CANAGARAJAH's Theory....I Think

“The Place of World Englishes in Composition” by Suresh Canagarajah, gives a well constructive viewpoint(s) on what is “strictly” classified as American Standard English.  Canagarajah breaks down English in two forums: Metropolitan and World Englishes. Metropolitan English (ME) which hails from Anglo-Saxon heritage—communities who have adopted the language from England consists of United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Just from this small section it shows how bias this idea of “native” speakers of English are represented. The native language to these regions are not English, in hindsight English and other Anglo-Saxon contributions to English (stemming from Britain) a World Englishes (WE). World Englishes are ruled governed, with well-established norms and communicative functions regulated enough for them. Meaning in Nigeria they speak a dialect of English called Nigerian Pidgin English, in that country which a universal dialect there.

Here are examples of this dialect:

Nigerian Pidgin English (WE)

Waka= (walk)

Sentence= I de waka ye house (I walk to your house)

I de= (I am)

Bros= Friend, male friend, man, boy

To get a better understanding of Canagarajah’s argument I watched YouTube videos on

Australian English (ME)

America: Car top

Sentence: “Pop the top of the hood.”

Australia: Car top

Sentence: “Pop the top of the bonnet.”

American English: Pacifier

 Australian English: Dummy

American English: Sweater

Australian English: Jumper

From these two dialects it is clear that both use variations of English, to value one over the other is a bit absurd, because they are only understood within that community. Countries like Australia and Nigeria have foreign Eurocentric roots, which in hindsight would make Australian English and the like technically a “WE” language. According to David Graddol, English as a sole first language projection by 2050 would be 443 million and English as additional/ second language would be 668million.

The argument Canagarjah is making is that the globalization of American English, has and is doing more harm than good. America uses many technical medias; such as CNN, social media platforms, movies and popularized TV shows to become a super contributor to the way people around the world talk and what to think about (unfortunately this is only a growing problem). Other colonized countries such as Sir Lanka, India and Nigeria, Haiti, etc., are being looked over because they do not favor the appearance or customs as other European countries. With euro variations of Anglo- Saxon English other forms of English are being under looked in the classroom as well—this could leave students to feel inadequate and unable to perform at their best.

As a future teacher, by the year 2050 the average classroom will have a 50% diversity rate, in that statistic it does not take in account how many students speak fluent Metropolitan English (which doesn’t make sense since Australian English and American English are completely abstract from each other. Australians have a better chance of understanding Americans because they have been programmed with the same thoughts and ideas Americans). Keeping an open mind and heart to Canagarajah’s theory will create class connectedness—which is crucial in a learning environment. Students should not feel patronized or embarrassed because they learned a different dialect of English, the affordances some people have over others is not always acquired at the same rate or at all.


Video links:

Nigerian Pidgin English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt8ROvqJ8pY

Australian English 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuRrp83jCuQ