I am a postdoctoral researcher in English linguistics at the University of Münster. My research focuses on World Englishes, sociolingusitics & sociophonetics, acoustic phonetics, language attitudes, corpus linguistics, and applied linguistics. Please find more information on my website: https://www.uni-muenster.de/Anglistik/Staff/Meer.shtml
Scottish English has characteristic phonological features including rhoticity, the /ʍ/-/w/ contra... more Scottish English has characteristic phonological features including rhoticity, the /ʍ/-/w/ contrast and the lack of the nurse merger. However, recent studies have found ongoing changes in Scottish English phonology such as the gradual loss of rhoticity, the merging of /ʍ/-/w/ and a partial merger of the nurse vowels. This paper investigates possible covariation between these features across speakers of Standardised Scottish English. The speech of 30 speakers taken from ICE-Scotland was analysed for their realisations of the nurse lexical set, <wh-> and rhotics. Underlying structural covariation among these variables was investigated using Principal Components Analysis. The results show covariation between the overall rate of the traditional /ʍ/ variant and rhoticity but not with the realisation of nurse. More generally, Standardised Scottish English appears to comprise a range of individual covariation patterns that combine more traditional and more modern pronunciation variants to varying degrees.
Most research on lexical stress in postcolonial varieties of English has focused on speech produc... more Most research on lexical stress in postcolonial varieties of English has focused on speech production. In the Caribbean island of Trinidad, production research indicates the existence of a lexical stress system in both standard Trinidadian English (TrinE) and Trinidadian English Creole (TEC). Inter-and intraspeaker variation in stress placement is argued to occur in disyllabic words with initial stress in TEC and final stress in TrinE. However, as in postcolonial Englishes more generally, little is known about how Trinidadian listeners perceive stress. Using a forced-choice identification task, the present study investigates the perception of lexical stress in disyllabic words by tertiary-educated speakers of TrinE (N = 46). Participants were presented with 21 truncated word pairs with segmentally identical first syllables but different lexical stress locations. One token had stress on the first, the other stress on the second syllable (e.g. syllable car-in CARton vs. carTOON). Participants were asked to judge which of the words in a pair was the source of the current fragment. Results are analyzed using separate logistic mixed-effects models for trochaic (first syllable stressed) and iambic (second syllable stressed) words.
This study investigates the prosodic aspects of rhythm and intonation in the production of Brazil... more This study investigates the prosodic aspects of rhythm and intonation in the production of Brazilian L2 English (BrazE) in comparison to American English (AmE), Indian English (IndE), and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Previous research suggests that IndE is more syllable-timed in terms of the syllable/stress-timing continuum than L1 varieties of English, such as AmE. The present paper hypothesizes that BrazEdue to L1 cross-linguistic influence of BP, which has been suggested to be syllable-timedhas lower variability of duration-based rhythm and F0 measures compared to AmEjust like IndE. We analyze both duration-based rhythm and F0 measures in only-male read speech of BrazE, AmE, IndE, and BP (with five speakers per variety) using linear mixed-effects modeling. Results show significant differences between both BrazE-AmE and IndE-AmE in duration-based rhythm measures (%C, nPVI-V, ∆-S, YARDS , RR-S, z-scored syllable duration, speech, and articulation rates) and F0 measures (z-scored F0, F0 semi-amplitude interquartile, F0 skewness). Minor, primarily non-significant differences were observed between BrazE and IndE/BP. Overall, with a view to duration-based rhythm and F0 measures, the results confirm our hypothesis that BrazE leans toward the syllable-timed pole of the rhythm continuum, not unlike IndE and BP.
Rethinking Cultural Learning. Cosmopolitan Perspectives on Language Education, 2023
Cosmopolitan perspectives can enrich the field of 'Global Englishes Language Teaching' (GELT) by ... more Cosmopolitan perspectives can enrich the field of 'Global Englishes Language Teaching' (GELT) by offering new approaches to exploring and investigating the role of cultural learning in the context of language variation. To corroborate this claim, this contribution revisits two language attitudinal studies (Meer, Hartmann & Rumlich 2021, 2022), which found that learners of English in German secondary schools frequently hold negative attitudes towards certain varieties of English. The authors of the two studies discuss the potential role of cultural learning in English language classrooms in Germany in addressing and, ultimately, mitigating these negative attitudes. From a cosmopolitan perspective, this contribution argues that it is worthwhile taking a step back, revisiting current practices of cultural learning, and reflecting on their role in creating, upholding, and perpetuating stereotypical attitudes and perceptions in the first place. In this light, this contribution focuses on the current practice of target country teaching in conjunction with issues surrounding indexicality as well as language ownership to illustrate how cosmopolitan cultural learning may contribute alternative ways of thinking to the GELT paradigm.
