English in East and South Asia

Policy, Features and Language in Use

Ee Ling Low, Anne Pakir, Ee Ling Low, Anne Pakir

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781032068244
• eBook ISBN: 9780429782060
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Historical & Comparative Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This book provides a first systematic and comprehensive account of English in East and South Asia (EESA) based on current research by scholars in the field. It has several unique features. Firstly, it provides a rigorous theoretical overview that is necessary for the understanding of EESA in relation to the burgeoning works on World Englishes as a discipline. Secondly, in the section on linguistic features, a systematic template was made available to the contributors so that linguistic coverage of the variety/varieties is similar. Thirdly, the vibrancy of the sociolinguistic and pragmatic realities that govern actual English in use in a wide variety of domains such as social media, the Internet and popular culture/music are discussed. Finally, this volume includes an extensive bibliography of works on EESA, thus providing a useful and valuable resource for language researchers, linguists, classroom educators, policymakers and anyone interested in the topic of EESA or World Englishes. This volume hopes to advance understanding of the spread and development of the different sub-varieties reflecting both the political developments and cultural norms in the region.

1 English in East and South Asia

Context and issues

Ee Ling Low and Anne Pakir

DOI: 10.4324/9780429433467-1

1.1 Background

At the point of the conceptualisation of this volume, the co-authors of this chapter had just published another co-edited monograph titled World Englishes: Rethinking Paradigms (Low & Pakir, 2018a). That seminal volume came at a time when three founding figures of World Englishes (henceforth WE) left us: Braj Kachru in July 2016, his beloved wife Yamuna in April 2014 and his professional collaborator and co-founder of the World Englishes journal, Larry Smith, in December 2013. Contributors to that volume were themselves leading lights in the field, like Bolton, Jenkins, Nelson, Schneider and Thumboo, to name a few, who have offered “new thinking and paradigms that have emerged in response to the framework both as a construct and as a reality” (Low & Pakir, 2018b, p. 3). We concluded that volume by reaching the position that WE was and currently still is at a crucial inflexion point as the forces of globalisation and ultra-connectivity have given birth to new and multifaceted uses of English and spread worldwide. Furthermore, we predicted that it is the “we-ness” and inclusivity of the WE paradigm as espoused by its founders and followers that has allowed it to be an enduring and relevant paradigm that can be constantly re-imagined and re-asserted (Pakir & Low, 2018, p. 229).

The point of departure of the current volume is the cusp of a new era in the study of WE, which we term the “post-Kachruvian” era. The Kachruvian era was marked by the Three Concentric Circles Model, conceptualised as a means to describe the types of spread, patterns of acquisition and the functional allocation of English in new and diverse cultural contexts. Kachru (1997a, p. 215) stated that WE as a concept “is not intended to indicate any divisiveness in the English-using communities but to recognize the functions of the language in diverse pluralistic contexts”. Bolton (2019) asserts that the Kachruvian paradigm (Kachru, 1992, 2015) is not merely confined to a description of regional or national varieties of English but includes the sociolinguistic realities such as standards and norms, issues of intelligibility, bi- and multilingualism, code-mixing, bilingual creativity, multi-canonity, language planning and policy, power and politics of the English language in relation to other indigenous languages, to name but a few. WE and the global spread of English worldwide are now well established and have attracted much research and scholarship. These include major internationally peer-reviewed journals such as World Englishes, English Worldwide, English Today, Asian Englishes and several handbooks such as The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes, Wiley-Blackwell’s The Handbook of World Englishes and book series such as Routledge Studies in World Englishes, Bloomsbury Series in World Englishes and Asian Englishes Today, to present a non-exhaustive list. Within this sub-set of existing studies on WE and where Kachru’s own doctoral and subsequent studies on the status, functions and features of English in India lie is the study of Asian Englishes (see Kachru’s 2005 monograph of the same name), which owes its origins to Kachru’s own research and scholarship.

