LANGUAGE VARIETIES AND STANDARD LANGUAGE

Page No.: 
14
Writer(s): 
Randolph Quirk

This paper is the text of a lecture delivered at the JAL T conference in 1988.
In it I argue that viewing learners' errors as evidence for the emergence of
new varieties of the English language is dangerously mistaken particularly
where it leads to the abandonment of Standard English as a model for
learners. I show how this view is mistaken by (a) citing recent British
thinking on the relationship of varieties of English to the standard language
and (b) presenting a taxonomy of varieties of English which distinguishes
for example between ethnopolitical and linguistic labels for varieties. I go
on to argue that to displace Standard English from the centre of attention is
to deny learners access to the wider world of international communication.

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