Wannapa Trakulkasemsuk A Comparative Analysis of English Feature Articles in Magazines Published in Thailand and Britain : Linguistic Aspects

World Englishes “A language achieves a genuinely global status when it develops a special role that is recognized in every country.” Crystal (1997) How? 1. The language is set as an official language of that country. 2. The language is recognized as a special language that is taught as a foreign language to children in school; or adults in the country mostly know or learn it as a common foreign language.

Users of World Englishes Expanding circle Outer circle Inner circle e.g. USA, UK million e.g. India, Singapore million e.g. China, Russia million Figure 2.1 Kachru’s three circles of English

EIL or IL Bickerton’s (1975 Bickerton’s (1975 ) language development of non-native speakers of English Basilect mesolect acrolect Thai competent users of English Thai learners of English Prestige & Intelligibility

Nativisation and Nativised Varieties of English 1.It has developed through the education system. This means that it has been taught as a subject and, in many cases, also used as a medium of instruction in regions where languages other than English were the main language. 2.It has developed in an area where a native variety of English was not the language spoken by most of the population. 3.It is used for a range of functions among those who speak or write it in the region where it is used. 4.It has become ‘localised’ or ‘nativised’ by adopting some language features of its own, such as sound, intonation patterns, sentence structures, words, and expressions. Identification of new Englishes (Platt et al., 1984) ?

Cultural frameworks describing Thai and British Culture Thai_________________________________________________ Collectivism High context IndirectBritish_________________________________________________ Individualism Low context Direct Hofstede Hall Kaplan

Research procedure Population and samples Thai representatives: 30 feature articles written in English by Thai writers taken from English magazines published in Thailand English native speaker representatives: 30 feature articles written in English by English native speakers taken from English magazines published in Britain.

Criteria for identification of the prominent head nouns Criteria for identification of the prominent head nouns Criteria for identification of the modifiers Criteria for identification of the modifiers A statistical method, Chi squareA statistical method, Chi square Concordancing program Concordancing program Research instruments

Modifiers Identifying most prominent head noun Identifying modifiers pre-or post- modifierspre-or post- modifiers types: word, phrase, or clausetypes: word, phrase, or clause Frequency Count Frequencies Comparison, statistical test Fine analysis of significant modifiers

Findings Noun modifiers

Average modifiers per head noun TEA : 0.77BEA : 0.63 General findings on noun modifiers TypeTEABEA Premodifiers48%55% Postmodifiers52%45% Proportion of premodifiers and postmodifiers in TEA and BEA

Comparison of Thai and British writers’ Preference for Premodifiers and postmodifiers Premodifiers:   = 1.74 Postmodifiers:   = Cut off value (p<0.05) = 3.84

Postmodifiers

Thai English British English - Greater amount of noun modifiers - Smaller amount of noun modifiers - Higher preference for postmodifiers than premodifiers - Higher preference for premodifiers than post modifiers - Significantly higher amount of postmodifiers - Significantly lower amount of postmodifiers - Lengthy and complicated noun modifiers - Short and simple noun modifiers - Provision of unnecessary information is common and favourable. - Provision of only necessary information is common and favourable. - Indirect - Direct

Conclusion Factors influencing features of Thai English Thai language Thai cultures - Collectivism - High context - Indirect

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