In 1997, Kachru (1997b) wrote provocatively about “English as an Asian language”, where he highlights the number of users of the English language in Asia, the rise in the status of English in Asia where, in some Outer Circle countries like Singapore, English is used as the de facto national and co-official language and English is seen as a liberating language since it allows linguistic and literary creativity, and the burgeoning of multi-canons of English literature where English contains “vitality, innovation, linguistic mix and cultural identity” (Kachru, 1997b, p. 23). He later published a monograph on the topic in 2005 titled Asian Englishes: Beyond the Canon and interestingly focused on how English is a “killer language” in Asia and the pedagogies, identity issues and future prospects. The English language in Asia is woven into the “nativised webs of language structure and its functional appropriateness” (Kachru, 2005, pp. 255–256).

Our present volume aims to continue Kachru’s research and scholarship on Asian Englishes in the post-Kachruvian era by focusing on two areas in Asia, namely East Asia and South Asia, where focal attention has been given to specific varieties in each region, such as English in China, Japan and Korea in East Asia, and India in South Asia (e.g. Bolton, 2003; Hadikin, 2014; Sailaja, 2009; Stanlaw, 2004) but where research gaps are still observable. First, asymmetry exists in the research on varieties of English used in East and in South Asia. Some of the Outer Circle varieties of English, especially Indian English, have received considerable attention and have been well documented (e.g. Kachru, 1983; Mehrotra, 1998; Sailaja, 2009; Sedlatschek, 2009) while English varieties in the Expanding Circle have experienced a relative paucity of research notice. Second, the publications that exist on English in East Asia (Ho & Wong, 2004) and in South Asia (Baumgardner, 1996) have tended to solely focus on individual varieties (e.g. Xu et al., 2017 on Chinese English; Seargeant, 2011 on Japanese English; Sedlatschek, 2009 on Indian English) or as chapters or sections within larger volumes (e.g. Kachru & Nelson, 2006; Mesthrie, 2004; Wee et al., 2013). None have as yet dedicated an entire volume combining both regions in Asia. Considering the fact that new economic powerhouses are emerging in East and South Asia, which will undoubtedly serve as a catalyst for increased efforts in English language education and use in the regions, and the fact that this region has the world’s largest number of both speakers of English as a second language (i.e. India) and as a foreign language (i.e. China), a volume such as this is timely and necessary as it bridges the gaps in the collective knowledge of English varieties that are emerging in the region.

Collectively, these regions are characterised by high population density and vast ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. English plays a dynamic and significant role in both intra- and international communication, politics, education, science and economics in both East and South Asia. Kachru categorises the Englishes in East Asia as being part of the Expanding Circle varieties and English in South Asia as part of the Outer Circle varieties (Kachru, 1985, 1992). The Outer Circle countries were former colonies or protectorates of an English-speaking power (e.g. India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) while in the Expanding Circle countries, English is used mainly as a foreign language (e.g. in China, Japan and Korea). In the Outer Circle countries like India, English has been the main medium of education in schools, and there are now native speakers of Indian English, whereas in the Expanding Circle varieties, students learn English as a foreign language in schools and English is being used in relatively limited domains such as education, foreign trade and tourism, among others. The range and depth of penetration of English in the Outer Circle countries have been observed in Singapore, also a former colony, which embraced its legacy of English instead of discarding it as most other Outer Circle countries did upon gaining their independence from a powerful colonial power. Singapore, where the editors are from, is really tiny compared to India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. China, Japan and Korea, which are major East Asian entities, are also huge, and it is of interest to understand whether and how deeply English, the global language, has penetrated into the layers of their societies. Our volume intends to push the boundaries of our understanding of the sociolinguistic realities of English in both regions of Asia by commissioning contributions focusing on history, language planning and policy features of East and South Asian Englishes and in so doing hopes to unearth the richness in linguistic features brought about by bi- and multilingual, and multicultural backgrounds of its speakers and to also devote a final section on present-day language in use in order to make sense of the multi-modalities of expression and the multi-canonity of the evolving varieties in these regions.

1.2 Context setting: English in East and South Asia

1.2.1 Terminological clarifications

While the title of the present volume, English in East and South Asia (henceforth EESA) seems to suggest that English in these two Asian regions is one entity, it is not our intention to collapse them as one. Further, a point of terminological clarification that needs to be made is that the term “English in East and South Asia” is a cover term to refer to both East Asian Englishes and South Asian Englishes, in full recognition of the pluricentricity of norms and multi-cultural, multi-lingual background of its users.

