Donna Starks

The many faces of English: intra‐language variation and its implications for international business

Business people in the English‐speaking world tend to underrate the significance of language skills in general, and in particular, the importance of variation within the English language. This article considers the various types of English that are spoken throughtout the world and the implications for business transactions. Attention is paid to the problems that arise owing to the use of one type of English as opposed to another owing to the various forms of distortion and misunderstanding that arise. Attitudes towards different varieties of English are also considered in terms of a possible negative impact on negotiation of business dealings in general. The impact of ways of learning English is outlined and some suggestions made as to how to overcome the problems that arise through intra‐language variation in business.

Individual Variation in the Acquisition of Postvocalic /r/: Day Care and Sibling Order as Potential Variables

�It is a well-known fact that children learn the variety of English spoken in the community into which they are born, and that this variety is often different from that of their parents. The prevailing explanation has focused on peer influences. Fischer’s (1958) exploratory work on a “model New England [10-year-old] boy,” Roberts and Labov’s (1995) and Roberts’s (1997) quantitative research on the vowels of Philadelphian children, Cheshire’s (1978) work with 9–17-year-olds in Edinburgh, and Wolfram’s (1989) study of African American children from 18 months of age have shown probable peer influences on the speech of younger speakers. Others, such as Thomas (1996) and Eckert (1997), have noted that newer changes are more susceptible to peer influences than more established ones. Studies of younger children in second-dialect acquisition point to a similar conclusion. These studies concentrate on a social environment where the parents’ dialect differs from that of the children’s peers. Trudgill (1986), in his examination of the speech of 7-year-old twins who moved from Britain to Australia, found that although the patterns of acquisition differed, both twins acquired Australian vowels within six months of their arrival. Chambers’s (1992) study of six Canadian children who immigrated to Britain builds on this point. His study shows that younger children are more likely to acquire second-dialect features than their older siblings. Some researchers have claimed that parental influences diminish when children enter school (Chambers 1995, 159; Eckert 1997, 162). For example, in a study of the newly formed community of Milton Keynes in Britain, Kerswill (1994, 1996) notes that many of the parental influences in the 4-year-olds are absent in the speech of the 8-year-olds. The research on parental influences on young children is only recently starting to emerge (Eckert 1997). Three studies are of particular interest: Kerswill’s (1994, 1996) work on children in Milton Keynes, Payne’s (1980) research contrasting new immigrants with older established residents in Philadelphia,

The role of emotions in L1 attrition: The case of Korean-English late bilinguals in New Zealand

This article explores the role of emotions in L1 attrition and L2 acquisition in a group of 30 Korean-English L1-dominant late bilinguals in New Zealand. The relationship between L1/L2 proficiency measures and emotion-related language choice (ERLC) is investigated using three measurement tools: a story-retelling task, a questionnaire, and a follow-up interview. The findings point to a shift from L1 to L2 and show this to be related to an increase in L2 fluency and a decrease in L1 accuracy. The findings also show an overall preference for ERLC to be in L1 rather than L2 and point to a strong relationship between ERLC and proficiency. Two other findings emerge from the data. Scores for ERLC relating to anger show different patterns, as well as those which express light emotional load. Follow-up interviews help explain these differences and add to our understanding of why the literature on ERLC among late bilinguals often appears contradictory.

Planned vs Unplanned Discourse: Oral Narrative vs Conversation in Woods Cree

Most research on Algonquian languages, of which Cree is a typical example, is based on collections of narrative texts (Wolfart 1973; Dahlstrom 1986; James 1986). Although there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this approach, the use of one particular type of database in such an extensive amount of research lends itself to a genre-biased description of the language. In oral cultures, many narrative texts are typically preplanned (Chafe 1985) and therefore will have, according to researchers in discourse analysis, many of the features of preplanned texts such as complete and longer sentences, higher clause density and a larger proportion of subordinate clauses (Brown and Yule 1985:151–117; Biber 1988:47). In addition, other language-specific features may occur.