Acquisition and Variation in World Englishes: Bridging Paradigms and Rethinking Approaches, 2024
US American English (AmE) influence has been identified as a potential force in variation and cha... more US American English (AmE) influence has been identified as a potential force in variation and change in postcolonial Englishes. Adolescents are typically not examined in this context despite their crucial role in language variation and change and possibly greater exposure to AmE via digital media. Drawing on sociophonetic data from 65 secondary students and 35 teachers, the present study investigates rhotacization of the NURSE vowel in Trinidadian English (TrinE), an incipient sound change that has previously been linked to younger speakers and AmE influence. The results show that NURSE-rhotacization is led by male and female speakers associated with prestige schoolsnot necessarily adolescents per se but younger Trinidadians. Additionally, speakers do not draw on rhotacization to approximate an AmE vowel target but integrate this feature into their speech. Bearing in mind related findings on speech perception, the findings suggest that AmE influence is unlikely to be the only reason for increasing levels of rhotacization. More generally, the findings highlight the importance of adolescents and younger adults in variation and change in Caribbean and other postcolonial Englishes.
The English-official Caribbean provides an insightful context for investigations of norm developm... more The English-official Caribbean provides an insightful context for investigations of norm developmental processes, world Englishes theorizing, and mapping Englishes in multivarietal communities. While there has been an upsurge of linguistic research on the region, especially on emerging standardized varieties, little systematic empirical research exists on smaller Caribbean islands, select domain-specific patterns of production and perception in larger territories, and regional issues of standardization. This special issue addresses current research gaps and provides a well-rounded picture of language production and perception research in the anglophone Caribbean. The issue consists of articles with a variety of different methodological approaches, including corpus-linguistic, sociolinguistic, acoustic phonetic, ethnographic, and language attitudinal investigations. It covers a wide range of smaller (Bequia, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Kitts) and larger territories (the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, and Trinidad). While the articles scrutinize the anglophone Caribbean, several of the issues raised have relevance for world Englishes research more generally.
Englishes of the Caribbean: A research bibliography, 2022
The research bibliography presented in this paper lists some of the major research outputs on Eng... more The research bibliography presented in this paper lists some of the major research outputs on Englishes in the Caribbean. While selected foundational studies are listed, the focus lies on works published since the year 2000. Considering the linguistic diversity of the anglophone Caribbean, the publications listed include works on English-based Creoles, Englishes, mesolectal language use and mixed codes, as well as English-related contact varieties. A particular focus is on works investigating standardized (or standardizing) varieties of English spoken in the region. Efforts were made to represent both larger and smaller territories and islands. Potential limitations notwithstanding, we hope that this bibliography will prove useful to researchers and students interested in Caribbean varieties of English. It covers a large variety of topics and research areas, ranging from corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, educational linguistics, applied linguistics, as well as language attitude and perception research to creole studies, contact linguistics, pragmatics, and (socio)phonetics. Due to copyright reasons, we are unable to share a full manuscript here. Please feel free to send Philipp Meer or Mirjam Schmalz a message and either of us can send you a copy of the manuscript. You can also find a downloadable version of this chapter (Accepted Manuscript) under https://uni-muenster.sciebo.de/s/IcBB2Mq70K0ixrZ This chapter is published as a contribution to the special issue on "Englishes of the Caribbean" in World Englishes guest edited by Philipp Meer and Mirjam Schmalz.
This article compares the attitudes of respondents from Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, ... more This article compares the attitudes of respondents from Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States toward speakers from these countries and from Grenada. Analyses of mean values on the attitude dimensions of status and solidarity reveal striking similarities between the rankings of the stimuli by the three respondent groups, especially regarding the British and American stimuli and a Creole-influenced Grenadian stimulus. Only the rankings by the Trinbagonian respondents differ slightly regarding the Caribbean stimuli. The results suggest that similar stereotypes might have influenced the evaluations of the British, American, and Creole-influenced Grenadian speakers across all respondent groups, while the rankings by the Trinbagonian respondents might reflect the social connotations of the fine-grained nuances of Caribbean (standardized) accents.
Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. Ho... more Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. However, there is little empirical research on prosodic aspects of English in the region. This paper provides a comparative phonetic analysis of several pitch parameters (pitch level, range, dynamism, rate of change, variability in rate of change, and tone rate) in English language data from Dominica, Grenada, and Trinidad that comprises read and spontaneous speech from 243 speakers. The results show that a wide pitch range and a high degree of variability in pitch, as mentioned in previous works, are not necessarily characteristic of English in the Caribbean overall, but that there are considerable crossterritorial prosodic differences, with English in Trinidad showing more variability than in Dominica and Grenada, particularly among female speakers. Socioprosodic variation, largely specific to Trinidad, was also identified.
This paper presents the results of two largely parallel verbal guise studies
that elicited studen... more This paper presents the results of two largely parallel verbal guise studies that elicited students’ attitudes toward different standard varieties of English. The studies were conducted in the small anglophone Caribbean island country of Grenada. The two studies were contextualized in the domains of education and newscasting, respectively, with the aim of finding out how language attitudes are influenced by context in societies where different endo- and exonormative standards are of relevance. As hypothesized, the results revealed strong differences between the evaluations of speakers of the two domains and confirm that contextualization is crucial in language attitude research. Against previous hypotheses, however, the acceptance of endonormative standard accents was stronger in the more globally open context of newscasting than in the more locally restricted domain of education. The results are discussed against the background of the sociolinguistic situation in Grenada and inform on endonormativity and norm orientation in one of the underresearched island countries of the anglophone Caribbean.
