Unit 2 Reflection

[Admin]

- Inner Circle Varieties of English:

The more I reflect on the highly numerous varieties of English in the Inner Circle alone, the more illogical it feels to teach one variety (what is considered Standard US or UK English). What even is American English? Learners coming to study English in the US expect to be taught American English and American pronunciation, but how can we define these and place them in one neat box? Across the US alone there are multitudes of varieties and accents, not even counting "non-native" speaker varieties and accents, of which there is an abundance in the United States. So, yes, I believe we should be exposing learners to different varieties and these should be acknowledged.
I used to have flatmate whose accent was very similar to Bernadette's and who, on many occasions, I had a very hard time understating and had to embarrassingly ask her to repeat things a few times. She was speaking English, I was an English teacher, so what was the issue? Well, I had never been exposed to her variety before. Maybe it's difficult to expose everyone to every variety, but certainly there are major ones like Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, Indian, Asian varieties, Spanish varieties etc. that ELT textbooks could easily incorporate?

- British English

What struck me from the former PM's address was the idea that English belonged exclusively to the British Isles and that they were generously offering to loan some of it to India. This seems to promote the idea of linguistic imperialism even more so when one considers that Indian English IS already a variety of English.

- Standard English in ELF usage

As a teacher, I don;t think I have ever heard my international students communicate with each other in "Standard" English, so I think it is not important, because they negotiate meaning and are able to communicate effectively using their idiolets to form ELF.
On that note, a friend and fellow English teacher told me once that American English was the real lingua franca. What are your thoughts on this view?

[sameerco1971]

I don't believe in the so called Standard English. Yes, there are many different dialects. Some of them are more dominant than others due to political, regional, national or racial factors. The interesting thing is that English is not the first language in India. However, Indian English is considered as a dialect of English.

[Kunlong Jin]

I want to give a bit of reflections on ex-UK Prime Minister Brown announcing his ELT initiatives in India, and what his announcement reveals about official views of Britain’s past and present relationship with English and ELT.,
In Asia, it is obvious that there is a great emphasis put on English education, as seen by the movements lowering the age of English instruction in elementary school (Park, 2009). English as a foreign language policy is central to international and intranational politics. English is the official working language, reminding those non-native speakers of its power to create and level inequalities. It is also quite clear in Europe, that English has assumed a dominant role, irrespective of the multilingual policy of the EU. For example, as Galloway and Rose (2015, p. 127) suggests, English has become the official working language in the EU and the multilingual policy is often discarded:
-English is a prerequisite for a successful career within the European Commission.
-English is the main foreign language of business in all member countries.
-English is the main language of translation services.
-English makes up around 88% of the content on the EU websites.
-English is the dominant in EU published material.

Taken together, I guess it explains why English is often a highly desirable language to learn for non-native speakers.

[severoc]

May 20, 2020 23:46:03 GMT Kunlong Jin said:

I want to give a bit of reflections on ex-UK Prime Minister Brown announcing his ELT initiatives in India, and what his announcement reveals about official views of Britain’s past and present relationship with English and ELT.,
In Asia, it is obvious that there is a great emphasis put on English education, as seen by the movements lowering the age of English instruction in elementary school (Park, 2009). English as a foreign language policy is central to international and intranational politics. English is the official working language, reminding those non-native speakers of its power to create and level inequalities. It is also quite clear in Europe, that English has assumed a dominant role, irrespective of the multilingual policy of the EU. For example, as Galloway and Rose (2015, p. 127) suggests, English has become the official working language in the EU and the multilingual policy is often discarded:
-English is a prerequisite for a successful career within the European Commission.
-English is the main foreign language of business in all member countries.
-English is the main language of translation services.
-English makes up around 88% of the content on the EU websites.
-English is the dominant in EU published material.

Taken together, I guess it explains why English is often a highly desirable language to learn for non-native speakers.

And I'd like to add the fact that english is considered "easier" and/or "objective" and that's why people choose that language.

