Dissertations / Theses: 'English varieties'

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Fristedt, Emma. "Irish loanwords in English varieties." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-27603.

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This essay will discuss and research the width and frequency of Irish loanwords in contemporary English varieties. The meanings, uses, differences, similarities and collocations of selected words will be discussed and analyzed in order to find answers to the research questions asked. The methods used are quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative method will measure the frequency of the selected words in each of the selected varieties and the qualitative method will discuss the meanings and uses of the words in the different varieties. Each word has its own section which discuss meanings, developments and instances in which the words can be found in the different varieties. These sections are summarized at the end of the essay and the conclusion states that Irish loanwords in contemporary English varieties are not greatly widespread compared to the frequency of the same words in Irish English. A few of the words have been able to develop their meaning and use through time, but most instances of the words show the original meaning and use.

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Islam, S. M. Arifull. "English Vowels: A World English Perspective." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska, 2005. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-1241.

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In spite of having a fixed standard of pronunciation, English is being used in various ways in parts of the world, particularly in its way of utterance. English vowel is playing one of the significant roles in making different varieties of English language. This essay tries to see into detail how some phonetic features (formant movement, frequency, pitch) of English vowels vary in relation to Bengali, Catalan, Italian, Spanish and Swedish speakers. It has been found that all these speakers vary a lot from each other in the utterance of English vowels.

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Hurtig, Markus. "Varieties of English in the Swedish Classroom." Thesis, Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Education, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-581.

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Many English teachers see British English as the standard variety and teach this variety in the classroom. Their students are, however, also exposed to a great deal of American English in today’s media. As a result, there are a lot of students who use a mixture of these varieties because of the double input, both from media and from the teachers in school. In this paper, I interviewed teachers from Swedish secondary and upper secondary schools to find out what their attitudes towards British and American English were and whether these attitudes were reflected in their teaching. I also examined whether the teachers actually spoke the variety of English they thought they did as well as what their views were on students using a mixture of varieties. The focus of this essay will be on American English and British English.

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Ruuska, Sofia. "Englishes Online: : A comparison of the varieties of English used in blogs." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-27491.

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This study is based on data gathered from two corpora. It investigates and analyses the written English of second language users, in this case English used by Swedes, with the English used online in blogs found in the Birmingham Blog Corpus, which includes blogs written in English by authors of various nationalities. The aim is to compare Swedes’ use of English in blogs and the English used in general in blogs. The study focuses on typical features associated with either American English (AmE) or British English (BrE) and investigates which variety is the most prominent online. The results indicate that features that are generally associated with AmE have a higher frequency in both analysed corpora in this thesis. The conclusion is therefore that AmE tends to dominate both Swedish and international authors’ use of English in blogs.

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Hall, Charles, Philip M. McCarthy, Gwyneth A. Lewis, Debra S. Lee, and Danielle S. McNamara. "Using Coh-Metrix to assess differences between English language varieties." University of Arizona Linguistics Circle, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/126392.

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This study examined differences between the written, national language varieties of the United States and Great Britain, specifically in texts regarding the topic of Law. The few previous studies that have dealt with differences between the dialects of the United States and Great Britain have focused on shallow-level features, such as lexis, subject-verb agreement, and even orthography. In contrast, this study uses the computational tool, Coh-Metrix, to distinguish British from American discourse features within one highly similar genre, Anglo-American legal cases. We conducted a discriminant function analysis along five indices of cohesion on a specially constructed corpus to show those differences in over 400 American and English/Welsh legal cases. Our results suggest substantial differences between the language varieties, casting doubt on previous generalizations about British and American writing that predict that the national varieties would vary more by genre than by language variety. Our results also offer guidance to materials developers of legal English for international purposes (such as in the E.U.) and drafters of international legal documents for producing effective and appropriate materials.

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Almegren, Afnan. "Saudi EFL learners' awareness of world Englishes : second language varieties." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2017. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=232282.

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It is important to understand the attitudes of students towards varieties of English so that better pedagogical and educational policies can be created and adopted. This study therefore attempts to investigate the attitudes of young Saudi EFL learners towards the concept of World Englishes in the context of their culture. The preference of Saudi learners for one variety of English over the others is also explored. Research on the awareness of World Englishes among Saudi EFL learners is limited; this study is designed to fill this gap. For the purpose of this research, three objectives were formulated – to understand how World Englishes, and second language varieties in particular, are perceived in the Saudi Arabian context by EFL learners; to explore the apparent domination of one English variety over others based on Saudi EFL learners' points of view; and to understand reasons behind the preference for one kind of English over the others. The study was conducted through both direct and indirect techniques of attitude measurement, via questionnaire and interviews. The questionnaire was designed as a verbal guise test combined with closed and open-ended questions. The sample of this study was a mixture of adult male and female students from two of Saudi Arabia's largest public educational environments. The findings of this study reveal that Saudi students are aware of at least some of the varieties of English. However, their attitudes towards these different world Englishes vary. They perceive British and American English as the standard benchmark and are not very accepting of non-native variants of World Englishes. It was also found that although most students preferred the English of native English teachers, they wanted to be taught by a teacher from Saudi Arabia because of their shared background.

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Park, Linda Seojung. "Language varieties and variation in English usage among native Korean speakers in Seoul." Thesis, University of Iowa, 2019. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6830.

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In the last few decades, a rise in Korean speakers’ borrowing from English has led to a rich pool of contemporary Anglo-Korean vocabulary, also known as English loanwords. Despite the English roots of these borrowed words, their usage in a Korean context is often non-uniform and non-traditional; this process of borrowing, reshaping, and dispersing borrowed vocabulary provides insights on the dynamics of Korean society and its relationship to global English-speaking communities. In order to investigate the variations on Korean speakers’ use of Anglo-Korean words and their potential correlations with various factors, I conducted interviews with 24 native Korean speakers in Seoul, Korea in the summer of 2018. Subjects were diverse in their age, gender, and occupation. I analyzed the r speakers with a preference of Sino-Korean words, speakers with a preference of Anglo-Korean words, and speakers with a speech mixed of Korean, Korean English, and American English. I identified two variables as the most significant causes of diversity of speech: 1) age and 2) exposure to English. I established that 80% of my subjects over the age of 60 fell into the Sino-Korean-dominant category, and the best indicator of a subject being a translingual speaker was an increased exposure to English. In order to expand on evidence from my interviews, I historically contextualize Korean language in society alongside current ideologies related to language in Korea. In so doing, I explore the relationship between these variables and the language varieties of individual speakers. I argue that because a speaker’s age and exposure to English shapes the language variety they use and the language ideology in Korea touches individual speakers in different ways, native speakers in today’s Korea use several language varieties. These findings challenge the notion of a linguistically and ethnically homogeneous Korea and shed light on the current status of Korean English and American English in Korea.

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Ortu, Laura. "World Englishes: Attitude in the Expanding Circle Towards East and Southeast Asian Varieties of English." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-191503.

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English has become an essential part in our lives. It is inevitable to formulate an opinion when we meet a new person, and in particular we tend to focus our attention on the way this person speaks. The present research aims to answer the questions on how a European audience (Italian audience) perceives different varieties of English to which it is exposed. Four different speakers from four different Southeast and East Asian countries were selected and recorded while reading a short text. These recordings were submitted to the audience, which was asked to answer a set of questions about comprehensibility and likability. Results show that the audience elected as their favourite speaker the clearest accent to hear, thus suggesting that the members of the audience might have been influenced by comprehensibility and accentedness in the first place. Other variables, such as expressiveness, were not significantly considered by the participants.

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Reed, Sylvia L. "On the meaning(s) of 'after' in varieties of Scottish English." University of Arizona Linguistics Circle, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/271013.

