ABSTRACT
Questions of intelligibility arise whenever there is variation in language use. World Englishes, by definition, exhibit variation; therefore it is natural that intelligibility becomes an issue for those using world Englishes across cultures. The concern most often expressed is that with the great diversity in varieties of English, it may soon occur that people speaking fluent English may not be intelligible to other fluent users of English. The fact is that for at least the last 200 years there have been native English-speaking people in parts of the world who have not been intelligible to other native Englishspeaking people in other parts of the world. Today with millions (Crystal, 1998) of people using many different varieties of native and non-native English, it is inevitable that this will continue but not necessarily lead to a modern day Tower of Babel (Genesis, 11: 1-9). Prior research (Smith, 1987; Smith and Bisazza, 1982; Smith and Rafiqzad, 1979) indicates that (1) native English speakers are often not intelligible to fluent non-native English users;
Chapter 4
(2) native English speakers are not better than non-native users in understanding varieties of English different from their own; and (3) even if users of English as a second or additional language can understand one Inner Circle variety of English, they may not be able to understand other varieties of any Circle unless they have had experience interacting with those who use such varieties.
