Assignment #1

1. What are World Englishes?

2. What are Kachru’s concentric circles?
3. How do you differentiate standard from non-standard English?
4. What are the varieties of English language? Explain each.

Last meeting, we discuss about Purposive Communication and it develops our

communication

World Englishes - these are the term that are used for varieties of english used in
the different parts of the world. Meaning, it refers to the differences in the english
language that emerges as it is used in the various context across the world. These
includes American english, British English, Australian English, Indian english,
philippine english and so on.

These are the varieties or peculiarities that occurs in the English language as they
are being used or spoken in different situations or in different places across the
world. For example, in America there is what we called American english and
Australian english in Australia and here in the philippines we had philippine english
or what we known as taglish. It refers to the changes in the English language in
terms of how people speak and pronounce the language, the usage, grammar as
well as how do they define the meaning of a particular English word.

For example, the word highblood, in other countries they think of this term as
having a health complication or the rise of blood pressure but in philippine context
or in our context, some people used this term to refer for those people whose
annoyed, mad or upset.

Another example is the term nosebleed. Here in philippine context, some people
say the term nosebleed if there’s something that they don’t understand but the
literal meaning of this word or the people from other country may think of it as a
condition where there’s a bleeding in your nose.

The transformation of English from the mother tongue of a handful of nations to a

language being used by far more speakers in non-mother tongue settings.

Varieties means the different kinds of languages or the different means on how to
spoke a certain language depending on it’s social standing, region and educational
background.

Localized means being adapted,changes.

There’s a variety of englishes because english is widely used or widely spread

across the world due to colonization and there are instances that there are some
people with different cultures and languages who were being easily influenced by
speaking english so they sometimes borrow an english word or in other cases,
combined it to their own languages to make a new word, resulting to form a new
variety of english.
Braj Kachru: an Indian linguist who invented the term World Englishes

Inner Circle : people in inner circle uses english as their primary language, meaning
english is their mother tongue so they commonly use english for communicating to
each other in their everyday living. America and New Zealand.

Outer Circle: For them, they used english as their second language. Countries like
Philippines and Malaysia uses english as their second language, this means that
people living in these countries have their own primary language or what do you
called national language but they still use english in some aspects like in school,
business or in any legal aspects. There’s a colonization. Countries here are being
colonized by America.

Expanding Circle: english was introduced as a foreign language in their school and
universities. This means that they rarely used english as a form of communication
in their every day lives and never considered english as their second or primary
language. Although in some cases, they speak english when are communicating
with foreign people who uses english as a medium of communication. Examples of
these countries are Japan and China. There’s no history of colonization.

Acrolect : language that is used by educated speakers.

Basilect: langauge used by the least educated people

Mesolect: language being spoken by people in between acrolect and basilect.

British English is the English language as spoken and written in the United Kingdom
or, more broadly, throughout the British Isles. Slight regional variations exist in
formal, written English in the United Kingdom.

American English sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set
of varieties of the English language native to the United States and widely adopted
in Canada.

Australian English is a major variety of the English language, used throughout

Australia. Although English has no official status in the constitution, Australian
English is the country’s national and de facto official language as it is the first
language of the majority of the population.

Canadian English is the set of varieties of English native to Canada. According to

the 2011 census, English was the first language of approximately 19 million
Canadians (57% of the population) the remainder of the population were native
speakers of Canadian French (22%) or other languages (allophones, 21%).

Standard english is differ from non-standard english when it comes to it’s tone, the
way on how and when we will used it. Standard english should be in polite tone and
are used in formal and business settings like presenting a thesis, writing an article
in the newspaper or any academic papers while non-standard english ahould be in
friendly tone and are used in informal or casual settings like the way how we
communicate with our friends or relatives.

Standard english is differ from the non-standard english when it comes to it’s
structures. Let’s say standard english follows a certain rules in grammar like it
needs to be grammatically correct, it should be longer and and it shouldn’t include
shortened words or slangs or anything that is impolite while non-standard english
doesn’t follow a rules so it can used slangs, abbreviations and can commits
grammatical mistakes.

Standard english: This is an english that is spoken by educated speakers and is

commonly used in work and professional settings like in writing academic papers,
newspapers, presenting a report and so on. It is more formal than the non-standard
english and it is usually expressed in polite tone. It follows a certain rules in
grammar, usage and mechanics such as it should use an accurate and correct
spelling and grammars and with no slangs included.

Example: How are you doing today?

Non-standard english: This is the informal variety of English, which means it

contains slang and abbreviations, and it doesn’t follow a certain rules since
sometimes it has errors in grammar and spellings that it cannot be used in work
settings because of its casual and relaxed tone and simple vocabulary. In other
words, is the style of English that is widely used while communicating with friends
or family in informal situations, such as in our daily life, texting and chatting with
friends online.

Here are some non-standard English examples:

'Yeah' rather than 'yes' is perhaps the most obvious and most used non-standard
English example.

'We was' in place of 'we were'.

'If I was you' instead of 'If I were you'.

'Ain't' is a word that's frequently used in non-standard English to replace 'am not'.
For example, 'I am not going to do that.' vs 'I ain't doing that.'

'Innit' is sometimes said rather than 'isn't it'. For example, 'It's hot out today,
innit?'

'Gotta' is used instead of 'have (got) to'. 'I gotta do my homework.'

'Wanna' is used instead of 'want to'. 'Do you wanna get pizza for dinner?'

'Because' is regularly shortened to 'cos'.

'I don't know' is shortened to 'I dunno'.

'Kind of' and 'sort of' are shortened to 'kinda' and 'sorta'.

Cross-cultural communication: it is the process of communication where in people

with different cultural backgrounds interact.

- Be Open Minded

Accept what kind of culture the other people had and show some respect.

Cultural empathy

- the ability to understand and be more aware of the culture of other people and
how it differs from our own.

Culture: set of values, beliefs and tradition that are used everyday and passed from
generation to generation.

How does culture affects communication?

Culture affects communication since if you are not aware of the culture of the
person you’re talking to, this may cause miscommunication or misunderstanding.
For example, if you are talking to someone from another country and you
unconciously show them a gesture that is somewhat offensive in their culture, they
might think of you as a rude person and it may create a difficulty in communicating
with each other.