Werner Botha
Biographic Data
| ID | 651997 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Werner Botha |
| GIVEN NAMES | Werner |
| FAMILY NAME | Botha |
| SIGNATURE | BOTHA W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Nanyang Technological University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5834-5330 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 42 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Academic Literacy of International Postgraduate Students in Australia: A Cause for Concern
This article discusses the academic literacy challenges faced by international postgraduate students at a South Australian university and evaluates the effectiveness of existing institutional support mechanisms. Drawing on survey data, the study highlights significant difficulties in academic reading, writing, and spoken communication, with disciplinary variations in student experiences at the institution. Non‐STEM students (such as the humanitie…
Social network effects on particle variation among Singapore students
We situate our study of Singapore English particles in the context of social network theory and language variation in order to gain access to Singapore students’ most natural language use (that is, their vernacular, in the Labovian sense), and consider aspects of social as well as stylistic variation. We provide the results of a study on the ego‐centric social networks of Chinese and Malay students and consider the network effects of social netwo…
World Englishes and sociolinguistic variation
This article discusses the connections between world Englishes and sociolinguistic variation. It begins with an overview of the field of sociolinguistic variation, and also highlighting contemporary approaches to world Englishes, with specific reference to the sociolinguistic realities (in the Kachruvian sense) of Outer Circle contexts. The article then proceeds to examine language variation studies with a focus on vernacular language practices a…
EMI (English‐medium instruction) across the Asian region
This article has two main aims. First, to describe the general background to English‐medium instruction (EMI) with reference to Outer Circle and Expanding Circle societies in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Second, it analyses data from each of the four case studies in the symposium in this issue in order to identify and explain the background to, and varying forms, of EMI in higher education in Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Sout…
EMI (English‐medium instruction) in Singapore's major universities
In this article we report on the dynamics of English‐medium instruction (EMI) in Singaporean higher education, where we describe the context of EMI with reference to the multilingual background and multilingual practices of university students in their educational as well as personal lives. Our study surveyed over one thousand students from Singapore's six main universities, where we investigated the multilingual backgrounds of students at these …
EMI (English‐medium instruction) in South Korean elite universities
This article provides an extensive review of previous research on English‐medium instruction (EMI) in South Korean higher education. It then goes on to discuss the findings of a 2017 survey at four elite universities in South Korea, which were Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). While some of the results could be regarded as predictable, there were a numbe…
Introduction to symposium on English‐medium instruction (EMI) in Asian higher education
This symposium comprises five articles dealing with English‐medium instruction (EMI) in higher education across the Asian region. All five articles report on original empirical research carried out in four diverse settings, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea. It is intended that this collection of articles will make a meaningful contribution to the frontline of research on English‐medium instruction worldwide
Researching South African Englishes
In this paper we provide an overview of the current status as well as broad functions of Englishes in South Africa. We also provide a discussion of some of the contemporary concerns related to the complex and multivaried nature of English in the country. This paper further serves to introduce the major themes that are of concern to those researchers that are interested in the study of South African Englishes, through an introduction of the papers…
The functions of language mixing in the social networks of Singapore students
In the context of multilingualism, there is still a dearth of research on the language practices of individuals and the social factors that explain their linguistic behaviour, particularly in the Singapore context. This article discusses the dynamics underlying a particular feature of vernacular Singapore speech - language mixing - and how such mixing practices form part of the social identity of the interactions between speakers in their respect…
The Handbook of Asian Englishes
The Handbook of Asian Englishes provides wide-ranging coverage of the historical and cultural context, contemporary dynamics, and linguistic features of English in use throughout the Asian region. This first-of-its-kind volume offers a wide-ranging exploration of the English language throughout nations in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Contributions by a team of internationally-recognized linguists and scholars of Asian Englishes and …
Handbook of Asian Englishes
Language mixing in the social network of a South African student
This article discusses the dynamics underlying a particular feature of South African Englishes – language mixing – and how such mixing practices and the use of English form part of the social identity of interactions between speakers in their respective social networks. The approach to this current study was adapted from Milroy's (1980) research on social networks in order to provide access to participants’ most natural use of languages. This stu…
South African Englishes: A contemporary bibliography
