game: playing by the rules, playing with the rules

Abstract: Language change is inevitable. If it wasn't, English learners would all be trying to sound like King Alfred. There is never a period of stability in language and the only languages which have reached a kind of equilibrium are those like Latin where are there are no longer any native speakers. The pressure for change on English is particularly high because of its global status and the diversity of contexts in which it operates. In 2006 David Graddol (p. 101) stated that in 2010 two billion people would be learning English. The size of the figures involved makes it impossible to verify whether this prediction was accurate but Graddol's most recent publication (2010: 68) states that up to 350 million people may speak English in India alone. Obviously, most of these English users around the world speak it as a second language. Consequently, any discussion of change in modern English must take into account the input of those who have had to learn English. The purpose of this article is to present examples of learner language which demonstrate principles and mechanisms of language change through the much-discussed phenomenon of language play.

The Shetland Islands: globalisation and the changing status of Standard English: A new approach to the study of Shetland English

Abstract: This article serves as a commentary on the current position of ‘Standard English’ in the Shetland Islands, the northernmost part of the British Isles. Experience gained during linguistic fieldwork over a ten-year period suggests that there is a need to re-examine this issue, not least in view of societal changes. It will be argued that Shetland is by now a locality of relevance for those with an interest in standards of English, as well as Scots, and suggestions will also be made regarding potential future directions for research into Shetland English.