Focus: Theory; Communication across Cultures in Englishes
Yamuna Kachru is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the USA. She taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies (1959-65), University of London, and completed her Ph.D. in General Linguistics from that University. She joined University of Illinois in 1965. Her research areas include structure of Hindi and other South Asian languages, and communication across languages and cultures using world Englishes. She has written a number of books and research papers on various aspects of Indian, especially Hindi, linguistics. She was honored with a Presidential Award by the President of India for her services to linguistic studies in 2006. Her recent publications include World Englishes in Asian Contexts (co-authored with Cecil L. Nelson, Hong Kong University Press, 2006), The Handbook of World Englishes (co-edited with Braj B. Kachru and Cecil L. Nelson, Blackwell, Oxford, 2006), Hindi (Oriental and African Language Library series, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 2006), Language in South Asia (co-edited with Braj B. Kachru and S. N. Sridahr, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2008), and Cultures, Contexts, and World Englishes (co-authored with Larry E. Smith, Routledge, New York, 2008).
WORLD ENGLISHES AND CORPUS LINGUISTICS
There is now a small but significant body of grammatical and lexical analyses of corpora from a number of Englishes, e.g., American, Australian, British, Hong Kong, Indian, Philippine and Singaporean. Variations attested in Cameroon, Jamaican, Nigerian, and many other Englishes have also been published. This paper is an attempt to see if the variations recorded in these studies are motivated by underlying substratum cultural and linguistic factors. A further question that arises is the following:if underlying cultural and linguistic influences are claimed to provide reasonable explanations for variation, is it possible to unambiguously link the observed variations to regional, cultural and linguistic factors?
Dr. Murray Munro Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada Focus: L2 Applied Phonetics
Murray Munro is a Professor of Linguistics and Director of TESL at SimonFraserUniversity in Vancouver, and a former co-editor of the TESL Canada Journal. He began his career as an instructor of adult ESL before completing graduate studies in phonetics and working as a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow with James Flege. His research, much of it carried out with Tracey Derwing, has appeared in more than 20 journals covering the speech sciences, language teaching, and applied linguistics. He is interested in all aspects of second language learners' speech, especially age and accent, the role of pronunciation in communication, and the social evaluation of L2 speakers. John Benjamins recently published his co-edited volume with Ocke-Schwen Bohn entitled "Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning."
HOW ACCENTS DO AND DON'T MATTER:
THE ROLE OF PRONUNCIATION IN COMMUNICATION
The patterns of pronunciation we call accents engender a wide array of consequences for speakers and their interlocutors. One such effect occurs when listeners use indexical aspects of speech to impute particular characteristics to speakers, including native speaker status, place of origin, sexual orientation, or particular bodily features. At another level, accents differ in terms of mutual intelligibility. In fact, perceptual studies indicate that even correctly understood utterances may require allocation of special processing resources that make communication effortful. However, the extent to which communicative breakdowns occur is not simply tied to the degree of perceived difference between one variety of speech and another. This synthesis of recent empirical findings highlights a number of key themes in accent and intelligibility research in English. In particular, it underscores the important role of speech perception studies in clarifying sources of communicative difficulty among speakers. It also considers how such research sheds light on a number of sociophonetic issues relating to accent, including negative social evaluation, discrimination, and linguistic quackery that capitalizes on speakers' apprehensiveness about the social costs of their ways of speaking.
Dr. Elizabeth Martin California State University, San Bernardino, USA Focus: World Englishes and Advertising, English in France
Elizabeth Martin is a member of the French faculty in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at California State University-San Bernardino.Her research interests include intercultural business communication and sociolinguistics, with a particular focus on language contact in advertising, language policy, and international marketing.