The bibliography presented here is a list of contemporary research publications that provide the details of books, research articles, as well as other research outputs that were published between 1994 and 2020. The main aim of this bibliography is to provide scholars interested in researching South African Englishes with sources of major works published internationally as well as in core journals from South Africa. Despite the problems concerning…
‘Technically wrong leh’: Leh as a feature of Singapore Colloquial English
There has been much discussion on the use of particles (also referred to as ‘discourse particles’ or ‘pragmatic particles’) as a key feature of Singapore English. Wong (2004) has pointed out that particles are essential in the Singapore speech community, and in order to pass as a functional member of the speech community a speaker needs to have a proficient knowledge of the meanings and functions of particles in spoken (and increasingly in texted…
A social network approach to particles in Singapore English
This article discusses the findings of research on the use of particles in the vernacular speech of university students in Singapore, with particular reference to language variation and how meaningful social information is conveyed through the use of such particles. One key argument here is that the particles may be used to indicate speaker identity at the individual level, and across the Singapore speech community. This study draws on an adapted…
The use of English in the social network of a student in South China: The social functions of language mixing among Chinese students
Many Chinese university students are bilingual or multilingual, increasingly switching between various Chinese language varieties and the English language (Bolton, 2013; Botha, 2014, Bolton & Botha, 2015). Bolton and Botha (2015) reported that undergraduate students at a national university in China used English for a range of social activities including ‘reading’, ‘Internet searches’, ‘online socialising’ and ‘socializing with friends’, among ot…
English-medium instruction in Singapore higher education: Policy, realities and challenges
Within the Asian region, Singapore has long been seen as a leader within the field of higher education, with an unmatched record of success in implementing English-medium instruction (EMI) at all levels of education, including colleges and universities. This present study reports on a large-scale survey carried out at one of Singapore’s major universities on the use of English as a teaching medium at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Key…
English and international students in China today: A sociolinguistic study of English-medium degree programs at a major Chinese university
China has since 2000 started marketing itself as a hub for international education, and there has been a push by the government to attract a large number of foreign students to the country's universities. Sharma (2011) reported that there were around 260,000 foreign students studying in China's universities, and that the aim of the Ministry of Education was to attract around 500,000 foreign students by 2020. However, as China is a so-called ‘emer…
Variation in Macau Cantonese: The Case of Initial and Final Segments
This article considers how meaningful social differences are conveyed through the use of initial and final segments in Macau Cantonese. The research presented in this article provides a sociolinguistic account of the use of initial and final segments in Macau Cantonese, and specifically illustrates how social meanings of initials and finals are variable, and do not only subsume explanations that derive from internal linguistic constraint categori…
English in China: A contemporary bibliography
The list of research publications presented here is a contemporary bibliography, providing details of research articles, books, and other research outputs that were published between 2003 and 2015. The main focus of this bibliography is major works published internationally as well as in core journals from the People's Republic of China (PRC). Despite the problems concerning the representativeness of this current bibliography, the authors hope th…
English in China's universities: Past and present
By many, the recent popularity of English in Chinese education, at all levels of learning, has been seen as a very modern phenomenon, which followed the opening of China in the late 1970s. In fact, the learning of English in China has a long and partly forgotten history, not least at the level of higher education. From an historical perspective, it is salutary to remember that English medium universities and colleges were first established in Chi…
Researching English in contemporary China
This article provides an introduction to the range of research covered by the contributions to this special issue on English in contemporary China. The role of English in Chinese society today cannot be considered in isolation from the sociolinguistic background, as well as the social and political context of contemporary Chinese society. With reference to the present-day sociolinguistic dynamics of China, one important issue is the current sprea…
English in China's universities today: The practice of English-medium instruction in China's universities is dramatically altering the linguistic nature of students' educational as well as their perso…
According to Bolton (2013), Chinese university students are invariably multilingual, not only acquiring English at school, but increasingly outside of their formal curricula, through the Internet, music, computer games, movies, and television series. Indeed, many of these students are also highly mobile, and in most cases migrate throughout Greater China (and abroad) in order to pursue higher education degrees. Bolton (2012, 2013) also points out…
Variation in the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese
This paper considers how meaningful social information is conveyed with the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese. The purpose in this research is to provide a general sociolinguistic account of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese, and specifically to illustrate that social meanings of SFPs are variable, and do not constitute rigid or fixed meanings and interpretations. These social meanings, this paper argues, are a potentia…
