Determinants of sociolinguistic variation in the ESL/EFL English: Evidence from two academic communities

英语已经多样化成多种形式，这是人类历史上没有其他语言所能比拟的。它作为主要的非母语在不同的国家被习得和广泛使用。例如，在南亚的多语种社区，英语是一种重要的第二语言。这些多语种社区的说话者不仅采用了英语，而且还改编了英语，将其转变为所谓的本土化变体。此外，英语在国际交流中起着关键作用，整个西欧都把英语作为主要的外语来学习。英语在多语种/本土和外语环境中的习得和使用导致了大量的非母语英语，统称为世界英语。也就是说，该项目比较了两种不同社会语言环境下的英语：在本土化/第二语言(ESL)和外语(EFL)环境中获得的非母语英语。在这样做的过程中，它查看了从两个学术团体获得的数据，即印度尼赫鲁大学和德国曼海姆大学。更具体地说，这项研究解决了这样一个问题，即非母语人士在多大程度上可以获得以英语为母语的社会语言变异模式？哪些特定的语言、社会和认知因素可以解释产生的非母语人士的语法？主要目的是对两种文体中的语法特征进行综合描述，从而修正第二语言习得(SLA)和外语学习之间的区别，这是大多数二语习得研究的基础。这样，该项目有助于正在进行的关于世界英语和多种语言的研究。

English has diversified into a multitude of forms like no other language in the history of humankind. It is acquired and widely used as the main non-native language in different countries. For instance, English is an important second language in the multilingual communities of South Asia. The speakers of such multilingual communities have not only adopted but also adapted English, transforming it into so-called indigenized varieties. Moreover, English plays a key role in international communication and is learnt as a main foreign language all over Western Europe. The acquisition and use of English in multilingual/indigenous and foreign settings have given rise to a plethora of non-native Englishes collectively referred to as World Englishes.That said, the project compares two varieties of English in two distinct sociolinguistic environments: non-native Englishes acquired in indigenized/second-language (ESL) and in foreign-language (EFL) settings. In so doing, it looks at the data obtained from two academic communities, i.e. Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, and the University of Mannheim, Germany. More specifically, the study addresses the question, To what extent can non-native speakers acquire patterns of sociolinguistic variation attested in native English? And what language-specific, social and cognitive factors can explain the resulting non-native speaker grammar? The main goal is to provide an integrated account of selected variable features of grammar in both varieties, thereby revising a distinction between second-language acquisition (SLA) and foreign-language learning, fundamental to most SLA studies. This way the project contributes to the ongoing research on World Englishes and multilingualism.