Jack C. Richards on New Englishes

In this video cast, Professor Jack C. Richards discusses new Englishes.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

JACK C. RICHARDS: Hello.

Today, I'm going to
talk about English,

but more particularly,
Englishes.

I'm a New Zealander, so I
speak a variety of English

that's probably different
from the variety you

get in your textbooks,
which are probably British

English or American English.

Those, if you like,
are the old Englishes,

but there are many
new English words that

are used all over the world.

I'm thinking of Jamaican
English, Nigerian English,

Indian English, Pakistani
English, Singapore English,

and so on.

There are in fact,
more people who

speak these new
Englishes, if you like,

than there are who speak
the old Englishes--

American English, British
English, and so on.

So the greater proportion of
the world's uses of English

are people living in
countries like the ones

that I just mentioned, where
English has become part

of the local linguistic scene.

Now, how did it get that way?

How did it get there?

Well, these countries
were typically

under colonial administration,
and they were also

multilingual countries.

And so when the colonial
administrators left,

they left in place an
educational system that

functioned through English.

And English served as a useful
link language between people

with different
language backgrounds.

And so it became, if you like,
a kind of neutral language

that enabled people with several
different language backgrounds

to communicate with one another.

And so it took root
and has remained,

in many parts of the world, as
the language of administration,

of education, of the media--

alongside important
local languages as well.

And in the process, of course,
it's become localized--

or the term that's sometimes
used is indigenized.

In other words, it's taken
on local characteristics,

local flavor, a local accent.

It may be influenced by
some of the vocabulary, some

of the grammar, some
of the pronunciation

features of the languages that
are spoken in the countries

where it's used.

And that's what we
mean by new Englishes.

And so your students
will probably

have a good opportunity
to hear people using

these languages-- using
these varieties of English,

I should say.

They will have a chance
to listen, at least,

or to try to
understand people using

many different
kinds of English--

not simply British
or American English

or traditional forms of
English that we have tended

to produce in our textbooks.

You'll find many examples
of these kinds of English

on the internet.

If you just Google a country--

like Singapore, for example--

Google Singapore
English and you'll

be interested to find out
how many examples come up

from sitcoms, from television,
and so on of people using

these new varieties of English.

So English is very
much alive and well

in different parts of the world
and taking different forms

based on the context
at which it's used

and creating a great diversity
and variety of kinds of English

that your students
may find they need

to be able to listen to and
understand in today's world.