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Basic spatial and temporal meanings of the preposition after in Standard American English and Highland Scottish English are accounted for in this proposed semantics of the preposition. In addition, two seemingly aberrant meanings in Highland Scottish English and Lowlands Scots/ Lowlands Scottish English are discussed; the proposed semantics accounts for these meanings as well. The meaning of after is related to the meanings of first and subsequent, which are given definitions in terms of points of reference.

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Rautio, T. (Teija). "How do Finns regard different Englishes?:a study of Finnish students’ perceptions of seven varieties of English." Master's thesis, University of Oulu, 2016. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:oulu-201611102984.

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The goal of the study was to examine Finnish university students’ perceptions of seven different varieties of English: General American, Scottish English, Australian English, RP, Indian English, Canadian English and Southern American English. The study was conducted with 14 respondents who heard one speech sample of each variety and then ranked them in two categories: Manner of Speech, including five traits, and Speaker Personality, including 13 traits. All of the traits were ranked within a six-scale chart, 1 depicting ‘not at all’ and 6 ‘very’. The study was conducted in two sections: first, the respondents filled in the Manner of Speech section after hearing the speech sample for the first time. Then, after hearing it again, they filled in the Speaker Personality section, discussing their opinions of the speaker with a partner simultaneously. The respondents were instructed to attempt to explain what features shaped their perceptions of the speakers. The traits of the study were divided into Status Dimension and Solidarity Dimension. These two dimensions have been present in most of the studies in perceptual dialectology, the traditional conclusion being that usually standard varieties (UK and US English) are upgraded on traits of prestige, education and status and downgraded on those that have to do with the accessibility, humor and solidarity of the speaker—and for non-standard varieties, the other way around. This assumption was somewhat in line with the results of the study: standard varieties were evaluated higher in terms of status than solidarity. However, the latter was also ranked fairly high, which could be seen to indicate the prevalence of the standard varieties in the English teaching in Finland: what is familiar is accessible. Moreover, not all of the non-standard varieties were upgraded on solidarity; Scottish and Indian English received very modest evaluations in both dimensions. On the other hand, Southern American English and Australian English were upgraded especially on solidarity, which is in line with the earlier studies, but were ranked quite high in terms of status, as well. The results, although merely suggestive due to the small-scale sampling of the study, point to the standard varieties’ prevalence in Finland. The predicted shift from UK English to US English as the ascendant variety was not yet visible as UK English was upgraded significantly more on status than other varieties. However, US English was considered a very familiar and distinguished variety among the respondents, which might indicate that the shift that the linguists are expecting will, indeed, happen in the near future
Tutkimuksen päämääränä oli tutkia suomalaisten yliopisto-opiskelijoiden näkemyksiä seitsemästä englannin varieteetista: amerikan-, skotlannin-, australian-, intian- ja kanadanenglannista sekä brittiläisestä yleiskielestä ja USA:n eteläosien englannista. Tutkimukseen osallistui 14 vastaajaa, jotka kuulivat yhden puhenäytteen jokaisesta varieteetista. Vastaajat arvioivat varieteetit kahteen kategoriaan liittyen: puhetapaa arvioitiin viiden ominaisuuden perusteella ja puhujan persoonallisuutta 13 ominaisuuden perusteella. Kaikki ominaisuudet arvioitiin numerolla yhdestä kuuteen, 1 tarkoittaen ”ei lainkaan” ja 6 ”hyvin”. Tutkimus tehtiin kahdessa osassa: kuultuaan näytteen kerran vastaajat täyttivät ensiksi puhetapaosion, ja toisen kuuntelukerran jälkeen he täyttivät puhujan persoonallisuus -osion keskustellen samanaikaisesti puhujaa koskevista mielipiteistään parin kanssa. Vastaajat ohjeistettiin yrittämään selittää, mitkä tekijät muovasivat heidän näkemyksiään puhujista. Tutkittavat ominaisuudet jaettiin kahteen ulottuvuuteen: statukseen ja solidaarisuuteen. Nämä kaksi ulottuvuutta ovat olleet läsnä useimmissa kansandialektologian tutkimuksissa. Niiden perinteinen päätelmä on ollut, että yleensä standardien varieteettien (britti- ja amerikanenglanti) puhujat arvioidaan arvovaltaa, pätevyyttä ja statusta omaaviksi, mutta vähemmän helposti lähestyttäviksi, huumorintajuisiksi ja solidaarisiksi — ja ei-standardien varieteettien (alueelliset murteet) puhujat päinvastoin. Tämä oletus todettiin jossain määrin paikkansapitäväksi tämän tutkimuksen tuloksissa: standardien varieteettien puhujat arvioitiin korkeammalle statukseen kuin solidaarisuuteen liittyvissä ominaisuuksissa. Kuitenkin myös niiden solidaarinen ulottuvuus arvioitiin melko korkealle, minkä voitaisiin nähdä kertovan standardien varieteettien vallitsevuudesta englanninopetuksessa: se, mikä on tuttua, on myös helposti lähestyttävää. Sitä paitsi kaikkia murteisia puhujiakaan ei arvioitu erityisen solidaarisiksi; skotlannin- ja intianenglanti saivat hyvin vaatimattomat arvostelut molemmissa ulottuvuuksissa. Toisaalta australianenglanti ja eteläisen USA:n englanti arvioitiin aiempaa tutkimusta mukaillen korkealle erityisesti solidaarisuuden suhteen, mutta myös statusulottuvuudeltaan se sai melko korkeat arvioinnit. Tutkimuksen tulokset ovat vain suuntaa antavia tutkimuksen suppeasta otannasta johtuen. Siitä huolimatta ne viittaavat siihen, että Suomessa laajalle levinneintä englantia ovat juuri standardit varieteetit. Vallalla oleva varieteetti ei näytä kielitieteilijöiden ennustuksista huolimatta vielä vaihtuneen brittienglannista amerikanenglanniksi; brittienglanti arvioitiin huomattavasti korkeammalle statuksen suhteen kuin muut varieteetit. Vastaajat pitivät kuitenkin amerikanenglantia hyvin tuttuna ja arvostettuna varieteettina, mikä saattaa osoittaa muutoksen tapahtuvan lähitulevaisuudessa

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Binder, Ella. "World Englishes in Lower Secondary School Textbooks : A comparative study between a Polish and a Swedish Textbook." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Engelska, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-29361.

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The aim of this study has been to find out whether the authors of English textbooks in two EU countries, Poland and Sweden, view diversity and promote World Englishes in the same way or whether there are any differences. The attempt has been made to analyse reading texts in the two textbooks for teaching English as a foreign language, a Polish and a Swedish one, in order to see what different Englishes have been promoted there, and to which extent they are represented in both textbooks. For the purpose of this analysis, Marko Modiano´s descriptive model of World Englishes has been used. The study has shown that the Polish textbook focuses mostly on British and American English, and to a great degree on European countries where English is taught as a foreign language. On the other hand, the Swedish textbook promotes both British and American English, as well as major and local varieties of English, but does not mention European countries, except Great Britain obviously, almost at all. World Englishes are present both in the Polish and in the Swedish textbook but the textbook authors take slightly different approaches in promoting them.

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Chabo, Maria. "“It is important to understand that there are not just 3 varieties of English” : Swedish upper secondary school students’ awareness of and attitudes towards varieties of English." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-55437.

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The main aim of this study is to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ awareness of and attitudes to varieties of English, especially with a focus on accents. Based on a survey with both open-ended and closed questions, this study is both qualitative and quantitative. The questionnaire was distributed digitally to several teachers at three upper secondary schools in Sweden, one school in Eskilstuna and the other two in Stockholm. The number of participants in total was 88. The results revealed that the students were aware of several varieties of English, but the most known varieties were American, British, Irish and Indian English. Furthermore, the students were enthusiastic about both American and British English, but American English was the most common. In addition, the majority of the students believed that it was essential to learn about varieties of English in school and that American, British and Canadian were the most important varieties to learn about. In conclusion, the students have a general awareness of and an openness to linguistic variation, as well as being positive towards learning about different varieties of English in school.

