Describe what you understand by four of the concepts listed below:.
In this essay, I will attempt to describe what I understand about native speaker, lingua franca, context of situation and code-mixing. I will first give the definition of these concepts and then, I will try to discuss some of the problems or ambiguities in their definition.
Today, English is used by at least 750 million people, and barely half of those speak it as a mother tongue. Those who do speak it as a mother tongue are known as native speakers of English. In this century, there are more non-native speakers of English than there are native speakers. Native speakers of English are usually British or Americans. Most of the non-native speakers of English come from countries which were mostly former British colonies like Kenya, Malaysia and Australia.
However, it is still quite difficult to give an exact definition of a "native" or "non-native" speaker. For example, in India and Singapore, some non-native speakers become familiar with English from an early age and use the language routinely (Pakir, 1991). .
In Singapore, from personal experience, there are children who can communicate only in English even though they may be Chinese, Malay or Indian. The most common reason is because they only speak and hear English since they were born. When they start primary school, they have to take up their mother tongue language as it is tested in the Primary Schools Leaving Examination (PSLE). This is when these "native speakers" face problems in learning their "mother tongue" (ie. Chinese/Malay/Tamil).
Native speakers of English use Standard English. It can be Standard English in England, Standard American English or Standard Australian English. Standard English has been described as a "prestige variety" of the language, a variety with agreed norms and conventions that can be used as a model for education and for public use (eg. In the media).
