Alliance for International Education,

1. Why the international school community should embrace the concept of English as an International Language (EIL) Alliance for International Education, Doha, 2012 Coreen Sears

2. Foundational Definitions • English as an International Language (EIL): the language of international communication • English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) • Students with more than one language in their repertoire: second language students, speakers of other languages, ELLs, EAL, ESL etc.: ‘Bilingual’ students • Identity: here, the presentation of self and the ascription of identity in a given social context

3. Evidence • Medium-scale and small-scale research enquiries: JRIE, 2008, 2011, 2012; Multilingual Matters, 2011 • Literature:Bahba (1994), Canagarajah (1999), Hall (1996), Kubota & Lin (2009), Luke (2009), Pennycook (1994), (1998), (2000), Phan Le Ha (2008), Phillipson, (1992), (2008) etc. • Professional and personal experience

4. The world-wide use of English: how it has been perceived: Outer circle Inner circle BrajKachru, (1992) Expanding circle • ‘norm-providing’ • ‘norm-developing’ • ‘norm-dependent’ ‘otherisation’-‘linguistic and cultural imperialism’ ‘power/dominance’ paradigm

5. Fighting Back: Resistance and Appropriation: • ‘Postcolonial theories have not taken into account sufficiently the degrees of appropriation, resistance and active reconstitution from the non-West sides, particularly the colonised’. Phan Le Ha (2008) • Canagarajah: ‘Much communication in English now takes place between second language speakers of English and thus becomes significant to the ways those individuals present themselves, independently of first-language speakers.’ (2002) • Technological media and global usage • ‘EIL rejects the idea of any particular variety being selected as a lingua franca for international communication. EIL emphasises that English, with its many varieties, is a language of international, and therefore intercultural, communication.’ Sharifian (2009)

6. The nature of English as an International Language (EIL) • Speakers of World Englishes need no longer be viewed through the ‘three Circles metaphor’. • Our notion of proficiency can be re-evaluated. ‘In a context where we have to shuffle between different varieties and communities, proficiency becomes complex: one needs to negotiate diverse varieties to facilitate communication. Canagarajah (2006) • We can view ‘intercultural communication’ as a core element of ‘proficiency. • ‘Focus in the EIL paradigm is on communication rather than on speakers’ nationality, etc. which are symbolic markers of the ‘Circles’ approach.’ Sharifian (2009) • Lexical and grammatical features

7. If you view yourself as a speaker of EIL you: • cease to evaluate yourself in terms of an ‘Inner Circle’ norm • identify yourself as a member of the world-wide community of English speakers • are free to negotiate empowering identity positions in English-medium contexts • are able to negotiate intercultural communication from a favourable position • can embrace all aspects of your linguistic and cultural experience within an empowering identity construct • coreen.sears@tiscali.co.uk