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Weekly, Robert. "Multilingual South Asian English language teachers' attitudes to English language varieties and the impact on their teaching beliefs." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2015. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/398692/.

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Recent changes at a global level in terms of migration patterns and telecommunications have destabilised many pre-established concepts. The notion of diaspora has given way to trans-localism and communities can no longer be conceived of as discreet homogenous units. Other language related concepts such as multilingualism, code-mixing, speech communities and language itself have been scrutinised and undermined by research in translanguaging, superdiversity, English as a Lingua Franca, World Englishes and language ideologies. In Britain new migrants from a myriad of different locations co-exist with older migrants and the local white British population in what has been termed as superdiversity. This study focuses on older migrants who interact with newer migrants within the classroom, in a teacher-student relationship, and also to a degree outside the classroom. It reports on the attitudes of multilingual English language teachers to varieties of English and how this influences their teaching practices. I interviewed and conducted focus group discussions with first and second generation migrants between January 2012 and February 2013. The participants are representative of two conflicting ideologies. On the one hand the participants have varying degrees of experience with indigenised non-native varieties of English through travel, from learning English in a context outside Britain, and through family and friendship networks. On the other hand they also have the responsibility to teach British Standard English to students who may already be speaking a fluent stable variety of English. The aim of the study was to understand how the participants reconciled conflicting attitudes about language and the extent to which this impacted on their teaching practices. The main findings of the study are that while many of the teachers are aware of and open to different variation in spoken English, this predominantly related to pronunciation. However there were clear differences between first and second generation migrants which appear to be related to the participant’s experience of different societal ideologies. This translated into different attitudes about correct language and their beliefs about their teaching practices. While first generation migrants’ attitudes showed evidence of being influenced by dual ideologies, second generation migrants’ attitudes more closely reflected societal ideologies in the UK.

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Hugger, Daniela Maria. "English varieties in Sweden : A case-study exploring the use of English by language teachers in Swedish schools." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Engelska, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-35072.

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This study investigates which English variety teachers in Sweden learned, which they use now and whether this has changed over time. The study included the two major varieties of English, namely British English and American English. The hypothesis for this paper is that British English will have played an important part in the teachers’ schooling but American English will have had a strong influence in their day-to-day lives and will likely have hanged how they use English. Data was collected in the form of questionnaires filled in by 294 teachers who teach English at primary, secondary and upper secondary schools in Sweden. The results support the thesis of the paper that teachers mainly learned British English at school while American English becomes more common for teachers under the age of 40. However, the majority of participants were found to use a variety which has features of both British and American English - it is referred to as Mid-Atlantic English in this paper.

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Miyagi, Kazufumi. "Japanese EFL teachers' perceptions of nonnative varieties of English : are they ready to include other Englishes in their classrooms?" Thesis, McGill University, 2006. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=98560.

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This study investigates Japanese EFL teachers' perceptions of regional varieties of English, which are designated as either the Outer Circle or the Expanding Circle by Kachru (1985), and their potential place in EFL teaching in Japan. Participants were 36 teachers at junior high and elementary schools and 28 undergraduates in a TEFL certificate program. Data collection was completed with the use of two Likert-scale questionnaires: one involving a task in listening to various English varieties, and the other asking about beliefs about the English language in general and perceptions of nonnative/nonstandard Englishes as opposed to the two major varieties in ELT in Japan: American and British English. In addition, oral interviews were conducted with several participants and their assistant language teachers (ALTs).
The findings suggested that in-service teachers showed more ambivalent attitudes toward nonnative varieties than student-teachers did; although the teachers acknowledged potential benefits of nonnative Englishes for the future use of EIL, they showed hesitation in regarding different Englishes as instructional models to be exposed to students. However, the study also showed participants' interest in introducing other Englishes as awareness-raising models. The possibility of inclusion of nonnative varieties was further discussed.

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Sahlström, Camilla. "Upper Secondary Students' Assessment of Four Women Speaking Four Different Varieties of English." Thesis, Karlstad University, Division for Culture and Communication, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-125.

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Society exhibits a wide variety of different languages with various prominent features. At the same time as we honour diversity, however our civilisation is coloured with prejudice and preconceptions. Even if there is a rather liberal view on language use today, dialects and accents still carry positive and negative connotations for a majority of citizens. Research shows, that we are prejudiced and that we have predetermined ideas when it comes to certain language varieties.

In this study, I take up four varieties of Standard English: American, English, Australian and Scottish. I focus on the associations Swedish students make when it comes to these four language varieties and how this transforms into attitudes towards the speakers. A language attitude study is carried out by using a modified Matched Guise Test. I explain the difference between dialect and accent, as well as societal attitudes to language varieties and present some prominent linguists and their methods. Finally, I draw some conclusions by comparing my results to previous findings.

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Zhang, Qi. "Attitudes beyond the inner circle : investigating Hong Kong students' attitudes towards English varieties." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/1712.

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The development of Hong Kong English has triggered a number of concerns amongst the local population with respect to its status. However, despite the prominence of research into attitudes towards language variation within sociolinguistics, very few studies focus on the Hong Kong context. Furthermore, while previous research has demonstrated that native English speakers tend to have more positive attitudes towards Standard English varieties as far as status is concerned, whereas non-standard varieties are usually evaluated more highly in terms of solidarity, we lack information about the attitudes of Hong Kong Chinese people with respect to different English varieties (particularly the local non-standard variety). This quantitative study sets out to investigate the attitudes of 44 Hong Kong university students with respect to eight varieties of English speech, i. e. educated Hong Kong English accent (HKed), the broad Hong Kong accent (HKbr), Received Pronunciation (RP), General American (AmE), Australian English (AusE), Tyneside English (TynE), Philippine English (PE) and Mandarin-accented English (ME). This study employed a range of direct (e. g., interviews) and indirect (e. g., the verbal-guise test) techniques of attitude measurement in order to obtain in-depth information regarding such perceptions. The results suggest that Hong Kong informants actually have relatively positive attitudes towards HKed - especially in terms of solidarity. Moreover, ME was evaluated comparatively highly, indicating that it might potentially develop into a ubiquitous `China English'. The finding that AmE was rated even more highly than RP provides grounds for suggesting that the replacement of RP by a General American accent could already be underway. Overall, though, Hong Kong informants prefer HKed since it is a variety close to RP. Therefore, although the results demonstrate that a certain amount of linguistic self-hatred does exist in Hong Kong, it is not extended to HKed and the broadness of local accents does indeed appear to play a role in Hong Kong people's language attitudes. Surprisingly, the ability to identify an accent, as well as a range of social variables tested had no significant effect on informants' attitudes towards the eight varieties of English under investigation. The thesis concludes with discussion of these findings with respect to the pedagogical implications they have for the choice of linguistic model in English language teaching both within the Hong Kong population and indeed with regard to other Chinese communities.

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Helleberg, Fia. "English with an accent : A study of attitudes among Swedish adolescents regarding British and Middle Eastern varieties of English." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-40161.

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This study examines the attitudes of adolescent Swedes towards speakers of British and Middle Eastern varieties of English. Due to the ongoing wars in the Middle East and elsewhere, and thus the stream of refugees seeking sanctuary in Sweden and other European countries, many children from diverse backgrounds have been and will be enrolled in Swedish schools. Considering their right to democratic, humane and inclusive education, it is of importance to identify and oppose possible prejudice and preconceptions towards foreign languages, cultures and religions at an early state. This study aims towards this goal. The study, carried out among Swedish teenagers, is based on a matched-guise test in combination with an Osgood scale. The pre-recorded speakers were from Iran, Syria, and Britain. The results of the study prove that there were preconceptions regarding Middle Eastern varieties of English, yet they can be both positive and negative. It is evident that the majority of the informants perceived the Middle Eastern speakers of English negatively with regard to traits that may be related to education, economy and intelligence, yet they rated the same speakers positively with regard to traits that may be correlated to emotional and social capacity. Interestingly enough, the study also provides evidence to suggest that British speakers of English are perceived favourably with regard to traits that may be related to education, economy and intelligence, yet negatively with regard to traits that may be correlated to emotional and social capacity. Overall, the study mainly provided results that confirm findings of previous research within the field.

