Postgraduate Course: Global Englishes (MSc) (LASC11079)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | In this course we examine the linguistic products of contact between English and other languages, in contexts of colonisation and/or globalisation. These different "Englishes" can include English creoles, substrate-influenced or "L2" Englishes, or dense code-mixing with English. Sometimes these Englishes co-occur, and in addition there are L1 varieties of English which are retained in educational and or formal settings. We explore the structure of these Englishes; the circumstances that have led to their formation, ideologies of the new varieties and attitudes towards them. |
| Course description |
Students will explore a range of contexts which represent different patterns of contact with English and different outcomes. Typical case studies include Singapore, India, Nigeria, South Korea and China. In each of these situations, there is a code which has become associated with a pan-ethnic or national identity. This may be a creole such as Nigerian Pidgin English, a substrate influenced English such as Colloquial Singapore English or "Singlish", or dense code-mixing such as Hindi-English code-mixing ("Hinglish") in India. In contexts without a long colonial period of contact this emergent code is restricted to certain media e.g. K-pop, or "translanguaging" in Chinese social media. Use of these codes can be mapped onto salient local distinctions in class, education, and global outlook. Students will initially produce a focused literature review on their chosen context, and then for their final project they will analyse the use of English together with other languages in a chosen medium, usually film, music or social media.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Describe, in structural terms, the outcomes of language contact resulting from colonisation and globalisation, and differentiate between them
- Differentiate between popular descriptions of language contact phenomena e.g. code-mixing, and linguistic descriptions of language contact phenomena
- Show familiarity with the literature on English creoles, World Englishes and English-based code-mixing.
- Identify the ways in which a new mixed or substrate influenced code can express a pan-ethnic or national identity, and the ways in which it can be associated with more local differences in social categories such as class.
- Critically analyse media data which demonstrates substrate-influenced English, code-mixing or translanguaging with English, showing an understanding of the functions of this code in the relevant genre.
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Reading List
Rubdy, R. (2001). Creative destruction: Singapore¿s speak good English movement. World Englishes, 20(3), 341-355.
Henry, E. S. (2010). Interpretations of "Chinglish": Native speakers, language learners and the enregisterment of a stigmatized code. Language in Society, 669-688.
Park, J. S. Y. (2010). Naturalization of competence and the neoliberal subject: Success stories of English language learning in the Korean conservative press. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 20(1), 22-38.
Omoniyi, T. (2006). Hip¿hop through the world Englishes lens: a response to globalization. World Englishes, 25(2), 195-208.
Wee, L. (2018). The Singlish controversy: Language, culture and identity in a globalizing world. Chapter 5: The commodification of Singlish. Cambridge University Press.
Key reading: D¿souza, J. (1992). 'The relationship between code- mixing and the new varieties of English: issues and implications'. World Englishes 11/2¿3: 217¿23.
Gao, S. (2022). The online activism of mock translanguaging: Language style, celebrity persona, and social class in China. Discourse, Context & Media, 47, 100608.
Jin, D. Y., & Ryoo, W. (2014). Critical interpretation of hybrid K-pop: The global-local paradigm of English mixing in lyrics. Popular Music and Society, 37(2), 113-131.
Lee, J. S. (2004). Linguistic hybridization in K¿Pop: discourse of self¿assertion and resistance. World Englishes, 23(3), 429-450.
Mair, C. (2013). The World System of Englishes: Accounting for the transnational importance of mobile and mediated vernaculars. English World-Wide, 34(3), 253-278. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students who take this course typically have personal experience of one of the contexts studied. They will have an opportunity to reflect on that experience, but also an opportunity to compare it to other global settings in a structured way. Their curiosity about other contexts is thus activated, and their international perspective is broadened. In seminars they will use skilled communication to enhance their understanding of a topic or context and to engage effectively with others.
Students who take this course are typically motivated to support or challenge attitudes to varieties of English in their communities. They will use their personal and intellectual autonomy to critically evaluate ideas, evidence and experiences. This gives them a further means of engaging with those communities, and making a positive difference to those communities.
They are likely to be familiar with the media they must report on for their final project, but they will learn new skills for the analysis and for the communication of their findings.
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| Additional Class Delivery Information |
Attend all lectures as scheduled |
| Keywords | world Englishes,multilingualism,pidgins,creoles,contact linguistics |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Claire Cowie
Tel: (0131 6)50 8392
Email: claire.cowie@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Sasha Wood
Tel:
Email: swood310@ed.ac.uk |
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