Phonological patterning for English as a lingua franca in Asia: Implications for norms and practice in multilingual Asia

Ee-Ling Low

doi:10.1515/jelf-2016-0022

Article

Phonological patterning for English as a lingua franca in Asia: Implications for norms and practice in multilingual Asia

Ee-Ling Low
Ee-Ling Low is Full Professor of Applied Linguistics (World Englishes, Pronunciation Research and Practice) at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is a member of the institute’s Senior Management Team as Head of Strategic Planning and Academic Quality and an elected member of the university senate. She obtained her PhD in Linguistics (Acoustic Phonetics) from the University of Cambridge, UK, under the University’s Overseas Graduate Scholarship award. She is currently President of the Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics and Series Editor for the Routledge Studies in World Englishes book series.

Published/Copyright: September 14, 2016

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From the journal Journal of English as a Lingua Franca Volume 5 Issue 2

Abstract

With the rapid economic development and the increasing activities in trade, education, cultural events, and tourism in Asia, more and more people are using English as a lingua franca (ELF). The Asian Corpus of English (ACE) project has, as one of its defining goals, the collection of a million-word corpus of naturally occurring speech in order to analyse and describe the distinctive linguistic features of Asian ELF and to identify shared features if any. However, little research has been done hitherto on the features of ELF in the Asian context. This paper, therefore, presents a description of the phonological patterns found in ELF. Specifically, the paper focuses, inter alia, on the monophthong vowels and rhythmic patterning in the spoken interactions of ELF speakers from the data as well as the implications for policy and practice of ELF in multilingual Asia. The study is based on the Asian Corpus of English (ACE) data collected in Singapore by the National Institute of Education (NIE) team. Participants in the study include speakers from China, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and India. The paper aims to deepen the boundaries of thinking about shared pronunciation patternings of ELF speakers in Asia and considers the implications of such shared patternings and norms on practice in multilingual Asia.

Keywords: Outer Circle; Expanding Circle; ACE corpus; vowel; rhythm

About the author

Ee-Ling Low

Ee-Ling Low is Full Professor of Applied Linguistics (World Englishes, Pronunciation Research and Practice) at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. She is a member of the institute’s Senior Management Team as Head of Strategic Planning and Academic Quality and an elected member of the university senate. She obtained her PhD in Linguistics (Acoustic Phonetics) from the University of Cambridge, UK, under the University’s Overseas Graduate Scholarship award. She is currently President of the Singapore Association for Applied Linguistics and Series Editor for the Routledge Studies in World Englishes book series.

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the Asian Corpus of English (ACE) project funded by Research Centre into Language Education and Acquisition in Multilingual Societies, Hong Kong Institute of Education, for the permission to use the ACE corpus data for the present study.

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Published Online: 2016-9-14

Published in Print: 2016-9-1

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2016-0022

Keywords for this article

Outer Circle; Expanding Circle; ACE corpus; vowel; rhythm