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Lingemyr, Jesper. "English Varieties in Swedish Upper Secondary School : An analysis of Listening Exercises in Swedish National Tests." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Engelska, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-23579.

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The purpose of this project was to find out what varieties of English that Swedish upper secondary school students are exposed to in the classroom and to what extent they are exposed to different varieties. This was conducted by looking at preparation exercises for the listening part of the Swedish National Tests. These exercises are created by Göteborgs Universitet and are available online for everyone and show how the real national test will be done. By listening and analyzing every speaker’s variety they were sorted into British, American, Mid-Atlantic, Australian or New Zealand varieties. A total of 91 speakers were analyzed and the results showed that Students are exposed to mostly British English with half of the speakers using a British variety. One fourth of the speakers used American English while the rest were divided into Mid-Atlantic, Australian or New Zealand varieties.

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Winkle, Claudia [Verfasser], and Christian [Akademischer Betreuer] Mair. "Non-canonical structures, they use them differently : : information packaging in spoken varieties of English." Freiburg : Universität, 2015. http://d-nb.info/1122646925/34.

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Neumaier, Theresa [Verfasser], and Edgar W. [Akademischer Betreuer] Schneider. "Patterns of Conversational Interaction in Varieties of English / Theresa Neumaier ; Betreuer: Edgar W. Schneider." Regensburg : Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg, 2019. http://d-nb.info/1190888254/34.

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Shen, Cheng Ling. "In search if a medium of instruction : Macao secondary students' attitudes towards three English varieties." Thesis, University of Macau, 2008. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b1943961.

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Fairhurst, Melanie. "The pragmatic markers anyway, okay and shame : a comparative study of two African varieties of English." Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/85844.

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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The goal of this study was to determine and compare the functions of the pragmatic markers (PMs) okay, anyway and shame as they occur in two spoken components of the International Corpus of English (ICE), namely ICE-SA (South African English) and ICE-EA (East African English). Using the commercially available Concordance program WordSmith Tools 4.0, all instances of okay, anyway and shame were identified in each corpus and all non-PM instances were then excluded. The remaining instances of okay, anyway and shame were subsequently hand coded to determine the primary functions that these elements exhibit. The classification of the various functions was done according to Fraser’s (1996, 1999, 2006) framework for identification of PMs. Despite the different size and state of completion of the two corpora, it was found that the functions of the two PMs okay and anyway were similar in South African English and East African English. The findings of the corpus investigation included identifying the functions of okay as both a conversational management marker and a basic marker, as well as its role in turn taking. Anyway was found to function as an interjection, a mitigation marker, a conversational management marker and a discourse marker. Shame was found to be a uniquely South African English PM, and to function both as an interjection and as a solidarity marker.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studie was om vas te stel watter funksies verrig word deur die pragmatiese merkers (PM's) okay, anyway en shame, soos wat hulle gebruik word in twee gesproke komponente van die Internasionale Korpus van Engels (IKE), naamlik IKE-SA (Suid-Afrikaanse Engels) en IKE-OA (Oos-Afrika Engels). Met behulp van die kommersieel-beskikbare Concordance-program Wordsmith Tools 4.0, is alle gevalle van okay, anyway en shame binne die onderskeie korpusse geïdentifiseer, waarna alle nie-PM gevalle uitgesluit is. Die oorblywende gevalle van okay, anyway en shame is daarna met die hand gekodeer ten einde die primêre funksies van hierdie elemente vas te stel. Die funksies is geklassifiseer volgens Fraser (1996, 1999, 2006) se raamwerk vir die identifikasie van PM's. Ten spyte van verskille in die grootte en vlak van voltooidheid van die twee korpora, is vasgestel dat die PM's okay en anyway soortgelyke funksies verrig in beide Suid-Afrikaanse Engels en Oos-Afrika Engels. Uit die korpus-analise het dit verder geblyk dat okay nie net 'n rol speel in beurtneming nie, maar ook funksioneer as 'n gespreksbestuur-merker en basiese merker. Anyway blyk op sy beurt te funksioneeer as 'n tussenwerpsel, versagting-merker, gespreksbestuurmerker en diskoersmerker. Laastens is gevind dat shame as PM uniek is aan Suid- Afrikaanse Engels en dat dit funksioneer as beide 'n tussenwerpsel en solidariteitsmerker.

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McKenzie, Robert M. "A quantitative study of the attitudes of Japanese learners towards varieties of English speech : aspects of the sociolinguistics of English in Japan." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/1519.

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Language attitude studies focussing specifically on native speaker perceptions of varieties of English speech have demonstrated consistently that standard varieties tend to be evaluated positively in terms of competence/ status whilst non-standard varieties are generally rated higher in terms of social attractiveness/ solidarity. However, the great majority of studies which have investigated non-native attitudes have tended to measure evaluations of ‘the English language’, conceptualised as a single entity, thus ignoring the substantial regional and social variation within the language. This is somewhat surprising considering the importance of attitudes towards language variation in the study of second language acquisition and in sociolinguistics. More specifically, there is a dearth of in-depth quantitative attitude research in Japan concentrating specifically on social evaluations of varieties of English, as the limited number of previous studies conducted amongst Japanese learners have either been qualitative in design or too small in scale. Moreover, the findings of these studies have been somewhat inconclusive. The present quantitative study, employing a range of innovative direct and indirect techniques of attitude measurement, investigated the perceptions of 558 Japanese university students of six varieties of English speech. The results obtained suggest that Japanese learners are able to differentiate between speech varieties within a single language of which they are not native speakers and hold different and often complex attitudes towards (a) standard/ non-standard and (b) native/ non-native varieties of English speech. For instance, the learners rated both the standard and non-standard varieties of inner circle speech more highly than varieties of expanding circle English in terms of prestige. In contrast, it was found that the learners expressed higher levels of solidarity with the Japanese speaker of heavily-accented English and intriguingly, with speakers of non-standard varieties of UK and US English than with speakers of standard varieties of inner circle English. Moreover, differences in the Japanese students’ gender, level of self-perceived competence in English, level of exposure to English and attitudes towards varieties of Japanese all had significant main effects on perceptions of varieties of English speech. However, the regional provenance of the informants was not found to be significant in determining their language attitudes. The results also imply that Japanese learners retain representations of varieties of English speech and draw upon this resource, whether consciously or unconsciously, in order to identify and evaluate (speakers of) these speech varieties. The findings are discussed in relation to the pedagogical and language planning implications for the choice of linguistic model in English language teaching both inside and outwith Japan and in terms of the methodological importance of the study for potential future attitudinal research in this area.

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Källstad, Elin. "Is teaching GA and RP enough? : A study of Swedish upper secondary students’ attitudes towards varieties of English and their English education." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-42417.

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This study focuses on the teaching and learning of English as a second language and how different varieties of English are currently being used in education around the world and in Sweden. The purpose is to examine Swedish upper secondary students’ comprehension of different spoken varieties of English and their attitudes towards these varieties. Additionally, it will be investigated how important the students think exposure to different varieties is, which varieties they feel are important to have encountered, and what they think more generally regarding English language teaching and learning. 92 students in an upper secondary school in Sweden took part in the study. A listening exercise was carried out with follow up questions to test comprehension and examine how easy the students found the speakers to understand and how much they liked the sound of the pronunciation. This was followed by a questionnaire where the students were asked to indicate their level of agreement with statements about the importance of exposure to different varieties of English in their education. The results showed that the participants understood the speakers well in general, but that English English and American English were considered the easiest to understand and most pleasant to listen to, while Indian English ended up at the other side of the spectrum. Most of the students answered that it is very important for them to be exposed to various varieties of English in their education, and suggestions regarding which varieties to use in class were given. In conclusion, English teaching in Sweden should include more exposure to different Englishes to meet students’ requests.

