Tema 66: Dimensión de la Anglofonía en el Mundo.

El Inglés Británico y el Inglés

Americano. La Presencia de la Lengua Inglesa en España. Anglicismos.

The next topic, whose English name is “Dimension of Anglophony in today's world. British
and American English. Presence of the English Language in Spain. Anglicisms”, will be
developed following the next outline:

Outline.
1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1
2. Dimension of the Anglophony in today’s world .............................................................. 1
3. British and American English .......................................................................................... 4
4. Presence of the English Language in Spain ................................................................... 10
5. Anglicism ....................................................................................................................... 10
6. Conclusion and teaching inference ................................................................................ 12
7. Bibliography................................................................................................................... 13

1. Introduction
In today’s global world, the importance of English cannot be denied or ignored. It is the most
common language spoken internationally. With the help of developing technology, English has
been playing a major role in many sectors including medicine, engineering and education. It’s
the official language of 54 different countries and is spoken by over a billion and a half people
worldwide. Adding together native speakers, people who speak English as a second language
or an additional language and people who are learning English and it’s the most commonly
spoken language across the globe. So what makes English so great? And why do people want
to learn it?

I guess the simple answer is because of the widespread use of the language in education,
science and technology and most importantly, in business, English opens doors to employment,
education and travel. Therefore, an ability to communicate in English is vital, particularly in
the present economic climate; the vast majority of companies list English amongst the essential
qualities required for posts particularly at management level. Earlier everyone was considered
to be literate by their degrees and diplomas, but the knowledge of English language makes an
individual literate in today's world.

2. Dimension of the Anglophony in today’s world

We can define anglophony as “The community of English-speaking people or countries.” This
community is spreading at a very high rate all around the world. This spread of English
language around the world is often discussed in terms of three distinct groups of users, where
English is used respectively as:
• a native language (ENL); the primary language of the majority population of a country, such
as in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
• a second language (ESL); an additional language for intranational as well as international
communication in communities that are multilingual, such as in India, Nigeria, and Singapore.
Most of these Englishes developed as a result of imperial expansion that brought the language
to various parts of the world.
• a foreign language (EFL); used almost exclusively for international communication, such as
in Japan, Germany, China, Spain and many other countries.

In the glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth I, (that is, from 1558 to 1603), the number of English
speakers in the world is thought to have been between five and seven million. Today the figure
has increased almost fiftyfold: 370 million, it is said, speak English as a mother tongue. But this
total is far exceeded by the numbers of people who use English as a foreign language — at
least a further 400 million, according to the most conservative of estimates, and perhaps a
further billion, according to radical ones. 1.5 billion or so had learned it as a foreign language.
But, how is it possible to explain this spread of English?

The most influential model of the spread of English is Braj Kachru's model of World
Englishes. In this model the diffusion of English is captured in terms of three Concentric
Circles of the language: The Inner Circle, the Outer Circle, and the Expanding Circle.

The Inner Circle refers to English as it originally took shape and was spread across the world
in the first diaspora. In this transplantation of English, speakers from England carried the
language to Australia, New Zealand and North America. The Inner Circle thus represents the
traditional historical and sociolinguistic bases of English in regions where it is now used as a
primary language: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland,
anglophone Canada and South Africa, and some of the Caribbean territories. English is the
native language or mother tongue of most people in these countries. The total number of
English speakers in the inner circle is as high as 380 million, of whom some 120 million are
outside the United States.

The Outer Circle of English was produced by the second diaspora of English, which spread
the language through imperial expansion by Great Britain in Asia and Africa. In these regions,
English is not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca between ethnic and
language groups. Higher education, the legislature and judiciary, national commerce and so on
is all carried out predominantly in English. This circle includes India, Nigeria, Bangladesh,
Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya, non-Anglophone South Africa, the Philippines
(colonized by the US) and others. The total number of English speakers in the outer circle is
estimated to range from 150 million to 300 million. Singapore, while in the Outer Circle, may
be drifting into the Inner Circle as English becomes more often used as a home language, much
as Ireland did earlier. Countries where most people speak an English-based creole and retain
standard English for official purposes, such as Jamaica and Papua New Guinea, are also in the
Outer Circle.

