English as a Lingua Franca: A New Approach for English Language Teaching in China?

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinghui Si
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Business English ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Qualified Teachers ◽  
Research On Teaching ◽  
English Program

Abstract Research on English as a lingua franca (ELF) has triggered a debate on whether English teaching should consistently conform to native-speaker Standard English or it should value the pedagogical implications of ELF. This article provides an overview of current research on teaching English as a lingua franca. It starts with research on the rationale to introduce ELF-informed teaching and comparisons between ELF-informed teaching and native-English-based teaching. Concrete proposals of how to incorporate ELF-informed teaching into English language teaching (ELT) classrooms are presented. Then controversies in the debate are summarized. They are: A lack of ELF-informed textbooks; a lack of ELF-informed assessment; and a lack of qualified teachers. It then reviews recent publications dealing with these controversies. This is followed by a discussion about the research on ELF-informed teaching in the Chinese context. This article argues that research on the practicality of ELF-informed teaching should start with prospective English users, such as students in China’s Business English Program. It concludes with some suggestions for future research and practice on ELF-informed teaching in China.

Finding the connections between native-speakerism and authenticity

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Lowe ◽  
Richard Pinner
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Student Perceptions ◽  
English Language ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Great Depth ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Self Perceptions

AbstractNative-speakerism and authenticity are two subjects that have been written on extensively in the field of English language teaching, but the links between the two have yet to be explored in any great depth. This paper extensively reviews the literature on native-speakerism and authenticity and outlines where the connections between these two concepts, both practical and theoretical, may lie. Native-speakerism and authenticity are first briefly introduced and contextualised separately, and a theoretical framework is then presented to explain the connections between them based on the key foundational topics of authority, culturism, and cultural capital. Following this, the paper moves on to explain how these connections manifest in the ELT industry to influence the lives of ‘non-native speaker’ teachers in terms of student perceptions, self-perceptions, and professional discrimination, and how these are both influential on, and propagated by, the sales rhetoric of the ELT industry. Finally some suggestions are given for possible avenues of future research.

scholarly journals An investigation into teacher awareness of, and attitudes towards, English as a Lingua Franca within Business English instruction in the UK

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gemma Louise Williams
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Business English ◽  
Global Business ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Teacher Awareness ◽  
The Uk

Masters in English Language Teaching Dissertation, from University of Sussex, 2016. This dissertation documents the research into Business English (BE) teacher awareness of, and attitudes towards, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Given that English has become the international language of global business and trade, used widely to communicate across linguistic and cultural borders, the argument is made that ELF is the most relevant paradigm for BE instruction, in contrast to the still currently dominant English as a Foreign Language (EFL) paradigm that has housed most English Language Teaching (ELT). A further argument is made that a number of what the author refers to as core ‘ELF competences’, primarily Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC), accommodation strategies and aspects of the phonological Lingua Franca Core (LFC), are the most relevant and teachable aspects of ‘ELF-talk’ to BE learners.The research took the form of a small Mixed Methods Research (MMR) case-study of a group of BE teachers based in the South of England, UK. Twelve participants completed questionnaires, modelled loosely on that used in Dewey’s 2012 research into teacher awareness of ELF and ELT teacher training. A further two participants were selected for follow-up classroom observations and interviews.A review of the literature indicates that teachers often possess limited awareness of the constructs of ELF or ICC and when there is awareness, demonstrate a conflict between their beliefs surrounding the relevance of these constructs to their teaching and their willingness or ability to apply those beliefs in practice. The findings from this research, however, do not support those claims and instead indicate relatively high levels of applied ELF awareness in practice. Due to the small-scale nature of this investigation it is impossible to infer that this difference in results emanates from the fact that the subjects in this research were BE as opposed to General English teachers, as has been the case in previous research, therefore implications for further research indicated by this study include a more widespread investigation into BE teacher awareness and attitudes towards ELF.

scholarly journals Culture and complexity through English as a lingua franca: rethinking competences and pedagogy in ELT

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Baker
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
Language Pedagogy ◽  
Nation States ◽  
Meaningful Category

AbstractEnglish as a lingua franca (ELF) research highlights the complexity and fluidity of culture in intercultural communication through English. ELF users draw on, construct, and move between global, national, and local orientations towards cultural characterisations. Thus, the relationship between language and culture is best approached as situated and emergent. However, this has challenged previous representations of culture, particularly those centred predominantly on nation states, which are prevalent in English language teaching (ELT) practices and the associated conceptions of communicative and intercultural communicative competence. Two key questions which are then brought to the fore are: how are we to best understand such multifarious characterisations of culture in intercultural communication through ELF and what implications, if any, does this have for ELT and the teaching of culture in language teaching? In relation to the first question, this paper will discuss how complexity theory offers a framework for understanding culture as a constantly changing but nonetheless meaningful category in ELF research, whilst avoiding essentialism and reductionism. This underpins the response to the second question, whereby any formulations of intercultural competence offered as an aim in language pedagogy must also eschew these simplistic and essentialist cultural characterisations. Furthermore, the manner of simplification prevalent in approaches to culture in the ELT language classroom will be critically questioned. It will be argued that such simplification easily leads into essentialist representations of language and culture in ELT and an over representation of “Anglophone cultures.” The paper will conclude with a number of suggestions and examples for how such complex understandings of culture and language through ELF can be meaningfully incorporated into pedagogic practice.

