藤本 "World Englishes: The Intelligibility of Japanese English"

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.