Finally, the Expanding Circle encompasses countries where English plays no historical or
governmental role, but where it is nevertheless widely used as a medium of international
communication. This includes much of the rest of the world's population not categorized
above, including territories such as China, Russia, Japan, non-Anglophone Europe (especially
the Netherlands and Nordic countries), South Korea, Egypt and Indonesia. The total in this
expanding circle is the most difficult to estimate, especially because English may be employed
for specific, limited purposes, usually in a business context. The estimates of these users range
from 200 million to one billion.
The English spoken in the INNER CIRCLE is said to be NORM-PROVIDING, that in the
OUTER CIRCLE to be NORM-DEVELOPING and that in the EXPANDING CIRCLE to be
NORM-DEPENDENT. In other words, English-language standards are determined by speakers
of ENL, but while the ESL varieties of English have become institutionalized and are
developing their own standards, the EFL varieties are regarded, in this model, as ‘performance’
varieties without any official status and therefore dependent on the standards set by native
speakers in the Inner Circle. However, on the basis of the above evaluation, there are more
non-natives than native speakers of English, some would say that even in a 4-to-1 ratio!
Therefore, English is not only the language of American or British natives only. It is also of
many non-native speakers. As Malcolm Gladwell says in his book The Tipping Point, the
development of English is less and less determined by the usage of its native speakers. The
sphere of influence of English is now the entire world. In the extent and diversity of its uses,
English is matched by no other present or past language of our species. It is unparalleled in the
history of the world. For the first time a natural language has attained the status of an
international (universal) language, essentially for cross-cultural communication.
Now, a term coined by Karchu arises. World English. What does it mean? The notions of
World English and World Englishes are far from similar, although the terms are often
mistakenly used interchangeably. World English refers to the English language as a lingua
franca used in business, trade, diplomacy, and other spheres of global activity, while World
Englishes refers to the different varieties of English and English-based creoles developed in
different regions of the world. Alternatively, the term Global Englishes has been used by
scholars in the field to emphasise the more recent spread of English due to globalization, which
has resulted in increased usage of English as a lingua franca.

Economic and Cultural Importance of the English Language in the World

As we have seen in the previous item, the importance of English has become huge in
the last years. There is an enormous motivation to learn it, given the way that English has
become the dominant language of world communication. Russia has its English language
radio programmes broadcast across the world. So does America (The voice of America) and
Britain (The BBC World Service) and China has its English language daily newspaper. All
of these, with the possible exception of the BBC may have a political purpose.

Textbooks on English these days regularly rehearse the litany of its achievements. It is
the main language of the world’s books, newspapers, and advertising. It is the official
international language of airports and air traffic control. It is the chief maritime language. It
is the language of international business and academic conferences, of diplomacy, of sport.
Over two thirds of the world’s scientists write in English. For the most part, European
scientists desire to share their research with colleagues in other countries by using English
as a lingua franca. In almost every field, a scientist is at a distant disadvantage without
being able to speak English.

Three quarters of the world’s mail is written in English. Eighty per cent of all the
information stored in the electronic computer systems of the world is stored in English. And,
at a local level, examples of the same theme can be found everywhere.

The twentieth century has forced certain assumptions to be revised. No longer is culture
confined to the small class, whether literate or rich. We are living in the area of the Coca-cola
culture. By Coca-cola culture is meant American popular culture disseminated through the
medium of T.V and popular songs. Cultural manifestations of this sort are certainly
influential. This sort of culture is tied up with economics. T.V., cinema, internet and music are
vast industries. A similar effect has had the fact that the majority of technological innovations
have been pioneered in America.

