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GLOBALISATION IN ELT AND THE DILEMMAS FACING EFL EDUCATORS. Ho Thi My Hau Hue University College of Foreign Languages. OUTLINE. 1. The Global Spread of English 1.1. English Around The World 1.2. Reactions to the Global Spread of English 2. The Dilemmas Facing EFL Educators
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GLOBALISATION IN ELT AND THE DILEMMAS FACING EFL EDUCATORS Ho Thi My Hau Hue University College of Foreign Languages
OUTLINE 1. The Global Spread of English 1.1. English Around The World 1.2. Reactions to the Global Spread of English 2. The Dilemmas Facing EFL Educators 2.1. Standard variety/varieties for teaching and learning 2.2. Cultural implications 2.3. Teaching Materials 2.4. Assessment and Testing 3. Implications
1. The Global Spread of English1.1. English around the World • 1/3 of world population speak English (non-native speakers = 3/4 or 4/5 users of English) (Crystal, 2008) • The vast majority of communication in English not involve any native speakers (Graddol, 2006)
The “Expanding Circle”, e.g. • China • Egypt • IndonesiaIsraelJapanKoreaNepalSaudi ArabiaTaiwanUSSRZimbabwe • The “Outer Circle” e.g. • BangladeshGhanaIndiaJamaicaKenyaMalaysiaNigeriaPakistanPhilippines • SingaporeSouth AfricaSri LankaTanzaniaZambia The “Inner Circle”USAUKCanadaAustraliaNew Zealand Models representing English use around the worldKachru’s (1985) three concentric circles
Learners Native and foreign language proficiency Proficient in International English People who do not know English The centripetal circles of international English (Modiano, 1999a, p. 25) Modiano’s (1999) centripetal circles
EFL (Japanese, etc.) EGL (acrolect) EFL (Danish, Dutch, Swedish, etc.) ESL (mesolect-basilect) American variety Indian variety Nigerian variety Singaporean variety Yano (2001, p. 124) Yano’s (2001) cylindrical model
“[k]nowing English is like possessing the fabled Aladdin’s lamp, which permits one to open, as it were, the linguistic gates to international business, technology, science, and travel. In short, English provides linguistic power.” Kachru (1986, p. 1)
1.2. Reactions to the Global Spread of English • Concerns about linguistic imperialism (Phillipson, 1992; Pennycook, 1994; Canagarajah, 1999a, 1999b) • Reactions against the ownership of English (Cook, 1999; Seidlhofer, 1999; Alptekin, 2002) • Inequality between native and non-native English speakers • TESOL - a “Trojan horse of globalisation” (Birch & Lyannage, 2004)? • Suggestion of a Lingua Franca model
A lingua franca is “a mode of communication which allows people to interact with others without aligning themselves to ideological positioning indicative of specific mother-tongue speech community” (Modiano, 2001a, p. 170)
Table 1: Traditional v ELF pronunciation targets for production Adapted from Jenkins, 2002: 99 (Jenkins, 2005b, p. 4)
Table 2: Potential features of ELF lexicogrammar from Seidlhofer’s VOICE Adapted from Seidlhofer, 2004: 220 (Jenkins, 2005b, p. 5)
1.2. Reactions to the Global Spread of English (cont.) • Issues relating to ELF • ELF – “a patronizing approach” (Taylor, 2006, p. 51), “another ‘Centre-led’ definition” devised by native speakers to lessen their feelings of guilt? (Holliday, 2005, p. 9) • ELF/EIL promoted for all learners of English lacking understanding of specific context • Debate by scholars lacking teachers and learners’ voice
2. The Dilemmas Facing EFL Educators2.1. Standard variety/varieties for teaching and learning • Native-speaker norms: • utopian and irrelevant (Cook, 1999; Rajagopalan, 1999; Alptekin, 2002; Seidlhofer, 2003) • Native vs non-native teachers such [native] teachers may have little or no training other than a short preservice course, and few have experience of teacher education. As a result, their knowledge of the language and their teaching skills can compare badly with those gained in lengthy university degrees by nonnative teachers.Jenkins (2006a, p. 172) • a comfortable pedagogical model still preferred by teachers and learners (Jenkins, 2006a; Llurda, 2004; Seidlhofer, 1999; Taylor, 2006; Timmis, 2002; Kuo, 2006)
2.1. Standard variety/varieties for teaching and learning (cont.) • English as a Lingua Franca • lacking pedagogical descriptive model (Kuo, 2006) • affecting international intelligibility (Petzold, 2002; Seidlhofer, 2005)
2.2. Cultural implications • Native-speaker norms: Cultural bias, irrelevant in international communication (Cortazzi & Jin, 1999; McKay, 2003) • English as a Lingua Franca: • neutral, cultural free? • language taught separately from its culture? • How to communicate meaning at deep levels? (Modiano, 2001; Alptekin, 2002; Llurda, 2004; Tarone, 2005)
2.3. Teaching Materials • based on native-speaker norms • Native-speaking contexts strange to learner’s real life encounters • EFL teachers may become “purveyors of both cultural and linguistic imperialism” Birch and Liyanage (2004, p. 93) • not based on native-speaker norms: no specific framework yet
2.4. Assessment and testing • Native-speaker norms: Discrepancy between English used in tests and language encountered by learners in real life situations (Hill & Parry, 1994; Davidson, 1994; House, 2003; Jenkins, 2006b) • English as a Lingua Franca: • Lacking standards for testing (Seidlhofer, 2003; Taylor, 2006) • “Reverse influence”: discrimination against non-ELF users (Davies, 2006)
3.Implications • Raising learners and educators’ awareness • Incorporate both local and international contexts in materials design. • Adapting existing materials • Changes in curriculum made by both experts from inside and outside community • Reality of practice from local contexts taken into consideration • Incorporate a view of World Englishes in teacher training courses • Real innovation in testing criteria focusing more on efficiency than being near native • Facilitate learners’ chance to share ideas about their own cultures • Parents should be informed of the changes in English use