Glocalising teaching English as an international language, 2021
The extent to which TEIL can be implemented in English language classrooms is regulated to a grea... more The extent to which TEIL can be implemented in English language classrooms is regulated to a great extent by the curriculum of the country in question. This study provides a local perspective on the role of Global Englishes in the English language curricula in Germanywith a specific focus on non-British/non-American varieties of English. The results show that (1) varieties of English are generally represented in the Germany-wide standards for ELT and the curricula of (almost) all federal states, and that (2) most curricula, at least at upper secondary level, relate audio-/audio-visual comprehension and language awareness competencies to Englishes worldwide. However, notwithstanding a few exceptions, they also show that (3) varieties of English are almost exclusively approached on a very broad, abstract, and unspecific level that leaves considerable room for interpretation. It is argued that future, revised versions of current curricula would benefit from making requirements regarding varieties of English more specific, not only with regard to the quantity of references to different varieties, but also the ways in Global Englishes will be addressed.
Glocalising teaching English as an international language, 2021
Teacher education is an influential factor in the implementation of TEIL. The present chapter pro... more Teacher education is an influential factor in the implementation of TEIL. The present chapter provides first insights into the role of Global Englishes in the second phase of teacher education in Germany based on a qualitative study with teacher educators in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The results show that teacher educators generally attribute importance to Global Englishes in ELT. At the same time, they have several reservations and mixed views on non-American/non-British Englishes. In the second phase of teacher education, Global Englishes hardly play any role. Most teacher educators are influenced by inculcated standard language ideologies in favor of traditional TEFL and (idealized) standard norms. We therefore suggest that teacher educators in the second phase of teacher education in Germany should be made aware of Global Englishes and potential implications for ELT.
Glocalising teaching English as an international language, 2021
English Language Education (ELE) in Germany, with its traditional focus on standard British and A... more English Language Education (ELE) in Germany, with its traditional focus on standard British and American English and native-speaker norms more broadly, appears to be relatively unaffected by recent developments toward Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL). The present chapter introduces the volume and its individual contributions, all of which aim to address this gap. Eleven chapters, structured across three larger sections-(I) TEIL in language teacher education, (II) TEIL in the curricula, and (III) Innovative materials and activities for the TEIL classroomidentify the various barriers to innovation in favor of TEIL in Germany and suggest possible ways to overcome these. Terminological conventions used throughout the volume are also introduced.
This article sets out to give a brief overview of phonetic and phonological aspects of Caribbe... more This article sets out to give a brief overview of phonetic and phonological aspects of Caribbean varieties of English. Specifically, it provides a general description of similarities and differences between Caribbean varieties with regard to select vocalic, consonantal, and prosodic features.
In line with international developments in applied linguistics, school curricula in Germany have ... more In line with international developments in applied linguistics, school curricula in Germany have begun to demand that Global Englishes be included in English Language Teaching. However, the perspectives of German school students, the main addressees of such a shift, are little explored. This article investigates the attitudes to and familiarity with different Englishes among 160 German high school students, using a mix of direct and indirect attitude elicitation methods and a nationality identification task. Informants rated (speakers of) Standard Southern British (StSBrE), Standard American (StAmE), Indian (IndE), German (GerE), and African/Kenyan English (AfrE/KenE). Multivariate analyses revealed that informants are most familiar with StSBrE and StAmE. StSBrE and, to a smaller degree, StAmE are perceived as reference norms, while English as a Second Language (ESL) varieties, especially IndE are rated negatively for competence, professionalism, and intelligibility. Familiarity with specific English as a First/Native Language varieties is linked to more positive attitudes. The observed congruence of directly and indirectly elicited attitudes suggests that changes put forth in language curricula have not influenced language attitudes (yet).
While recent research on English language teaching (ELT) in Germany has called for a more compreh... more While recent research on English language teaching (ELT) in Germany has called for a more comprehensive representation of the diversity of English worldwide, learners' perceptions of Global Englishes are currently underresearched despite their importance for a successful implementation of this change in ELT. The present paper analyzes 166 German secondary school students' perceptions of Global Englishes, underlying cultural associations, and stereotypes. To this end, a perceptual dialect identification task, keyword association, and direct open questions were combined in a folklinguistic study. The results show that the informants consider British and American English as general standards and primarily associate English-speaking countries with Inner Circle varieties: British, American, and Australian English. British English is regarded as the default school reference norm, while American English is associated with dynamism and casualness. Furthermore, the students identify Indian and African English(es) as important Global Englishes. Their perceptions of these varieties are, however, less positive and seem to be influenced by cultural stereotypes, which might prompt them to perceive these varieties as funny or unintelligent. We suggest that learners' existing knowledge of Global Englishes and explicit metalinguistic discussions of variation can be used as starting points to counteract such stereotypes.
