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摘 要

由于科学技术迅猛发展和经济全球化，各国之间的跨文化交际越来越频繁。英语作为一门全球通用语在跨文化交际中扮演着至关重要的角色。然而，世界上存在着各种英语变体，如英式英语、美式英语、加拿大英语和澳大利亚英语等等。这些变体彼此之间在语音、词汇、语法上有差别，这就导致跨文化交际在许多方面存在障碍。本文的目的在于从英语变体的角度分析跨文化交际的障碍，并且提供一些可行的建议或措施。

关键词：英语变体；跨文化交际障碍；跨文化交际对策

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Previous Studies on Other Fields from the Perspective of Varieties of English 2

2.2 Previous Studies of Intercultural Communication Barriers and Measures 3

3. Varieties of English in the World 4

3.1 The Status of English in the World 4

3.2 The Birth and the Development of Varieties of English 5

3.3 The Types of Varieties of English 6

4. Barriers in Intercultural Communication from the Perspective of Varieties of English 7

4.1 Differences in Pronunciation 7

4.2 Differences in Vocabulary 8

4.3 Differences in Grammar 9

5. Measures in Intercultural Communication from the Perspective of Varieties of English 9

5.1 Taking Correct Attitudes towards Varieties of English 9

5.2 Strengthening Intercultural Awareness 10

5.3 Teaching English in Multicultural Contexts 11

6. Conclusion 12

Works Cited 14

Introduction

With the development of modern science and technology, the earth has become a small village where every country or nation live together and communicate with each other frequently.

China is a big country in the world and plays an important role in world affairs. So we not only need to develop harmonious relations with Britain and the United States but also need to communicate and cooperate with other countries or nations in the world. As we all know, there are many other varieties of English in the world and they share numerous differences such as Australia English and Canadian English and so on. However, successful intercultural communication is not easy to go. Instead, it is a rather complex process.

People usually use English as a global language to communicate which can not guarantee a successful communication because of the cultural bound. During intercultural communication, people can not do justice to act or judge other persons on account of various cultures. In this situation, we need to gain more knowledge of these varieties and their cultures in order that we can communicate with others smoothly. There are lots of barriers discussed and some practical measures offered in the thesis which is hoped to help a lot.

This thesis is composed of six parts, and they will be organized as follows:

After the introductive part, there is a part of a review of the previous study of varieties of English, intercultural communication. In the third part, it will discuss varieties of English in details from three aspects which are the status of English, the birth and the development of varieties of English, and the types of varieties of English. In the fourth part, it briefly analyzes the barriers in intercultural communication from the perspective of varieties of English including three parts: differences in vocabulary, differences in pronunciation and differences in grammar. It will offer some practical measures to cope with those barriers in the fifth part. The measures are taking correct attitudes towards varieties of English, strengthening intercultural awareness, teaching English in multicultural contexts and so on. Part six is the conclusive part that contains two parts which are the major findings of the study and some limitations of the essay.

Literature Review

As a matter of fact, much literature can be found to review in varieties of English or intercultural communication barriers and measures. Nevertheless, there is little literature to review in both fields. This paper tries to build a bridge between varieties of English and intercultural communication barriers and measures. The paper is to briefly analyze the intercultural communication barriers and measures from the perspective of varieties of English. Therefore, previous studies of varieties of English are to be reviewed. Also the studies about intercultural communication barriers are included.

2.1 Previous Studies on Other Fields from the Perspective of Varieties of English

For many reasons, English has now been widely used as an international language by not only the English-speaking countries and the non-English speaking countries. Now there exist many varieties of English. Under such a background, a lot of researches spring up on many areas from the perspective of varieties of English.

Pan Aiqin is one of the researchers. Her paper focuses on the influence of varieties of English on intercultural communication in business. She mainly discusses it from three aspects which are pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. There are many examples in her paper which are good references for my thesis.