The Changing Roles of Language and Identity in the New Zealand Niuean Community: Findings from the Pasifika Languages of Manukau Project

This paper describes the Niuean community and the evolving roles of Niuean language and identity in New Zealand, where the majority of Niueans now reside. As part of the Pasifika Languages of Manukau Project (PLMP), 30 New Zealand Niueans participated in detailed interviews on issues relating to language main-tenance. This paper considers their responses both quantitatively and qualitatively. The quantitative data provide a basis for discussions on identity; considering age-graded changes in the areas of first language, reported language proficiency and language use. The qualitative data, which draw on personal narratives from the interviews, focuses on why these changes are taking place. The narratives provide vivid illustrations of the importance of both English and Niuean, the different roles that the two languages serve, and the conflict that many Niueans experience when attempting language maintenance initiatives in an English-dominant context.

Language Practices, Preferences and Policies: Contrasting Views of Pakeha, Maori, Pasifika and Asian Students.

Although the majority of New Zealanders speak English, and only English, the 1987 Maori Language Act and immigration from both Asia and the Pacific have had a significant impact on New Zealand society. Because increasing numbers of children are entering school with limited English language ability, students are arguably the group with the most exposure to New Zealands changing social and linguistic demography. Yet little is known about how these emerging members of New Zealand society view the languages within their midst, and the effect of ethnicity on their views. This paper examines the language attitudes, preferences and language use of intermediate and high school students from various ethnic backgrounds. The findings point to a society where ethnicity plays a strong role in language preferences, and where students from the dominant ethnic group, New Zealand European, show conservative views on multilingualism. After discussing how these findings highlight issues of language diversification within the New Zealand context, we conclude that students can serve as a useful resource both for understanding language issues and for informing language policy in the New Zealand context.

Revisiting examination questions in tertiary academic writing

Abstract This paper evaluates Horowitzs (1989) question categories in a different context from his North American study. Using a similar methodology, 311 questions from two different types of tertiary institutions in New Zealand are examined. Different occurrences of each of his question categories in the different types of institutions are considered. A comparison of our results with Horowitzs findings shows that differences between the New Zealand and American institutions appear to be related to “what writers are asked to write about”, whereas differences between the New Zealand institutions relate to “how writers are asked to write about it’. The results also suggest that assessment workshops within an institution may be useful for standardizing examination questions across disciplines.

What comes before t? Nonalveolar s in Auckland

Although several researchers have noted unusual phonetic realizations of s, there is little detailed documentation of such variation. This study investigates the use of a fronted variant of s in the speech of Auckland, New Zealand, residents. The results report on the findings from a rapid survey that elicits tokens of s in word-final position in the speech of 638 Pakeha (New Zealand European) speakers. The findings provide evidence of both a fronted and nonfronted variant of s in this community. The findings also show systematic variation on the basis of age, gender, and occupation, with the fronted variant preferred by younger speakers, professional females, and males in clerical jobs.

Woods Cree /ð/: An Unusual Type of Sonorant1

/ð/ appears in only a handful of the world’s languages (Maddieson 1984 and Ruhlen 1975). In most of these, /ð/ is classified as an obstruent; however, in Woods Cree this segment exhibits a range of characteristics typical of a sonorant. This paper provides a detailed account of the evidence for /ð/’s status in Woods Cree based on its phonetic realizations, the structure of the phonological inventory, voicing patterns, register variation, and phonetic variability in loans from English. While these factors provide strong support that this segment is classified as a sonorant, internal evidence based on obstruent realizations of /ð/—the conflicting patterning of consonant clusters and voicing patterns in word‐final position—point to the ambiguous nature of this segment. Given this internal ambiguity and external factors, such as prolonged contact with English and language shift in the community, we raise the possibility that this Woods Cree segment is being reclassified phonologically from one structural category to another.