Changing Englishes Course

Course Introduction
FAQs
Unit 1: Defining English
Unit 1: Table of contents
1.0 What is English?
1.1 Monolithic vs plurilithic concepts
1.1.1 Monolithic concepts of language
1.1.2 Plurilithic concepts of language
1.2 ‘Standard English’
1.2.1 ‘Standard English’: History
1.2.2 ‘Standard English’: Beliefs
1.2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of ‘Standard English’ for ELT
1.3 Rules of English
1.3.1 The ambiguity of the word rule
1.3.2 Rules of English: The monolithic view
1.3.3 Rules of English: The plurilithic view
1.4 Four dimensions of monolithism
1.5 Check Your understanding
1.6 Reflect and discuss
Unit 2: Using English
Unit 2: Table of contents
2.0 Global talk in English
2.1 Introducing Lingua Franca usage
2.2.1 Native speaker variation
2.2.2 Native speakers: Accommodation
2.3 Englishes in the British Isles
2.4 World Englishes
2.4.1 Englishes in your part of the world
2.4.2 Owning a language (Part 1)
2.5 ELF
2.5.1 Intelligibility
2.5.2 ELF in your part of the world
2.6 Translanguaging with English
2.7 Check your understanding
2.8 Reflect and discuss
Unit 3: Learning English
Unit 3: Table of contents
3.0 English as subject and object
3.1 First language acquisition
3.2 Back to rules
3.2.1 Rules as patterns in the mind (Part 1)
3.2.2 Rules as social markers
3.2.3 Rules as mental representations
3.2.4 Rules in schools
3.2.5 Rules as patterns in the mind (2)
3.3 Models and targets
3.4 Learning contexts
3.5 Owning a language (Part 2)
3.6 Learners and users
3.7 Check your understanding
3.8 Reflect and discuss
Unit 4: Teaching English
Unit 4: Table of contents
4.0 Teaching the object language
4.1 Changing roles for teachers
4.2 Changing versions of English
4.3 Your learning and teaching materials
4.4 Your learning and teaching activities
4.5 Testing English
4.6 Check your understanding
4.7 Reflect and discuss
Unit 5: Changing English
Unit 5: Table of contents
5.0 You hold the future of English in your hands
5.1 The challenge
5.2 Changing learners’ beliefs about English
5.3 Changing teaching colleagues’ beliefs about English
5.4 Changing policy-makers’ beliefs about English
5.5 Changing the public’s beliefs about English
5.6 Check your understanding
5.7 Reflect and Discuss
End of Course
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1.5 Check Your understanding

Changing Englishes Course 1.5 Check Your understanding
Throughout the course we provide definitions of some of the key terms used in our discussion of changing Englishes.

You can use these flashcards to check your understanding of these terms by reading the word or phrase on the flashcard and recalling the definition. You can then check your answer by clicking on the card.

Codification

A 'standard' variety of a language is codified when its forms and rules are fixed and recorded (in dictionaries and grammar books) as the 'correct' options for use in education and formal writing/speaking.

English as an International Language (EIL)

English as an International Language (EIL) English as it is used around the world in a variety of different places and contexts for a variety of different purposes.

Idiolect

A person's own, individual knowledge and habitual patterns of use of their language(s).

Monolithic

The idea that languages are discrete, describable systems that exist outside the heads of individual users.

Native Speaker

A person who began the process of acquiring the language at a very early age outside of (but perhaps also in) the classroom. 'Nativeness' is not the same thing as nationality (because language borders are not consistent with linguistic ones) and, in addition to the 'inheritance' factor already mentioned, it also includes elements of expertise (the ability to achieve specific tasks in specific contexts) and affiliation (level of comfort in using a language and feelings of belonging to a community of language users).

Negative concord

The grammatical regularity exhibited in several varieties of English, as well as languages like Spanish and Polish, in which negation is marked more than once (e.g. I ain't got nothing; in Spanish: No tengo nada).

Non-native Speaker

A person who began the process of acquiring the language in later childhood or beyond, mainly in an instructed situation such as a school classroom. See 'native speaker '.

Plurilithic

The idea that languages are partially overlapping systems of dynamic linguistic resources that exist in the heads of individual users.

Psycholinguistics

The study of the mental processes involved in the acquisition and use of language.

Normative

An idea about how something should or ought to be, which may be different from how it actually is.

Received Pronunciation (RP)

The British accent associated with the 'upper classes' of the south of England. It is not the same as 'Standard English', which is a lexico-grammatical variety which can be spoken with different accents.

Register

Sometimes used as a synonym of 'style'. Also, a speech variety used by a particular group of people, usually sharing the same job (lawyers or doctors for example) or hobby (train enthusiasts or football supporters for example). Types of variation might include choice of vocabulary and different grammatical constructions (in legal language, for example).

Social construction

Something that exists by virtue of people's shared belief in it, rather than evidence they have for it from sensory experience.

Sociolinguistics

The study of language in social contexts.

Style

Variation in a person's use of language depending on their communicative context (task, role, topic, audience etc.) and the language use of the individual or group with whom the person is communicating. Types of variation might include (in)formality of expression, choice of vocabulary and degree of explicitness.

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