Statistics of this kind are truly impressive. They make the point that it is not the number
of mother-tongue speakers which makes a language important in the eyes of the world (that
crown is carried by Chinese), but the extent to which a language is found useful outside its original
setting. In the course of history, other languages have achieved widespread use throughout educated
society. During the Middle Ages, Latin remained undisputed as the European language of learning.
In the eighteenth century, much of this prestige passed to French. Today, it is the turn of English. It
is a development which could be reversed only by a massive change in the economic fortunes of
America, and in the overall balance of world power.

3. British and American English

Two nations divided by a common language” was how George Bernard Shaw (or any
number of other people to whom the quote has been attributed) described Britain and the
USA. Culturally, the two countries are further apart than you might be tempted to think, but
just how similar are the English spoken in Britain and American English?
While it is true that there are plenty of differences between the English spoken in the
UK and that of the USA, the first thing to point out is that Brits and Americans can
understand each other perfectly well.
Anecdotally, some American people find certain British dialects harder to understand
whereas Brits are more used to American English (AmE as linguists write it) due to
exposure through movies, music, etc. What’s more, if you are a non-native speaker, your
English is likely to be the English of the future… more people now speak English as a
second or third language than as a mother tongue.
American English is much more homogenous than British English, meaning it is often
harder to tell where in the USA someone is from just by hearing their accent.
American history is a history of migration, both from overseas and within the country,
so accents constantly mixed as people moved around the country. There is greater variety of
dialects in Great Britain because the language developed over a millennium and a half, from
a mix of languages spoken by various settlers from elsewhere in Europe. Families stayed in
the same place for generations. This meant that the language developed differently from
town to town. Liverpool and Manchester, for example, have highly distinct accents despite
being less than 60km apart.
A couple of things make American pronunciation distinct from British, notably that
most varieties of American English are “rhotic”, meaning that the r sound is nearly always
pronounced anywhere in a word, which it isn’t in most British dialects. So the word butter,
for example, ends with an r sound in most US varieties, with an uh sound in most British
varieties.
In spelling, vocabulary or lexis, in pronunciation, and in the syntax of colloquial
speech and slang, divergences persist. The distinctive features of American orthography are
largely a legacy left by that intrepid and energetic lexicographer Noah Webster (1758—
1843) whose American Spelling Book first appeared in 1783 and whose American
Dictionary of the English Language was published in 1828. As a teacher in the backwoods
of New York, Webster was very much aware of the inconsistencies of English spelling. He
was determined to effect drastic changes, but he was re-strained by necessity. ‘Common
sense and convenience’, he asserted, ‘would lead me to write favor, nabor, hed, proov, flem,
hiz, giv, det, ruf, and wel instead of favour, neighbour, head, prove, phlegm, his, give, debt,
rough, and well’. But the practical businessman eventually prevailed over the theoretical
idealist. He was advised by his publisher to modify his drastic changes considerably. Today
the third unabridged edition of Webster’s New International Dictionary (1961) is the
official spelling guide of the Government Printing Office and the accepted authority in
American courts.

Let’s see the spelling differences.

Spelling

(1) —or for -our in color, favor, honor, humor, labor, odor, and valor for British
colour, favour, honour, humour, labour, odour, and valour.

(2) —er for —re in caliber, center, fiber, meter, and theater for British calibre,
centre, fibre, metre, and theatre.

(3) one consonant for two in traveler, traveling, traveled, jewelry, and wagon for
British traveller, travelling, travelled, jewellery, and waggon;

(4) (4) -s- for -c- in the nouns analyze, defense, offense, paralyze, realize, and
practise for British analise, defence, offence, paralyse, realize, and practice.

(5) and various simplifications such as ax, catalog, check, jail, mask, program, and
story for British axe, catalogue, cheque, gaol, masque, programme, and storey (or floor of a
building).

(6) On the analogy, as he thought, of affection, collection, and direction, Noah

Webster clung to connection and reflection and these forms are still favoured in America
instead of the etymological spellings connexion and reflexion. Both spellings are given as
permissible in the fifth edition (1964) of the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English,
but a note is added on the alternative spellings reflection and reflexion stating that the first is
used generally of ‘thought’ and the second scientifically of ‘reflected light, heat, colour, or
image’.

