1. Varieties of English Reflection
In the previous reflection our topic was Language Varieties, now I am going to
focus on the specific varieties of the language which I have been studying for
thirteen years, English.
The English language possesses different types of variation that helps us to
understand the differences, between one English speaker from Scotland and an
English speaker from Canada, to set an example. For there are several factors that
influence English as a language; in some cases the variation is related to the
language user, such as the regional and social variation; and sometimes the
variation is linked to the language use, like in the case of variation associated to
the field of discourse, variation according to medium and the type of variation
according to the attitude.
Standard English is also a main point of study in this summary, for it is
compulsory to learn what it means and its importance in educational, social mass
media and broadcasting matters, are something to consider when using English as
a foreign language.
In the previous summary, the term to discuss was Standard Language which is a
wider field to study, so now the concept of Standard English will be our main focus
to learn, for it is that ‘type’ of English the one that is taught in schools all over the
globe, and so it is the one I was taught to learn when I was at school and the kind
of English used for important matters, as in the case of governmental issues, world
trades, newspapers, books and it is the English that expresses more prestige,
mostly because it is used with academic purposes. In my case, I study British
English, which is also known as Received Pronunciation (RP), which is the most
prestigious accent in Britain.
This summary is useful to learn some other relevant aspects of the English
Language as a field of study, for it is necessary to learn how to distinguish the
different types of variation present in the English language.
The summary I made for this document can be of a lot of help to achieve some of
the Lexical Analysis course objectives. I dare to say that the summary is involved
with most of the course objectives; it can also be used to complement some
material with some other courses, like Language, Culture and Phonetics, for the
summary refers to different aspects of English, such as vocabulary, history and
change, word formation and pronunciation.
Varieties of English is an important document to read and to study; it can really
help you to understand the basis of what you are going to teach in a few more
years, because we need to know every aspect of what we are going to explain to
the future generations that will be even more immerse than us, in the global world,
and when we talk about global world and its several features, we are talking about
the English Language.