[Daniel Palmer]

As far as teaching Inner Circle varieties is concerned, I believe that this practice can border on the pernicious in terms of further devaluing the prestige of local varieties, which is worrying considering this has been a deliberate historical feature of ELT in the past. Of course we should always aim for clear communication over all else, and this necessitates allowing students to negotiate for meaning within the sphere of ELF.

Translanguaging is also a heavy feature of ELT where I am; it helps with negotiation of meaning, and also helps create ties between linguistic identities.

[tarveen20]

India has linguistic plurality, and multilingual 'naturally trans lingual' Anderson (2019) classrooms. Most teachers in state-run schools share their learners' home language and use it to teach various subjects in their classrooms, treating English not as a language, but as a subject. More experienced teachers use L1 inclusive practices to some extent.

[erenkenny]

Although English is a lingua franca, we still teach standard English in the classrooms. There will be different accents in the classroom but teachers are taught how to teach pronunciation. I think as long as pronunciation doesn't cause any misunderstanding the accent is acceptable. In my classroom, there are a great variety of nationalities and they all speak English with different accent.

Translanguaging means moving across languages to achieve effective interaction. But can one language domineer the other one?

[abdisyam]

May 27, 2020 16:05:34 GMT erenkenny said:

Although English is a lingua franca, we still teach standard English in the classrooms. There will be different accents in the classroom but teachers are taught how to teach pronunciation. I think as long as pronunciation doesn't cause any misunderstanding the accent is acceptable. In my classroom, there are a great variety of nationalities and they all speak English with different accent.

Translanguaging means moving across languages to achieve effective interaction. But can one language domineer the other one?

As far as pronunciation is concerned, I agree with you that as long as accented pronunciation is intelligible, it should not be a problem. I remember the research by Derwin and Munro which suggests that someone can have heavily accented English but highly intelligible. I think intelligibility and accommodation principle in ELF are what we should really teach in a pronunciation class. 

[TJ]

May 11, 2020 20:53:09 GMT Admin said:

- Inner Circle Varieties of English:

The more I reflect on the highly numerous varieties of English in the Inner Circle alone, the more illogical it feels to teach one variety (what is considered Standard US or UK English). What even is American English? Learners coming to study English in the US expect to be taught American English and American pronunciation, but how can we define these and place them in one neat box? Across the US alone there are multitudes of varieties and accents, not even counting "non-native" speaker varieties and accents, of which there is an abundance in the United States. So, yes, I believe we should be exposing learners to different varieties and these should be acknowledged.
I used to have flatmate whose accent was very similar to Bernadette's and who, on many occasions, I had a very hard time understating and had to embarrassingly ask her to repeat things a few times. She was speaking English, I was an English teacher, so what was the issue? Well, I had never been exposed to her variety before. Maybe it's difficult to expose everyone to every variety, but certainly there are major ones like Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, Indian, Asian varieties, Spanish varieties etc. that ELT textbooks could easily incorporate?

- British English

What struck me from the former PM's address was the idea that English belonged exclusively to the British Isles and that they were generously offering to loan some of it to India. This seems to promote the idea of linguistic imperialism even more so when one considers that Indian English IS already a variety of English.

- Standard English in ELF usage

As a teacher, I don;t think I have ever heard my international students communicate with each other in "Standard" English, so I think it is not important, because they negotiate meaning and are able to communicate effectively using their idiolets to form ELF.
On that note, a friend and fellow English teacher told me once that American English was the real lingua franca. What are your thoughts on this view?

I am honestly questioning if earning a salary as a teacher of a “standard” English can be justified. Does teaching language users to pass a test to a certain standard just perpetuate privilege? This is a huge area to consider as we examine inequalities in society. I’m taking this course at the same time that I am becoming increasingly exposed to the my role in maintaining systems of oppression so it is definitely food for thought.