The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of va... more The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of variability in pitch may be considered a characteristic, endonormative feature of Trinidadian English (TrinE) at the level of speech production and contribute to what is popularly described as 'sing-song' prosody. Based on read and spontaneous data from 111 speakers, we analyze pitch level, range, and dynamism in TrinE in comparison to Southern Standard British (BrE) and Educated Indian English (IndE) and investigate sociophonetic variation in TrinE prosody with a view to these global F0 parameters. Our findings suggest that a large pitch range could potentially be considered an endonormative feature of TrinE that distinguishes it from other varieties (BrE and IndE), at least in spontaneous speech. More importantly, however, it is shown that a high degree of pitch variation in terms of range and dynamism is not as much characteristic of TrinE as a whole as it is of female Trinidadian speakers. An important finding of this study is that pitch variation patterns are not homogenous in TrinE, but systematically sociolinguistically conditioned across gender, age, and ethnic groups, and rural and urban speakers. The findings thus reveal that there is a considerable degree of systematic local differentiation in TrinE prosody. On a more general level, the findings may be taken to indicate that endonormative tendencies and sociolinguistic differentiation in TrinE prosody are interlinked.
The present study investigates rhotics in Standard Scottish English (SSE). Drawing on an auditory... more The present study investigates rhotics in Standard Scottish English (SSE). Drawing on an auditory analysis of formal speeches given in the Scottish Parliament by 49 speakers (members of parliament and the general public), it examines whether an underlying rhotic standard exists for SSE speakers from all over Scotland, whether and where rhotics are realized as trills/taps or approximants, and what factors influence variation in the realization and distribution of rhotics. The results show that SSE is variably rhotic with 54% of all non-linking coda /r/ realized, and that trills/taps are more frequent in intervocalic (onset and linking coda) position. The findings contradict the idea of SSE being generally rhotic but rather confirm previous reports of increasing occurrence of non-rhoticity, not just by specific speaker groups, but also in a formal context. They further show that variation in rhotics in SSE foremost tends to be affected by language-internal than language-external factors.
While different automated procedures for vowel formant prediction have recently been proposed, it... more While different automated procedures for vowel formant prediction have recently been proposed, it is unclear how reliably these methods perform in the phonetic study of vowels in New Englishes and how such approaches could be applied to specific varieties. This paper compares different automatic methods for vowel formant prediction in New Englishes, using manual measurements of Trinidadian English as a baseline. The results show that all methods perform significantly better than default formant parameters often used in speech analysis packages, and that a Bayesian formant tracker calibrated with American (US-FAVE) and Trinidadian English (TRINI-FAVE) generally provides better results than an automatic procedure that optimizes formant ceilings on a vowel-and speaker-specific level. TRINI-FAVE measures vowels characteristic of Trinidadian English most accurately. Phonetic studies of vowels in New Englishes can benefit from these methods.
Scottish English has characteristic phonological features including rhoticity, the /ʍ/-/w/ contra... more Scottish English has characteristic phonological features including rhoticity, the /ʍ/-/w/ contrast and the lack of the nurse merger. However, recent studies have found ongoing changes in Scottish English phonology such as the gradual loss of rhoticity, the merging of /ʍ/-/w/ and a partial merger of the nurse vowels. This paper investigates possible covariation between these features across speakers of Standardised Scottish English. The speech of 30 speakers taken from ICE-Scotland was analysed for their realisations of the nurse lexical set, <wh-> and rhotics. Underlying structural covariation among these variables was investigated using Principal Components Analysis. The results show covariation between the overall rate of the traditional /ʍ/ variant and rhoticity but not with the realisation of nurse. More generally, Standardised Scottish English appears to comprise a range of individual covariation patterns that combine more traditional and more modern pronunciation variants to varying degrees.
Most research on lexical stress in postcolonial varieties of English has focused on speech produc... more Most research on lexical stress in postcolonial varieties of English has focused on speech production. In the Caribbean island of Trinidad, production research indicates the existence of a lexical stress system in both standard Trinidadian English (TrinE) and Trinidadian English Creole (TEC). Inter-and intraspeaker variation in stress placement is argued to occur in disyllabic words with initial stress in TEC and final stress in TrinE. However, as in postcolonial Englishes more generally, little is known about how Trinidadian listeners perceive stress. Using a forced-choice identification task, the present study investigates the perception of lexical stress in disyllabic words by tertiary-educated speakers of TrinE (N = 46). Participants were presented with 21 truncated word pairs with segmentally identical first syllables but different lexical stress locations. One token had stress on the first, the other stress on the second syllable (e.g. syllable car-in CARton vs. carTOON). Participants were asked to judge which of the words in a pair was the source of the current fragment. Results are analyzed using separate logistic mixed-effects models for trochaic (first syllable stressed) and iambic (second syllable stressed) words.