English-medium instruction at a university in Macau: Policy and realities
This paper discusses the sociolinguistic background to the use of English in higher education in Macau by presenting the results of a sociolinguistic survey on the use of English in a privately-owned university in the special administrative region of Macau. A survey of language use and attitudes was administered to 26 teaching staff and 227 undergraduate students at the university in mid-2012. The results report on the status and functions of Eng…
English in China's universities: Past and present
By many, the recent popularity of English in Chinese education, at all levels of learning, has been seen as a very modern phenomenon, which followed the opening of China in the late 1970s. In fact, the learning of English in China has a long and partly forgotten history, not least at the level of higher education. From an historical perspective, it is salutary to remember that English medium universities and colleges were first established in Chi…
English-medium instruction in Singapore higher education: Policy, realities and challenges
Within the Asian region, Singapore has long been seen as a leader within the field of higher education, with an unmatched record of success in implementing English-medium instruction (EMI) at all levels of education, including colleges and universities. This present study reports on a large-scale survey carried out at one of Singapore’s major universities on the use of English as a teaching medium at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Key…
English-medium instruction at a university in Macau: Policy and realities
This paper discusses the sociolinguistic background to the use of English in higher education in Macau by presenting the results of a sociolinguistic survey on the use of English in a privately-owned university in the special administrative region of Macau. A survey of language use and attitudes was administered to 26 teaching staff and 227 undergraduate students at the university in mid-2012. The results report on the status and functions of Eng…
A social network approach to particles in Singapore English
This article discusses the findings of research on the use of particles in the vernacular speech of university students in Singapore, with particular reference to language variation and how meaningful social information is conveyed through the use of such particles. One key argument here is that the particles may be used to indicate speaker identity at the individual level, and across the Singapore speech community. This study draws on an adapted…
Researching English in contemporary China
This article provides an introduction to the range of research covered by the contributions to this special issue on English in contemporary China. The role of English in Chinese society today cannot be considered in isolation from the sociolinguistic background, as well as the social and political context of contemporary Chinese society. With reference to the present-day sociolinguistic dynamics of China, one important issue is the current sprea…
Variation in Macau Cantonese: The Case of Initial and Final Segments
This article considers how meaningful social differences are conveyed through the use of initial and final segments in Macau Cantonese. The research presented in this article provides a sociolinguistic account of the use of initial and final segments in Macau Cantonese, and specifically illustrates how social meanings of initials and finals are variable, and do not only subsume explanations that derive from internal linguistic constraint categori…
Social network effects on particle variation among Singapore students
We situate our study of Singapore English particles in the context of social network theory and language variation in order to gain access to Singapore students’ most natural language use (that is, their vernacular, in the Labovian sense), and consider aspects of social as well as stylistic variation. We provide the results of a study on the ego‐centric social networks of Chinese and Malay students and consider the network effects of social netwo…
English in China: A contemporary bibliography
The list of research publications presented here is a contemporary bibliography, providing details of research articles, books, and other research outputs that were published between 2003 and 2015. The main focus of this bibliography is major works published internationally as well as in core journals from the People's Republic of China (PRC). Despite the problems concerning the representativeness of this current bibliography, the authors hope th…
World Englishes and sociolinguistic variation
This article discusses the connections between world Englishes and sociolinguistic variation. It begins with an overview of the field of sociolinguistic variation, and also highlighting contemporary approaches to world Englishes, with specific reference to the sociolinguistic realities (in the Kachruvian sense) of Outer Circle contexts. The article then proceeds to examine language variation studies with a focus on vernacular language practices a…
Language mixing in the social network of a South African student
This article discusses the dynamics underlying a particular feature of South African Englishes – language mixing – and how such mixing practices and the use of English form part of the social identity of interactions between speakers in their respective social networks. The approach to this current study was adapted from Milroy's (1980) research on social networks in order to provide access to participants’ most natural use of languages. This stu…
Variation in the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese
This paper considers how meaningful social information is conveyed with the use of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese. The purpose in this research is to provide a general sociolinguistic account of sentence final particles in Macau Cantonese, and specifically to illustrate that social meanings of SFPs are variable, and do not constitute rigid or fixed meanings and interpretations. These social meanings, this paper argues, are a potentia…