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Sella, Valeria. "Automatic phonological transcription using forced alignment : FAVE toolkit performance on four non-standard varieties of English." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-167843.

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Forced alignment, a speech recognition software performing semi-automatic phonological transcription, constitutes a methodological revolution in the recent history of linguistic research. Its use is progressively becoming the norm in research fields such as sociophonetics, but its general performance and range of applications have been relatively understudied. This thesis investigates the performance and portability of the Forced Alignment and Vowel Extraction program suite (FAVE), an aligner that was trained on, and designed to study, American English. It was decided to test FAVE on four non-American varieties of English (Scottish, Irish, Australian and Indian English) and a control variety (General American). First, the performance of FAVE was compared with human annotators, and then it was tested on three potentially problematic variables: /p, t, k/ realization, rhotic consonants and /l/. Although FAVE was found to perform significantly differently from human annotators on identical datasets, further analysis revealed that the aligner performed quite similarly on the non-standard varieties and the control variety, suggesting that the difference in accuracy does not constitute a major drawback to its extended usage. The study discusses the implications of the findings in relation to doubts expressed about the usage of such technology and argues for a wider implementation of forced alignment tools such as FAVE in sociophonetic research.

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Carrie, Erin. "A social-psychological study of foreign learners' attitudes and behaviours towards model varieties of English speech." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/5667.

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This thesis attempts to bridge the gap between Social Psychology and Sociolinguistics by exploring the relationship between language attitudes and language use. Using a sample of 71 university students in Spain, it investigates how learners deal with phonological variation in the English language, what language attitudes are held towards American and British models of English speech and which social and psychological factors are linked with learners' language attitudes and language use. A social-psychological model was adopted and adapted, allowing learners' use of intervocalic /t/ to be successfully predicted from measures of attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control. Direct measures of learners' preferred accent and pronunciation class were also highly predictive of learners' language use. Several trends were found in the attitudinal data. Firstly, British English speech was rated more favourably overall, though American English speech was often viewed as more socially attractive. Secondly, the evaluative dimensions of competence and social attractiveness were salient amongst learners in the Spanish context. Each of these findings endorses those of previous language attitude studies conducted elsewhere. Thirdly, female speakers were consistently rated more favourably than male speakers; thus, highlighting the need for further investigation into the variable of speaker sex. Familiarity with the speech varieties under investigation – most often gained through education, media exposure, time spent abroad and/or contact with native speakers – seemed to result in learners challenging rigid stereotypes and expressing more individualised attitudes. Overall, British speech emerged as formal and functional, while American speech was thought to fulfil more informal and interpersonal functions. This thesis provides compelling evidence of attitude-behaviour relations, adds to the growing volume of language attitude research being conducted across the globe, and establishes – for the first time – which social and psychological variables are relevant and salient within English-language learning contexts in Spain.

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Casaregola, Laura. "How Our Music Tastes Relate to Language Attitudes with Standard and Non-standard Varieties of English." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1044.

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Sociolinguistics studies on language perception have shown that listeners form different attitudes toward speakers based on the speakers’ language varieties (Lukes and Wiley 1996, Lippi-Green 2012, Thompson, Craig, and Washington 2004). Just from hearing a voice, listeners form opinions, and these opinions are often informed by societal archetypes, as well as societal stereotypes. For example, Standard American English is generally perceived with more prestige and respect than non-standard varieties. Unfavorable perceptions of non-standard varieties can, and in many documented cases does, lead to inequitable and/or discriminatory situations (Baugh 2003). Non-standard and standard varieties are found in language use in music. The emergence of the Internet and music playing platforms, as well as more diverse musicians getting mainstream radio play and pay, leads to non-standard varieties reaching new listeners in a new format. In this thesis, I survey the types of music to which people listen, and their perceptions to speakers of Standard American English, Southern American English, and African American English to investigate how the music people listen to connects to their language attitudes. The results show that overall, listeners of any genre have more favorable attitudes toward Standard American English; and, that listeners of rap and/or hip-hop have more favorable attitudes than other groups of listeners toward the non-standard varieties.

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Sykes, Abdel Halim. "A study of Singaporeans’ attitudes to eleven expanding circle accents of English." Thesis, University of Leicester, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/9627.

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Effective communication in English between its two billion users (Crystal, 2008), requires comprehension of others’ English and a willingness to accept differences in English. While some studies have attempted to measure the attitudes of Inner Circle (IC) (Kachru, 1985) respondents towards IC Englishes, and other studies have focused on attitudes of Outer Circle (OC) and Expanding Circle (EC) respondents to IC English, there is a dearth of research on OC and EC respondents’ attitudes to non-IC English. Therefore, this study addressed the need for further research focusing on OC respondents’ attitudes to EC users’ English. Specifically, this study of 31 Singaporeans attempted to gain an understanding of their attitudes towards Expanding Circle Accents of English (ECAE). This study drew on direct and indirect approaches in language attitude research, involving a verbal-guise task using semantic differential scales to elicit attitudes to speakers on a range of solidarity and status traits, and interviews. Descriptive statistics derived from mean scores were used for quantitative analysis of the data from the verbal-guise task, while coding procedures were used for qualitative analysis of the interview data. The findings show the respondents displayed predominantly negative attitudes to eight of the eleven ECAE and slightly positive attitudes to three. Phonological features common to the ECAE, notably mispronunciation of particular phonemes and vowels added to consonant clusters, affected the respondents’ attitudes. Moreover, certain prosodic features and the perceived degree of attractiveness and assertiveness affected attitudes to the ECAE. These findings indicate accent can affect listeners’ attitude to speakers. The implications of this study have relevance to the discussions on World Englishes and English as an International Language to the extent that notions of attitude and intelligibility are central to both. Furthermore, the findings suggest attitude might be of greater significance than intelligibility when evaluating others’ English.

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Wood, Tahir Muhammed. "Perceptions of, and attitudes towards, varieties of English in the Cape Peninsula, with particular reference to the ʾcoloured communityʾ." Thesis, Rhodes University, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002018.

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This study set out to analyse the concept of the ʾcoloured communityʾ and to describe the linguistic phenomena associated with it. It was found that the community was characterized by division and an overt rejection of 'coloured' identity. A satisfactory definition of the community could only be arrived at by exploring social psychological and anthropological concepts, particularly that of the social network, and a covert identification was postulated. This in turn was used to explain the linguistic phenomena which were found to be associated with the community. The latter included a vernacular dialect consisting of non-standard Afrikaans blended with English, as well as a stratification of particular items in the English spoken by community members . This stratification was analysed in terms of the social distribution of the items, enabling comparisons to be made with the English spoken by ʾwhitesʾ. A fieldwork study was embarked on with the intention of discovering the nature of the perceptions of, and attitudes towards, the idiolects of certain speakers. These idiolects were considered to be typical and representative of the forms of English normally encountered in the Cape Peninsula, and were described in terms of the co-occurrences of linguistic items which they contained. Tape recordings of the speech of this group of speakers were presented in a series of controlled experiments to subjects from various class and community backgrounds who were required to respond by completing questionnaires. It was found that those lects which contained items and co-occurrences of items peculiar to 'coloured' speakers were associated with lower status than those containing items and co-occurrences of items peculiar to 'white' speakers. Attitudes towards speakers were found to be more complex and depended upon the styles and paralanguage behaviours of the speakers, as well as accent, and also the psychological dispositions of the subjects who participated

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Chien, Shou-Chun. "Attitudes towards varieties of English by non-native and native speakers : a comparative view from Taiwan and the UK." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8932/.