This study investigates the prosodic aspects of rhythm and intonation in the production of Brazil... more This study investigates the prosodic aspects of rhythm and intonation in the production of Brazilian L2 English (BrazE) in comparison to American English (AmE), Indian English (IndE), and Brazilian Portuguese (BP). Previous research suggests that IndE is more syllable-timed in terms of the syllable/stress-timing continuum than L1 varieties of English, such as AmE. The present paper hypothesizes that BrazEdue to L1 cross-linguistic influence of BP, which has been suggested to be syllable-timedhas lower variability of duration-based rhythm and F0 measures compared to AmEjust like IndE. We analyze both duration-based rhythm and F0 measures in only-male read speech of BrazE, AmE, IndE, and BP (with five speakers per variety) using linear mixed-effects modeling. Results show significant differences between both BrazE-AmE and IndE-AmE in duration-based rhythm measures (%C, nPVI-V, ∆-S, YARDS , RR-S, z-scored syllable duration, speech, and articulation rates) and F0 measures (z-scored F0, F0 semi-amplitude interquartile, F0 skewness). Minor, primarily non-significant differences were observed between BrazE and IndE/BP. Overall, with a view to duration-based rhythm and F0 measures, the results confirm our hypothesis that BrazE leans toward the syllable-timed pole of the rhythm continuum, not unlike IndE and BP.
Rethinking Cultural Learning. Cosmopolitan Perspectives on Language Education, 2023
Cosmopolitan perspectives can enrich the field of 'Global Englishes Language Teaching' (GELT) by ... more Cosmopolitan perspectives can enrich the field of 'Global Englishes Language Teaching' (GELT) by offering new approaches to exploring and investigating the role of cultural learning in the context of language variation. To corroborate this claim, this contribution revisits two language attitudinal studies (Meer, Hartmann & Rumlich 2021, 2022), which found that learners of English in German secondary schools frequently hold negative attitudes towards certain varieties of English. The authors of the two studies discuss the potential role of cultural learning in English language classrooms in Germany in addressing and, ultimately, mitigating these negative attitudes. From a cosmopolitan perspective, this contribution argues that it is worthwhile taking a step back, revisiting current practices of cultural learning, and reflecting on their role in creating, upholding, and perpetuating stereotypical attitudes and perceptions in the first place. In this light, this contribution focuses on the current practice of target country teaching in conjunction with issues surrounding indexicality as well as language ownership to illustrate how cosmopolitan cultural learning may contribute alternative ways of thinking to the GELT paradigm.
Acquisition and Variation in World Englishes: Bridging Paradigms and Rethinking Approaches, 2024
US American English (AmE) influence has been identified as a potential force in variation and cha... more US American English (AmE) influence has been identified as a potential force in variation and change in postcolonial Englishes. Adolescents are typically not examined in this context despite their crucial role in language variation and change and possibly greater exposure to AmE via digital media. Drawing on sociophonetic data from 65 secondary students and 35 teachers, the present study investigates rhotacization of the NURSE vowel in Trinidadian English (TrinE), an incipient sound change that has previously been linked to younger speakers and AmE influence. The results show that NURSE-rhotacization is led by male and female speakers associated with prestige schoolsnot necessarily adolescents per se but younger Trinidadians. Additionally, speakers do not draw on rhotacization to approximate an AmE vowel target but integrate this feature into their speech. Bearing in mind related findings on speech perception, the findings suggest that AmE influence is unlikely to be the only reason for increasing levels of rhotacization. More generally, the findings highlight the importance of adolescents and younger adults in variation and change in Caribbean and other postcolonial Englishes.
The English-official Caribbean provides an insightful context for investigations of norm developm... more The English-official Caribbean provides an insightful context for investigations of norm developmental processes, world Englishes theorizing, and mapping Englishes in multivarietal communities. While there has been an upsurge of linguistic research on the region, especially on emerging standardized varieties, little systematic empirical research exists on smaller Caribbean islands, select domain-specific patterns of production and perception in larger territories, and regional issues of standardization. This special issue addresses current research gaps and provides a well-rounded picture of language production and perception research in the anglophone Caribbean. The issue consists of articles with a variety of different methodological approaches, including corpus-linguistic, sociolinguistic, acoustic phonetic, ethnographic, and language attitudinal investigations. It covers a wide range of smaller (Bequia, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Kitts) and larger territories (the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, and Trinidad). While the articles scrutinize the anglophone Caribbean, several of the issues raised have relevance for world Englishes research more generally.