On arriving in the United States for the first time an Englishman is made aware of
differences in vocabulary because these figure rather prominently in the language of
transport and travel. He finds himself checking his baggage, bags, or grips, instead of
registering his luggage. This is placed in a freight elevator worked by an elevator operator,
who looks just like a lift attendant. Our English visitor is surprised to find that Subway is far
more than a way under for pedestrians: it is the counterpart of the London Underground. To
corroborate details of his journey he goes to the information bureau, not the inquiry office,
and is told to consult a schedule, rather than a timetable. He discovers that buses are called
coaches.

Lets see some other lexical differences:

Vocabulary

American English British English

airplane aeroplane
apartment flat / apartment,
area code dialing code (phone)
attorney, lawyer barrister, solicitor
busy engaged (phone)
call collect reverse the charges (phone)
candy sweets
check / bill bill (in a restaurant)
cookie, cracker biscuit
corn sweet corn, maize
crazy mad
doctor’s office doctor’s surgery
fall, autumn autumn
first floor, second floor etc ground floor, first floor etc
flashlight torch
flat (tire) flat tyre, puncture
French fries chips
garbage, trash rubbish,
garbage can, trashcan dustbin, rubbish bin
gas(oline) petrol
highway, freeway main road, motorway
hood bonnet (on a car)
intersection crossroads
mad angry
mail post
movie, film film
one-way (ticket) single (ticket)
pitcher jug
(potato) chips crisps
railroad railway
raise rise (in salary)
rest room public toilet
round trip return (journey/ticket)
sidewalk pavement
sneakers trainers ( sports shoes)
stand in line queue
trashcan garbage can
 truck van, lorry
trunk boot (of a car)
two weeks fortnight, two weeks
vacation holiday(s)
zee zed (the name of the letter “z”)
zipper zip

Expressions with Prepositions and Particles

The differences below are only a general rule. American speech has influenced Britain
via pop culture, and vice versa. Therefore, some prepositional differences are not as
pronounced as they once were.

British English American English

I’m going to a party at the weekend. I’m going to a party on the weekend.
What are you doing at Christmas? What are you doing on Christmas?
Monday through Friday. Monday to Friday.
It’s different from/than the others. It’s different from/to the others.
check something out check something
do something over / again do something again
live on X street live in X street
on a team in a team
Monday through Friday Monday to Friday

Grammar

Americans use the present perfect tense less than speakers of British English and a British
teacher might mark wrong some things that an American teacher would say are correct.

British English American English

Have you done your homework yet? Did you do your homework yet?
I’ve already eaten. I already ate.
He’s just gone home. I just went home

In British English, ‘have got’ is often used for the possessive sense of ‘have’ and ‘have got
to’ is informally used for ‘have to’. This is much less common in American English.

Brit. I’ve got two sisters. US I have two sisters.

Brit. I’ve got to go now. US I have to go now.

In BrE, the three forms of get are get (base form), got (past simple) and got (-ed form). In
AmE, get has an -ed form gotten: The weather has gotten colder this week and we’re
expecting snow.
Get + to-infinitive is common in AmE to refer to achievements, meaning ‘manage to’ or
‘be able to’. This usage is less common in BrE: [talking about American football, AmE]

A: Did you get to go to very many games?

B: I went to four games this year, actually.

Other grammatical differences

In British English, a collective noun (like committee, government, team, etc.) can be either
singular or plural, but more often tends toward plural, emphasizing the members of the
group. Collective nouns in the US, by comparison, are always singular, emphasizing the
group as one whole entity.

My team are winning. My team is winning.

