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关于新加坡英语的若干思考 The study of Singapore English  
Introduction            
This thesis is triggered by the changing picture of the present English language use, where, a multitude of new English varieties, which can by no means be said the simple imitation of British or American English, are coming into being a de facto linguistic condition.  These varieties distinguish themselves from the so-called native ones in pronunciation, grammar, lexicon, rhetorics and pragmatics. Meanwhile, they are used as a vehicle to express culturally determined networks of activities that are typical of their respective countries. Hence the name new Englishes.
The new English varieties, together with the native ones, are playing, and most probably will play an important role in both intranational and international communications. Crystal (1997) claims a figure of about 600 million non-native English speakers in five years as against 300 million native ones based on Kachru's assertion in 1985 (Kachru, 1985a: 212). It is, to this author, a reasonable result of the world development trend of
English learning and using and the world population growth pattern. And a large number of the non-native English speakers are using and will use English as new varieties with their own distinctive features and established identities that are different from the native ones.
The emerging new Englishes naturally dovetail into a heated discussion in second language learning and teaching as to which standard to adopt. There are two opposing positions: those who argue for an exonormative standard derived from the old English center for the people studying English in the periphery', and those who hold the opposite view and show an adequate respect and tolerance to the new Englishes and therefore are in favor of an endonormative standard for the ESL learners.
Though the norm discussion is not a recent year scenario, it has a relatively briefhistory as compared to some other issues about English language, and it has not become a hot topic until the English language took up the dominant position in world communication and a growing number of new varieties became co-existent with the so-called native ones ten or twenty years ago (Llamzon, 1983; Newbrook, 1993: 7). What is more relevant here is that though this discussion has started several years ago in some western countries and some bilingual/multilingual countries where English is used as one of the languages people use, it is still quite a new topic in China. Here a serious scanty of research in this respect exists and not many people have ever meditated on this issue.
English language classrooms in China have long taken the native Britain and/or US standard for granted. There have been considerable efforts of English learners to imitate RP (Received Pronunciation) of the British people or the pronunciation of Americans. Great efforts are also made to familiarize students with the British and/or American cultures in order to enhance the learning efficiency. Nevertheless, the present situation of English language calls for us Chinese researchers and teachers to ponder. Should we continue to uphold the native standards? What is the point of insisting on it if more people in the world do not necessarily conform to the native standards when they are using English? Can other standards of English be accepted? What is the extent of tolera本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。