English-medium instruction at a university in Macau: Policy and realities
This paper discusses the sociolinguistic background to the use of English in higher education in Macau by presenting the results of a sociolinguistic survey on the use of English in a privately-owned university in the special administrative region of Macau. A survey of language use and attitudes was administered to 26 teaching staff and 227 undergraduate students at the university in mid-2012. The results report on the status and functions of Eng…
English in China's universities today: The practice of English-medium instruction in China's universities is dramatically altering the linguistic nature of students' educational as well as their perso…
According to Bolton (2013), Chinese university students are invariably multilingual, not only acquiring English at school, but increasingly outside of their formal curricula, through the Internet, music, computer games, movies, and television series. Indeed, many of these students are also highly mobile, and in most cases migrate throughout Greater China (and abroad) in order to pursue higher education degrees. Bolton (2012, 2013) also points out…
Variation in Macau Cantonese: The Case of Initial and Final Segments
This article considers how meaningful social differences are conveyed through the use of initial and final segments in Macau Cantonese. The research presented in this article provides a sociolinguistic account of the use of initial and final segments in Macau Cantonese, and specifically illustrates how social meanings of initials and finals are variable, and do not only subsume explanations that derive from internal linguistic constraint categori…
English in China: A contemporary bibliography
The list of research publications presented here is a contemporary bibliography, providing details of research articles, books, and other research outputs that were published between 2003 and 2015. The main focus of this bibliography is major works published internationally as well as in core journals from the People's Republic of China (PRC). Despite the problems concerning the representativeness of this current bibliography, the authors hope th…
English in China's universities: Past and present
By many, the recent popularity of English in Chinese education, at all levels of learning, has been seen as a very modern phenomenon, which followed the opening of China in the late 1970s. In fact, the learning of English in China has a long and partly forgotten history, not least at the level of higher education. From an historical perspective, it is salutary to remember that English medium universities and colleges were first established in Chi…
Researching English in contemporary China
This article provides an introduction to the range of research covered by the contributions to this special issue on English in contemporary China. The role of English in Chinese society today cannot be considered in isolation from the sociolinguistic background, as well as the social and political context of contemporary Chinese society. With reference to the present-day sociolinguistic dynamics of China, one important issue is the current sprea…
English and international students in China today: A sociolinguistic study of English-medium degree programs at a major Chinese university
China has since 2000 started marketing itself as a hub for international education, and there has been a push by the government to attract a large number of foreign students to the country's universities. Sharma (2011) reported that there were around 260,000 foreign students studying in China's universities, and that the aim of the Ministry of Education was to attract around 500,000 foreign students by 2020. However, as China is a so-called ‘emer…
The use of English in the social network of a student in South China: The social functions of language mixing among Chinese students
Many Chinese university students are bilingual or multilingual, increasingly switching between various Chinese language varieties and the English language (Bolton, 2013; Botha, 2014, Bolton & Botha, 2015). Bolton and Botha (2015) reported that undergraduate students at a national university in China used English for a range of social activities including ‘reading’, ‘Internet searches’, ‘online socialising’ and ‘socializing with friends’, among ot…
English-medium instruction in Singapore higher education: Policy, realities and challenges
Within the Asian region, Singapore has long been seen as a leader within the field of higher education, with an unmatched record of success in implementing English-medium instruction (EMI) at all levels of education, including colleges and universities. This present study reports on a large-scale survey carried out at one of Singapore’s major universities on the use of English as a teaching medium at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Key…
A social network approach to particles in Singapore English
This article discusses the findings of research on the use of particles in the vernacular speech of university students in Singapore, with particular reference to language variation and how meaningful social information is conveyed through the use of such particles. One key argument here is that the particles may be used to indicate speaker identity at the individual level, and across the Singapore speech community. This study draws on an adapted…
‘Technically wrong leh’: Leh as a feature of Singapore Colloquial English
There has been much discussion on the use of particles (also referred to as ‘discourse particles’ or ‘pragmatic particles’) as a key feature of Singapore English. Wong (2004) has pointed out that particles are essential in the Singapore speech community, and in order to pass as a functional member of the speech community a speaker needs to have a proficient knowledge of the meanings and functions of particles in spoken (and increasingly in texted…
The Handbook of Asian Englishes
The Handbook of Asian Englishes provides wide-ranging coverage of the historical and cultural context, contemporary dynamics, and linguistic features of English in use throughout the Asian region. This first-of-its-kind volume offers a wide-ranging exploration of the English language throughout nations in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Contributions by a team of internationally-recognized linguists and scholars of Asian Englishes and …