Englishes of the Caribbean: A research bibliography, 2022
The research bibliography presented in this paper lists some of the major research outputs on Eng... more The research bibliography presented in this paper lists some of the major research outputs on Englishes in the Caribbean. While selected foundational studies are listed, the focus lies on works published since the year 2000. Considering the linguistic diversity of the anglophone Caribbean, the publications listed include works on English-based Creoles, Englishes, mesolectal language use and mixed codes, as well as English-related contact varieties. A particular focus is on works investigating standardized (or standardizing) varieties of English spoken in the region. Efforts were made to represent both larger and smaller territories and islands. Potential limitations notwithstanding, we hope that this bibliography will prove useful to researchers and students interested in Caribbean varieties of English. It covers a large variety of topics and research areas, ranging from corpus linguistics, sociolinguistics, educational linguistics, applied linguistics, as well as language attitude and perception research to creole studies, contact linguistics, pragmatics, and (socio)phonetics. Due to copyright reasons, we are unable to share a full manuscript here. Please feel free to send Philipp Meer or Mirjam Schmalz a message and either of us can send you a copy of the manuscript. You can also find a downloadable version of this chapter (Accepted Manuscript) under https://uni-muenster.sciebo.de/s/IcBB2Mq70K0ixrZ This chapter is published as a contribution to the special issue on "Englishes of the Caribbean" in World Englishes guest edited by Philipp Meer and Mirjam Schmalz.
This article compares the attitudes of respondents from Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, ... more This article compares the attitudes of respondents from Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States toward speakers from these countries and from Grenada. Analyses of mean values on the attitude dimensions of status and solidarity reveal striking similarities between the rankings of the stimuli by the three respondent groups, especially regarding the British and American stimuli and a Creole-influenced Grenadian stimulus. Only the rankings by the Trinbagonian respondents differ slightly regarding the Caribbean stimuli. The results suggest that similar stereotypes might have influenced the evaluations of the British, American, and Creole-influenced Grenadian speakers across all respondent groups, while the rankings by the Trinbagonian respondents might reflect the social connotations of the fine-grained nuances of Caribbean (standardized) accents.
Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. Ho... more Varieties of English in the Caribbean have been claimed to have characteristic pitch patterns. However, there is little empirical research on prosodic aspects of English in the region. This paper provides a comparative phonetic analysis of several pitch parameters (pitch level, range, dynamism, rate of change, variability in rate of change, and tone rate) in English language data from Dominica, Grenada, and Trinidad that comprises read and spontaneous speech from 243 speakers. The results show that a wide pitch range and a high degree of variability in pitch, as mentioned in previous works, are not necessarily characteristic of English in the Caribbean overall, but that there are considerable crossterritorial prosodic differences, with English in Trinidad showing more variability than in Dominica and Grenada, particularly among female speakers. Socioprosodic variation, largely specific to Trinidad, was also identified.
This paper presents the results of two largely parallel verbal guise studies
that elicited studen... more This paper presents the results of two largely parallel verbal guise studies that elicited students’ attitudes toward different standard varieties of English. The studies were conducted in the small anglophone Caribbean island country of Grenada. The two studies were contextualized in the domains of education and newscasting, respectively, with the aim of finding out how language attitudes are influenced by context in societies where different endo- and exonormative standards are of relevance. As hypothesized, the results revealed strong differences between the evaluations of speakers of the two domains and confirm that contextualization is crucial in language attitude research. Against previous hypotheses, however, the acceptance of endonormative standard accents was stronger in the more globally open context of newscasting than in the more locally restricted domain of education. The results are discussed against the background of the sociolinguistic situation in Grenada and inform on endonormativity and norm orientation in one of the underresearched island countries of the anglophone Caribbean.
Glocalising teaching English as an international language, 2021
The extent to which TEIL can be implemented in English language classrooms is regulated to a grea... more The extent to which TEIL can be implemented in English language classrooms is regulated to a great extent by the curriculum of the country in question. This study provides a local perspective on the role of Global Englishes in the English language curricula in Germanywith a specific focus on non-British/non-American varieties of English. The results show that (1) varieties of English are generally represented in the Germany-wide standards for ELT and the curricula of (almost) all federal states, and that (2) most curricula, at least at upper secondary level, relate audio-/audio-visual comprehension and language awareness competencies to Englishes worldwide. However, notwithstanding a few exceptions, they also show that (3) varieties of English are almost exclusively approached on a very broad, abstract, and unspecific level that leaves considerable room for interpretation. It is argued that future, revised versions of current curricula would benefit from making requirements regarding varieties of English more specific, not only with regard to the quantity of references to different varieties, but also the ways in Global Englishes will be addressed.
Glocalising teaching English as an international language, 2021
Teacher education is an influential factor in the implementation of TEIL. The present chapter pro... more Teacher education is an influential factor in the implementation of TEIL. The present chapter provides first insights into the role of Global Englishes in the second phase of teacher education in Germany based on a qualitative study with teacher educators in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The results show that teacher educators generally attribute importance to Global Englishes in ELT. At the same time, they have several reservations and mixed views on non-American/non-British Englishes. In the second phase of teacher education, Global Englishes hardly play any role. Most teacher educators are influenced by inculcated standard language ideologies in favor of traditional TEFL and (idealized) standard norms. We therefore suggest that teacher educators in the second phase of teacher education in Germany should be made aware of Global Englishes and potential implications for ELT.