British English American English

I’ve never really got to know her. I’ve never really gotten to know her.
I can see a car coming. I (can) see a car coming.
Her feet were sore because her Her feet were sore because her shoes
shoes fitted badly. fit badly.
It’s important that he should be told. It’s important that he be told.
The committee meet/meets tomorrow. The committee meets tomorrow.
It looks as if / like it’s going to rain. It looks like it’s going to rain.
He looked at me really strangely. He looked at me real strange.
One should get to know one’s neighbours. One should get to know his neighbors.
He has probably arrived by now. He probably has arrived by now.
or He has probably arrived by now.

Pronunciation

There are, of course many different regional accents in both Britain and America. The
most important general differences between American and British speech are as follows:

a. Certain vowels are nasal (pronounced through the nose and mouth at the same time)
in some varieties of American English, but not in most British accents.

b. British English has one more vowel than American English. This is the rounded
short o (/ɒ/) used in words like cot, dog, got, gone, off stop, lost. In American English these
words are pronounced either with /ɑ/, like the first vowel in father, or with /ɔ:/, like the
vowel in caught. (This vowel is also pronounced rather differently in British and American
English.)

c. Some words written with a + consonant (e.g. fast, after) have different
pronunciations: with /ɑ:/ in standard southern British English, and with /æ/ in American and
some other varieties of English.
 d. The vowel in home, go, open is pronounced /əʊ/ in standard southern British English,
and /oʊ/ in American English. The two vowels sound very different.

e. In standard southern British English, r is only pronounced before a vowel sound. In

most kinds of American English, r is pronounced in all positions where it is written in a
word, and it changes the quality of a vowel that comes before it. So words like car, turn,
offer sound very different in British and American speech.

f. In many varieties of American English, t and d both have a very light voiced
pronunciation /d/ between vowels — so writer and rider, for example, can sound the same.
In British English they are quite different: /‘raItə(r)/ and /‘raIdə (r)/.

g. Some words which are pronounced with /u:/ in most varieties of American English
have /ju:/ in British English. These are words in which th, d, t, or n (and sometimes s or I)
are followed by u or ew.

enthusiastic US /InƟu:zi’æsstik/ GB /InƟju:zi’æsstik/

duty US /‘du:ti/ GB /‘dju:ti/
tune US /tu:n/ GB /tju:n/
new US /nu:/ GB /nju:/

h. Words ending in unstressed -ile (e.g. fertile, reptile, missile) are pronounced with /aIl/
in British English; some are pronounced with /l/ in American English.

fertile US /‘fɜ:rtl/ (rhyming with turtle)

GB /‘f3:tail! (rhyming with her tile)

i. Some long words ending in -ary, -ery or -ory are pronounced differently, with one
more syllable in American English.

secretary US /‘sekrəteri/ GB /‘sekrətri/

j. Words borrowed from French are often stressed differently, especially if their
pronunciation ends with a vowel sound. The final vowel is usually stressed in American
English but not in British English.

pate US /pæ’teɪ / GB /‘pæteɪ/

ballet US /bæ’leɪ/ GB /’bæleɪ/

At no point an Englishman would be seriously inconvenienced by unfamiliar names of

things, grammatical changes, pronunciation or spelling.

Such neologisms are clipped words like ad for addict or advertisement, gas for
gasoline or petrol, lube for lubricating oil, co—ed for co—educational, and super for
superfine; back-formations like to automate from automation, to enthuse from
enthusiasm, to reminisce from reminiscent, and to televise from television; blends or
portmanteau— words like cablegram from cable and telegram, to sportcast from sport and
broadcast, smaze from smoke and haze (smog from smoke and fog being its British
counterpart), motel from motor hotel, and Amerind or Amerindian from American and
Indian. Hundreds of expressions have also arisen from a revival and extension of
grammatical conversion or functional shift.

4. Presence of the English Language in Spain

To study the growing influence of the English language in Spain, we must analyse the
linguistic and extra-linguistic causes. From a linguistic point of view, we can make an
extrinsic analysis, focusing our attention on how English has had an influence on the
Spanish language and an intrinsic analysis, examining the reasons why the Spanish
Language is influenced by the English.

