Varieties of English

First of all I would say that there are some factors which can affect a language. I had some ideas about it before reading this paper, however, now I have deeper knowledge than before. Now it is not only a notion but also knowledge as I said before.

When I was reading the paper I remember that these factors not only affect the English language, but also my own language. Let me explain my idea. Have you asked you why people who live in the North of Chile don’t speak in the same way like people who live in the center and people who live in the south of Chile? Do you know why it happens?

There are some reasons and the first is a regional variation. This is the cause that there are some differences in terms of vocabulary and pronunciation among people from different parts of Chile. However all of them speak the same language that in this case is “Castilian” also known as “Spanish”. With this text I learnt how the environment can influence the language learning process of a person. For example in Chile everybody learn Castilian at school. This is our mother tongue, but why no every person has the same speech. Why our speech has many differences. It is because no every person was born in the same place, and no every person has the same social position. I have to do a pause at this time, because this factor is crucial in the acquisition of a language. For example we have on one hand the high class in Chile and this class is formed by educated people who are in the best school and who go to the best universities. They learn many things from books and for this reason their language is so different from the lower class. They use more prestigious form and the quantity of vocabulary that they have is much greater than the vocabulary of a poor person or a person of the middle class. Also the social positions affect the speech in terms of sounds because the lower class in Chile tends to omit the pronunciation of the last consonants in the words.

Another think that I learnt in this paper was the existence of the Standard English which is associated by prestige and it is socially acceptable. It has an appropriate grammar and phonetics and this is the English that I have been learning during my major.

Finally I could check that the accent that is taught at the university is the same that was mentioned in the paper RP (Received Pronunciation)

I would like to finish my reflection saying that this paper helps me to understand my own language. The differences between written and spoken English. And that depending of the situation and the purpose of my communication is the English that I will use.