Interactional strategies in South Asian languages: their implications for teaching English internationally

Abstract

This paper examines interactional strategies in several South Asian languages and shows that the norms that effect politeness in South Asian languages are very different from those that operate in native English. The implications of these differences for the teaching of English in South Asia are explored in the context of the relationship between language and 'grammar of culture.' It is claimed that communicative competence can only be achieved when there is a fit between language and grammar of culture. This must be kept in mind when English is taught internationally because in countries in which English has been institutionalized speakers have adapted English to fit in with their grammar of culture. These speakers of English have communicative competence in their variety of English, and the need for them to develop native-like competence is debatable.

Creativity and discourse

“…In contrast are studies that, while focusing on formal innovation, nevertheless approach it in the context of larger issues like power and identity (see for example, Lin 2000; Rampton 2005; Martin 2007). There are also studies that focus on broader pragmatic features of bilinguals’ interaction and how they are used in creative ways (see for example, D'souza 1988; Kachru 1993). Much of this work, however, still falls into the ‘language and creativity’ paradigm due to its bias towards linguistic creativity – the novelty or inventiveness of linguistic products .…”

The functional and pragmatic contexts of world Englishes

“…To capture the bilingual/bicultural grammar, users in literary and sociolinguistic settings create new meanings and construct new identities through the active communicative processes of nativization and acculturation (Kachru, ). The language style and verbal strategies, however, are constrained by a ‘cultural grammar’ (Bright, ) or grammar of culture, the appropriate possibilities of linguistic behavior within particular non‐native contexts (Jean D'souza, ). What began as Braj Kachru's (, ) examination of the bilingual's creativity in the context of contact literatures in English in 1983, and the processes of pragmatic and discoursal nativization and stylistic innovations exhibited in the literary works of Chinua Achebe, Amos Tutuola, and Raja Rao led to serious study in the literary creativity of world Englishes, and the contact between English and new cultural contexts.…”

A socially realistic view of world Englishes: Reflections on gendered discourse

“…The sociocultural and sociolinguistic nature of the bilingual's creativity spawned cross‐cultural and cross‐linguistic research on code‐mixing and code‐switching, discourse strategies, stylistic innovation and speech acts (Bhatt ). It is the work of Yamuna Kachru who convincingly argues for ‘the cultural context of language,’ that a study of verbal interaction across cultures must address the relationship between language and ‘grammar of culture,’ as D'souza () suggests, whether it be cultural aspects of socialization, religious and other belief systems, face consideration, or specialized features of language usage and use in speaking or writing. Because the cultural appropriateness that regulates linguistic behavior is derived from the grammar of culture, the norms of use of English operate differently around the world.…”