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World Englishes: Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces

posted Dec 25, 2013, 8:50 AM by Sang-Soo Yeo   [ updated Feb 9, 2014, 3:03 AM ]

Dr. J. Kim
Dr. Jeong-ryeol Kim,
Professor, Korea National University of Education, Korea
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Jeong-ryeol Kim has a Ph.D. in applied linguistics from University of Hawaii and has been a professor of English at Korea National University of Education (KNUE) teaching methodology, integrated content and language teaching, English linguistics. He served as a director of planning and a deputy dean of center for in-service education at KNUE. He is currently serving as the president of Korea Association of Foreign Languages Education for 2013-2014 and was the president of Korea Association of Primary English Education for 2010-2011 and the president of KOTESOL back in 1996-1997. He was involved in different government projects in curriculum, textbooks and English education using information and communications technology. He has published books on classroom English, teaching methodology, English curriculum, English classroom observation and analysis to name a few. He has published numerous articles in the area of elementary English education and technology enhanced English teaching.

Abstract of Dr. Kim's Invited Talk

This talk is to explore the diversity of world Englishes. Language is a delicate balance between centrality (standardization) and identity (diversification). However, the English education based on tests tend to focus only on the standard variety of English. This will drive students to memorize and practice only one type of English and to lose the perspective that Koreans are also owners of English as long as we communicate in it. To balance our view on different Englishes, this talk will look into the grammatical diversity and the motivation behind such differences.
   Learning English in macro-acquisition (Brutt-Griffler, 2002) like in Korea has several different implications from individual language acquisition. The acquisition processes result in a unique variety of English generally caused by the base language and the culture. The process generally occurs without much direct cultural contact with target language speakers and culture. The process runs top-to-bottom. In other words, the contents of instruction are selected and the methods of teaching are determined by experts on the policy decision-level. The unique variety of English carries functions of language as both identity marker and tool of communication. As an identity marker people will be using English to make themselves stand out from other varieties of English speakers. For a tool of communication people will keep English from becoming a separate language and unusable in communication because it has deviated so far away to the point where it's not intelligible any more. These centrifugal and centripetal forces are always in working for any speech community.   
   This presentation will review the different varieties of English and look into the reality of world Englishes. It will collect a dozen different varieties of English and survey the grammatical structures of these varieties to explore commonalities of these varieties and seek a possibility of descriptive common English core rather than prescriptive, imposing and imperialistic English as a given common core. Teachers and students need to be informed of different varieties of English extant today. Awareness of the phenomenon of localization of English resulted by macro-acquisition can be achieved through dissemination of information, and success of English learning should be evaluated by whether or not our local variety English has been learned by students, rather than how close our students' English is to AAE (Anglo-American English).