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An English Which Is Not Connected to Great Britain, the USA Or Any Other

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An English Which Is Not Connected to Great Britain, the USA Or Any Other “An English which is not connected to Great Britain, the USA or any other geographical region.” How is English presented in the Swedish educational television series Pick a colour? Victoria Fairless-Clarkson Department of English Master’s Degree Project English Linguistics Spring 2017 Supervisor: Kathrin Kaufhold “An English which is not connected to Great Britain, the USA or any other geographical region.” How is English presented in the Swedish educational television series Pick a colour? Victoria Fairless-Clarkson Abstract English is used worldwide as a native, second and foreign language and as a language of international communication. The uses and status of English in Sweden have been discussed in terms of its influence and ubiquity, with its presence in daily life leading some to consider English could be better described as a second, rather than foreign, language in the country. This study analyses how English is presented in the Swedish educational television series Pick a colour and considers how this can be related to the status of English as a global language and specifically the use of English in Sweden. This paper uses an approach drawing on nexus analysis, together with content analysis, to trace the key language ideologies surrounding English presented in Pick a colour and its surrounding texts, and to locate them within the context of the existing discourses in place. Analysis reveals that the series and related documents make attempts to move away from traditional native speaker British English and American English models of the language, and towards a “Global English” not linked to any specific geographical region and with a focus on communicative competence. However, as British English and American English and native-speaker models of the language are not directly challenged in the documents, and are given the greatest prominence in the series, it seems moving away from the status quo is still difficult in practice. The Swedish settings shown in the series, and emphases on the use of English in pupils’ daily lives allude to English being approached in a way more similar to a second, rather than foreign language in Sweden. Keywords Language ideologies, English as an international language, English as a lingua franca, EFL, ESL, language teaching, educational broadcasting, Sweden. Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................... 1 2. Theoretical framework ..................................................................... 2 2.1. English as a world language ............................................................. 2 2.2. World Englishes .............................................................................. 2 2.3. Models of English ............................................................................ 4 2.4. English in Sweden ........................................................................... 6 3. Methodology................................................................................... 8 3.1. Research design ............................................................................. 8 3.2. Language ideologies ....................................................................... 10 3.3. Choice of materials ........................................................................ 10 3.3.1. Curriculum document .................................................................... 11 3.3.2. Teachers’ notes ............................................................................. 12 3.3.3. Email interviews ............................................................................ 12 3.3.4. Pick a colour ................................................................................. 12 3.4. Analytical methods ......................................................................... 13 3.4.1. The curriculum document and the teachers’ notes ............................. 13 3.4.2. Email interviews ............................................................................ 14 3.4.3. Pick a colour ................................................................................. 15 3.5. Putting it all together – tracing language ideologies ........................... 16 3.6. Ethical considerations ..................................................................... 17 4. Results and discussion .................................................................... 17 4.1. Analysing the curriculum document .................................................. 17 4.1.1. Content analysis ........................................................................... 17 4.1.2. Language ideologies surrounding English ......................................... 19 4.2. Analysing the teachers’ notes .......................................................... 19 4.2.1. Content analysis ........................................................................... 19 4.2.2. Language ideologies surrounding English ......................................... 20 4.2.2.1. Global English ................................................................................................................................. 21 4.3. Analysing the series Pick a colour .................................................... 22 4.3.1. The concept of English and English as a tool for communication .......... 22 4.3.1.1. Accent and dialect features .............................................................................................................. 22 4.3.1.3. Settings and place ............................................................................................................................ 28 4.3.1.4. Cultural references .......................................................................................................................... 29 4.3.2. English as a school subject ............................................................. 31 5. Conclusion .................................................................................... 32 References ........................................................................................ 34 Appendix A – Screen time and speaking time ........................................ 38 Appendix B – Email interview questions ................................................ 39 1. Introduction English today is seen as the global language (see Kachru, 1988, 2006; Crystal, 2003) and is spoken and taught worldwide, as a native, second and foreign language. The traditional models of English - which rotate around native-speaker, British and American English – are being challenged and models based on World Englishes, or English as a language of communication (Melchers & Shaw, 2011; Graddol, 2006) are being foregrounded. These discourses are also visible in current discussions surrounding the use of English in Sweden. Cabau (2009), Josephson (2014) and others have described how English is viewed in Sweden as a language of domains such as education and business, and is part of daily life in the country, meaning young learners are exposed to English even before starting school (Lundberg, 2011). Such factors have caused some researchers to question whether English would be better categorised as a second, rather than foreign, language in Sweden (Josephson, 2014; Hult, 2012). Although there has, therefore, been general interest in how English is viewed and used in Sweden, there has been little interest, if any in how English is presented in educational broadcasting in Sweden, or how this can be related to the status of the language in the Swedish context. The aim of the present paper is to analyse how English is presented in the Swedish educational television series Pick a colour and to link this analysis to the current discourses surrounding the use of English in Sweden. The present study uses an approach drawing on nexus analysis, together with content analysis, to look at how ideologies around the English language are presented in the series and surrounding documents. The educational TV series Pick a Colour is placed at the centre of the nexus analysis, as the site where interconnected threads in the analysis intersect to reveal discourses in place and links between documents and scales, as well as links to the current discourses surrounding the status of English. 1 2. Theoretical framework The main aim of this section is to give a brief overview of the status of English as a global language and the status of English in Sweden today. It will begin with a discussion of English as a world language and introduce the main models of World Englishes. I will then discuss the various models of English proposed, including the discussion of native speaker and non-native speaker authority and varieties. This chapter will conclude with an overview of the status of English in Sweden at present, together with some historical background on the status of English as a language and as a school subject in Sweden. This provides the necessary context and background on which to place the analysis presented later in this paper. 2.1. English as a world language According to latest estimates, there are 983,522,920 English speakers worldwide (Ethnologue, 2017). Of these, 371,959,910 have English as their first language and the remainder have English as their L2 (ibid). Graddol (2006) has forecast the numbers learning English to be at 2 billion in the near future. The use of English is almost ubiquitous in a range of contexts and English has gained a status as the global language (see Kachru, 2006; Crystal, 2003; Graddol 2006; Seidlhofer,
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