Identity regionalism and English as an ASEAN lingua franca: Regionalisme Identiti dan Bahasa Inggeris sebagai lingua franca ASEAN

Azirah Hashim; Jagdish Kaur; Tan Siew Kuang

doi:10.1515/jelf-2016-0018

Artikel

Identity regionalism and English as an ASEAN lingua franca

Regionalisme Identiti dan Bahasa Inggeris sebagai lingua franca ASEAN

Azirah Hashim
Azirah Hashim is Professor in the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics and, currently, Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Institute and Director of the Centre for ASEAN Regionalism, University of Malaya. Her research interests are in Language Contact in the region, Higher Education in ASEAN and Language and Law, and she has published in journals like World Englishes, Multilingua, Discourse and Society and Text and Talk. Her latest book, co-edited with Gerhard Leitner and Hans-Georg Wolf, Communicating with Asia: The Future of English as a Global Language by Cambridge University Press was published in 2016.
, Jagdish Kaur
Jagdish Kaur is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya. Her research interest lies mainly in the microanalysis of interactions in English as a lingua franca, using conversation analytic procedures, to establish how speakers of ELF communicate and to identify the kinds of competences they rely on to achieve success in communication. She has published her findings on ELF in journals like World Englishes, Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics and Text and Talk.
und Tan Siew Kuang
Tan Siew Kuang is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya. Her research interests lie in Acoustic Phonetics and Socio-phonetics, Applied Linguistics and World Englishes. She has published in journals such as Language and Speech and English World-wide.

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 14. September 2016

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Aus der Zeitschrift Journal of English as a Lingua Franca Band 5 Heft 2

Abstract

The ASEAN Charter refers to English as the “working language of ASEAN,” a situation different from the EU that has a multiplicity of official and working languages. It has been argued that English, as a foreign “working language,” does not have an emotive value to it as it has merely a functional role. This, however, may change as many people in ASEAN speak a particular variety of English, especially those from countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Brunei. Even in countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, which had not been colonised by the British, many learn English today and see it as vital for survival in many domains and especially with the forming of the ASEAN community and ASEAN integration. This ASEAN English is different from the many varieties in the region in that it does not possess the national and ethnic characteristics that varieties do. ASEAN English appears to possess its own characteristic features, often with an avoidance of features that are found in national varieties to aid mutual understanding between members who come from different ASEAN societies. This paper examines informal interactions between ASEAN speakers from the Asian Corpus of English. It analyses the features that create rapport and illustrates that ELF has an emotive value and does not merely play a functional role in ASEAN.

Abstrak

Piagam ASEAN merujuk kepada Bahasa Inggeris sebagai ‘Bahasa kerja ASEAN’, situasi yang berbeza daripada EU yang mempunyai beberapa Bahasa rasmi dan Bahasa kerja. Telah dihujah bahawa Bahasa Inggeris seperti ‘bahasa kerja asing’ tidak mempunyai nilai emotif kerana ia mempunyai semata-matanya peranan fungsional. Walau bagaimanapun, ini mungkin berubah kerana ramai orang di ASEAN bercakap pelbagai bahasa Inggeris tertentu terutamanya di negara-negara seperti Malaysia, Singapura, Filipina dan Brunei. Malah di negara-negara seperti Kemboja, Laos dan Vietnam, yang tidak pernah dijajah oleh orang British, ramai yang kini belajar Bahasa Inggeris dan melihatnya sebagai penting untuk ikhtiar hidup dalam banyak domain terutamanya dengan pembentukan komuniti ASEAN dan integrasi ASEAN. Bahasa Inggeris ASEAN ini adalah berbeza daripada banyak varieti di rantau ini kerana ia tidak memiliki ciri-ciri negara dan etnik yang membawa kepada kelainan. Bahasa Inggeris ASEAN berkelihatan biasanya memiliki ciri-ciri sendiri dan mengelak dari penggunaan ciri-ciri yang terdapat di pelbagai negara untuk membantu persefahaman antara penutur-penutur yang datang dari pelbagai negara ASEAN. Kertas ini mengkaji interaksi tidak formal dikalangan penutur ASEAN dari korpus Bahasa Asia. Ia menganalisis ciri-ciri yang mewujudkan hubungan dan menggambarkan bahawa ELF mempunyai nilai emotif dan tidak semata-matanya memainkan peranan fungsional dalam rantau ASEAN.

Keywords: ASEAN; English; lingua franca; identity; regionalism

Kata kunci: ASEAN; Bahasa Inggeris; lingua franca; identiti; regionalisme

About the authors

Azirah Hashim

Azirah Hashim is Professor in the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics and, currently, Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Institute and Director of the Centre for ASEAN Regionalism, University of Malaya. Her research interests are in Language Contact in the region, Higher Education in ASEAN and Language and Law, and she has published in journals like World Englishes, Multilingua, Discourse and Society and Text and Talk. Her latest book, co-edited with Gerhard Leitner and Hans-Georg Wolf, Communicating with Asia: The Future of English as a Global Language by Cambridge University Press was published in 2016.

Jagdish Kaur

Jagdish Kaur is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya. Her research interest lies mainly in the microanalysis of interactions in English as a lingua franca, using conversation analytic procedures, to establish how speakers of ELF communicate and to identify the kinds of competences they rely on to achieve success in communication. She has published her findings on ELF in journals like World Englishes, Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics and Text and Talk.

Tan Siew Kuang

Tan Siew Kuang is Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, University of Malaya. Her research interests lie in Acoustic Phonetics and Socio-phonetics, Applied Linguistics and World Englishes. She has published in journals such as Language and Speech and English World-wide.

Appendix: Transcription conventions

The transcription conventions used follow those of the Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE).

@@@: indicates laughter
<@> </@>: Words/utterances spoken laughingly appear within such tags.
pre-: Word fragments are indicated with a hyphen.
<8> <8/>: Overlapping utterances appear within numbered tags.
( ): indicates words/phrases that cannot be identified
o:h: Lengthened sounds are marked with a colon.
(.): a brief pause (up to 0.5 seconds)
?: indicates words spoken with rising intonation
=: indicates other-continuation that is immediate (without a pause)
<spel>a s c</spel>: Words/abbreviations which are spelt out appear within such tags.
hunGRY: Capital letters indicate syllables/words which are given emphasis.

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Published Online: 2016-9-14

Published in Print: 2016-9-1

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Artikel in diesem Heft

https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2016-0018

Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel

ASEAN; English; lingua franca; identity; regionalism