[Nidhi Lakhisarani]

May 11, 2020 20:53:09 GMT Admin said:

- Inner Circle Varieties of English:

The more I reflect on the highly numerous varieties of English in the Inner Circle alone, the more illogical it feels to teach one variety (what is considered Standard US or UK English). What even is American English? Learners coming to study English in the US expect to be taught American English and American pronunciation, but how can we define these and place them in one neat box? Across the US alone there are multitudes of varieties and accents, not even counting "non-native" speaker varieties and accents, of which there is an abundance in the United States. So, yes, I believe we should be exposing learners to different varieties and these should be acknowledged.
I used to have flatmate whose accent was very similar to Bernadette's and who, on many occasions, I had a very hard time understating and had to embarrassingly ask her to repeat things a few times. She was speaking English, I was an English teacher, so what was the issue? Well, I had never been exposed to her variety before. Maybe it's difficult to expose everyone to every variety, but certainly there are major ones like Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, Indian, Asian varieties, Spanish varieties etc. that ELT textbooks could easily incorporate?

- British English

What struck me from the former PM's address was the idea that English belonged exclusively to the British Isles and that they were generously offering to loan some of it to India. This seems to promote the idea of linguistic imperialism even more so when one considers that Indian English IS already a variety of English.

- Standard English in ELF usage

As a teacher, I don;t think I have ever heard my international students communicate with each other in "Standard" English, so I think it is not important, because they negotiate meaning and are able to communicate effectively using their idiolets to form ELF.
On that note, a friend and fellow English teacher told me once that American English was the real lingua franca. What are your thoughts on this view?

My problem with Standard English is that nobody seems to use it. Within Standard English too, there is written English and spoken English which follow different rules. To exemplify, written English grammar rules suggest that you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition. When it comes to spoken English, how common are sentences like, ' I ain't quite sure what I am up to.' Moreover, native speakers themselves don't know all the grammar rules. With all the varieties that are there, I think the best thing to do would be combine things as they are convenient. Every country has as such mingled English with their native tongue. Why run away from it?

[andrea scabbia]

Who is the best English teacher? A native speaker or a non native speaker? That is the question!

[Monica RP]

Coming from Italy (expanding circle), I was taught English in a very prescriptive manner - language ‘flexibility’ wasn’t allowed. It’s not surprising, then, that when I became an EFL/ESL teacher, I applied a similar approach. I was a big fan of the so called ‘Standard English’.

Fast forward ten years, I now understand the importance of teaching ELF instead. I might be going off-topic here, but how do ‘we’ convince learners (or their parents) who pay for their courses, that ELF is the way to go? That having RP isn’t important? That the teacher’s nationality doesn’t matter?

On a previous point: I agree with others that speaking students’ L1 doesn’t encourage them to speak English. In fact, I’ve found that the majority would revert to their L1 more often than not.

[Tom Le Seelleur Lisburn, NI]

Translanguaging doesn't take place very much here as it is unnecessary unless you speak to the very few Irish (Garlic) speakers but they tend to know English as their L1. Standard English is my English - my accent, the language I was born with but I am very aware that the English I teach in Northern Ireland does not reflect what students hear on the street necessarily because of the difference in phonology, vocabulary and accent - regardless to this my students tell me that they prefer my mainland English because they understand it better than the local variety which at times can be problematic. Despite my students concerns I make sure that they are exposed to different accents and dialects if it fits in with the lesson aims. When I worked in Saudi Arabia, Spain, Libya, UAE many of the students expected to learn mainland English but when they spoke in the outside world they would mix their conversations with a combination of Arabic, English and Urdu, as Urdu was the most spoken language in the Middle East.

[abdisyam]

May 31, 2020 6:11:22 GMT Nidhi Lakhisarani said:

May 11, 2020 20:53:09 GMT Admin said:

- Inner Circle Varieties of English:

The more I reflect on the highly numerous varieties of English in the Inner Circle alone, the more illogical it feels to teach one variety (what is considered Standard US or UK English). What even is American English? Learners coming to study English in the US expect to be taught American English and American pronunciation, but how can we define these and place them in one neat box? Across the US alone there are multitudes of varieties and accents, not even counting "non-native" speaker varieties and accents, of which there is an abundance in the United States. So, yes, I believe we should be exposing learners to different varieties and these should be acknowledged.
I used to have flatmate whose accent was very similar to Bernadette's and who, on many occasions, I had a very hard time understating and had to embarrassingly ask her to repeat things a few times. She was speaking English, I was an English teacher, so what was the issue? Well, I had never been exposed to her variety before. Maybe it's difficult to expose everyone to every variety, but certainly there are major ones like Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, Indian, Asian varieties, Spanish varieties etc. that ELT textbooks could easily incorporate?

