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302 Assignment

This document discusses the concepts of English as a mother tongue (EMT), second language (ESL), and foreign language (EFL). [1] EMT refers to English varieties spoken natively in countries like the UK, US, Canada, Australia, etc. ESL refers to English used in countries where it is an important official language but not the primary language, like Nigeria, India, Malaysia. EFL refers to English taught primarily in classrooms in countries where it is not commonly used outside of education, like China, Japan, Egypt. [2] Factors like colonialism contributed to the spread of ESL. Varieties of ESL like Nigerian English have become institutionalized. Mot

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63 views3 pages

302 Assignment

This document discusses the concepts of English as a mother tongue (EMT), second language (ESL), and foreign language (EFL). [1] EMT refers to English varieties spoken natively in countries like the UK, US, Canada, Australia, etc. ESL refers to English used in countries where it is an important official language but not the primary language, like Nigeria, India, Malaysia. EFL refers to English taught primarily in classrooms in countries where it is not commonly used outside of education, like China, Japan, Egypt. [2] Factors like colonialism contributed to the spread of ESL. Varieties of ESL like Nigerian English have become institutionalized. Mot

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Ojoblessing081
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OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITY

ILE IFE, NIGERIA

EGL302 Assignment

Course Title: Psycholinguistics

Names: Opayinka Marvelous Damilola, EGL/2017/217

Ojo Blessing EGL/2017/312

Faculty: Arts

Department: English

LECTURER-IN-CHARGE: DR ADÉWÁLÉ ADEGBITE

Question 5: Explain the concept of English as a mother tongue (EMT), second language

(ESL) and foreign (EFL), mentioning at least 5 countries under each classification.
Perhaps the most common and commonly accepted distinction of varieties of Englishes is the

EMT, ESL, EFL distinction; I say this because, modern scholars including Kachru, Ayo

Bamgbose etc include this in their theories though they put it in different ways. It is difficult to

pigeonhole all forms of Englishes into these categories as they often overlap, however, a careful

analysis of the terms would further demystify and define their scope.

English as mothers’ tongue (EMT) is the variety of the English language spoken by people who

have acquired English as their first language or mothers’ tongue. Native Englishes include

American English, Australian English, British English, Canadian English, Irish English, New

Zealand English, Scottish English, and Welsh English. EMT is spoken in countries where

English is the primary language of a great majority of the population, the only language of a

monolingual person and also the sequentially first language of a bi or multilingual citizen. The

language is used by a mono, bi or multilingual person to perform his/her daily activities.

Examples are Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States where

English is spoken and is the native language.

ESL, on the other hand, is spoken in countries where English is an important and usually official

language, but not the main language of the country. There exists most times several other

languages which are the mothers’ tongue of the people but English assumes a medium of

communication among people of different ethnic backgrounds and languages. Though used to

perform and carry out daily activities, it is not exclusive as in EMT, it still shares the role with

(an)other language(s) (mother’s tongue) in which the ESL users have a greater linguistic facility

and intuitive knowledge Adegbite (2020). Colonialism serves a major factor that resulted in the

proliferation of ESL speech communities.


For example, Nigeria, India, Malaysia, Ghana and the Philippines are examples of countries in

which English is said to be spoken and used as a second language.

ESL is the reason we have terms like Nigerian English is because they have developed a variety

of their own “so widespread in a community and of such long standing that they may be thought

stable and adequate enough to be institutionalized and hence to be regarded as varieties of

English in their own right rather than stages on the way to a more native-like English” Quirk

1985.

It is often said that when a language is not necessary for survival, there is no motivation to learn

it, this is true in the case of EFL (English as a foreign language). It occurs in countries where

English is not actually used or spoken very much in the normal course of daily life, and is

typically learned at school, therefore, students have little opportunity to use English outside the

classroom and therefore little motivation to learn English. China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Egypt,

Israel, are countries in which English is said to operate as an EFL.

This EMT/ESL/EFL distinction has been helpful in certain contexts. There is no doubt, for

example, that the motivation to learn English is likely to be far greater in countries where

English plays an institutional or official role than in countries where students are3unlikely to

hear any English outside the classroom or ever need to use it.

In recent years, the proportion of EMT speakers have steadily declined while the use of English

as second language and foreign languages have increased and is increasing due to the

globalization and international relevance English has accrued over the years and it is no doubt

that it would continue to increase as well as the bias against second language users would reduce.

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