Non –native Learners of English Language: Facts Amidst Fun and Fantasy

Dr Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi

doi:10.65301/ijcd.2014.4.1.4

Articles Vol. 4 Issue 1 Jan - Jun 2014

DOI 10.65301/ijcd.2014.4.1.4

Non –native Learners of English Language: Facts Amidst Fun and Fantasy

Authors

DR

Dr Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi

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Published 2014-06-30

Pages 33-39

Abstract

Though the galloping speed of development in the field of science and technology readily signifies the quick accessibility of any mundane stuff through the multiple mechanisms, the context of language learning, for non-native learners in particular, is still fraught with almost incorrigible realities. The situation becomes even more worrying for the learners of hinterlands of a country like India (non-native nation) where English is taught from sixth standard/class onwards, let alone the strangeness of the pedagogic styles adopted and implemented for teaching in English and the complete absence of linguistic infrastructures evolved for a non-native language like English. To make things worse, the disturbing peculiarities of English language, particularly of its spelling and phonetic anomalies, often pose hostile learning situations for the non-native speakers of the language. The paper under discussion titled Non –native Learners of English Language: Facts Amidst Fun and Fantasy is an oriented end eavour to explore the issues from the linguistic-phonetic perspective of both L-1 i.e. one’s mother tongue and L-2 i.e. English in the present case. The factual references that emerge from the discussion establish the task of impeccabe learning of an L-2(English) as a herculean problem while the persistent emphasis on learning English remains a mere fantasy amidst the funny and hilarious contexts of L1 on the one side and stable oddities of English phonetics. Meticulous attention has been paid to the pertinent illustrations of regional language queer interventions and phonetic discrepancies of English as language both for native and non- native learners and the reception of nonnative performances of English users in India pervading across all genres of literature i.e. drama, novel, story, translations etc

Keywords

Language pedagogy Phonetics Multi-lingual Native Non-Native Learners

References

1. World Englishes comprises the varieties of English language spoken in different countries of the world. The typicality of such variants of English is determined by the socio-cultural and linguistic conditions of the place where they are spoken. The most influential model of the spread of English is Braj Kachru's model of World Englishes. In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three Concentric Circles of the language: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle. The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the world in the first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America. The Inner Circle thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand,Ireland, anglophone Canada and South Africa, and some of Caribbean territories. English is the native language or mother tongue of most people in these countries. The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is as high as 380 million, of whom some 120 million are outside the United States.
The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which spread the language through imperial expansion by Great Britain in Asia and Africa. In these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and language groups. Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce and so on may all be carried out predominantly in English. This circle includes India,Nigeria,Bangladesh,Pakistan,Malaysia,Tanzania,Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa, thePhilippines (colonized by the US) and others. The total number of English speakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million.
Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium of international communication. This includes much of the rest of the world's population not categorized above: China,Russia,Japan, most of Europe,Korea,Egypt,Indonesia, etc. The total in this expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limited purposes, usually business English. The estimates of these users range from 100 million to one billion.
The inner circle (UK, US etc.) is 'norm-providing'; that means that English language norms are developed in these countries. The outer circle (mainly New Commonwealth countries) is 'norm-developing'. The expanding circle (which includes much of the rest of the world) is 'norm-dependent', because it relies on the standards set by native speakers in the inner circle. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Englishes,)
2. Pandya, Haresh. Indian English, Indianised English, Hinglish or the Indianisation of English. August 30, 201025.04.2014.(http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/25.06.2014. at 10.00 p.m.)
3. G.B.Shaw’s Pygmalion replete with dialectal language, particularly Cockney(London) is a radical example of linguistic variant causing inconvenience and unintelligibility for readers in general.
4. Rao, J.V.L.Narasimha. Is English really the greatest language in the World? Submitted on 28 November, 2009 at 11.56 p.m.(/http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/25.06.2014 at 11.05p.m.)
5.Ghoti is a constructed word used to illustrate irregularities in English spelling
An early known published reference is in 1874, citing an 1855 letter that credits ghoti to one William Ollier Jr (born 1824). Ghoti is often cited to support the English spelling reform, and is often attributed to George Bernard Shaw, a supporter of this cause. However, the word does not appear in Shaw's writings, and a biography of Shaw attributes it instead to an anonymous spelling reformer.[3] Similar constructed words exist that demonstrate English idiosyncrasies, but ghoti is the most widely recognized. Linguists have pointed out that the location of the letters in the constructed word is inconsistent with how those letters would be pronounced in those placements, and that the expected pronunciation in English would be "goaty". For instance, the letters "gh" cannot be pronounced /f/ at the beginning of a syllable, and the letters "ti" cannot be pronounced / at the end of a syllable.( http://en.wikipedia.org/ 25.06.2014 at 11.10 p.m.)
6. The examples of phonetic incidents from 2 to 5 illustrated in the paper are the individual experiences of the writer of this paper.
7. Translations wherever added for the illustrations from individual experiences are of the writer himself.