Glocalising teaching English as an international language, 2021
English Language Education (ELE) in Germany, with its traditional focus on standard British and A... more English Language Education (ELE) in Germany, with its traditional focus on standard British and American English and native-speaker norms more broadly, appears to be relatively unaffected by recent developments toward Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL). The present chapter introduces the volume and its individual contributions, all of which aim to address this gap. Eleven chapters, structured across three larger sections-(I) TEIL in language teacher education, (II) TEIL in the curricula, and (III) Innovative materials and activities for the TEIL classroomidentify the various barriers to innovation in favor of TEIL in Germany and suggest possible ways to overcome these. Terminological conventions used throughout the volume are also introduced.
This article sets out to give a brief overview of phonetic and phonological aspects of Caribbe... more This article sets out to give a brief overview of phonetic and phonological aspects of Caribbean varieties of English. Specifically, it provides a general description of similarities and differences between Caribbean varieties with regard to select vocalic, consonantal, and prosodic features.
In line with international developments in applied linguistics, school curricula in Germany have ... more In line with international developments in applied linguistics, school curricula in Germany have begun to demand that Global Englishes be included in English Language Teaching. However, the perspectives of German school students, the main addressees of such a shift, are little explored. This article investigates the attitudes to and familiarity with different Englishes among 160 German high school students, using a mix of direct and indirect attitude elicitation methods and a nationality identification task. Informants rated (speakers of) Standard Southern British (StSBrE), Standard American (StAmE), Indian (IndE), German (GerE), and African/Kenyan English (AfrE/KenE). Multivariate analyses revealed that informants are most familiar with StSBrE and StAmE. StSBrE and, to a smaller degree, StAmE are perceived as reference norms, while English as a Second Language (ESL) varieties, especially IndE are rated negatively for competence, professionalism, and intelligibility. Familiarity with specific English as a First/Native Language varieties is linked to more positive attitudes. The observed congruence of directly and indirectly elicited attitudes suggests that changes put forth in language curricula have not influenced language attitudes (yet).
While recent research on English language teaching (ELT) in Germany has called for a more compreh... more While recent research on English language teaching (ELT) in Germany has called for a more comprehensive representation of the diversity of English worldwide, learners' perceptions of Global Englishes are currently underresearched despite their importance for a successful implementation of this change in ELT. The present paper analyzes 166 German secondary school students' perceptions of Global Englishes, underlying cultural associations, and stereotypes. To this end, a perceptual dialect identification task, keyword association, and direct open questions were combined in a folklinguistic study. The results show that the informants consider British and American English as general standards and primarily associate English-speaking countries with Inner Circle varieties: British, American, and Australian English. British English is regarded as the default school reference norm, while American English is associated with dynamism and casualness. Furthermore, the students identify Indian and African English(es) as important Global Englishes. Their perceptions of these varieties are, however, less positive and seem to be influenced by cultural stereotypes, which might prompt them to perceive these varieties as funny or unintelligent. We suggest that learners' existing knowledge of Global Englishes and explicit metalinguistic discussions of variation can be used as starting points to counteract such stereotypes.
The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of va... more The current study provides a phonetic perspective on the questions of whether a high degree of variability in pitch may be considered a characteristic, endonormative feature of Trinidadian English (TrinE) at the level of speech production and contribute to what is popularly described as 'sing-song' prosody. Based on read and spontaneous data from 111 speakers, we analyze pitch level, range, and dynamism in TrinE in comparison to Southern Standard British (BrE) and Educated Indian English (IndE) and investigate sociophonetic variation in TrinE prosody with a view to these global F0 parameters. Our findings suggest that a large pitch range could potentially be considered an endonormative feature of TrinE that distinguishes it from other varieties (BrE and IndE), at least in spontaneous speech. More importantly, however, it is shown that a high degree of pitch variation in terms of range and dynamism is not as much characteristic of TrinE as a whole as it is of female Trinidadian speakers. An important finding of this study is that pitch variation patterns are not homogenous in TrinE, but systematically sociolinguistically conditioned across gender, age, and ethnic groups, and rural and urban speakers. The findings thus reveal that there is a considerable degree of systematic local differentiation in TrinE prosody. On a more general level, the findings may be taken to indicate that endonormative tendencies and sociolinguistic differentiation in TrinE prosody are interlinked.
The present study investigates rhotics in Standard Scottish English (SSE). Drawing on an auditory... more The present study investigates rhotics in Standard Scottish English (SSE). Drawing on an auditory analysis of formal speeches given in the Scottish Parliament by 49 speakers (members of parliament and the general public), it examines whether an underlying rhotic standard exists for SSE speakers from all over Scotland, whether and where rhotics are realized as trills/taps or approximants, and what factors influence variation in the realization and distribution of rhotics. The results show that SSE is variably rhotic with 54% of all non-linking coda /r/ realized, and that trills/taps are more frequent in intervocalic (onset and linking coda) position. The findings contradict the idea of SSE being generally rhotic but rather confirm previous reports of increasing occurrence of non-rhoticity, not just by specific speaker groups, but also in a formal context. They further show that variation in rhotics in SSE foremost tends to be affected by language-internal than language-external factors.