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Attitudes towards varieties of English have long been at the forefront of sociolinguistic research. Whilst most of these studies have concentrated on native varieties of English, in recent years, research has turned to non-native varieties that arose as English became the lingua franca across the globe. Research has demonstrated that whilst native varieties are generally viewed as being of a higher status, non-native varieties are sometimes considered more positively in terms of social attractiveness, or ‘solidarity’. However, in recent years, non-native speakers have begun to outnumber native English speakers, thus attitudes towards these speakers may be changing. This study contributes to research on attitudes towards native and non-native varieties of English by conducting a comparative investigation of the attitudes of 317 Taiwanese nationals living in Taiwan and 147 British nationals living in the UK towards different English accents. Online questionnaires utilising both direct (e.g., Likert scales and multiple-choice questions) and indirect (e.g., verbal guise test) methods were employed to examine Taiwanese and British attitudes towards varieties of English. The study examined seven varieties as categorised according to Kachru’s (1992a) three concentric circles: the Inner Circle: Australian English, General American English and Standard Southern British English; the Outer Circle: Indian English; and the Expanding Circle: Japanese English, Spanish English and Taiwanese English. Four key findings emerge from the study. First, both direct and indirect techniques of evaluation demonstrate that both Taiwanese and British respondents largely favour English varieties of the Inner Circle and the Outer Circle over those of the Expanding Circle. Second, the indirect attitude measurements of the verbal guise test demonstrate that both groups prefer the variety of General American English in terms of both status and solidarity. Third, the research found that a number of social variables (e.g., gender, occupation) had a significant effect on speaker evaluations. Fourth, although Taiwanese and British participants were very capable of distinguishing whether a speaker was native or non-native, there were generally no significant correlations between a speaker’s ability to identify different English varieties and their having a favourable attitude towards these. Overall, the findings demonstrated that Taiwanese and British people predominantly share similar attitudes towards varieties of English. Nevertheless, when the effects of the social variables and speaker identifications are considered, native and non-native speakers’ perceptions of different varieties of English might differ. These findings contribute to the understanding of the similarities and differences between native and non-native speakers’ attitudes towards varieties of English in the context of an increasingly globalised world and the rise of the non-native speakers of English therein.

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Wahid, Ridwan Languages &amp Linguistics Faculty of Arts &amp Social Sciences UNSW. "The use of articles in inner and outer circle varieties of English: a comparative corpus-based study." Awarded By:University of New South Wales. Languages & Linguistics, 2009. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/44525.

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Articles continue to be one of the most puzzling aspects of English grammar. This thesis investigates article use variation in two groups of English varieties: Inner Circle and Outer Circle. The first group, comprising British English, American English, Australian English and New Zealand English, represents English varieties in their traditional contexts. The second group, consisting of Singapore English, Indian English, Philippine English and Kenyan English, represents varieties which are deeply entrenched in their communities due to colonial roots. The study is premised on the naturalness of corpus data. Three corpus-based analyses were conducted to investigate articles and their frequency, collocation and usage types. The frequency analysis revealed that articles are idiosyncratically used by the varieties with no clear divide between the two groups. Text types, on the other hand, emerged as a more powerful determinant of the observed frequencies. It was found that fewer articles were used in spoken language. In the collocational analysis, the varieties were found to favour different complementation patterns for two-word and multiple-world clusters. The Inner Circle varieties, however, shared more complementation patterns among them, demonstrating greater stability in terms of variation. Finally the analysis of usage types discovered marked or untypical patterns of use in the Outer Circle groups structural and situational definites. A number of untypical usages of first-mention/quantitative 'a/an' were also found in this group. In the same analysis, a case study of house uncovered a few marked uses of ??, which signalled the null form but not the zero article. Although the collective findings in this study indicate that article use in both groups of varieties has more similarities than differences, the latter leave more impression on observers. These differences can be attributed to such diverse factors as text types, socio-cultural content of collocates, specificity, recategorisation of countness, indiscriminate rule application and ungrammaticality. Theoretically, however, the variation can be captured by the application of Chestermans three composite meanings of definiteness locatability, inclusiveness and extensivity and their permutations. As an instance of nativisation, article use in the Outer Circle is limited in its diffusion. The observed innovations rarely creep into more formal registers.

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Schweinberger, Martin [Verfasser], and Peter [Akademischer Betreuer] Siemund. "The discourse marker LIKE : a corpus-based analysis of selected varieties of English / Martin Schweinberger. Betreuer: Peter Siemund." Hamburg : Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, 2014. http://d-nb.info/1058681893/34.

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Rottschäfer, Stefanie [Verfasser]. "Accent and Identity in Learner Varieties of English : A Study with German and French University Students in an English as a Lingua Franca Setting / Stefanie Rottschäfer." Frankfurt a.M. : Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2018. http://d-nb.info/1167658515/34.

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Lidblad, Sara. "Attitudes and Use of English in Swedish Society - a survey of preferences and actual use." Thesis, University of Gävle, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-6227.

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Abstract

Many would agree that English has become a global language that has spread all over the world. English has been the primary foreign language in the Swedish school curriculum since the Second World War and most Swedes have some English language proficiency. Today, Swedes are not only subjected to English in school, but also come across English every day in media, in the streets or at work.

A number of studies have been done on how Swedish students use English and of their attitudes towards it, but not much on how Swedes that are no longer under school influence view the matter. This study has examined the attitudes and preferences towards English among 60 adults. Most of them have a positive attitude towards English and believe that the use of English in Sweden will increase in the future. Even so, they show little concern that English might be a future threat towards Swedish.

Both men and women find media as their primary source of English influence and there was only one minor difference to be noted when comparing attitudes between different age groups. The older female informants reported to use less English and have lower skills than the rest. No such trend was seen among the men belonging to the same age group. Besides this, some interesting gender differences were seen. The female informants reported to have a stronger preference for British English and the male informants showed preference for American English. These gender differences would be interesting to study further.

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Sullivan, Jennifer Niamh. "Approaching intonational distance and change." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/5619.

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The main aim of this thesis is to begin to extend phonetic distance measurements to the domain of intonation. Existing studies of segmental phonetic distance have strong associations with historical linguistic questions. I begin with this context and demonstrate problems with the use of feature systems in these segmental measures. Then I attempt to draw strands from the disparate fields of quantitative historical linguistics and intonation together. The intonation of Belfast and Glasgow English provides a central case study for this. Previous work suggests that both varieties display nuclear rises on statements, yet they have never been formally compared. This thesis presents two main hypotheses on the source of these statement rises: the Alignment hypothesis and the Transfer hypothesis. The Alignment hypothesis posits that statement rises were originally more typical statement falls but have changed into rises over time through gradual phonetic change to the location of the pitch peak. The Transfer hypothesis considers that statement rises have come about through pragmatic transfer of rises onto a statement context, either from question rises or continuation rises. I evaluate these hypotheses using the primary parameters of alignment and scaling as phonetic distance measurements. The main data set consists of data from 3 Belfast English and 3 Glasgow English speakers in a Sentence reading task and Map task. The results crucially indicate that the origin of the statement rises in Belfast and Glasgow English respectively may be different. The Glasgow statement nuclear tones show support for the Alignment hypothesis, while the Belfast nuclear tones fit best with the Transfer hypothesis. The fundamental differences between Glasgow and Belfast are the earlier alignment of the peak (H) in Glasgow and the presence of a final low (L) tonal target in Glasgow and a final high (H) target in Belfast. The scaling of the final H in Belfast statements suggests that the transfer may be from continuation rather than from question rises. I then present a proposal for an overall measure of intonational distance, showing problems with parameter weighting, comparing like with like, and distinguishing between chance resemblance and genuine historical connections. The thesis concludes with an assessment of the benefits that intonational analysis could bring to improving segmental phonetic distance measures.