Another researcher is Song Meiying. Her paper, named English Varieties and Multiculturalism in Intercultural Communication, offers a lot of insights. In her paper, the centre part is analyzing the differences among many varieties of English. Those varieties contain Canadian English, Australia English, New Zealand English, and South African English and so on. At last she gives us some suggestions on the foreign language education in China. Some of the suggestions are very useful in successful intercultural communication.

Zhao Jiuyang is another one of the researchers. His paper is named Influence of Performance English Variety on Intercultural Communication—a Case Study of China English which is useful for my thesis. The center part of his paper is analyzing China English and its influence on intercultural communication. Influences on intercultural communication conclude positive influences and negative influences. The negative influences on intercultural communication from the perspective of China English in his paper are of great help for my thesis. The most useful part of his paper is the review of the studies before.

The last researcher is Xie Qin. He emphasizes Kachru’s theory that is three dimensions of understanding. He provides a few examples to demonstrate the theory. But he discusses the suggestions for intercultural communication failures only with a few cursory lines.

The studies of those researchers are of value regardless of the quality of them.

2.2 Previous Studies of Intercultural Communication Barriers and Measures

The history of intercultural communication as a subject is not long. But many issues have been studied. On the issue of intercultural barriers, there are some researches.

According to Wang Jianhua, “In cross-cultural communication, there are no cultural similarities, no communicating sense of security, and no sense of comfort, and what’s more, the predictability disappears. As a result, the obstacles in intercultural cross-cultural communication appear in many ways.”(Wang Jianhua, 2009:13) In his paper, he mentions some factors that affect the intercultural communication which are ethnocentrism, stereotyping, prejudice and so on. He just analyzes the barriers from the perspective of culture and environmental backgrounds, which are not in details. When it comes to the suggestions for successful intercultural communication, his dissertation only expresses the strong decision to the comprehensive and necessary knowledge. Although he talks about discarding the prejudice towards the others and some other ways, those ways are merely abstract but not practical. So those ways are hard to organize and practice. On the positive side, it is worth of reference. His paper provides us a clear direction on the study of intercultural communication barriers and measures.

The journal article of Zhao Lihua has some aspects in common with that of Wang Jianhua but they differ from each other in some sides. They both analyze the cultural differences and misunderstanding caused by cultural differences. However, Zhao Lihua emphasizes the reasons of intercultural communication. The reasons are value orientation, modes of thinking, customs and cultural-bound expressions and images. The suggestions she offers are for the interpreters yet they are still talked from the perspective of culture. It is sure that her paper gives us a reference to analyze intercultural communication barriers and measures from other perspectives.

Wen Jin also publishes a paper on the title of cross-cultural communication problems and countermeasures. In her paper, she thinks culture differences cause the barriers of intercultural communication. There are no exact examples to explain or analyze the obstacles. It does little help for English learners to grasp more knowledge of English. The suggestions she gives us are about the teaching contents including customs, thinking style, values and some other elements which is mainly studied in her paper. Those suggestions are really concrete and it is helpful for my thesis.

Varieties of English in the World

To talk about the varieties of English in the world, it is necessary to analyze the status of English in the world, the birth and the development of varieties of English, and many types of varieties of English.

3.1 The Status of English in the World

Today more and more countries or nations have regarded English as native languages or official languages. At the same time, English has been treated as the first foreign language in every country or nation. “According to conservative estimate, mother-tongue speakers have now reached around 400 million; a further 350 million use English as a second language, and a further 100 million use it fluently as a foreign language. This is an increase of over 40% since the 1950s. More radical estimates, which include speakers with a lower level of language fluency and awareness, have suggested that the overall total is these days well in excess of 1000 million.” (Crystal, 2010: 360)

It is common to see English elements in nearly all the popular places. For example, English subtitles in a number of films are frequently used. They are even in numerous popular computer games. “Surveys of range of use carried by UNESCO and other world organizations reinforce the general statistical impression. English is used as an official or semi-official language in over 60 countries, and has a prominent place in a further 20. It is the main language of books, newspaper, airports and air-traffic control, international business and academic conference, science, technology, medicine, diplomacy, sports, pop music, and advertising over two thirds of the world’s scientists write in English. Three quarters of the world’s mail is written in English. Of all the information in the world’s electronic retrieval systems, 80% is stored in English. English radio programs are received by over 150 million in 120 countries.” (Crystal, 2010: 361)

“International language” and “global language” are the two terms that directly reflect the status of English in the world. Here the word “international” suggests the significance in intercultural communication. The other word “global” implies the wide spread of English. Actually, the two items have approximately the same meaning although they spell differently.