SEDUCING THE FRENCH WITH ENGLISH:
BILINGUAL ADVERTISING PRACTICES IN FRANCE
Drawing examples from different media, this paper explores English in French advertising from both a sociolinguistic and legal perspective. Despite language planning initiatives in France (including a multitude of language defense organizations and legislation restricting English in the media), advertisers continue to exploit English as both a lingua franca and pair-language for mixing when addressing French audiences. Regulatory agencies responsible for enforcing governmental laws protecting French regularly provide copy advice to Paris advertising agencies, screen all television commercials before they are broadcast on French networks, and impose fines in cases of infringement. However, dissatisfied with the legal requirement to translate English elements into French (one of the stipulations of the 1994 Toubon Law), many advertisers prefer to "gloss" English expressions that are less transparent to the French public using a variety of linguistic devices and/or visual cues to ensure intelligibility. Other legislative loopholes exploited by the advertising industry include the use of copyright for English slogans and product descriptions and incorporating borrowings across product categories that are experiencing various degrees of assimilation. Close examination of the product names, slogans, signature lines, descriptive copy and illustrations in the data reveals that Paris advertising agencies carefully craft messages in this manner that specifically appeal to the French, and will use all means at their disposal to ensure intelligibility and recall. The advertising industry has no intentions of relinquishing their right to create copy as they see fit, and rely very heavily on symbolism and a combination of text and visuals to accentuate the English used in their advertisements. Heavily influenced by the culture in which it is created, the language of advertising continues to reflect social and linguistic trends across consumer groups despite the French government's well-orchestrated efforts to curb the spread and influence of English. Given the evolving nature of language and the complexity of bilingual creativity in this environment, language laws can only have a limited effect on the creative strategies and messages found in advertising campaigns.
Dr. JamieShinheeLee University of Michigan - Dearborn, USA Focus: World Englishes and the Media: English in Korea and Japan
Jamie Shinhee Lee received her Ph. D. in Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Language, Culture, and Communication at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. She is the co-editor, with Yamuna Kachru, of World Englishes in Pop Culture (2006) and, with Andrew Moody, of English and Asian Popular Culture (forthcoming). She specializes in sociolinguistics, and her research interests include world Englishes, bilingualism, language and popular culture, globalization and education, and Korean pragmatics and discourse analysis. Her articles have appeared in Language in Society, World Englishes, Journal of Pragmatics, Critical Discourse Studies, Harvard Studies in Korean Linguistics, English Today , and Asian Englishes.
ENGLISH FOR ENTERTAINMENT:
ACCIDENTAL AND NOT-SO-ACCIDENTAL HUMOR ON KOREAN TV
The English language in Korea is rarely associated with pleasure or entertainment. Rather, it is often framed as a language causing stress and anxiety, particularly in pedagogical and professional settings (Lee forthcoming). Linguistic research has not paid serious attention to an entertainment aspect of language use. This paper discusses TV as an electronic media outlet effectively enabling English to be viewed as a language of entertainment and simultaneously serving as a gatekeeper distinguishing bilinguals from monolinguals. On Korean TV, English is deployed not only as a topic but also as a means of communication for creating a comic effect. Lee (2007a) notes that Korean comics, actors, and TV show hosts use English to "establish themselves as humorous and linguistically adaptable entertainers" (p. 299). Humorous discourses about and through English in Korean dramas and variety shows require sustained comprehension efforts from audiences. In both carefully scripted (e.g. code-approximation in Lee 2007b) and improvised discourses on Korean TV, English deficiencies are highlighted and often exaggerated and Konglish is advertently or inadvertently used, creating a comical persona or situation. Whether this type of humor is appreciated or not depends on viewers' English proficiency, consequently perpetuating the division between the English knowing and the English unknowing. Park (2009) argues that Korean-English humor, which deals with Koreans' inability to speak English, is closely connected with three ideologies of English prevalent in Korea: necessitation,externalization, and self-deprecation. This study suggests that the disadvantage of not knowing English in Korea now affects a mundane activity such as TV viewing, indicating that the depth of English penetration goes beyond employability and academic success.
References
Lee, Jamie Shinhee (2007a) Language and identity: Entertainers in South Korean pop culture.In Miguel Mantero (ed.) Identity and Second Language Learning. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, pp. 283-303.
Lee, Jamie Shinhee (2007b) Don't know=Put some money down=Save!: Mock English in Korean comedy. Proceedings of the 8th ISKS International Conference on Korean Studies. vol. 1.Language/Linguistics, Literature, Society/Education. London: Center of Korean Studies; School of Oriental and African Studies; University of London, pp. 144-54.
Lee, Jamie Shinhee (forthcoming) English and metalinguistic discourse in South Korean film. In Jamie Shinhee Lee and Andrew Moody (eds.) English and Asian Popular Culture. Hong Kong: Hong KongUniversity Press.
Park, Joseph Sung-Yul (2009) The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Yamuna Kachru is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at 
Murray Munro is a Professor of Linguistics and Director of TESL at 
Elizabeth Martin is a member of the French faculty in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at California State University-San Bernardino. Her research interests include intercultural business communication and sociolinguistics, with a particular focus on language contact in advertising, language policy, and international marketing.
Jamie Shinhee Lee received her Ph. D. in Linguistics from the 