The Changing Faces of English: A Caribbean Perspective

Abstract

This article discusses the globalization of English and the extent to which speakers of varieties of the language such as Caribbean Creole English (CCE) complicate the native speaker/nonnative speaker dichotomy, challenging English language teachers to respond to the specific needs of Creole English-speaking and other bidialectal students. The article describes the linguistic situation in the anglophone Caribbean, the salient features of CCE as compared with standard American English, and the linguistic challenges faced by anglophone Caribbean students and their teachers in North American schools and colleges. Reporting the findings of a 2-year qualitative study of four anglophone Caribbean college students, the author describes the students' linguistic self-perception and provides examples of their oral and written language as one variety of English that teachers will increasingly encounter in 21st-century classrooms. The article proposes that the literacy needs of bidialectal students be addressed on four levels: (a) classroom practices, (b) teacher education, (c) the deconstruction of ESL/English dichotomies, and (d) linguistic attitudes.

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