Yassir Nasanius Program in Applied English Linguistics

Atma Jaya Catholic University

Brutt-Griffler, J. (2002). World English: A study of its developments. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. Kachru, Y. & Smith, L. E. (2008). Cultures, contexts, and world Englishes. New York: Routledge. Kachru, Y. & Nelson, C. L. (2008). World Englishes in Asian contexts. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Mesthrie, R. & Bhatt, R. M. (2008). World Englishes: The study of new linguistic varieties. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) by University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations

TKT tests knowledge about the teaching of English, which includes concepts related to language, language use, and the background to and practice of language teaching and learning.

English originated from England and during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I merely had 5 to 7 million speakers.

Nowadays, It is used on all continents (more than 100 countries with speakers reaching 2 billion, according to recent estimates).

First Diaspora: English in England

Second Diaspora: The migration of thousands of people from England to America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand resulted in new varieties of English

Third Diaspora: The colonization of Asia and Africa led to the development of second language varieties, often referred to as “New Englishes” (such as Indian English)

Fourth Diaspora: English spoken throughout the world

What were the factors responsible

for the global spread of English?

First Diaspora & Second Diaspora: English as a

Native Language or English as a Mother Tongue

(350-400 million speakers)

Third Diaspora: English as a Second Language

(400 million speakers)

Fourth Diaspora: English as a Foreign Language

(more than 1 billion speakers)

British English, Australian English, New Zealand

English, American English, Canadian English

Indian English, Singaporean English, Malaysian

English, Nigerian English, African English

Euro English, Chinese English, Brunei English

Oohhh ... Guess what?! I accompanied Angie

to this air-stewardess walk-in interview two

days ago, and guess who I saw? Suraya! You

still remember-kah which one? The long hair

one, the one yang looks okay. So, I saw her-

lah, plus her 1-inci tebal punya make-up! I

guess she saw me too, tapi tak tegur pun.

Well, not that I care anyway!

A: Hey, you know that Razid in Pizza Hut, right?

B: Which one?

A: Razid ah, Razid... Razali’s friend ... You know

what he was doing or not?

B: The one who always like to kow peh, is it? The

botak fella. I don’t like him, you know.

A: He kena play out.

B: By who?

A: They send him to Brunei, you know, instead of

Taiwan.

British English, Australian English, New Zealand

English, American English, Canadian English

Indian English, Singaporean English, Malaysian

English, Nigerian English, African English

Euro English, Chinese English, Brunei English,

Manglish, Singlish

Which variety of English should we,

teachers of English, adopt for

pedagogical purposes?

Two prominent scholars of English, Braj

B. Kachru and Randolph Quirk, have

come to opposed conclusions about

which English should be adopted in ELT.

Quirk (1985, 1990) argues for a

global standard (Inner Circle

English) to maintain

comprehensibility

among different nations.

For Quirk, Standard British or American

English should be the norm for

international communication and hence

the ones to be inculcated in Outer Circle

classrooms.

What do you think?

Do you share the ideas proposed by

Quirk? That is, Inner Circle English (such

as American or British English) should be

more appropriately adopted for the ELT

context in Indonesia.

Kachru insists on allowing non-native

teachers to develop their own models

using local communicative, pragmatic

and pedagogic competence. Using local

linguistic resources is seen as more

authentic and appropriate.

As the status of English as a world

language changes, and as the number of

users of English grows, it is important to

move beyond the traditional limits of

language pedagogy and the assumption

that all learners of English desire to speak

one variety of English. (Brown, 1995, p.

233)

Do you support the ideas proposed

by Kachru? That is, we do not have

to adopt Inner Circle English (such

as American or British English) for

the ELT context in Indonesia.

The debate has the following implications:

(i) issues concerning the most appropriate qualifications of teachers

(ii) issues concerning teaching materials

Who are the best teachers of English?

Monolingual speakers of Inner Circle English

vs.

Bilingual teachers who might not always command the Inner Circle English but who are familiar with the pupils’ mother tongues

Quirk was in favor of the native speakers, stressing the inadequacies of non-native teachers. He stated that the

English of the non-native teachers bears the stamp of locally acquired

deviation from the standard language.

What do you think?

Do you agree with Quirk’s view which

stressed the inadequacies of non-native

teachers of English?

Kachru points out that the resources needed to promulgate

the British or American norm are unlikely to be fulfilled in the vast

territories of Expanding Circle countries.

That is, it makes more sense to train local teachers to become successful

English users. Such teachers are much more available than native-speaker

teachers.

What do you think?

Do you support Kachru’s view which is in

favor of locally-trained teachers who are

successful users of English?

Should ELT materials be based on American or British English?

Christophersen (1992, p.16) recounted his experience teaching English in Nigeria:

After giving a lecture on the phonetics of English to students at Ibadan, Nigeria, I was consulted by one of them who said, ‘If I try outside the College to use the kind of English you teach us, people will ask, ‘‘Why do you speak English in the white man’s way? Why don’t you speak it like an African?

Kachru (1976) reported in the 1970s that a majority of Indian graduate students surveyed expressed a preference for a British model of English as a medium of instruction. By the 1990s Sahgal (1991) suggests a growing preference for ‘Ordinary Indian English’ as exemplified by the English of Indian film stars and other prestigious role models.

Recently there is movement of students from South-East Asia to India in search of access to English in an environment deemed less costly and more in tune with their cultural values.

Should educational materials be imported from the West? In other

words, should educational materials be based on the English from Inner Circle

countries?

Promoting the idea of World Englishes as a medium of worldwide

communication.

The standard for World Englishes should not come from just one

hegemonic variety of English (Inner Circle countries) nor solely from the local variety (Outer Circle countries).

That is, teachers of English should be familiar with a wide range of World

Englishes from the three circles so that they are able to expose various types

of English to their students.

What do you think of this view? If you agree with this view, how would you

train your students?

Why do our students need to be familiar with a wide range of Englishes instead of just one

variety?

The analyses of major airline accidents showed that they might have been caused by communication failures in English between pilots and air-traffic controllers (although

most accidents probably occurred because of some technological and environmental

difficulty).

The accident happened partly due to the lack of intermediate to advanced English proficiency of the Columbian air-traffic

controller to whom the content of the radio transmission from the American pilots did

not make much sense to him.

Indian air-traffic controllers complained that pilots from the former Soviet Union had a

poor command of English, whilst the Kazakhstan pilots might not have

understood the instructions given by the Indian controller.

Experiencing difficulty on a foggy runway, a pilot from Holland had a discussion with the ATC and said: ‘Ah, roger sir, we are cleared to Papa Beacon, flight level niner zero ... We are at takeoff.’ The controller responds ‘OK, standby for take-off. I call you’, but is then interrupted by another radio transmission. By this time, however, the plane is already in motion for takeoff and a serious accident ensues.

An experienced US airline captain shared his view why being familiar with a wide range of Englishes is important: “When I started flying to Japan and China, I had experienced many difficulties and problems in my ATC communication with Japanese and Chinese controllers. However, I now experience almost no problem in commu-nicating with them.”

Because of the global spread of English which results in a wide variety of English (World Englishes), it makes sense if we expose our students with different types of English if we want them to be able to communicate with people who speak World Englishes around the globe.