Local attitudes towards varieties of English

By Bushra Ahmed-Khurram
THERE is no hiding the fact that today in the world there are more nonnative speakers of English than there are native speakers. To give an estimate of users of English in the world today, David Crystal in his book English as a Global Language has written: “Three hundred and thirty-seven million to 450 million have English as their first language. Two hundred and thirty-five million to 350 million have English as a second language. A hundred million to 1,000 million have learned English as a foreign language.” The outcome of this situation is that English has become the property of its users native and non-native. That is to say neither England nor the United States “owns” the English language. This is exactly what David Crystal points out in his book when he says: “In a world where the largest English-speaking nation, the United States, has only about 20 per cent of the world’s speakers of English, no one, it seems, can ‘claim sole ownership’ of language.” The effects of this trend towards English have yet to be assessed, but they point towards the developing diversity of English. In fact, the evidence of this diversity can be seen in the varying dialects of British English, American English, Irish English, Scots English, Welsh English, Canadian English, Australian English, South African English, Caribbean English, Indian English, Bangladeshi English, Nepali English, Pakistani English and Sri Lankan English.
These new “Englishes” actually highlight international varieties of English and affirm the nations’ right to their own patterns and varieties of the language — the dialect of their nature or whatever dialects in which they find their own identity and style.
This is why in many cases, people who take on English for themselves and their children as a language in which they are going to get on, remain bilingual or trilingual. And also they blend English with their local usages. Singapore is a very good example of this, where one sees kinds of Chinese and Malay mixing in a kind of English, sometimes cheekily known as “Singlish”. Hybrids like “Singlish”, Deutschilsh, Italgish which are found all over the world seem to be carving out large territories for themselves within the English language front.
However, in Pakistan there is not much awareness among the members of society about the fact that English has forged its own linguistic and cultural identity in Pakistan and thus exists as a separate variety of English called Pakistani English as shown by a study that was undertaken to explore the attitudes of Pakistani learners toward English and its varieties.
The participants in the study presented here were students (13 male and 17 female) of a chartered accountancy institute in Karachi. All participants included in the study completed a questionnaire that assessed students’ attitude towards Pakistani English. Findings and discussion The findings of the study show that the participants, Pakistani speakers of English, accepted that Pakistani English exists but were determined to learn Standard English since it appears that they, overall, regarded Pakistani English as “wrong” English.
Item no 2 in the questionnaire that addressed students’ attitudes toward “international comprehensibility” showed that 26 out of 30 students were of the opinion that they need to use Standard English to be comprehensible internationally. The endorsement of this item by students can be the result of lack of exposure of these students to foreigners. That is to say, it is possible that these students have never come in contact with foreigners and have therefore taken a safe side by preferring Standard English since they had no idea how effective Pakistani English would be in the international arena.
Items 1, 3, 5, 6 and 7 investigated students’ attitude towards standards of spoken and written English in Pakistan. Responses to item no 1 shows that 25 out of 30 students thought that Pakistanis need to modify the English language to make it suitable for use in Pakistan.
This opinion is also reflected in the students’ response to item no 3. The responses to item no 3 shows that 16 students advocated incorporating words from our culture(s) in English. However, it is noteworthy that 12 students were of the opinion that words from our culture(s) should not be included in English, highlighting the fact that these students preferred Standard English over Pakistani English.
In contradiction to what most of the students have said in response to items 1 and 3, the responses on the questionnaire, shows that the majority of students were of the opinion that the standards of English used in the newspaper, radio and television should be improved. To be exact, in response to item no 6, 22 out of 30 students thought that the standard of English used in Pakistani newspapers should be improved. Similarly, 21 students in response to item no 7 said that the standard of English used on radio and television in Pakistan should be improved.
This apparent contradiction in student’s responses can be explained through two possible explanations. First, even when these students preferred incorporating words from local culture to communicate with other Pakistanis for integrative reasons, they prefer exposure to Standard English probably for instrumental reasons. This explanation is also attested from the fact that 22 students out of 30 said that newsreaders and reporters who speak Standard English are good examples to others of how English should be spoken.
It must be noted that the newsreaders and reporters use English for instrumental reasons. Second, it is possible that students wish to learn Standard English for reasons of international comprehensibility and thus prefer Standard English over Pakistani English. Needless to say, they seemed to prefer exposure to Standard English through newspaper, radio and television.
Since in Pakistani society there are visible rewards for proficiency in English, a large majority of these students (24 out of 30) expressed the opinion that Standard English should be taught from grade one in primary school as shown by responses to item no 8 of the questionnaire. Responses to items no 9 and 10 makes it further clear that these students give a lot of importance to learning Standard English as a majority of them thought that those (including themselves) who do not speak and write Standard English should attend classes to learn it.
Furthermore, 21 students were also of the opinion that they would pay for extra tuition classes to make their children learn Standard English, even if they are proficient in Pakistani English. These results are consistent with the responses to the previous items and shows that when these students talk about learning English they basically talk about learning Standard English.
Items 12 and 13 asked the respondents whether they think their status in the eyes of others will be affected if they do not use Standard English. The responses to these items showed that these students preferred to learn and use Standard English as they (21 of them) thought that they would be regarded as uneducated by others if they will speak Pakistani English.
Similarly, 22 of the respondents thought that the other speakers of English would not respect them if they will speak Pakistani English. The responses to these items highlighted the fact that the issue of standard is very much related to the issues of prestige, status, recognition and respect. It appeared that these students prefer to learn and use Standard English since they feel others will respect them less if they would use Pakistani English. Conclusions The attitudes expressed by respondents generally indicate that most of them were of the opinion that using Standard English is important for international comprehensibility. In addition, they had conflicting attitudes about Pakistani English. While they were positive about incorporating words from local culture in English, they wished to emulate Standard English. They also preferred reading and listening to Standard English through media.
There is strong evidence that most respondents were positive about the suggestion that Standard English should be taught at the very beginning of formal education. Considering these findings, we may conclude that although Pakistani speakers of English feel the need of incorporating words from local culture in English, they are not very comfortable about using Pakistani English among themselves and with foreigners because most of them see Pakistani English as “mistakes” that have to be eradicated as shown by responses to item 4.
Furthermore, the prestige value of Standard English appears to outweigh the communicative value of Pakistani English here. Implications for teaching and further research This study has a few implications. It suggests that the Pakistani education system is probably preoccupied with eradicating mistakes in their students’ English, making them feel that they need to emulate Standard English to gain respect and prestige in society. Therefore, what is needed is to make learners feel confident in the use of Pakistani English which is only possible when the teachers and society will show respect towards Pakistani variety of English.
It is possible for Pakistani English to gain respect in the eyes of its users if educators as well as learners are made aware of the fact that though Americans, Canadians, Australians and the British all speak English, it is not the same English. People in Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, Nigeria, Vanuata and Rwanda also speak English, but again, not the same English. In addition, people even within Britain speak different varieties of English, including Welsh English, Scottish English, Irish English, Hiberto English and English English.
The realisation that the aim of learning a language is to become able to function in society can also help earn respect for Pakistani English.
The results of this study highlight the need to conduct further large-scale studies on the attitudes of teachers, learners and Pakistani towards Pakistani English.
Furthermore, it seems important that linguistics should undertake systematic study of the features of Pakistani English. Such a study would help us define Pakistani English and consequently make Pakistanis more confident about their use of Pakistani English. ¦ The writer teaches Applied Linguistics at the Department of English, University of Karachi.