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28 - World Englishes in the Media

from Part IV - Current Challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2019

Daniel Schreier
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Marianne Hundt
Affiliation:
Universität Zürich
Edgar W. Schneider
Affiliation:
Universität Regensburg, Germany
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Summary

Media, especially those that are free, represent an important site for Englishes to display tension between local and global identities. There is a preference for international media standards, and these are closely associated in name with media (“broadcast standard English,” “BBC English,” etc.). At the same time, media providers attempt to localize English usage for various effects, including identity formation. Media Englishes, therefore, adopt and codify much of the “authority” of standard English and, at the same time, use nonstandard Englishes to construct “authenticity” within media performances. The chapter surveys the large number of media studies conducted from the World Englishes perspectives and identifies common themes running through them – most notably, the expression of popular culture identities in various media Englishes and the use of English as a linguistic resource within other media languages. It considers sociolinguists’ traditional rejection of the media as a motivating factor in language change and considers more recent evidence that the media provide positive norms for the acquisition of English across the Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circles of users.

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