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Dr Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi . (2014). Non –native Learners of English Language: Facts Amidst Fun and Fantasy. International Journal of Communication Development , 4(1), 33-39.

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International Journal of Communication Development

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[1] 1. World Englishes comprises the varieties of English language spoken in different countries of the world. The typicality of such variants of English is determined by the socio-cultural and linguistic conditions of the place where they are spoken. The most influential model of the spread of English is Braj Kachru's model of World Englishes. In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three Concentric Circles of the language: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle. The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the world in the first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America. The Inner Circle thus represents the traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is now used as a primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand,Ireland, anglophone Canada and South Africa, and some of Caribbean territories. English is the native language or mother tongue of most people in these countries. The total number of English speakers in the inner circle is as high as 380 million, of whom some 120 million are outside the United States.

[2] The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which spread the language through imperial expansion by Great Britain in Asia and Africa. In these regions, English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and language groups. Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce and so on may all be carried out predominantly in English. This circle includes India,Nigeria,Bangladesh,Pakistan,Malaysia,Tanzania,Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa, thePhilippines (colonized by the US) and others. The total number of English speakers in the outer circle is estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million.

[3] Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical or governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium of international communication. This includes much of the rest of the world's population not categorized above: China,Russia,Japan, most of Europe,Korea,Egypt,Indonesia, etc. The total in this expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed for specific, limited purposes, usually business English. The estimates of these users range from 100 million to one billion.

[4] The inner circle (UK, US etc.) is 'norm-providing'; that means that English language norms are developed in these countries. The outer circle (mainly New Commonwealth countries) is 'norm-developing'. The expanding circle (which includes much of the rest of the world) is 'norm-dependent', because it relies on the standards set by native speakers in the inner circle. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Englishes,)

[5] 2. Pandya, Haresh. Indian English, Indianised English, Hinglish or the Indianisation of English. August 30, 201025.04.2014.(http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/25.06.2014. at 10.00 p.m.)

[6] 3. G.B.Shaw’s Pygmalion replete with dialectal language, particularly Cockney(London) is a radical example of linguistic variant causing inconvenience and unintelligibility for readers in general.

[7] 4. Rao, J.V.L.Narasimha. Is English really the greatest language in the World? Submitted on 28 November, 2009 at 11.56 p.m.(/http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/25.06.2014 at 11.05p.m.)

[8] 5.Ghoti is a constructed word used to illustrate irregularities in English spelling

[9] An early known published reference is in 1874, citing an 1855 letter that credits ghoti to one William Ollier Jr (born 1824). Ghoti is often cited to support the English spelling reform, and is often attributed to George Bernard Shaw, a supporter of this cause. However, the word does not appear in Shaw's writings, and a biography of Shaw attributes it instead to an anonymous spelling reformer.[3] Similar constructed words exist that demonstrate English idiosyncrasies, but ghoti is the most widely recognized. Linguists have pointed out that the location of the letters in the constructed word is inconsistent with how those letters would be pronounced in those placements, and that the expected pronunciation in English would be "goaty". For instance, the letters "gh" cannot be pronounced /f/ at the beginning of a syllable, and the letters "ti" cannot be pronounced / at the end of a syllable.( http://en.wikipedia.org/ 25.06.2014 at 11.10 p.m.)

[10] 6. The examples of phonetic incidents from 2 to 5 illustrated in the paper are the individual experiences of the writer of this paper.

[11] 7. Translations wherever added for the illustrations from individual experiences are of the writer himself.