From a linguistic point of view

A large proportion of words have to do with the need to name the innovations and
describe the changing world around us. Some of these –inventions, discoveries, new
techniques- are the domain of word-and-thing analysis. The lexico-cultural parallel fits our
model best at this point (approximately 70% of the Anglicisms depend on these causes. The
“American way of life” has influenced the Spanish culture through the T.V. (playback,
operador, doblaje, sicronización, etc), fashion (pijama, minifalda, anorak, sweater, etc)
cinema (ganster, sheriff, script, etc.), music (pop, festival, poster, disc-jockey, etc.) leisure
industry (golf, tennis, surf, comic, puzzle,etc) and tourism (hall, sandwich, bar, pub,
beicon, etc). The increasing number of Spanish students who learn English either in Great
Britain, Ireland or USA contribute to a faster assimilation of a new style of life.

5. Anglicism
Traditionally, Anglicism is considered to be a word or phrase peculiar to the English
language (either British or American English) and which is used in the Spanish press in a
modified or unmodified form.

According to Chris Pratt, an Anglicism is a linguistic item or groups of items used in

peninsular Spanish, whose immediate etymology is an English word or expression. By
immediate etymology, he means that there are many linguistic items used in Spanish which
have been directly taken from the English language, but have not been considered
Anglicisms because their ultimate etymology may be Latin, Greek, French, etc.

He distinguishes (a) lexical anglicism concerning linguistic items adopted by the

Spanish language and (b) syntactic anglicism with reference to structural changes provoked
by the influence of the English language. There are two kinds of lexical Anglicisms: single-
base terms (one word) and multi-base terms (more than one word).

4.1. Lexical Anglicisms

a. Single-base Anglicisms are divided into two categories: obvious and not obvious
Anglicism.

a.1. Obvious Anglicism

By obvious Anglicism we mean a word clearly identifiable as English, either adopted

without any modification as: ranking, hippy, sidecar or adapted totally or partially to the
orthographic rules of the Spanish language. For example: boicot, boxear, travelin.

a.2 Not obvious Anglicisms

They are all those words identified as Spanish. We must distinguish traditional terms
and neological terms. In the first case there is a semantic influence of the English language
on the Spanish term. The Anglicism can be paronymous (i.e derivative) of its referent
(agenda = with the meaning of orden del día, apartamento = vivienda pequeña, base = with
a military reference, blanco = with the meaning espacio en blanco, clima = ambiente) or it
may be a semantical, i.e. the result of the translation of a referent without any etymological
direct relation between the English and the Spanish word (canal from channel with
reference to TV; carril from lane in relation to roads; mariposa from butterfly in relation to
swimming; estrella from star with reference to famous artists). On the other hand neologism
can be defined as those new created linguistic words or expressions. We have adopted
many neological Anglicisms in Spanish: stereophonico, supermercado, reversible,
supervision, desodorant, digital, detergente, etc. It is very curious to observe how the
Spanish language has adopted the suffix –al for substantives such as vocacional, tribal,
secuencial, sectorial, vacacional, etc and adjectives: educacional (even when there is
already an adjective based on the same lexeme, i.e educativo) emocional (emotivo)
preferencial, (preferente), etc.

b. Multi-base Anglicisms

Here we include compounds, i.e. isolated multi-base units (cine club), and also
English compounds which function as a single word in Spanish for example sky-scraper =
rascacielos. These compounds may consist of:

Two nouns: ciudad dormitorio, canción protesta, coche bomba, libro-regalo, perro
guardian, hora-punta, ciudad jardín, etc.

Single words in Spanish coming from a compound in English: entrevista from

interview, fútbol from football, basquetbol from basketball.
 Verb + noun: rascacielos, limpiaparabrisas, rompehielos, lanzacohetes, etc.

Noun + adjective: aire acondicionado, club nocturno, mesa redonda, perrito caliente,
guerra fria, etc.

Adjective + noun: larga distacia, proximo oriente, tercer mundo, etc.

