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English is used widely and as a matter of course in communication between both native and non-native speakers across much of the world today. In the process of becoming a world language, it has started exhibiting several distinct features in lexis, syntax and pragmatics, raising the issue of its relationship to existing standards, particularly standard British and American English. In this seminar we will be investigating how English is used internationally, and how particularly foreign-language speakers of English adapt the language to their respective needs in a lingua franca context. Of particular interest are the lexical and syntactical innovations, the relationship to the standards and the consequences for language teaching, as well as the documentation of the non-standard features that appear as a consequence of its use in a global context. Participants will gain first-hand insight into several varieties such as Euro-English, international academic English, English for intercultural communication and simplified professional varieties. During the semester, students will also perform hands-on research by recording and transcribing conversations in the context of our Corpus of Academic Spoken English (CASE) corpus. The transcript will also count towards course credit. For detailed course requirements please also consult the respective module descriptions. |
