Unequal English

Word of Mouth

Michael Rosen is joined by language scholar Ruanni Tupas, to discuss Unequal English - how native English is perceived differently, depending on where you come from.

Ruanni, who's from the Philippines and also spent two decades in Singapore, has spent his career thinking about what it means to be a native English speaker when you come from somewhere other than the West. He chats with Michael about his own experience of speaking four languages (English and three Philippine languages), how being judged by how he spoke English at university affected the rest of his life and research, and what it means for his children speaking English as a first language, havng grown up in Singapore. They also discuss what is really meant by English as a 'global language', and why he prefers thinking of multi-lingualism as having a language repertoire.

Ruanni Tupas is Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics at UCL, London.

Produced by Eliza Lomas for BBC Audio Bristol