Sustainable Usage of English: Students’ Attitudes to English Varieties

This article discusses the controversial issue of which variety of English learners and instructors should use. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 4, Target 4.7 states that learners need knowledge to promote peace and cultural diversity. It is argued here that a broad awareness of English varieties is a way to achieve this goal, and that the use of English in online environments can contribute towards its attainment. Two surveys were carried out to investigate how attitudes to varieties of English and to non-standard linguistic norms are changing. They were sent to students of English on online courses at a Swedish university in 2018-2019 and 2019-2021, and were responded to by 100 and 92 informants, respectively. The first survey demonstrated that the informants did indeed have a less strict view of which variety of English to learn and use, while the second survey demonstrated that features such as the omission of subjects, and informal spellings such as “yeah” appear to have become standardised and acceptable in all environments. These results appear to support what has been discussed in the literature, namely, that the use of English online is leading learners to review their beliefs and adopt a less strict view of varieties and norms. Thus, it is argued that online English usage can contribute towards the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4, Target 4.7, cultural diversity and an awareness of the multifaceted dimensions of a global language in the 21st century.