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

在人类历史上，没有一种语言能像英语那样多样化，形成多种多样的形式。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，英语是南亚多语言社区的重要第二语言。这些多语言社区的使用者不仅采用而且改编了英语，将其转化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外语来学习。在多语言/本土和外国环境中习得和使用英语已经产生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学环境下的两种英语：在本土化/第二语言（ESL）和外语（EFL）环境下习得的非母语英语。在此过程中，它查看了从两个学术团体获得的数据，即印度的贾瓦哈拉尔尼赫鲁大学和德国的曼海姆大学。更具体地说，该研究解决了一个问题，非母语人士在多大程度上可以获得母语英语中证实的社会语言学变异模式？哪些特定于语言的、社会的和认知的因素可以解释由此产生的非母语者语法？主要目的是对两种变体的语法特征提供一个综合的解释，从而修正第二语言习得和外语学习之间的区别，这是大多数第二语言习得研究的基础。通过这种方式，该项目为正在进行的世界英语和多语言研究做出了贡献。

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.