Handbook of Asian Englishes
Language mixing in the social network of a South African student
This article discusses the dynamics underlying a particular feature of South African Englishes – language mixing – and how such mixing practices and the use of English form part of the social identity of interactions between speakers in their respective social networks. The approach to this current study was adapted from Milroy's (1980) research on social networks in order to provide access to participants’ most natural use of languages. This stu…
South African Englishes: A contemporary bibliography
The bibliography presented here is a list of contemporary research publications that provide the details of books, research articles, as well as other research outputs that were published between 1994 and 2020. The main aim of this bibliography is to provide scholars interested in researching South African Englishes with sources of major works published internationally as well as in core journals from South Africa. Despite the problems concerning…
Researching South African Englishes
In this paper we provide an overview of the current status as well as broad functions of Englishes in South Africa. We also provide a discussion of some of the contemporary concerns related to the complex and multivaried nature of English in the country. This paper further serves to introduce the major themes that are of concern to those researchers that are interested in the study of South African Englishes, through an introduction of the papers…
The functions of language mixing in the social networks of Singapore students
In the context of multilingualism, there is still a dearth of research on the language practices of individuals and the social factors that explain their linguistic behaviour, particularly in the Singapore context. This article discusses the dynamics underlying a particular feature of vernacular Singapore speech - language mixing - and how such mixing practices form part of the social identity of the interactions between speakers in their respect…
Introduction to symposium on English‐medium instruction (EMI) in Asian higher education
This symposium comprises five articles dealing with English‐medium instruction (EMI) in higher education across the Asian region. All five articles report on original empirical research carried out in four diverse settings, Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, and South Korea. It is intended that this collection of articles will make a meaningful contribution to the frontline of research on English‐medium instruction worldwide
EMI (English‐medium instruction) across the Asian region
This article has two main aims. First, to describe the general background to English‐medium instruction (EMI) with reference to Outer Circle and Expanding Circle societies in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Second, it analyses data from each of the four case studies in the symposium in this issue in order to identify and explain the background to, and varying forms, of EMI in higher education in Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Sout…
EMI (English‐medium instruction) in Singapore's major universities
In this article we report on the dynamics of English‐medium instruction (EMI) in Singaporean higher education, where we describe the context of EMI with reference to the multilingual background and multilingual practices of university students in their educational as well as personal lives. Our study surveyed over one thousand students from Singapore's six main universities, where we investigated the multilingual backgrounds of students at these …
EMI (English‐medium instruction) in South Korean elite universities
This article provides an extensive review of previous research on English‐medium instruction (EMI) in South Korean higher education. It then goes on to discuss the findings of a 2017 survey at four elite universities in South Korea, which were Seoul National University, Korea University, Yonsei University, and Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). While some of the results could be regarded as predictable, there were a numbe…
Social network effects on particle variation among Singapore students
We situate our study of Singapore English particles in the context of social network theory and language variation in order to gain access to Singapore students’ most natural language use (that is, their vernacular, in the Labovian sense), and consider aspects of social as well as stylistic variation. We provide the results of a study on the ego‐centric social networks of Chinese and Malay students and consider the network effects of social netwo…
World Englishes and sociolinguistic variation
This article discusses the connections between world Englishes and sociolinguistic variation. It begins with an overview of the field of sociolinguistic variation, and also highlighting contemporary approaches to world Englishes, with specific reference to the sociolinguistic realities (in the Kachruvian sense) of Outer Circle contexts. The article then proceeds to examine language variation studies with a focus on vernacular language practices a…
The Academic Literacy of International Postgraduate Students in Australia: A Cause for Concern
This article discusses the academic literacy challenges faced by international postgraduate students at a South Australian university and evaluates the effectiveness of existing institutional support mechanisms. Drawing on survey data, the study highlights significant difficulties in academic reading, writing, and spoken communication, with disciplinary variations in student experiences at the institution. Non‐STEM students (such as the humanitie…
Sociology (21 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (17 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (13 works) · Linguistics (12 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Political science (11 works) · Psychology (11 works) · History (10 works) · Pedagogy (10 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (9 works)