Learning English in a Third Space? Malay Students in an English-Speaking University in Malaysia

It has been suggested that the use of English among Malays is constrained by the intertwining of ethnic identity, religion and native language. This study investigated the possibility of a ‘third space’ (Bhabha, 1994) for a group of Malay-speaking English majors in an English-medium university in Malaysia. Using Norton’s (2013) identity approach to second language acquisition, it found that the participants’ identities as ethnic Malays and Malay-English speaking bilingual were often conflicted as the broader community was disinclined to use English. Despite high motivation levels, dominance of the Malay language curtailed the participants’ investment in English to a great extent. The third space, when available, was confined to sites that were associated with their formal learning of English

Definite article usage across varieties of English

This paper seeks to explore the extent of definite article usage variation in several varieties of English based on a classification of its usage types. An annotation scheme based on Hawkins and Prince was developed for this purpose. Using matching corpus data representing Inner Circle varieties and Outer Circle varieties, analysis was made on approximately 14,000 tokens of the in private dialogue, academic writing and reportage. It was found that the different percentages of usage types in the three registers across the varieties were statistically significant. However there was no clear trend that could be observed in either group. The trends of the varieties, collectively or individually, were so unpredictable that in the end there was no evidence of an overall trend. Register, consistent with Biber et al.’s claim, was instead found to be a better predictor of the usage types of the in the varieties. The classification of the varieties as either Inner or Outer Circle was therefore shown to be less influential in the quantitative variation of the morpheme than previously thought. Nevertheless, a subsequent qualitative analysis showed that the structural and situational categories in the Outer Circle did contain a number of marked usages of the,presenting themselves as the clearest cases of variation in the data

Exploring subtlety: collocational variation of the definite article in Inner and Outer Circle varieties of English

Article usage variation is often said to manifest itself in terms of token omission and insertion e.g. American take me to the hospital vs. British take me to Ø hospital. Quantitative evidence, however, can only offer little support for the extensiveness of such variation (e.g. Sand, 2004). Given that syntactic variation in different varieties of English is rarely categorical in that one form exists in one variety but absent in another (e.g. Kortmann, 2006), this paper seeks to explore an aspect of the subtlety of article use variation by describing differences in collocational patterns of the in eight varieties of English available in the International Corpus of English: British, American, Australian, New Zealand, Indian, Singaporean, Philippine and Kenyan Englishes (Greenbaum and Nelson, 1996). Following Kachru (1982), the eight varieties are divided into two groups: a four-member Inner Circle and a four-member Outer Circle. The paper will show that while there are a number of common high-frequency collocates of the quite naturally shared by the varieties, they also crucially demonstrate preferences for different complementation patterns at two- and multiple-word levels – arguably a type of variation that is not visible in terms of frequency. More importantly the Inner Circle varieties are shown to share more complementation patterns among them, demonstrating greater stability in terms of variation. The Outer Circle varieties, on the other hand, are found to display a higher degree of individual creativity in their complementation patterns. It will be argued that some of the heterogeneity found in the Outer Circle can be attributed to nativisation. Social-cultural content appears to be the best factor to explain a large number of the variety-specific collocations

Undetermined noun phrases in New Englishes: zero or null article?

This corpus-based study investigates the phenomenon of article omission in Singapore English, Indian English and Kenyan English using a case study of noun phrases headed by ‘house’. Data from British English, Australian English and New Zealand English are used for comparative purposes. The paper will show that conceiving Ø as the null article, rather than its zero counterpart, can throw light on New English speakers’ intended meanings of those undetermined noun phrases that are often explained away as cases of article omission. Undetermined noun phrases headed by ‘house’ are indeed more frequent in New Englishes but about 80% of them are instantiations of the null article which is also found to be common in the native varieties, as can be seen in, e.g., ‘We are moving Ø house’ or ‘You set up Ø house together’. Interpreted with the null article, many of the otherwise untypical noun phrases in the newer varieties become identifiable, inclusive and maximally abstract (Chesterman 2005). Some 15% of the investigated noun phrases are one-member sets which also act as proper names e.g., ‘House’ for ‘The House of Representatives’. Finally, ‘house’ is found to be used in the phrase ‘in Ø house’ by way of misanalysis. This is due to ‘house’ in the adjectival compound ‘in + house’ being treated as an overt noun. Broadened in its scope of description, the phrase is consequently used as a premodifier or a postmodifier. With this re-interpretation the incidence of ungrammaticality is low, thus shedding light on the widespread occurrence of article omission in the New Englishes

The use of corpus-based techniques in literary analysis : exploring learners’ perceptions

Although corpus linguistics is now known to broaden our understanding of various phenomena in linguistics and literature, little research has been undertaken to examine its effects on the learning experience of learners in the literature class. This study was aimed at exploring how learners respond to the adaptation of corpus-based techniques in their literary analysis. Specifically it tried to determine (1) how the participants perceived the use of corpus-based techniques in their literary analysis and (2) if these perceptions were influenced by their preference for literature or linguistics as a field of study. Participants for the study were 39 undergraduate English majors taking a language-based computer applications course at a public university in Malaysia. Data were collected from a specially designed questionnaire and group interviews. Findings indicated that more than 50% participants perceived all three techniques favourably in terms of learning enjoyment, improvement of understanding and wider applicability. The study also found that preference for literature or linguistics had no effect on their perceptions. To further appreciate their usefulness, the next step would be to apply these techniques in actual literature courses