Describe and compare the attempts to classify and label different kinds of speakers of English by Barbara Mayor and David Graddol. What are the problems and issues raised?

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Describe and compare the attempts to classify and label different kinds of speakers of English by Barbara Mayor and David Graddol. What are the problems and issues raised?

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Many factors contribute to the gradual spread of any language: military, political, economic and religious. These factors affect the way in which speakers of other languages view its growth. It could be argued that the development of a single global language (English being the current main contender) would give its culture of origin unprecedented influence in world affairs, eroding the status of minority languages and threatening national identity. This, in turn, is somewhat countered by the ways in which foreign speakers of English have taken the language and shaped it to meet their own social and psychological needs. What results is a sufficiently different form to that of original English that a new problem is encountered in actually classifying the different varieties. Indeed, affording different languages the title ‘English’ is generating concern amongst those who observe its degradation or even potential loss. The global spread of English therefore can be seen to have negative consequences by both external and internal parties.

Typically, these concerns surface and are themselves compounded by language. In particular the different connotations attached to the terms used to describe and categorise the different varieties and their speakers. In the first article, Mayor doesn’t try to classify speakers of English, rather she tries to provide a balanced assessment or critique of the many terms that have been used so far. Mayor employs a sociolinguistic approach in her approach to analysing the metalinguistic terms. When discussing the expressions used to describe language, She sees it (language) as a social construct, communicating more than just the overt message carried in the construction of the grammar and vocabulary. The issues involved end up having more to do with the identity of the speaker as perceived by themselves and others, than the language they use every day. For example, someone living in Cardiff might consider him or herself to be a staunch Welsh native without being able to speak a word of the language. As Mayor puts it, the issues are “concerned with the speaker’s attitudes and… particularly hard to measure”.

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In contrast, David Graddol’s article entitled ‘Who Speaks English?’ is much more concerned with problems arising from trying to accumulate quantifiable data regarding the global spread and type of English speakers. Graddol’s approach is pragmatic and removed from the arena of the individual. He also deals with ownership of the language but his analysis is not focussed on the social connotations of labelling someone descriptively. Instead, Graddol simplifies types of English speakers into three groups: first language speakers, second or additional language and those who speak it as a foreign language. This simplified holistic approach, favoured by some linguists, ...

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