Using Nigerian English in an international academic setting

• Authors: Una Cunningham
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

This study examines the English pronunciation of a group of Nigerian students at a university in Sweden from the point of view of their intelligibility to two groups of listeners: 1) native speakers of English who are teachers at the university; 2) nonnative speakers of English who are teachers at the university. It is found that listeners who are accustomed to interacting with international students do better than those who are not, and that native speakers of English do no better or worse than non-native listeners. The conclusion is drawn that locally useful varieties of Nigerian English may not easily be used as for wider communication and that students preparing to study abroad would find it useful to gain access to a more widely intelligible variety.

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Research in Language
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 143-158

Dates

published

2012-10-01

online

2012-10-21

Contributors

author

Una Cunningham

• Stockholm University

References

• Achebe, Chinua. (1975). Morning yet on creation day. London: Heinemann.
• Adamo, Grace. E. (2007). Nigerian English. English Today 231: 42-47.[WoS]
• Agheyisi, Rebecca. N. (1984). Minor languages in the Nigerian context. Word 35: 235-253.
• Ajani, Timothy T. (2007). Is there indeed a Nigerian English? Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 1:1. Available at http://www.scientificjournals.org/journals2007/j_of_hum.htm Accessed 27 June 2009.
• Bamgbose, Ayo. (1971). The English language in Nigeria. In The English language in West Africa, ed. J. Spencer. London: Longmans.
• Bamgbose, Ayo. (1982). “Standard Nigerian English: Issues of identification”.In The other tongue: English across cultures, Ed.Braj. B. Kachru. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
• Bamgbose, Ayo. (1991). Language and the nation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Bamgbose, Ayo. (1995). English in the Nigerian environment. In New Englishes: A West African perspective, ed. Ayo Bambgose, Ayo Banjo and Andrew Thomas, 9-26. Ibadan: Mosuro.
• Banjo, Ayo. (1971). On codifying Nigerian English: research so far. In New Englishes: A West African perspective, ed. Ayo Bambgose, Ayo Banjo and Andrew Thomas, 1995, 203-231. Ibadan: Mosuro.
• Berns, Margie. (2008). World Englishes, English as a lingua franca, and intelligibility, London: Blackwell Publishing.
• Bern, Margie. (2009). English as a lingua franca and English in Europe. World Englishes 28 (2): 192-199.[WoS][Crossref]
• Catford, John C. (1950). Intelligibility. English Language Teaching 1: 7-15.
• Coupland, Nikolas. (1984). Accommodation at work. International Journal of Sociolinguistics 4-6: 49-70.
• Cruttenden, Alan. (2008). Gimson's Pronunciation of English. London, Hodder Arnold.
• Crystal, David. (2003). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Cunningham, Una. (2009). Models and targets for English pronunciation in Vietnam and Sweden. Research in Language University of Lodz, Poland.
• Cunningham, Una. (2009. Quality, quantity and intelligibility of vowels in Vietnameseaccented English. In Issues in Accents of English II: Variability and Norm, ed. Ewa Waniek-Klimczak. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing Ltd.
• Eka, David. (2003). The English language: changes and chances within the Nigerian environment. Journal of Nigerian English and Literature 4: 32-41.
• Garcia, Ofelia, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, and Maria E. Torres-Guzma. (2006). Imagining Multilingual Schools: Languages in Education and Glocalisation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.[WoS]
• Graddol, David. (1997). The future of English. London: British Council.
• Gut, Ulrike. (2007). First language influence and final consonant clusters in the new Englishes of Singapore and Nigeria. World Englishes 26: 346-359.[Crossref]
• Gut, Ulrike and Jan-Torsten Milde. (2002). The prosody of Nigerian English. Available at http://www.lpl.univ-aix.fr/sp2002/pdf/gut-milde.pdf . Accessed 27 June 2009
• Hickey, Raymond. (2004). Englishes in Asia and Africa: origin and structure. In Legacies of colonial English, ed. Raymond Hickey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 503-535.
• Hung, Tony. T. N. (2002). English as a global language and the issue of international intelligibility. Asian Englishes 5: 4-17.[Crossref]
• Jenkins, Jennifer. (2000). The Phonology of English as an International Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Jenkins, Jennifer. (2002). A sociolinguistically based, empirically researched pronunciation syllabus for English as an international language. Applied Linguistics 231: 83-103.
• Jenkins, Jennifer. (2005). Implementing an international approach to English pronunciation: The role of teacher attitudes and identity. Tesol Quarterly 393: 535-543.
• Jenkins, Jennifer. (2006). Current perspectives on teaching world Englishes and English as a lingua franca. Tesol Quarterly 401: 157-181.
• Jenkins, Jennifer. (2009). English as a lingua franca: interpretations and attitudes. World Englishes 28 (2): 200-207.[WoS][Crossref]
• Kachru, Braj. (1992). Teaching world Englishes. In The Other Tongue, English across Cultures, ed. Braj B. Kachru. Urbana, University Illinois Press.
• Kachru, Braj. B. (1991). Liberation linguistics and the Quirk concern. English Today 25: 3-13.[Crossref]
• Kirkpatrick, Andy., David Deterding, and Jennie Wong. (2008). The international intelligibility of Hong Kong English. World Englishes 273-4: 359-377.[WoS]
• Levis, John. M. (2005). Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching. Tesol Quarterly 393: 369-377.
• McArthur, Tom. (2002). The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Munro, Murray J. and Tracey M. Derwing. (1995). Processing time, accent, and comprehensibility in the perception of native and foreign-accented speech. Language and Speech 38: 289-306.
• Phillipson, Robert. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Prah, Kwesi K., Ed. (2002). Rehabilitating African languages : language use, language policy and literacy in Africa: selected case studies Cape Town, South Africa Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society CASAS.
• Prah, Kwesi K. (2009). The burden of English in Africa: From colonialism to neocolonialism. Lecture presented at Mapping Africa in the English-Speaking World. University of Botswana.
• Rooy, Susan. C. V. (2009). Intelligibility and perceptions of English proficiency. World Englishes 28 (1): 15-34.[WoS][Crossref]
• Schneider, Edgar. (2003). The dynamics of new Englishes: from identity construction to dialect birth. Language 79: 233-81.
• Seidlhofer, Barbara (2009). Common ground and different realities: world Englishes and English as a lingua franca. World Englishes 28 (2): 236-245.[Crossref][WoS]
• Smith, Larry E. and Cecil. L. Nelson (1985). International intelligibility of English: directions and resources. World Englishes 4(3): 333-342.[Crossref]
• Smith, Larry E. and Khalilullah Rafiqzad (1979). English for cross-cultural communication - question of intelligibility. Tesol Quarterly 133: 371-380.
• Stevenson, K. J. (1965). Reflections on the teaching of English in West Africa. Journal of Nigeria English Studies Association 32: 227-235.
• Ufomata, Titi. (1990). Acceptable models for TEFL. In Studies in the pronunciation of English: A commemorative volume in honour of A.C. Gimson, 212-218, ed. S. Ramsaran. London & N.Y.: Routledge.
• Ufomata, Titi. (1996). Setting priorities in teaching English pronunciation in ESL contexts. London, UCL. Available at http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/shl9/ufomata/titi.htm. Accessed 27 June 2009.
• Watterson, Matthew. (2008). Repair of non-understanding in English in international communication. World Englishes 273-4: 378-406.[WoS]
• ---

Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/v10015-011-0036-7