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Ugbaja, Dozie. "The rhetoric and reality of the English language and internationalisation : stakeholder perspectives on varieties of English and intelligibility within higher education in countries categorised as native speaking." Thesis, University of York, 2015. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14313/.

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This work investigates practical realities of international socio-cultural inclusivity from a linguistic point of view in a context of International Higher Education. It speculates that linguistic inclusivity in International Higher Education appears to be merely rhetoric when it comes to the adaptation to and accommodation of Non-Native varieties of the English language on the basis of intelligibility. The need to consider this rhetoric as against what obtains in reality was strengthened by a conflicting tension observable in the literature and by certain Higher Education practices in countries categorised as Native Speaking (NS). The tension has to do with the conflict in global English discourse between the Standard English (SE) camp and the World English (WE) one. While scholars of the former advocate for sustaining the Native Speaking (NS) varieties as the ‘standard’ in the international use of the English language, scholars of the latter state that Non-Native (NNS) varieties could also be standardised in their own rights. International Higher Education appears to be favouring the SE side of the divide over WE, as can be seen for example on the dependence on NS-based testing systems through IELTS and TOEFL or their equivalents for recruitment and selection of both international students and international staff. This work starts from the premise that true ‘internationalisation’, socio-cultural inclusivity and integration is meant to be void of any superiority views or practices that favour one socio-cultural group over another, even linguistically. With this in mind, the project set out to investigate perceptions on linguistic inclusivity in International Higher Education, albeit with recognisable limitations on generalisabilty of the results of the findings, because this study is considered as the beginning of a more wide-reaching research gap area. In order to achieve the stated purpose above, data was gathered from students-as-stakeholders and managers-as-stakeholders on their orientation towards international NNS scholars and academics who possess country-specific varieties of English which are clearly different from those of the NS. A two-sided innovative approach aimed at testing for intelligibility, as well as gathering perception on and seeking orientations of NNS/WE speakers was employed. It involved the use of an IELTS listening test, where the recorded speakers were NNS/WE users, and a post-test perceptions questionnaire, administered to the student participants. There was also the use of focus group discussions aimed at spurring more in-depth and insightful orientations towards NNS varieties from the students. The orientation of the management participants, which had more to do with how NNS/WE varieties of English influence their recruitment and selection decisions, were collated through interviews. The findings showed that although both stakeholder groups identify with the need for, and importance of socio-cultural integration, their linguistic orientations towards NNS/WE varieties of English, were negative and influenced by subjective judgements that favour the upholding of SE or NS based standards and competences over WE or NNS ones. The findings also particularly showed that even when NNS/WE speakers are intelligible, the varieties of English they possess is not considered worthy of acceptance for academic, scholarly or teaching roles in the supposedly ‘international’ or ‘internationalising’ Higher Education environments. It was therefore concluded that there appears to be contradictions in the equal opportunities and diversity claims within the two International Higher Education institutions surveyed when it comes to linguistic communicative realities involving the use of the English language as a lingua franca. This is because, while the rhetoric projects the propagation of inclusivity and integration, the reality with major stakeholders appears to still be in sharp contrast with the overall meaning of international accommodation, adaptation and acceptance, particularly as it concerns linguistic differences that are peculiar to Non-Native users of the English Language.

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Güldenring, Barbara Ann Verfasser], and Rolf [Akademischer Betreuer] [Kreyer. "Emotion Metaphors in New Englishes: A Corpus-Based Study of Emotion Concepts in Institutionalized Second-Language Varieties of English / Barbara Ann Güldenring ; Betreuer: Rolf Kreyer." Marburg : Philipps-Universität Marburg, 2020. http://d-nb.info/1218685883/34.

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Melchien, Bianca. "‘Neutral, native-like or authentic’ : Investigating attitudes and beliefs of expanding circle speakers of English." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-131390.

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The status of English as the language of international communication is by now well-established. However, in the past 16 years, research has tried to emphasize the fact that the English spoken in international contact situations and between people with other first languages than English has different needs than the English spoken locally amongst native speakers, resulting in the emergence of English as a lingua franca (ELF) as a scholarly field. However, the impact of findings in ELF has so far only led to a moderate shift in English language teaching. Especially in expanding circle countries, where ELF should have the biggest impact, change is only gradually becoming palpable. Accent and pronunciation, as one of the biggest factors on both identity and mutual intelligibility (Jenkins 2000; 2007) are at the root of discussion. The scope of this study is therefore to examine accent choices and the extent to which native speaker ideology informs the preferences of ten speakers of ELF and 27 German natives with experience in international communication. Both ethnographical and sociolinguistic methods, as well as auditory analysis have been applied and conducted. The auditory analysis of six variables in the recorded speech production of the ten speakers suggests that there is no significant preference of one norm-giving variety over the other. Rather, speakers tend to mix-and-match General American- and Standard Southern British English-like features in their pronunciation. When reporting their accent ideals, the idea of a ‘neutral’ English accent is mentioned by four participants. Neutral accents seem to have been understood as ‘unmarked accents’. Expressed beliefs on their own English pronunciation show a comparatively high level of reflection on and confidence in their own production. Results from a rating task and a survey given to 27 German participants reveal attitudes that are more negatively stacked. While Germans reported openness towards NNS (non-native speaker) accents and showed awareness of the priority of intelligibility over accent choice in both their own and others’ pronunciation, they still largely reported NS accent preference. The ratings of the production from ten ELF speakers confirmed this and showed that ‘neutral’ is equated with native-like. In the light of these findings, issues are discussed that ultimately relate to the influence of NS Englishes, identity and the development of English as an international language.

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Tizzano, Elena, and Agnes Rauer. "Teaching English with a Pluricentric Approach: a Compilation of Four Upper Secondary Teachers’ Beliefs." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-32538.

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One of our first courses at the teacher education program introduced us to how the English language could be taught with an approach we had not thought of before. In particular, the course discussed what it could mean for educators of English to implement a pluricentric approach in their teaching. As future teachers, we gained a whole new perspective on the implications of teaching an international language as English and the benefits it could have by doing so, such as the increment of intercultural awareness. However, during our internships we noticed that in-service teachers often have a rather monolithic way of teaching English, mostly targeting varieties in their teaching that originated from native-speaking countries such as, the United States and the United Kingdom. We conducted a qualitative research with the aim to investigate the beliefs of four upper secondary teachers of English, currently working at two different schools in Malmö, about teaching English with a pluricentric approach. To gather the data we used semi-structured interviews. The findings of the study show that on the one hand, most of the participating teachers express a desire to expose the students to different varieties of English and think of this as important. On the other hand, the investigation shows that the participating teachers prioritise other aspects in their choices, such as content, level and availability of the teaching material and consider variety not as a priority.

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Fest, Jennifer Verfasser], Stella [Akademischer Betreuer] [Neumann, and Thomas [Akademischer Betreuer] Niehr. "News in the context of regional and functional variation : a corpus-based analysis of newspaper domains across varieties of English / Jennifer Fest ; Stella Neumann, Thomas Niehr." Aachen : Universitätsbibliothek der RWTH Aachen, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1130402606/34.

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Fest, Jennifer [Verfasser], Stella [Akademischer Betreuer] Neumann, and Thomas [Akademischer Betreuer] Niehr. "News in the context of regional and functional variation : a corpus-based analysis of newspaper domains across varieties of English / Jennifer Fest ; Stella Neumann, Thomas Niehr." Aachen : Universitätsbibliothek der RWTH Aachen, 2016. http://d-nb.info/1130402606/34.

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Andersson, Niklas. "Stereotypes of English in Hollywood Movies : A Case Study of the Use of Different Varieties of English in Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings and Transformers." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-35040.

