藤本雄馬(M2)
所属:野口ゼミ
発表タイトル:World
Englishes: The Intelligibility of
Japanese English
Today,
English is spoken in many different countries all over the world. In some Asian
countries, it is spoken by people as the second language. In other countries,
it is studied as a foreign language. Previously, English was thought to be a
single language, no matter who spoke it. Today, however, many people have started
to think that English has many varieties, depending on who speaks it. For
example, even though British people and American people are both native English
speakers, the Englishes they speak have different characteristics in terms of
vocabulary and pronunciation. When it comes to non-native varieties, English
differs even more from one variety to another. This way of thinking is called "World
Englishes". According to this perspective, Indian people speak
"Indian English" and Singapore’s
people speak "Singapore English", for example.
Likewise,
the English that Japanese people speak can be called "Japanese
English". However, the English proficiency level of the average Japanese
person is quite low, so there is some controversy as to whether Japanese
English is really understandable to other people or not.
The
most important element of a language is to be a tool for communication. So if
Japanese English is not understandable to other people, it cannot be regarded
as a valid variety of English. In this presentation, I would like to talk about
some basic ideas about what Japanese English is, especially from the phonological
point of view. And then, I would like to
consider the validity of Japanese English in terms of international
communication in today's globalised society.