The Birth and the Development of Varieties of English

The history of English is about 1500 years long since its birth. The history is much shorter than that of Chinese, Greek or Latin. However, there is a surprising speed of its spread around the world since it first landed into England from northern Europe. English has been on the expansion not long after its forepart of landing into England. At first, it just moved around the Great Britain and then it spread throughout the world.

Once, Chrystal argued that there were mainly two factors which caused English to spread throughout the world. One factor is “the expansion of British colonial power,” and the other one is “the emergence of the United States as the leading economic power of the 20^th century. It is the latter factor which continues to explain the world position of the English language today”. (Crystal, 1997: 53)

English is composed of a family of different varieties. This view may actually go back to the early 19^th century. Here are some evidences that “Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, wrote by John Jamieson in 1808, described that there were differences between the Scottish variety of English and the Published in 1848, English language of England. John Bartlett’s Dictionary of Americanism, acknowledging that an apparent variety of English had appeared across the Atlantic. Then, Oxford English Dictionary recorded not just words of British English, but also words from some other English varieties found in Australasia, Asia, Africa, and North America.” (Zhao Jiuyang, 2010:4)

It is supposed that the study of varieties of English begin to be a crucial science since 1978. There are two important seminars held in1978 to discuss the status of English as an international and intranational language. Before this, many scholars had studied the varieties of English, such as Kachru.

In a word, varieties of English are the outcome of the development of a world-wide market, the modern science and technology and so on. People at different classes of the society need various varieties of English.

The Types of Varieties of English

On the basis of different divisions, English varieties can be divided into regional varieties, functional varieties, social varieties and time varieties.

There are a lot of scholars who have made great efforts to the varieties of English. For instance, Kachru, American linguist, has made large contribution to the study of those varieties of English. He thinks it is important to study the non-native varieties of English. He has a famous theory that is the theory of three circles which describe the sociolinguistic content of varieties of English. This theory belongs to regional varieties. The three circles consist of the inner circle, the outer circle, and the expanding circle. The inner circle refers to English as a native language. The outer circle refers to English as a second language. The expanding circle refers to English as a foreign language. The three circles also share the same parts.

There is the least population in the inner circle. English in this circle is the mother tongue. As a whole, Britain, the United States, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are in the inner circle.

The persons in the outer circle are more than that in the inner circle. English in the outer circle is taken as the second language and English has become the most vital language. People use it to communicate and cooperate with each other in daily life frequently. After a long time fusion, it has become national varieties of English. The majority of the ex-colony countries are in the outer circle. Those countries are South Africa, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Zambia, and some other fifty countries.

The people in the expanding circle are the most. English is regarded as a foreign language in those countries of the circle. Its function is as an assisted language that people can use in the areas of education, business, industry, science and technology, diplomacy and so on. The colonists of the inner circle never colonized these countries or nations in the expanding circle. The countries did not accept the legal status of English either. There are many countries in the expanding circle which are China, Greece, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Nepal and etc.

In the classification of varieties of English, this theory of Kacru is of great significance.

Barriers in Intercultural Communication from the Perspective of Varieties of English

New varieties of English influence the communication among people with different cultures. Different varieties of English have their own systems of pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. The differences of varieties of English in pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar affect intercultural communication greatly.

4.1 Differences in Pronunciation

Many varieties of English can not be understood by English speakers from other countries or nations in intercultural communication mainly because of the pronunciation of English. The pronunciation of varieties of English differs from each other in its rules. And different English speakers have different accents. Although English now has been regarded as a global language, people in every countries or nations speak English with their own features which cause different pronunciations.