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This essay deals with the use of linguistic stereotypes in Hollywood movies. It investigates whether attitudes towards English dialects found in studies on perceptual dialectology are reflected in the selected movies and discusses the notion of linguistic identity and how standard and nonstandard speech, respectively, are used symbolically to emphasize features of characters in eleven movies from three different movie series, namely The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and Transformers, with a main focus on syntactic and phonological dimensions. The essay finds a correlation between standard speech and features of competence and wisdom, and nonstandard speech and features of solidarity, sociability and traits of stupidity and humor. Moreover, very specific perceptions of certain varieties of English are probably utilized as amplifiers of equally specific characteristics of some characters. The use of dialects and accents in these movies is probably intentional and not coincidental.

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Eggert, Björn. "Global English and Listening Materials : A Textbook Analysis." Thesis, Karlstad University, Karlstad University, Karlstad University, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-4040.

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This paper focuses on listening materials used in English language teaching in Sweden, especially in respect to the concept of global English. Global English could briefly be described as the linguistic, cultural, politic, and economic influence of English in the world. This influence concerns two aspects of English, namely the usage of English as a lingua franca in international communications, as well as the great range of English varieties that are used today. The purpose of this research is to study how varied listening materials are and how, when and why they are used in the classrooms. I conducted a two-part investigation to study these matters. The first part of the investigation focuses on teachers’ usage of listening materials and is based on a questionnaire handed out to five teachers. I found that the teachers varied much in their usage of listening materials. In the second part of the investigation I compare the listening materials provided by two Swedish textbooks on English, one from 1994 and one from 2003. Here I focus on the speakers’ varieties, rate of delivery, and instructions given for listening exercises. I found that both books featured a majority of speakers from the British Isles and America, and very few non-native speakers. The more recent book featured a larger degree of varieties outside the areas of Britain and the USA, as well as a larger degree of American English when dividing the varieties by the time these were spoken. RP (Received Pronunciation) and GA (General American) were also less dominating in the textbook from 2003. The rate of delivery was generally slower in the older textbook. The results from this investigation suggest that some changes seem to have occurred between the publishing of the two books. However, a focus on English as a lingua franca, where the aim is proficiency in efficient cross cultural communication rather than in the English spoken by native speakers, does not seem to have influenced the textbooks studied here. It is difficult to appreciate whether or not changes like these have taken hold in Swedish classrooms, as teachers use many different listening materials and in many different ways.

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Domange, Raphaël. "Proficiency, language use and the debate over nativeness : A sociolinguistic survey of South Delhi English." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-64998.

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This study examines the extent of the impact of proficiency and language use on sociophonetic variation in Indian English (IE). It is based on an oral corpus using the methods and tools of the PAC project and derived from a pool of South Delhi-based highly proficient speakers. The investigation was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods and focused on two understudied variables: (1) the fricative realisation of th, and (2) the realisations of the vowels in words of the NORTH and FORCE lexical sets. First, the results demonstrate that a significant amount of variation which cannot be accounted for by the traditional age, gender and social class factors can be explained by the language use parameter. A degree of correlation was found between the volume of use of English in a range of domains, and how speakers take advantage of the sociolinguistic potential of prestigious forms. This offers indications on the location of the leaders of the linguistic change. The second central feature of this study is derived from the investigation of the NORTH versus FORCE distinction. It is argued that the general maintenance of this distinction in IE provides evidence for the endo-normative nature of this variety. In the light of these findings, issues ultimately relating to the debate over nativeness are discussed.

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Maier, Georg [Verfasser], and Peter [Akademischer Betreuer] Siemund. "The Distribution of Pronoun Case Forms in Subject Predicative Complements in Varieties of English: A Corpus- and Web-Based Study of Pronoun Case Variation / Georg Maier ; Betreuer: Peter Siemund." Hamburg : Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg, 2017. http://d-nb.info/1124591257/34.

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Anteryd, Linn. "African-American English i direkt anföring : Etta James självbiografi översatt till svenska – att anpassa översättningen efter en varietet som inte har någon motsvarighet på svenska." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för nordiska språk, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-260105.

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Detta examensarbete är indelat i tre delar. Examensarbetet består av en översättning av tre kapitel ur Etta James självbiografi Rage to survive: the Etta James story skriven av James och spökförfattaren David Ritz, samt ett kapitel om vilka textspecifika översättningsproblem som uppstod vid översättningen. Den tredje delen består av en djupanalys av hur varieteten African-American English (AAE) översatts i två andra verk, nämligen I know why the caged bird sings av Maya Angelou och The bluest eye av Toni Morrison där översättningarna av dessa verk jämförs med min översättning av Rage to survive: the Etta James story. Djupanalysens syfte är att undersöka hur många talspråksmarkörer som finns i de ovannämnda verken, samt hur många av dessa markörer är specifika för AAE. Dessutom används Englund Dimitrovas varietetsskala (2001). Detta för att undersöka huruvida måltexterna ligger på skalan i relation till källtexterna genom mängden talspråksmarkörer. Översättningen genomfördes med målet att ligga så nära källtextens stil som var möjligt med hänsyn till målspråkets grammatiska regler och förutsättningar. Detta för att kunna erbjuda den målspråklige läsaren en likvärdig effekt som läsaren av källtexten. För att uppfylla detta mål fick en del kompromisser göras.
This thesis is divided into three main parts. It consists of a translation of three chapters from Etta James’ autobiography named Rage to survive: the Etta James story, written by James herself and ghost writer David Ritz. The thesis also features a part involving the issues that arose when I translated Rage to survive: the Etta James story and how I solved these issues. The third and final part consists of an analysis of how African-American English (AAE) has been translated in two other novels in the past, namely I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison’s The bluest eye. I compare the translations of these two novels with my own translation of Rage to survive: the Etta James story in the analysis where I strive to gain insight into the norms for translating spoken varieties. The translation was carried out with the purpose of maintaining the stylistic and informal markers as intact as possible while at the same time adhering to the grammatical prerequisites of the target language (Swedish).

Översättningen är borttagen ur den publicerade versionen i fulltext i DiVA (denna version) på grund av upphovsrätten.

The translation has been removed from the published version of the essay in DiVA due to copyright.

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Leuckert, Sven. "Typological Interference in Information Structure: The Case of Topicalization in Asia." De Gruyter, 2017. https://tud.qucosa.de/id/qucosa%3A38561.

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Topicalization refers to the sentence-initial placement of constituents other than the subject and is often listed as a non-canonical construction [cf. Ward, Gregory, Betty J. Birner and Rodney Huddleston (2002). “Information Packaging.” Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum, eds. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1363–1447.]. In this paper, tokens of topicalization in the direct conversations in the International Corpus of English for Hong Kong and India and, for comparison, Great Britain are analysed. In order to find out if topicalization is a contact-induced feature, typological profiles with regard to topic-prominence [Li, Charles N. and Sandra A. Thompson (1976). “Subject and Topic: A New Typology of Language.” Charles N. Li, ed. Subject and Topic. New York: Academic Press, 457–489.] are created for three Indo-Aryan, three Dravidian and two Sinitic languages. I suggest that the low frequencies of topicalization in Hong Kong English and the high frequencies of topicalization in Indian English are primarily due to differences in intensity of contact [Thomason, Sarah G. (2001). Language Contact. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.] and variety development [Schneider, Edgar W. (2007). Postcolonial English. Varieties Around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.]. Typological interference at the level of information structure is assumed to only come to the fore in further developed varieties and after prolonged contact.

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Selvaggi, Dino [Verfasser]. "Plurilingual Code-Switching between Standard and Local Varieties : A Socio-Psycholinguistic Approach / Dino Selvaggi." Bern : Peter Lang AG, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2018. http://d-nb.info/1154375943/34.

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Bellamy, John [Verfasser]. "Language Attitudes in England and Austria : A Sociolinguistic Investigation into Perceptions of High and Low-Prestige Varieties in Manchester and Vienna / John Bellamy." Stuttgart : Franz Steiner Verlag, 2013. http://d-nb.info/1073647315/34.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'English varieties'

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