I.

Introduction
Have you experienced communicating with a foreigner in any distance?
Did you find it challenging? What were some of your most unforgettable
memories?
Discussion
World Englishes (WE) or varieties of English stands for the localized
varieties of English as they are used or spoken in certain areas. In the Asian
context, there are “Three Concentric Circles of Asian Englishes”. These are:
Inner Circle with ENL (English as a Native Language) member countries; the
Outer Circle with ESL (English as a Second Language) member countries;
and the Expanding Circle with EFL (English as a Foreign Language) member
countries.
The Three Circles: Inner Circle with ENL (English as a Native
Language) member countries; the Outer Circle with ESL (English as a
Second Language) member countries; and the Expanding Circles with EFL
(English as a Foreign Language) member countries. Examples of countries
belonging to the Inner Circle are the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, and New
Zealand. The Outer Circle is comprised of Singapore, Malaysia, the
Philippines and Pakistan among others others while the Expanding Circle is
composed of countries such as China, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. Aside
from the fact that the Outer and Expanding Circles are ESL- and EFL-
speaking, respectively, they have been colonized by some member countries
in the Inner Circle making the varieties they speak as post-colonial. It is
then to be understood that people have different linguistic and cultural
backgrounds making intercultural communication a significant variable in
communication.

The Three Concentric Circle of English

 According to Bautista and Gonzalez (2006), the structural
characteristics of these new verities differ. This is brought about by the
mother tongue or home languages of those who learn or acquire English.
And even in terms of social features, differences can also be highlighted in
that there is a continuum of basilectal, mesolectal, and acrolectal varieties of
English within the same speech community.
The Acrolect then comes closest to the standard while the basilect
digresses thoroughly from it and comes closest to pidgin. Mesolect or the
middle variety is midway between the acrolect and basilect. Bautista and
Gonsalez use the term edulects for these varieties resulting from certain
types of education ascertained by social class but are conveyed of
transferred by the kind of instruction of the school system especially for
those coming from higher-income families and/ or better educated classes.
 As regards structural variation, Kacharu and Nelson (2006) claim that
these varieties of English are influenced by the local language (s) in various
areas of their grammars and exhibit specific phonological, lexical, syntactic,
and discoursal characteristics. For instance, in terms of stress and rhythm,
Outer and expanding Circle varieties observe syllable-timed rhythm rather
than stress-timed rhythm. Nigerian say ‘success for suc’cess and Indians and
Nigerians say recog’nize for ‘recognize. Moreover, speaker from the Outer
and Expanding Circles do not make any changes in their pronunciation to
make a distinction between nouns and verbs and in pairs which Inner Circle
countries observe as in the case of ‘import and im’port and do not utilize
contrastive stress for focusing. As regards sound, Outer and Expanding
Circles do not observe initial aspiration of voiceless plosive such as p, t, k
and these are often perceived by Inner Circle countries as b, d, g. Some
speakers of Expanding Circle varieties, as in the case of Japanese speakers,
do not properly distinguish between r and l.