At the very beginning, the analysis of Singapore English is to be given here. English is widely used in the specific area of Asia and it fuses with all kinds of dialects. Thus, many new varieties of English appear and Singapore English is one of the new varieties of English. Singapore English differs from British and American English in many aspects such as vowels, consonants, stresses, intonations and rhythm and so on. First of all, there are many rising tones in Singapore English even in declarative sentences. At the same time, the number of stressed syllables is very large and most of the stressed syllables are rare in Standard English. Sound recognition is the basis of language communication so only when English learners grasp the different pronouncing rules and get used to them for a period of time can they make successful intercultural communication.

The use of the word “eh” in a rising intonation at the end of a sentence in Canadian English is also an obvious feature compared to other varieties of English. “Eh has many functions in Canadian speech: Tag question: ‘So you went to Vancouver with him, eh?’ To ask agreement: ‘Let’s have another drink, eh?’ ‘Looks good, eh?’ To request the repetition of a statement: ‘Eh? I didn’t hear you clearly the first time.’”

To sump up, there are a large amount of differences in pronunciation among numerous varieties of English. Only when English learners grasp more and more knowledge of those differences can they make intercultural communication more successfully.

4.2 Differences in Vocabulary

In many varieties of English, the vocabularies have their own variants and they are the second large factor that affects intercultural communication. It should be mentioned that different varieties of English share the majority of the vocabularies. In other words, all kinds of varieties of English share the same system of vocabularies. However, there are still some differences among them.

Take Canadian English as an example. “The word ‘skidroad’ originated in B.C. (a Province in Canada) lumber camps in1832. It means a road of greased skids, over which logs were dragged by teams of oxen or horses. The word ‘hydrobill’ means ‘electricity bill’ to the Canadians for electricity in Canada has been generated by hydro power stations for a long time. ‘Mounites’ is also of Canadian origin. It indicates ‘Royal Canadian Mounted Police’, the Police troupe whose duty is to safeguard the country. ” (Song Meiying, 2001:20)

There are still a great many of differences in vocabulary among many varieties that are not presented here, so English learners need to study harder and harder in order to gain more information about those differences. In this way, they are sure to make intercultural communication more smoothly.

4.3 Differences in Grammar

The differences among many varieties in grammar are fewer than that in vocabulary and pronunciation. Even so grammar differences do exist.

Take Australia English as an example, English speakers in Australia prefer to use “will” and “would” instead of “share” and “should”. They may say “I will go”. While the British will say “I shall go”. They may say “We would like to see you”. While the British will say “We should like to see you”. Another example is the ellipsis of the objectives in South African English. The word “birthday” is omitted in the sentence “Come to my twenty-first”. Lastly, the Indian prefer to use present continuous tense in such sentences like “I am understanding” and “She is knowing the answer”. (Pan Aiqin, 2013:83)

English speakers will fail to communicate smoothly with others without knowing those grammar differences.

Measures in Intercultural Communication from the Perspective of Varieties of English

As a matter of fact, any one of the varieties of English has a large influence on intercultural communication. There are three parts in this part which are taking correct attitudes towards many varieties of English, strengthening intercultural awareness and teaching English in multicultural contexts.

5.1 Taking Correct Attitudes towards Varieties of English

Taking correct attitudes towards varieties of English is the basic measure to succeed in intercultural communication. Here come the two main reasons.

One main cause is the enrichment of English vocabulary. There are a number of mixed languages in the world and English is one of them. It fuses a large amount of useful words and expressions from nearly every language in the world during the long history of it. In daily learning, we can see many borrowings absorbed in English.

The other main cause is that those varieties can be a bridge to spread the cultures of their own to the others. Those varieties of English may carry many things to the outside world such as the expressions of foods and snacks, clothes, and so on.