While different automated procedures for vowel formant prediction have recently been proposed, it... more While different automated procedures for vowel formant prediction have recently been proposed, it is unclear how reliably these methods perform in the phonetic study of vowels in New Englishes and how such approaches could be applied to specific varieties. This paper compares different automatic methods for vowel formant prediction in New Englishes, using manual measurements of Trinidadian English as a baseline. The results show that all methods perform significantly better than default formant parameters often used in speech analysis packages, and that a Bayesian formant tracker calibrated with American (US-FAVE) and Trinidadian English (TRINI-FAVE) generally provides better results than an automatic procedure that optimizes formant ceilings on a vowel-and speaker-specific level. TRINI-FAVE measures vowels characteristic of Trinidadian English most accurately. Phonetic studies of vowels in New Englishes can benefit from these methods.
Book description: The worldwide spread, diversification, and globalization of the English languag... more Book description: The worldwide spread, diversification, and globalization of the English language in the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries has significant implications for English Language Teaching and teacher education. We are currently witnessing a paradigm shift towards Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL) that aims to promote multilingualism and awareness of the diversity of Englishes, increase exposure to this diversity, embrace multiculturalism, and foster cross-cultural awareness. Numerous initiatives that embrace TEIL can be observed around the world, but ELT and teacher education in Germany (and other European countries) appear to be largely unaffected by this development, with standard British and American English and the monolingual native speaker (including the corresponding cultural norms) still being very much at the center of attention. The present volume addresses this gap and is the first of its kind to showcase recent initiatives that aim at introducing TEIL into ELT and teacher education in Germany, but which have applicability and impact for other countries with comparable education systems and 'traditional' ELT practices in the Expanding Circle. The chapters in this book provide a balanced mix of conceptual, empirical, and practical studies and offer the perspectives of the many stakeholders involved in various settings of English language education whose voices have not often been heard, i.e., students, university lecturers, trainee teachers, teacher educators, and in-service teachers. It therefore adds significantly to the limited amount of previous work on TEIL in Germany and bridges the gap between theory and practice that will not only be relevant for researchers, educators, and practitioners in English language education in Germany but other educational settings that are still unaffected by the shift towards TEIL.
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Papers by Philipp Meer
learners of English in German secondary schools frequently hold negative attitudes towards certain varieties of English. The authors of the two studies discuss the potential role of cultural learning in English language classrooms in Germany in addressing and, ultimately, mitigating these negative attitudes. From a cosmopolitan perspective, this contribution argues that it is worthwhile taking a step back, revisiting current practices of cultural learning, and reflecting on their role in creating, upholding, and perpetuating stereotypical attitudes and perceptions in the first place. In this light, this contribution focuses on the current practice of target country teaching in conjunction with issues surrounding indexicality as well as language ownership to illustrate how cosmopolitan cultural learning may contribute alternative ways of thinking to the GELT paradigm.
that elicited students’ attitudes toward different standard varieties of
English. The studies were conducted in the small anglophone Caribbean
island country of Grenada. The two studies were contextualized in the
domains of education and newscasting, respectively, with the aim of finding
out how language attitudes are influenced by context in societies where
different endo- and exonormative standards are of relevance. As
hypothesized, the results revealed strong differences between the
evaluations of speakers of the two domains and confirm that
contextualization is crucial in language attitude research. Against previous
hypotheses, however, the acceptance of endonormative standard accents
was stronger in the more globally open context of newscasting than in the
more locally restricted domain of education. The results are discussed
against the background of the sociolinguistic situation in Grenada and
inform on endonormativity and norm orientation in one of the
underresearched island countries of the anglophone Caribbean.
learners of English in German secondary schools frequently hold negative attitudes towards certain varieties of English. The authors of the two studies discuss the potential role of cultural learning in English language classrooms in Germany in addressing and, ultimately, mitigating these negative attitudes. From a cosmopolitan perspective, this contribution argues that it is worthwhile taking a step back, revisiting current practices of cultural learning, and reflecting on their role in creating, upholding, and perpetuating stereotypical attitudes and perceptions in the first place. In this light, this contribution focuses on the current practice of target country teaching in conjunction with issues surrounding indexicality as well as language ownership to illustrate how cosmopolitan cultural learning may contribute alternative ways of thinking to the GELT paradigm.
that elicited students’ attitudes toward different standard varieties of
English. The studies were conducted in the small anglophone Caribbean
island country of Grenada. The two studies were contextualized in the
domains of education and newscasting, respectively, with the aim of finding
out how language attitudes are influenced by context in societies where
different endo- and exonormative standards are of relevance. As
hypothesized, the results revealed strong differences between the
evaluations of speakers of the two domains and confirm that
contextualization is crucial in language attitude research. Against previous
hypotheses, however, the acceptance of endonormative standard accents
was stronger in the more globally open context of newscasting than in the
more locally restricted domain of education. The results are discussed
against the background of the sociolinguistic situation in Grenada and
inform on endonormativity and norm orientation in one of the
underresearched island countries of the anglophone Caribbean.