Standard English

[Admin]

I quite like the analogy between Standard English and dress code or table etiquette rules. There are different dress codes we use on different occasions and in different situations, and SE can have its place in language use, like a suit is used at certain times but not always. Also, thinking of table etiquette, there certainly isn't just one etiquette everyone around the world follows. Different cultures have different expectations of table behaviour; while slurping one's soup might be regarded as rude in western cultures, in eastern cultures it's a sign of enjoyment of the meal. All this to say, language is the same, it's not uniform and it takes the shape of the culture it lives in, and the individuals that it lives in.

I like one particular TED Talk in which intercultural communication expert Marianna Pascal says that "English is not an art to be mastered. It’s a tool to get results". I completely agree, and we all use that tool differently.

By the way, Marianna Pascal has an interesting short Toastmasters speech on Local English & Standard English that can be found here www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQmNIqdwVMw. I'm interested to hear some thoughts on it! I agree with some points she makes but not so much or not fully) with other ones.

[EnglishUser456]

Great post!

[Deborah Ayers]

I agree with the idea that we do need some standardization, but we can't all be expected to use one English only. There would be a big fight over whose English is the most valid, and in my view, the answer to that question will always be '"none of them".

[Rachel Laycook]

I like the analogy of "standard" English being the same as a dress code, and an interesting point as that they are both open to interpretation.
Most of us that speak English will find great areas of overlap in our pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, etc., but there would be outliers to this "average", just as most of us have a general idea of what clothes to wear to a funeral, although there may be a few people here and there that seem to interpret this "dress code" differently than the rest of us.

I think one of the emerging challenges of the pluralistic view of many Englishes is to prepare students to encounter English that is quite different from what they've learned. It's impossible to prepare them for every type of English they could possibly encounter, but if I know my students will work for a French multi national, work for a company headquartered in Texas, or study abroad in Germany, it is relevant and useful for my students to encounter that English and its features in class and online. Knowing these features is a challenge for linguists and teachers-- we need widely diffused and easily accessible guides, as well as linguists doing the work via ethnographic studies to create these guides.

[sameerco1971]

I do believe in Standard English being the same as a dress code. There are many dress codes but may be Standard English is a more formal code. I do believe in plurilithic Englishes.

[Kunlong Jin]

I agree with the dress code analogy. There should not be a standard English idea, I suppose. So called standard English depends on different register and genre. The way you speak to your families is totally different from your employers and professors. It is standard in a particular situation.

[Daniel Palmer]

I would have to agree that SE is a more formal 'dress code', however I grew up speaking a strong regional dialect (South London), and at our family dinner table any person using SE to attempt to put on airs would be roundly ridiculed...

[severoc]

The analogy between SE and a dress code suits it perfectly. It is a common sense that it's meant to be used in formal events, but not necessarily has to be used in a daily basis, even because it's impractical.

[Danielle Zelin - Mauritius]

This is a very interesting comparison and during my teaching, I have been having different experiences. Like myself, a non-native English teacher I was trained at first to deliver the 'standard English' to my ESL learners. But then with time, I realised that English comes in different forms and shapes which I had to adapt according to my learners' needs and interests. And it brought me to encounter different Englishes. But yes, standard English is like a set of rules not to be changed and this can cause 'damage' or 'inconsistency' in the teaching/learning process.

[abdisyam]

I think the analogy of SE being the same as a dress code is very interesting in a way that people can wear anything they have to a market, but they need to wear a suit to attend a royal party. Does it mean that we cannot attend the party if we do not a suit? I think this analogy really describes what happen in academic and other formal contexts as we are expected to use SE for writing essays or job applications. The analogy of table etiquette seems true as well, as different countries have different expectations of SE. It is like we are not encouraged to use American legal terminologies such as plaintiff or attorney in our essays if we are studying law in the UK, for example. This means that sometimes teachers need to prepare a very specialised curriculum depending on their students' need and learning goal.

[tony]

I totally agree that English varieties could easily be paralleled to etiquette and other norms or rules: after all, what is considered appropriate in one place or during one occasion, may not be accepted in other. I am convinced that as long as learners of English can at least use so-called standard English, they will be able to then adapt accordingly and have ways of communicating their message regardless of who they talk to and where. That is English, as it has been mentioned above, is essentially a tool for achieving different goals, and to succeed in that, it is essential to get the knack of using it flexibly.

[andrea scabbia]

Which is the best English? One American teacher said to me: The one that makes yourself understood .

[profebeth]

I agree with many others that the analogies are interesting. I tend to think of communication in its bare bones as the speaker and listener understanding meaning. So, it doesn't matter if I say, "...my brother's house" or "...the house of my brother" as both are understood equally. I do know one of those as "right" from my upbringing and the other "wrong," but nevertheless meaning has been conveyed. So, while my yellow shoes may not meet the dress code, they serve the purpose of protecting my feet. While I may put my elbows on the table while eating, it may be considered rude, but I can still get nourished. Dress codes and etiquette are in many ways arbitrarily created rules that may or may not stem from a functional reason.

[Philip Kruger]

Interesting analogy of Standard English being like dress or etiquette rules, however, this immediately makes it a rules based language - follow the rules, or you'll be kicked out. I would prefer to refer to it as guide lines based on context.

As Admin I agree with Marianna Pascal's statement "English is not an art to be mastered. It’s a tool to get results". If you get your meaning across, is it wrong?

Her speech on Local English and Standard English almost made it seem like she is promoting Local English for being interesting and 'cute' (my word). Local English is, in my experience, used by non-native speakers only when trying to communicate with native speakers and is often the result of direct translation and varies from person to person. I'm not sure that it deserves to be seen as a dialect. Having said that, it is a tool of communication and (mostly) succeeds in its objective. Some of these Local English phrases make it into wider use and that is fine, as long as it because they enrich English. As an example, in Afrikaans we have an expression "holding thumbs" (duime vashou), which is the same as crossing fingers, meaning good luck. It has now become a South African English expression fairly widely used.

[Abayomi Oluwatoyin]

Standard English is useful mostly in official domains and has a set of rules for use while the non-standard English is used for communicative purposes. Yes, communicative because it is with the use of this form of English that the competence of a user or mostly speaker is discovered. I grew up speaking the non-standard form and it helped a lot with the grasping of the standard form when I started school.