English in Puerto Rico

Abstract

: This paper integrates work on English in Puerto Rico by presenting a profile which describes the uses and users of English on the Island, through the underlying political, educational, sociolinguistic, and literary contexts. This is followed by a brief discussion connecting English in Puerto Rico to the Concentric Circle Model. It concludes with the author's contention that it might be advantageous to label English in Puerto Rico as Puerto Rican English.

Integrativeness: untenable for world Englishes learners?

“…In his conclusion, Shaw (1983: 33) argues: “At least the whole aspect of integrative motivation should be re‐examined in terms of a desire among learners to join an indigenous group of English language speakers or a vague international one rather than a group of foreign native speakers.” More recently, several researchers working within the world English approach reported that world Englishes learners in many different contexts definitely do not learn English for integrative purposes (see e.g. Nickels, 2005: 234; Cohen, 2005: 209; Doğançay‐Aktuna and Kiziltepe, 2005: 259).…”

“…All three approaches discussed above that utilize the notion of integrativeness have been criticized previously (see Smith, 1983a: 2, 5; 1983b: 9; Shaw, 1983: 24, 33; Agnihotri and Khanna, 1997: 333, 336; Norton, 2000: 10; Dörnyei, 2001: 54;,70–71, 74; Dörnyei, 2003: 6–7; Lamb, 2004: 3; Nickels, 2005: 234; Cohen, 2005: 209; Doğançay‐Aktuna and Kiziltepe, 2005: 259). The main foundations of the criticism of the notion of integrativeness are the simplex views of the identity of second languages learners and the incorrect assumptions made about the sociolinguistic contexts of many learners of English as a second language across the world.…”

Identity and language: Korean speaking Korean, Korean-American speaking Korean and English?

“…English is the lingua franca of the modern era, and its power, status, and prestige are an indubitable influence in the global context (Cenoz & Jessner, 2000;Crystal, 2003;James, 2000;Nickels, 2005;Niño-Murcia, 2003). The preeminence of English lies not only in the nations where English is the first language of the majority of their population, but also in other countries around the world, even where English has no official status.…”

China English or Chinese English

“…Berns’ sociolinguistic profiles of English in the Expanding Circle highlights the plurality of realities for English around the world and challenges the adequacy of differentiating ESL and EFL as two separated contexts for English teaching (1990). Afterwards, sociolinguistic profiles of English have been developed by numerous scholars to depict sociocultural realities in various nations of multiple continents such as Europe (Petzold, 1994; Pulcini, 1997; Fonzari, 1999; Dimova, 2005; Reichelt, 2005; Ustinova, 2005; Selvi, 2011; Kasztalska, 2014), Asia (Shim, 1994; Yong & Campbell, 1995; Matsuda, 2000; Gil & Adamson, 2011), South America (Friedrich, 2001; Aguilar-Sanchez, 2005; Nickels, 2005), and Africa (Bamiro, 1991; Schaub, 2000; Michieka, 2005).…”

“…Aguilar-Sanchez (2005) offers a detailed portrayal of how English in Costa Rica is integrated with both Inner circle and Expanding Circle contexts. In her illustration of English in Puerto Rico from historical and political perspectives, Nickels (2005) argues that coining the term ‘Puerto Rican English’ can much more accurately capture the sociolinguistic realities of English in Puerto Rico. Selvi (2011) reveals that Turkish English has features of both the Outer Circle and Expanding Circle due to the status of English and its significant instrumental function.…”