The geographical composition of East and South Asia requires further elucidation in order for us to understand what constitutes East and South Asian Englishes respectively. “East Asian English” covers the English varieties that have emerged in China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mongolia, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. China, Japan and South Korea (henceforth referred to as “Korea”) are selected for coverage of East Asian Englishes for several reasons. First, there is a sizeable population of over 200 million speakers of English in China, forming about 20% of the total population (Zhao & Campbell, 1995). These learners of English in China view English as offering them upward educational and social mobility in the international arena. Japan and Korea have 12.5 and 5.1 million speakers of English, forming about 10% of their respective populations. These two polities present interesting case studies as the global spread of Japanese and Korean popular culture (henceforth J-pop and K-pop) and in particular the international Korean drama fever have led to interesting linguistic hybridity in the use of English in Japan and Korea and warrant our research attention, as this is a distinct emerging use of English in the post-Kachruvian era.

English in South Asia is a cover term we use to refer to South Asian Englishes. South Asia is a region, as Gargesh (2020, p. 107) notes, spanning Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. A comprehensive summary of the situation of English in all of these countries is provided by Gargesh (2020), but the scope of our present volume necessitates that we delineate our focus to a few key countries in the region. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are selected as the focus of our study and they are part of a larger entity known as the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. According to statistics provided by Bolton (2019), the population of Indian speakers of English is approximately 20% of its total population, comprising about 260 million speakers. Pakistan has about 50.9 million speakers, comprising 25% of its total population, and Sri Lanka has 5.3 million speakers, also comprising about 25% of its total population. Pakistan was part of India until 1947 and has the same British colonial roots as India, while Sri Lanka presents an interesting case study of having Portuguese and Dutch colonial rule before the British administration took over and introduced English-medium instruction based on the recommendations of the Colebrook-Cameron Commission of Inquiry of 1830–1832 (see Chapter 7, this volume). Collectively, English in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka should be able to give us insights about the evolution and development of South Asian Englishes in the post-Kachruvian era.

1.2.2 Historical origins and relevant demographics

To fully understand the complexities of the development of English in East and South Asia, there is a need to understand both the historical origins and the relevant demographic facts such as the linguistic repertoire of the speakers of the six countries surveyed in this volume.

In East Asia, English arrived mainly through trade and commerce. The earliest contact between English speakers and the Chinese occurred in 1637, when four British merchant ships made an expedition to Macau and Guangzhou (Canton) under the command of Captain John Weddell (see Bolton, 2002 for more detail). In the case of Japan, an English sailor named William Adams was the first English speaker to set foot on Japanese soil in 1600, and he later rose to become a chief adviser to the Tokugawa feudal government (see Ike, 1995; Seargeant, 2011 for more details). For Korea, Western trading ships brought the language into the peninsular towards the end of the 1800s (Paik, 2018). While British English had been the original variety that introduced English to these countries, the influence of American English became quite predominant as the preferred variant of English in many areas in tandem with the rise of the United States in economic and military power. These interactions led to different contact varieties emerging, such as Pidgin English in the Chinese coastal areas with British traders, and Bamboo English in Japan and Korea with American soldiers (McArthur, 2005). These contact varieties, however, have become mostly extinct with the introduction of the formal education of English (McArthur, 2005). English continued to grow alongside the native languages and varieties in areas of business, politics and even education. English in East Asia is now quite cemented in its status with the steep increase of the number of students learning English (Honna, 2006).

In South Asia, English was brought in by the British colonialists for trade, religious and educational purposes. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were then considered part of a large region and under British rule whereas Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal were not, with Maldives being a protectorate of the British. In the 17th century, the British brought the English language to India by establishing trading posts that were controlled by the East India Company in some cities including Surat in 1612, Madras in 1639–1640, Bombay in 1674 and Cal...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on contributors
• 1 English in East and South Asia: Context and issues
• PART I Policy
• PART II Features
• PART III Language in use
• Index