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    David Crystal - Main Ideas

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    Ксения Логинова
    Standard English developed over 400 years to promote intelligibility both nationally and internationally, though tensions exist between standardization and preserving local identities. The concept of a "native speaker" is flawed as all speakers are influenced by variations and many move locations. It is problematic that native speakers are often paid more for language teaching despite non-natives being perfectly intelligible if they have an accent reflecting their identity. The main purpose of learning English today is to live in a multilingual, multicultural world and understand human nature, not to become a native speaker of the language.

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    David Crystal - Main Ideas

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    Ксения Логинова
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    Standard English developed over 400 years to promote intelligibility both nationally and internationally, though tensions exist between standardization and preserving local identities. The concept of a "native speaker" is flawed as all speakers are influenced by variations and many move locations. It is problematic that native speakers are often paid more for language teaching despite non-natives being perfectly intelligible if they have an accent reflecting their identity. The main purpose of learning English today is to live in a multilingual, multicultural world and understand human nature, not to become a native speaker of the language.

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    Standard English developed over 400 years to promote intelligibility both nationally and internationally, though tensions exist between standardization and preserving local identities. The concept of a "native speaker" is flawed as all speakers are influenced by variations and many move locations. It is problematic that native speakers are often paid more for language teaching despite non-natives being perfectly intelligible if they have an accent reflecting their identity. The main purpose of learning English today is to live in a multilingual, multicultural world and understand human nature, not to become a native speaker of the language.

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    83 views2 pages

    David Crystal - Main Ideas

    Uploaded by

    Ксения Логинова
    Standard English developed over 400 years to promote intelligibility both nationally and internationally, though tensions exist between standardization and preserving local identities. The concept of a "native speaker" is flawed as all speakers are influenced by variations and many move locations. It is problematic that native speakers are often paid more for language teaching despite non-natives being perfectly intelligible if they have an accent reflecting their identity. The main purpose of learning English today is to live in a multilingual, multicultural world and understand human nature, not to become a native speaker of the language.

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    The Myth of the Native Speaker

    What does Standard English mean? Standard English historically is a written


    English (printed English). It took 400 years for English to standardize. However,
    just at the point at which English was settling down into a standard form in Britain
    it began to diversify. American English existed as a different standard, as an
    emerging standard, differently from British English. We can talk about two or
    three percent of the language being different between British English and
    American English – it's not a big deal, but it's enough to express the different
    identities of these different countries.

    Why do we need Standard English? Standard English is to promote intelligibility


    of nationally and internationally. It helps us to understand each other. The other
    big force is the need for identity. It produces local accents and dialects both
    nationally and internationally. So there is the tension now between these two
    forces intelligibility, saying “let's all speak the same” and identity, saying “let's be
    different”.

    Native VS non-native speaker. There was never a native speaker in the sense of
    somebody who hasn't been influenced by some sort of local variation here. And
    there are all sorts of mixed accents people, especially these days, when people
    moving around the country and accommodating to the accent of the place in which
    they find themselves. You can stand at the corner of Oxford and try listening for
    RP – you can wait for ages.
    It a disastrous thing that native speaker all over the world is paid more money for
    teaching in a language school.

    Teaching. Students should be aware of the fact that English is now multiple in its
    accent.  
    “If we have somebody who is pretty fluent in English but has got a pretty strong
    accent – Spanish accent, French accent, etc, –as long as that person is intelligible
    to me I have no problem with that”.  
    “I love to hear English spoken with the French accent,not just because it's
    delightful, but because it helps me identify who the speaker is”.
    “Learners are not native speakers, they are foreigners”. If I am learning French or
    Spanish over the years, then so long as I am intelligible I do not to be a French
    person or a Spanish person. I want to be me, and I want my accent to reflect that
    and to let other people know it”. Accent – is a marker of your identity.
    “There is no such thing as homogeneity in in language there is always variation”.
    The difference between intelligibility and identity is not just an intellectual
    difference: intelligibility is in the head, identity is in the heart (who you are, which
    community you belong to, which community you're proud to belong to).

    The main purpose of learning English language. The main purpose is the fact
    that we are living in a multilingual and multicultural world. If you're curious about
    the nature of the planet and what it means to be human, you will have a need for
    learning language.

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