5.2 Strengthening Intercultural Awareness

More and more English learners have recognized that British and American English is no longer dominant. They admit the existence of many varieties of English but they do not respect those varieties from heart. They lack the interest in learning other varieties of English. Since they developed intercultural awareness they need to strengthen intercultural awareness. Here are some suggestions for English learners when they do not know any measures.

In this part, there are five practical suggestions to strengthen intercultural awareness. In fact, English learners usually take one of them or some according to the reality. They may take the following into considerations: the material that are available, the time that can be spent and so on. Here come the measures.

To begin with, English learners can train themselves by listening lectures, watch the videos, reading the materials and discussing the information about the certain country. This kind of training is easy to organize although it may be incomplete. The benefit is that English learners can indirectly experience the culture behind the varieties of English.

English learners also can train themselves through comparing the similarities and differences between native language and target language to arouse intercultural awareness. At the same time, they need to know the culture in their own country so that they can deal with the problems better in other varieties of English.

Thirdly, attributive training is a good suggestion. Dan Landis amp; Richard W. Brislin said “The attribution approach focuses on explanations of behavior from the hosts’ point of view. Trainees read short passages which summarize problems that people have while living in another culture, then make choices among a number of reasonable explanations. Only one explanation, however, is correct from the viewpoint of the hosts. After studying a large number of such passages, trainees may develop internalized standards that will allow them to understand many aspects of the other culture without imposing their own country’s standards.”(Landis and Brislin, 1983: 98)

Fourthly, experiencing the real life in a certain country is another advice. English learners can travel to English-speaking countries or study abroad to gain perceptual knowledge directly. They can also act some plays to experience the certain culture indirectly.

Lastly, English learners can interact with the foreigners who come from different English-speaking countries and communicate with those who are familiar with the culture and the knowledge of the varieties of English in those countries or nations.

5.3 Teaching English in Multicultural Contexts

In order to offer a proper measure here, it is necessary to gain a general idea of the current situation of English education. English educators are really supposed to do some study on it and make efforts to improve their education. Only in this way can more and more English talents be cultivated. The suggestions are more helpful for people in the countries or nations of the third circle because English there is a completely foreign language and to learn and use it is more different than in other circles.

People usually use their mother tongue to communicate with whom have the same nationality. They do not use English as frequently as people do in other circles. With the rapid development of modern science and technology, every country or nation has been involved in the various world affairs. Each nation has an urgent need to communicate with others. However, they can only learn British English and American English and some are not able to learn them well. What’s worse, they seldom study other varieties of English and they even do not have a clear idea of many types of varieties of English. In such situation, the paper offers a measure here.

At the very beginning, schools should help to change the teaching materials that including different varieties of English as well as their cultures. This measure will do good to break the situation of teaching materials only including British English and American English. Schools should also create more chances for students, such as attend or view international meetings and so on. Thus students can encounter more varieties and train their listening, speaking, reading and writing.

In addition, more and more English teachers are required to come from different English-speaking countries so that students can acquire more information about varieties of English and their cultures. For example, those English teachers can be from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, and etc. so students can directly experience the real life in other countries and get a general knowledge of the differences among numerous varieties with the least cost.

Lastly, teachers need to strengthen the teaching of their own cultures and native languages during the multicultural education. The reason is that they not only need to have an idea of foreign cultures but also have the necessity to make their cultures known to foreigners. So it is necessary to have a better understanding of the cultures in their own. In this occasion, more and more students will become English talents. They can study to use English to make their cultures spread around the world with fewer difficulties or barriers than before. These days, English that serves as a real means of intercultural communication makes great contribution to multicultural understanding among the countries in the world.

Conclusion

My essay discusses the intercultural communication barriers and measures from the perspective of many varieties of English.

In fact, my thesis does have some findings of the study.

More and more people are aware of the new trend in intercultural communication around the world now. British and American English is not dominant any more. Many different varieties of English have been regarded as an official language, a second language or a foreign language. So we need to pay more attention to them unless we do not want to contact and cooperate with all countries or nations throughout the world.

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