Asian Englishes

Previous research suggests that intonation is a particularly challenging aspect of L2 speech learning. While most research focuses on speech production, we widen the focus and study the perception of intonation by L2 learners. We investigate whether advanced German learners of English have knowledge of the appropriate English intonation patterns in a narrative context with different sentence types (e.g. statements, questions). The results of a tonal pattern selection task indicate that learners (n=20) performed similar to British English controls (n=25) for some sentence types (e.g. statements, yes/no-questions), but performed significantly worse than the control group in the case of open and closed tag questions and the expression of sarcasm. The results can be explained by the fact that tag questions are the only sentence type investigated that does not exist in the learners' L1, and sarcasm is not represented syntactically. This suggests that L1 influence can partly account for why some intonation patterns are more challenging than others, and that contextualized knowledge of the intonation patterns of the target language rather than knowledge of intonation patterns in isolation is crucial for the successful L2 learning of intonation.

Previous research indicates that evaluations of speech forms reflect stereotypes of, and attitudes towards, the perceived group(s) of speakers of the language/variety under consideration. This study, employing both implicit and explicit attitude measures, investigates 158 Japanese university students' perceptions of forms of UK, US, Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Indian English speech. The results show a general convergence between students' explicit and implicit attitudes, for instance, regarding US and UK English as the most correct, and solidarity with Japanese speakers of English. The findings are discussed in relation to intergroup relations between the traditional Japanese cohort and specific groups of overseas students, particularly in light of recent internationalisation policies adopted by many Japanese universities, and the resultant increase in international students from South and East Asia.

Keywords: sociolinguistics, language attitudes, language ideology, native vs. non-native speakers, linguistic discrimination

Non-standard features such as copula deletion have long been dismissed as learner errors or were interpreted as results of simplification processes in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and only recent publications tend to acknowledge the influence of language contact in ELF settings (cf. Schneider 2012). The present paper analyses tokens of copula deletion in the Asian Corpus of English (ACE 2014) with respect to speaker L1s, situational context and syntactic environment, with our results suggesting a correlation between copula usage patterns in the speakers’ L1s and constructions involving copula deletion found in ACE. Thus, opening up the field to ELF settings, our data confirm findings of previous studies such as Sharma (2009) that point to contact-induced copula usage in non-standard English(es).

Kobayashi, Y. & Abe, M. (2016). A corpus-based approach to the register awareness of Asian learners of English. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 20(2), 1-17. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the impact of learners' L1s and proficiency levels on their written production. This study also examined the influence of speech upon their writing. The following research questions were explored: (a) How do L1 and proficiency levels of learners affect their degrees of register awareness? (b) Which linguistic features distinguishing writing and speech registers are characteristic of each Asian learner group? This study draws on four sub-corpora of the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE), which is considered to be the largest East Asian composition database. Using the methodology originally developed by Biber (1988) to analyze the differences in the spoken and written registers of English, this study investigated the differences in a wide range of linguistic features among Asian learners of English. The results suggest that the L1s of learners affect the degree of their register awareness. Hong Kong learners display a set of stylistically appropriate features, such as nominalizations, predictive modals, and conjuncts, in their academic prose whereas Japanese learners exhibit many of informal features, such as first person pronouns, private verbs, and independent clause coordination, in their written production. Besides, Korean and Taiwanese learners show several features typical of speech, including second person pronouns, in their writing. In addition, this study demonstrates the effectiveness of Biber's list of linguistic features in the study of spoken nature in L2 writing.

This article seeks to expand the current discussions on the notion
of ‘translingual Englishes’ by incorporating the idea of ‘unequal
Englishes’ as a way of understanding the role of English in relation
to understudied Asian peripheral contexts such as Mongolia and
Bangladesh. It is clear that young speakers in these Asian countries
are creatively involved with ‘translingual Englishes’, in which various
English and other linguistic and cultural resources are in constant
interplay. Yet there are also particular local constraints that either
limit or expand their usage of English. Translingual Englishes may be
creative and playful but they are also associated with differences in
one’s unequal social class, wealth and power.