Transcultural Englishes and Gender-Inclusive Reform of Language


The TEaGIRL Project

Introduction | Aims | The Varieties | Data Collection

Introduction

The TEaGIRL research project is an investigation of gender-inclusive language reform and change in transcultural Englishes found in Singapore, the Philippines and Hong Kong.

Gender-inclusive language reform is an example of social language reform specifically concerned with the linguistic representation of women and men. It explores and addresses questions of identity, gender, equality and discrimination through language.A crucial component in this research is the critical analysis of the linguistic and discourse mechanisms contributing to the stereotyped, asymmetrical or discriminatory representation of the sexes. Equally important is the investigation of the agencies, communities and groups of speakers who engineer, facilitate, model and spread change and those who critique, oppose and/or obstruct changes. A further component in this research project is the examination of the contact between speakers of different transcultural Englishes in relation to gender-inclusive language reform exploring questions of linguistic hegemonyand/or linguistic imperialism as well as notions of ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’.

In this brief overview of the project we outline the aims and methodologies employed in our investigation of Transcultural Englishes and gender-inclusive language reform(s).

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TEaGIRL's Aims

The TEaGIRL project has 5 main aims:

  1. To map the use of gender-inclusive language of written and more formal forms of speech found in the Englishes in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines;
  2. To profile the users of gender-inclusive linguistic alternatives - the source of their contact and awareness their roles as agents of change in their communities;
  3. To cooperate with policy makers, educators and curriculum writers in the development and implementation of gender-inclusive language guidelines;
  4. To identify the main mechanisms facilitating the spread of these changes throughout the speech community;
  5. To investigate the global and local practices, norms and developments in Englishes to understand the relationships between language varieties of a world and pluricentric language with regard to planned language change.

The Varieties

We have chosen to focus on the Englishes used in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines for a variety of reasons. Firstly, the status and function assigned to English in these three communities are different. Secondly, the three communities differ in the extent of English use throughout the community. Furthermore each of these varieties differs in their colonial and postcolonial linguistic histories with Hong Kong and Singapore linked primarily to Britain and the Philippines to Spain and the United States.

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Data Collection

The main sources for and methods of data collection include
  1. Language corpora of English in Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines particularly the International Corpus of English [ICE]
  2. On-line Surveys on various aspects of gender-inclusive language use
  3. Interviews with leading authorities, experts and ‘gatekeepers’ in education, the media and other public offices