“A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.”
Aphorism, unknown origin (first published by Max Weinreich)
The previous two sections have dealt mostly with English spreading and changing over time. Now we will explore how changes of space, place and regional variations have created amazing linguistic diversity around the Anglophone world. We all speak a variety of English that tells the world something about who we are, where we come from, whom we socialize with and what we aspire to become. In this section we will discover why people speak English differently by learning about the process of divergence. As you will see, people have taken the English language and made it their own.
Here you will be encouraged to research a variety of English (present or past) that interests you, and examine how the vocabulary, grammar, idiomatic flavour and other features make it a distinct ‘brand’ of the English language. My advice is to read at least two articles from the list below. Get started with English Around the World, then choose a place that interests you to continue your journey:
- Varieties of English (IB Textbook)
- English Around the World (extract from David Crystal’s Evolving English)
- World Englishes (interview with David Crystal)
- From Seaspeak to Singlish (Guardian Article)
- Linguistic Variation (Thoughtco article)
Reading Challenge
This is a longer and more challenging piece of reading, but spending time on this piece, and discussing it with your teacher, will help you master this topic:
Class Activity 1: Do you speak…?
Choose a variety of English from this list. Read the attached materials and summarise them in a simple resource (such as a poster, leaflet or ppt). Form small groups and teach each other about the non-standard variety of English you have read about. In your resource, include: examples of vocabulary; slangs; idiomatic expressions; a little history of your chosen dialect.
- Do You Speak Kiwinglish? (article from The Guardian)
- Advance Australia (extract from The Adventure of English)
- Indian Takeover (extract from The Adventure of English)
- West Indies (extract from The Adventure of English)
- Multicultural London English / Jafaican (youtube video explainer)
Class Activity 2: so liddat lor
What is it in a language that makes governments and authorities try to suppress it? Take Singlish as an example. Although the Singaporean government justifies its clamp-down on Singlish by arguing it hampers people’s ability in English, is there a darker side here – akin to Orwell’s Newspeak, or the way in which indigenous languages have been suppressed in countries like Canada, Australia, and South Africa? Does language = identity, and non-official languages = an identity not sanctioned by the government?
After reading the embedded articles about Singlish, write your answers to these key questions: Is the attempt to control language unique to Singapore? Is it only governments who want to control which language people speak, or other ‘authorities’? Why do various authorities try to control the languages we speak? Share your ideas with others in the class.
Discussion Points
After you’ve got your head around the material in this section, pair up, pick a question, spend five minutes thinking and noting down your thoughts – then discuss your ideas with a friend and report back to the class:
- If Standard English is, well… ‘standard’, does that mean other dialects of English are sub-standard? What are prevailing attitudes towards varieties of English? Is there an alternative way to think about varieties of English rather than ‘sub-standard’?
- What is the difference between a language, a dialect, a slang? Do these differences matter? Why or why not?
- How do people use languages to define themselves? How do people use languages to create social relationships?
Learner Portfolio
Write the text for an imaginary blog post in which you describe a variety of English you know or have collected information about (eg Singlish, Chinglish, American English, Jafaican. Geordie, and so on), and argue that it is an expression of a particular character and culture. (You might like to read this example of a fantastic piece of another student’s writing to see what kind of work you can try to produce).
Body of Work: Summer Heights High
TBC
Towards Assessment: Individual Oral
Supported by an extract from one non-literary text and one from a literary work, students will offer a prepared response of 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions by the teacher, to the following prompt: Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of two of the texts that you have studied. (40 marks)
An extract from Summer Heights High would be an unusual, but possibly very effective, choice to bring to your Individual Oral. Here’s a suggestion as to how you might use this Body of Work to create a Global Issue. You can use this idea, or develop your own. You should always be mindful of your own ideas and class discussions and follow the direction of your own thoughts, discussions and programme of study when devising your assessment tasks:
- Field of Inquiry: Culture, Community and Identity
- Global Issue: How language reveals power dynamics between people
- Rationale:
Language may not have any real power of its own – but language can produce influence and control by revealing relationships of power between those who use it. Particular languages also reflect the collective historical power of the language community that uses it, as embodied by different characters in the show. You can examine how this Body of Work reveals this by investigating the way individual characters wield varieties of English such as Standard English, Islander English, Received Pronunciation, and more. You’ll see this dynamic at work in Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, a play who’s core theme is how the ability to code switch between varieties of English becomes a powerful tool of social mobility, allowing Liza Doolittle to assert some autonomy in a hugely unequal society.
Towards Assessment: Higher Level Essay
Students submit an essay on one non-literary text or a collection of non-literary texts by one same author, or a literary text or work studied during the course. The essay must be 1,200-1,500 words in length. (20 marks).
Investigating the implications of language currency in this text would make an extremely interesting subject for your Higher Level essay. Here are one or two examples of lines of inquiry suitable for this text – but remember to follow your own interests and the direction of your own class discussion to generate your own line of inquiry. It is not appropriate for students to submit responses to an essay question that has been assigned:
- How is language used subversively by students and teachers to challenge authority in Summer Heights High by Chris Lilley?
Paper 1 Text Type Focus: texts written in non-standard English
At the end of your course you will be asked to analyse unseen texts (1 at Standard Level and 2 at Higher Level) in an examination. You will be given a guiding question that will focus your attention on formal or stylistic elements of the text(s), and help you decode the text(s)’ purpose(s). While this is not a text type, occasionally you may be given a text written in non-standard English, for example a text written in a particular dialect or a text from another country where English is not the first language. Use the following resources to practice suitable responses to these kinds of text and add them to your Learner Portfolio; you will want to revise text types thoroughly before your Paper 1 exam. You can find more information – including text type features and sample Paper 1 analysis – by visiting 20/20. Read through one or two of the exemplars, then choose a new paper and have a go at writing your own Paper 1 analysis response:
Wider Reading and Research
- Englishes – online exhibit at Kansas University Library ‘Histories of English’
Categories:Time and Space
IB Language and Literature 2.0 