English Of Non-native Speakers Research Articles

Discourse Structure and the Perception of Incoherence in International Teaching Assistants' Spoken Discourse

Work by discourse analysts shows that listeners' interpretation of discourse is determined not only by a speaker's pronunciation and grammar but also by discourse-level patterns of language use. To date, relatively little is known about the discourse-level patterns typically found in the English of nonnative speakers, how they diverge from discourse produced by native speakers, or how differences in nonnative discourse patterns affect native English listeners' understanding of the discourse. Using a qualitative discourse-analytic framework, this paper compares the planned spoken English of a native speaker of Chinese whose English discourse was perceived by native speakers of English as difficult to follow with that of a native speaker of U.S. English. The analyses reveal a variety of differences in the use of discourse structuring devices, specifically in the areas of lexical discourse markers, lexical specificity, and syntactic incorporation. It is argued that these differences in discourse-level patterns interfere with the listeners' ability to construct a coherent interpretation of the Chinese speaker's discourse.

Accounting for interlanguage subject pronouns

In this paper we reopen the controversy surrounding subject pronoun usage in the English of non-native speakers. Much recent research has attempted to account for non-native pronoun usage through Universal Grammar-based explanations. In this paper, we argue that in considering the issue of subject pronouns, one must take into account the input to the learner. Specifically, we examine transcripts of the English of two native speakers of Spanish (one adult and one child) and show that the pattern of learner-language subject pronoun use closely parallels native speaker use. We closely examine the input provided to these learners and show how learners can be led to believe that their incorrect learner-language forms are correct. Our data suggest that considering princi ples of Universal Grammar devoid of context is insufficient and often mis leading in accounting for how L2 grammars develop.

Whose Standard, Which Model? Towards the Definition of a Standard Nigerian Spoken English for Teaching, Learning and Testing in Nigerian Schools

Abstract The adoption of RP as a model of teaching in non-native speaker English societies such as Nigeria seems to have come to say. However, the accent of English that emerged in Nigeria, over the years, (to some linguists) is anything but RP (although some hold the view that there are a few RP speakers in Nigeria). We are, therefore, forced to ask the question: What is RP?; or better still: what are its defining characteristics, particularly in relation to non-native varieties of English? Consequently, were are motivated to search for, and identify alternative local (standard) accents for teaching purposes. This paper attempts to identify the Nigerian standard accent of English that is appropriate for adoption as a model for teaching English pronunciation. It examines the problems associated with the identification of a standard form in the light of variables such as international intelligibility local acceptability, a real and social variation, in native and non-native speaker communities alike. On the basis of socio-linguistic realities it recommends an accent for teaching, learning and testing in Nigerian schools.