A Sociolinguistic Analysis of English Phonological Varieties.docx

Abstract

 English has attained the status of a world lingua franca, the process of localization is on its way too. Thus a large number of English phonological varieties emerge. As a crucial part in the variety research, the reasons for the variation has aroused concern among many experts and some problems with it need to be addressed. However, current studies mainly focus on the varieties from the aspect of morphology and grammar. Few studies investigate the phonological varieties. Thus the studies of phonological varieties are significant. This thesis is intended to analyze the characteristic and the factors of the phonological varieties by the means of combing synchronic and diachronic research from the sociolinguistic perspective. Synchronically, the author analyzed the characteristics of three different phonological varieties by doing the articulation task analysis; diachronically, the author interviewed participants from three countries to find out the factors that affecting the formation of three varieties. Based on Kachru’s three concentric circles model, the author chose American English, Indian English and French English as the target varieties.

This thesis presents a study on the characteristic and the factors of three phonological varieties: American English, Indian English and French English. Participants involved in this study are 9 foreign students of Soochow University, including three Americans, three Indians and three Frenchmen. The instruments include an articulation task of reading a paragraph (containing 13 vowels and 28 consonants) and an interview concerning to language attitudes and ethnical identity. The major findings are summarized as follows: Firstly, the three different varieties vary in both segmental phonemes and suprasegmental phonemes. Secondly, the data from the interview combined with the analysis from the previous studies reveal that their language attitude and ethnical identity are two important factors that affect the formation of varieties.

Based on the findings, the thesis has the following implications: First, English learners should have a better understanding of the different phonological varieties; second, teachers should give more training to meet the requirements of increasingly globalized age; third, courses of language skills need reform to improve the acceptability and comprehensiveness of different varieties.

Key words: English phonological variety, language attitude, ethnical identity

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter One Introduction-3

1.1 Background of the Study-3

1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study-3

1.3 Layout of the Thesis-4

Chapter Two Literature Review-5

2.1 Definitions of Key Terms-5

2.1.1 English phonological variety-5

2.1.2 Ethnic identity-5

2.1.3 Language attitudes-6

2.1.4 World Englishes-6

2.2 Key Theories-6

2.2.1 Kachru’s three concentric circles of English-7

2.2.2 Labov’s orderly heterogeneity of English-8

2.3 Related studies-9

Chapter Three Methodology-10

3.1 Research Questions-10

3.2 Participants-10

3.3 Instruments-11

3.4 Data Collection and Data Analysis-12

Chapter Four Results and Discussion-14

4.1 Characteristics of the three phonological varieties-14

4.1.1 Characteristics of American English-14

4.1.2 Characteristics of the Indian English-15

4.1.3 Characteristics of French English-15

4.2 Social factors affecting the formation of each variety-16

4.2.1 Language attitudes-16

4.2.2 Ethnical identities-17

Chapter Five Conclusion-18

5.1 Major Findings-18

5.2 Implications of the Study-18

5.3 Limitations of the Study-19

5.4 Suggestions for Future Study-19

References-20

Acknowledgements-21

Appendix I: The Articulation Task-22

Appendix II: Interview protocol-23