- British English

What struck me from the former PM's address was the idea that English belonged exclusively to the British Isles and that they were generously offering to loan some of it to India. This seems to promote the idea of linguistic imperialism even more so when one considers that Indian English IS already a variety of English.

- Standard English in ELF usage

As a teacher, I don;t think I have ever heard my international students communicate with each other in "Standard" English, so I think it is not important, because they negotiate meaning and are able to communicate effectively using their idiolets to form ELF.
On that note, a friend and fellow English teacher told me once that American English was the real lingua franca. What are your thoughts on this view?

My problem with Standard English is that nobody seems to use it. Within Standard English too, there is written English and spoken English which follow different rules. To exemplify, written English grammar rules suggest that you shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition. When it comes to spoken English, how common are sentences like, ' I ain't quite sure what I am up to.' Moreover, native speakers themselves don't know all the grammar rules. With all the varieties that are there, I think the best thing to do would be combine things as they are convenient. Every country has as such mingled English with their native tongue. Why run away from it?

I totally agree with this. It makes me reflect on some friends from overseas who came and learned Indonesian in formal education and the teachers taught them 'standard Indonesian'. I could not help but felt strange to talk in standard Indonesian with them. I am just wondering if native English speakers feel the same talking to international students in standard English. 

[profebeth]

May 11, 2020 20:53:09 GMT Admin said:

- Inner Circle Varieties of English:

The more I reflect on the highly numerous varieties of English in the Inner Circle alone, the more illogical it feels to teach one variety (what is considered Standard US or UK English). What even is American English? Learners coming to study English in the US expect to be taught American English and American pronunciation, but how can we define these and place them in one neat box? Across the US alone there are multitudes of varieties and accents, not even counting "non-native" speaker varieties and accents, of which there is an abundance in the United States. So, yes, I believe we should be exposing learners to different varieties and these should be acknowledged.
I used to have flatmate whose accent was very similar to Bernadette's and who, on many occasions, I had a very hard time understating and had to embarrassingly ask her to repeat things a few times. She was speaking English, I was an English teacher, so what was the issue? Well, I had never been exposed to her variety before. Maybe it's difficult to expose everyone to every variety, but certainly there are major ones like Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Australian, Indian, Asian varieties, Spanish varieties etc. that ELT textbooks could easily incorporate?

- British English

What struck me from the former PM's address was the idea that English belonged exclusively to the British Isles and that they were generously offering to loan some of it to India. This seems to promote the idea of linguistic imperialism even more so when one considers that Indian English IS already a variety of English.

- Standard English in ELF usage

As a teacher, I don;t think I have ever heard my international students communicate with each other in "Standard" English, so I think it is not important, because they negotiate meaning and are able to communicate effectively using their idiolets to form ELF.
On that note, a friend and fellow English teacher told me once that American English was the real lingua franca. What are your thoughts on this view?

I totally agree with you that we should not only be teaching different types of English, but because in practice that may be quite difficult, I'd place the emphasis here on acceptance of variants of English. This has tremendous ramifications for English testing, which has ramifications for international university students' acceptance into universities, and on and on. Perhaps with the growth of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we'll be able to allow "correct" answers to English tests based on all variations of English Vs only standard as we tend to do now. Humans simply cannot be expected to know all of the variants.

The concept of translanguaging is fascinating and the first time I've run across a word for this phenomenon that I've experienced in my bilingual family. It's all about efficiency and which language neatly encapsulates the exact concept we want in the most efficient way. I think we'll see more of this as time goes on simply because of our more shared global experience.