Essay On English And Literacy

'We now talk about Englishes rather than English and multi-literacies rather than literacy.'

Throughout the world children are taught English and Literacy, however there are multiple forms of these, and therefore we now have Englishes and multi-literacies. English has evolved into the many different ‘Englishes’ of today, such as Australian English, American English, Spanglish and so on, and within each country, there are multiple dialects of this language. This essay will explore the variants of English as well as how literacy has evolved through time into the multi-literacies of today. All of which have developed within our classrooms and across our culture.

Englishes across time

The English language across time has changed greatly since it

8). Some of the many forms of English, (for example, Australian English, American English, Spanglish et cetera.) stemmed from the English language, which came about through many languages such as Latin, Italian, French et cetera., These forms of English came about due to the introduction of English into the particular country. In Australia alone there are multiple variants of English, which have formed due to the interpretation of English by Australia’s original Native people (Aborigines) as well as Australia’s vast multicultural population. When the first settlers arrived in Australia they needed a way to communicate with the local people, so the English language as it was in Australia started to change. This example is evident with the Australian version of English, where words, word structure and pronunciations have changed, such as with the way in which we ask someone if they have eaten yet. The English version would be, ‘Have you eaten yet?’ whereas the Australian version would be ‘Did you eat yet?’ With the changes to English, people were able to help bridge the language gaps between two cultures or