The Emotion and Imagery Characterizing the Vocabularies of Special Englishes Designed for Later Language Learners

Two Special Englishes designed for later language learners – Ogden’s Basic English and the Voice of America’s Simple English – propose the use of a limited English vocabulary. The emotional associations, abstraction, length, and frequency of vocabulary words in these two systems were studied in comparison to Everyday English. Not surprisingly, the limited vocabularies of the two Special Englishes contained shorter and more common words than Everyday English. The Special Englishes were both more pleasant in their associations than Everyday English and more concrete (less abstract). Simple English was more active and arousing in its associations while Basic English was less so. It is suggested that teachers of later learners should be aware of the ways in which limited vocabularies skew the emotional connotations of texts and differentiate experiences of later language learners from those of more experienced users.