Roberta Zoppo, English II LM Task 2 April, 3, 2009

In green are the explicit connectives (other than “but”, “and”, “so”, etc.). The more green you see, the easier the paper is to follow and understand

Which Englishes have a “norm-providing” status?

According to Kachru (1986, 2006) English varieties such as General American, Cultivated Australian, and R.P. English have a “norm providing” status codified by grammar books and vocabularies, like the Webster’s Dictionary for American English. This means that every community mentioned above, as an ex British colony, has conserved Anglo values but it the same time has developed its own prestige linguistic model. Here English is spoken as the official language and in Kachru’s division of English varieties those such countries belong to the inner circle

Meanwhile the variety of English spoken there is taken as a model in other countries (India, Singapore, Malaysia for example) where English plays an important role in their public life and it is one of their official languages

Those These “New Englishes”, as they are called, [It is not clear why these are “new” Englishes. You said that the speakers of English in these countries take, as their model, SBE or GA. Well, why do we call them a “new English” if they are an “old” English (SBE, GA) used in a new country? Perhaps they have changed the norms of SBE or GA, but you didn't say this. So your sentence is impossible to understand.] have a “norm developing” status because they have not developed their prestige varieties [Pardon? What did you say? They are “norm developing” because they have not developed their own prestige variety and use an old prestige variety like SBE or GA? This affirmation doesn't make sense. Perhaps you mean that they do NOT follow SBE or GA strictly but innovate a lot, and perhaps you also mean that their innovations are not consolidated yet as a new prestige model followed by other countries. If this is your thought, you certainly did not explain it clearly.] and homologate their English to a country of the inner circle. [Just a minute. If you say that they “homologate their English to a country of the inner circle”, you mean that they follow SBE or GA scrupulously. So why are they “new Englishes” then? ] They are all part of the Kachru’s “outer circle”.

In other countries that belong to the expanding circle (such as Italy, Russia, China) English is spoken as a lingua franca for specific purposes like formal learning and economy. [It is spoken ONLY as a lingua franca in these countries? I don't believe that. You probably do not know what lingua franca means. Document the meaning and then rewrite this sentence, please.]

Analysing this picture one can say that, although English is traditionally considered as one language, many Englishes exist according to different geopolitical communities.

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[I said, at the end, to rewrite the sentence indicated. But in reality you should rewrite the entire paragraph because it is not clear and does not give the reader a “hold” on the concept of world Englishes.]