According to Pope (1976) as cited in Kacharu & Nelson, 2006), in the

case of syntactic features, question-answering systems differ between Inner
and Outer-Expanding Circles. While the former observes the positive-
negative system where the answer follows the polarity of the question (i.e.,
If the question is in the positive, the answer confirming the assumption of
the questioner is in the positive, and the answer disconfirming the
assumption is in the negative. If, however, the question is in the negative,
the answer confirming the assumption of the questioner is in the negative as
well, while the answer disconfirming the assumption of the questioner is in
the positive), the latter observes the agreement-disagreement system which
poses difficulty to speakers who follow the positive-negative system
particularly in interpreting the yes or no of the response unless it is followed
by a clarification (i.e., yes, I think you’re right; No, that’s not so).
With respect to lexicon, vocabulary words peculiar only to some
English varieties in Southeast Asia can be noted as seen in the following
examples:
1. Singapore English: actsy ’show off,’ missy ‘nurse,’ chop’rubber stamp,’
Marina kids ‘youngsters who spend their leisure time at or around
Marina Square, a shopping centre,’ graduate mothers ‘graduate (well-
educated) married women encouraged to have more children and
accorded certain privileges in Singapore,’ as compared to non-
graduate mothers (Pakir, 1992, as cited in Kacharu & Nelson, 2006).
 2. The Philippines English: deep ‘puristic or hard to understand ’as an
attribute of language, stick ‘cigearrete,’ high blood ‘tense or upset,’
blow out ‘treating someone with snack or meal,’ motel ‘a hotel used to
pre-marital or extramarital affairs,’ manualize ‘to prepare manuals,’ go
ahead ‘to leave before others with the host permission’, studentry
‘student body,’ Amboy ‘ a Filipino perceived to be too pro- American,’
promdi ‘from the province,’ behest loan ‘ unguaranteed bank loan
given to presidential cronies,’ pulot boy ‘ boy who picks up tennis ball
in game,’ and balik bayan box ‘ box where Filipinos returning from
abroad put all their shopping,’ among others (Bautista, 1997, as cited
in Kacharu & Nelson, 2006).
3. Malaysian English: antilog ‘a male hated by a girl,’ popcorn ‘a
loquacious person,’ kachang’ peanuts, easy,’ slambar ‘relax,’ red spot,
open shelf’ girls who are popular and those who are not,’ day bugs
‘those who come to attend school but do not live in residence halls’
(Said & Ng 2000, as cited in Kacharu & Nelson, 2006).
When Bautista’s monograph on Defining Standard Philippine English: its
Status and Grammatical Features came out in 2000, she answered the
usual question asked about the Philippine English: Is there a Standard
Philippines English? And when does the error become a feature of the
Philippines English? She stressed that just like any other new variety of
English (Indian English, Singaporean English, Nigerian English),
Philippines is legitimate, having its own grammatical, lexical and syntactic
features. Gonzalez (1985, as cited in Baustista, 2000) identified the
following lexical features in the Philippine English:
1. Preference for specific words and collocations specifically shall, could,
such, wherein, of (to signal possession);
2. Unusual words and collocations, specific terms, and word combinations
which may have been originally confused with other collocations but
which, because of frequent use, have become fixed combinations in
their own right (e.g., result to instead of result in) and
3. Unusual prepositional usage, including omission of preposition in two-
word verbs, addition of prepositions to verb phrases, local use of
different prepositions in noun phrase following certain verbs or
adjective.
The syntactic features identified include the following:
1. Tense-aspect usage consisting of unusual use of verb forms and
tenses, use of the perfect tense where the simple past tense or even
the present perfect tense is called for in GAE, lack of tense sequence.
2. Subject- predicate incongruence;
3. Pronoun-antecedent incongruence;
4. Word-order features, consisting of the placement of the time adverb
before the place adverb, placement of the adverb between the verb
and object, placement adverb between noun and prepositional phrase,
placement of the indirect object introduced by to between verb and
direct object, other unusual adverb placements;
5. Use of articles, including absence of the definite article, unusual use of
the definite articles, absence of the indefinite article;
6. Noun sub-categorization, consisting of the non-pluralization of count
nouns, the reclassification of General American English (GAE), mass
nouns as count nouns, mass noun pluralization, pluralization of
adjectival nouns in compounds;
As for the question “when does an error become a feature of Philippine
English?”, Gonzalez (1985) has this to say:
When these errors cease to be errors and become part of the
standard? If enough educated elites in the society ‘commit’ these errors,
then these errors in effect have been accepted by the society as the
standard.
The forgoing discussion only shows how dynamic English is. These are
only some of the essential features of some varieties of English which
should be given full attention by users coming from different cultures.
From the variety of English by the native speakers such as British,
Americans, Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders, English has
evolved into post-colonial varieties and should not be mistaken as errors
most especially if they have become the standard in the speech
community and have been codified. As the poet Gemino Abad, aptly put
it: “English is ours. We have colonized it too.”
You have to be aware of and recognize intercultural communication as
you need to be sensitive to the people around you who belong to different
cultural heritages and have their own linguistics identity. When you
encounter them, you will be able to avoid misunderstanding, avoid
communication breakdown, and overcome language barriers with less
difficulty since you are exposed to their own language features. This way,
you will be able to enhance your personal and social interaction.