4.2 Syntactic Anglicisms.

Widening the use of a pre-existing structure or making syntactic innovations.

Sometimes, when we translate an English structure literally into Spanish, the resulting
phrase doesn’t correspond exactly to its Spanish equivalent or is less frequently used in
Spanish:

1. The use of “poder “ with verbs of perception: No puedo verte. By assimilating the
use of can in front of the verbs of perception English: I can’t see you.

2. The use of possessive adjectives with parts of the body: Taken the use of
possessives in front of the parts of the body: Me he golpeado mi cabeza.

3. The English use of the adjective in front of the name is sometimes adopted in
Spanish, mainly with superlative adjectives: Este es el mejor coche del mundo.

4. The use of the passive, mainly the present continuous: Esta siendo operada en este
momento. In Spanish we use passive construction with “se” or the impersonal
costruction: La estan operando en este momento

5. The use of “ello” as subject of a verb, by assimilating the use of the pronoun “it”
in English.

6. The use of pagar por and esperar por: pagar por el taxi, taken from the English
pay for and wait for.

7. Possessive placed in front of instead of after the noun: No es tu culpa instead of No

es culpa tuya.

6. Conclusion and teaching inference

Many students do not know the major countries where English is spoken, what type of
variations exist in those countries, or how English became an official language in countries
like India or Nigeria. As a result, because standard American English is the only model they
are usually exposed to in the classroom, students risk developing the mistaken impression
that everyone in the world speaks that variety, or that this one type of English is spoken
throughout the world and in all situations. Studying vocabulary and grammar and practicing
the four skills are obviously essential, but students may form a limited, or one-sided view of
the English language if they are not given the opportunity to think about it from a
sociolinguistic perspective. For those students who truly wish to master the English
language, there is a strong rationale for adding sociolinguistic activities to their studies.
A basic understanding of sociolinguistics is important for English learners who wish
to take full advantage of job opportunities in the new global economy, where they will
undoubtedly encounter different varieties of English. Learning about different varieties of
English will help them broaden their knowledge of the language, and they will be better
equipped to deal with those varieties. Another benefit is that once students study the topic,
they learn that one variety of English is not superior to another variety, and they will
develop increased tolerance for speakers of different dialects. Additionally, they will have a
good understanding about the role of global English and will be aware of important issues
such as multilingualism and the functions of English as an international language.
Languages allow speakers to communicate within society, as well as they are part of
the shared cultural features of the different communities and nations, so that they promote
students’ social competence as citizens. Furthermore, they support the recognition and the
acceptance of cultural and behavioural differences.
Our subject supports a particular approach to distinctive cultural manifestations of the
language and of those countries in which it is used.
The importance of Anglicisms, as a source of new words in present-day Spanish, is
clear. Let’s think that about 3% of the lexis used in the best-selling Spanish newspaper “El
País” is of foreign source. If we now consider that more than half of the foreign terms are of
English origin, Anglicisms form some 2% of the overall vocabulary of journalism.
Teachers should help learners to be aware of the many cognates and Anglicisms they
may find every day while attending classes: by examining the lab materials, listening
carefully to the teachers, reading from the board and from their books and writing on their
notebooks. Also while being out of the school: by watching satellite TV, reading an English
book or magazine (graded readers when necessary), underlining words, copying them in a
notebook to start building up a glossary, begin using them in everyday conversation in a
natural way.

7. Bibliography:
British Council (2013) “The English effect”. Manchester: British Council.
Freeborn, D. (2014) “Varieties of English” London: The Macmillan
Press Ltd
Gladwell, M. (2001). The tipping point : how little things can make a big difference.
London: Abacus.
Kachru, B. (2017). World Englishes and culture wars. Cambridge, United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press.
Pratt, C. (2015) “El Anglicismo en el Español Peninsular Contemporáneo” Madrid:
Gredos.
Swan, M. (2012) “Practical English Usage” Oxford: Oxford University Press