Socio-cultural Dimensions of English as a Second Language by Rekha Aslam (University of Delhi)

Smt. S. B. Gardi Department of English,

Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University Bhavnagar

M.A. Semester 3

English Language Teaching 1

Unit 1: The role of English in India

• The creative exploitation of linguistic resources reflects the values of different socio-cultural traits.
• The Indian reality is manifested at many levels of language organization from borrowing, lone creatings to idiom, metaphor, symbolism etc. brought to the English language
• English is taught in India as a second language. The creative exploration of linguistic resources reflects the values of different socio-cultural traits. The Indian reality is manifested at many levels of language organization from borrowing, lone creating to idioms, metaphor, symbolism etc. brought to the English language. 

• The paper describes how English is made to fulfill the function of a second language. The transition is shown with examples from Fire on the Mountain by Anita Desai, Nectar in a Sieve byKamala Markandaya and R.K. Narayan’s The Dark Room. 

• The creative writings of Indian writers who have a near native control of the linguistic codes illustrate how English is used creatively and thereby the socio-cultural code infused in it. Manipulation with English is possible since it is a second language.  

• Christopherson differentiates foreign and second language on the following parameters: 
• a) A foreign language is a language which is not one’s own, even though one may have a very good knowledge of it. A second language, on the other hand, is a language which is one’s own though not the first in order to importance nor usually the first to be learnt.
• b)A foreign language is used for the purpose of absorbing the culture of other nations; as a second language is used as an alternative way of expressing a culture of one’s own.
• c) A foreign language tends to produce bilinguals with a passive and receptive attitudes while a second language produces bilinguals with a passive and receptive attitude while a second language produces bilinguals with active and creative interest.

• This creativity can be approached from 2 points of view – how the language is manipulated to express antithetically the context and culture of India and how it is exploited for discourse. 

• Language is not an isolated entity. It is deeply rooted in socio-cultural, religious etc.. concepts of Native speaker’s life. 

• A writer may make practice of using phonological (graphic) adaptation, lone translation, lone creation as per the requirement of emphasis, etc. and availability.

•  Native words find their ways in English because of the non-availability of an equivalent counter-part. 
• Another method of expressing the Indian reality is to use a translation on the basis of semantics. 
• Advertisements – News paper classifieds, Acronyms such as All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Delhi University of Teacher Association (DUTA), Discourse pattern – the social meaning of language that is emphasized by socio linguists. Language used to talk to friends, to scold children, conduct business.. i.e. “Accha, I’ll come again.”
• Intimacy and turn-taking conversations 
• Language of dominance 
• Religious temper and language 
• The caste hierarchy figures prominently in discourse 
• Semiotics in Indian Literature 
• The symbols employed enrich second language

Socio-cultural Dimensions of English as a Second Language by Rekha Aslam (University of Delhi) from Parth Bhatt