Rheme and reason: Why is English always the Theme rather than the Rheme in our acronyms?

English Today ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan James Runcieman
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
English Speaker ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Native English Speaker ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Leading Role

The position of ‘E’, for English, has always been at the forefront of all the acronyms of language learning and descriptions of world trends in English language teaching and acquisition, EFL, ESL, ELT, ESP, EIL, ELF, or second only to ‘T’ for teaching, TEFL and TESOL. We have become so used to seeing the letter ‘E’ out there in front, the Theme rather than the Rheme, that we do not even seem to question that position anymore. Despite developments in the study of World Englishes (Kachru, 1985, 1990, 1991, 2005; Jenkins, 2003; Bolton, 2005, 2006; Canagarajah, 2006, 2007, 2009) and a supposedly secondary role for so-called Native English and the Native English speaker, we continue to place the ‘E’ at the front, as though we have no option but to accept its primacy in every concept. If we always place ‘E’ at the beginning though, as the defining Theme, surely we are giving both it and its origin England a leading role in all conceptual beginnings. The Theme after all is always the principal actor, the familiar, whilst the Rheme is the unfamiliar and undefined object (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004), but what English is now, in its global context, is exactly that, the unfamiliar and undefined object. In the following article I will argue for a rethinking of our terminology, particularly regarding the use of the acronym ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), and how perhaps we should be thinking more carefully about our choice of acronyms in order to be more precise about our approach to the study of English in the changing world.

scholarly journals REPENSANDO O ENSINO DE LÍNGUA INGLESA NO BRASIL: POR UMA PERSPECTIVA TRANSLÍNGUE | RETHINKING ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN BRAZIL: TOWARDS A TRANSLINGUAL PERSPECTIVE

2017 ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Diogo Oliveira do Espírito Santo ◽  
Robson Ribeiro da Silva
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Bilingual Education ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Cultural Relations ◽  
Lingua Franca

<p>Este artigo discute pressupostos e implicações dos termos translingualimo ou práticas translíngues (CANAGARAJAH, 2011, 2013; GARCÍA, 2009, 2014) e ensino bilíngue (GARCÍA, 2014; WEI, 2013) em contextos de ensino de língua inglesa no Brasil. Na primeira parte, serão discutidas algumas nomenclaturas conferidas ao <em>status</em> do inglês ao redor do mundo, como World Englishes (WE), Inglês como Língua Internacional (ILI) e Inglês como Língua Franca (ILF). Em seguida, serão tecidas considerações sobre as definições de sujeitos bilíngues que mais se adéquam aos objetivos deste artigo. A discussão será finalizada com o debate sobre os desdobramentos da perspectiva translíngue no ensino, como forma de problematizar as relações linguístico-culturais que os sujeitos aprendizes de língua inglesa desenvolvem em cenários cada vez mais multilíngues.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract:</strong> <em>This article discusses the premises and implications of translingualism (translingual practices) (CANAGARAJAH, 2011, 2013; GARCÍA, 2009, 2014) and bilingual education (GARCÍA, 2014; WEI, 2013) concepts in English Language Teaching (ELT) contexts in Brazil. In the first section, we will review some of the labels that have been attributed to the current status of the English language worldwide, such as World Englishes (WE), English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Moreover, we will approach different definitions of bilingual subjects. Finally, we will consider the debate about the unfolding of the translingual perspective in order to reflect on the linguistic and cultural relations that English language learners develop in ever more multilingual settings</em><em>. </em></p><pre><em> </em></pre><p>Keywords<em>: English; </em>Translanguaging<em>; Bilingual Education. </em></p><p> </p><p>Palavras-Chave: Língua inglesa; Translingualismo; Práticas translíngues; Ensino bilíngue.</p>

scholarly journals THE USE OF CASE STUDIES IN THE BUSINESS ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Strelchonok ◽  
Iveta Ludviga
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Business English ◽  
The Creation

The paper is concerned with methodological aspects of using Case studies in Business English language teaching at University level. It emphasizes the benefits and opportunities of the Case study method as well as the role Case studies play in practicing and developing language, business communication and managerial skills. The paper analyses Case study as an example of Task-Based Learning (TBL) method which focuses on communicative approach towards problem solving tasks presented in authentic Case studies. The paper deals with language and subject matter integration in the creation and implementation of Case studies in the Business English classroom which involves collaborative work of English language and subject matter lecturers. The integrated approach strengthens both students’ subject matter knowledge and language competence. The result of lecturer collaboration is the creation of Case study “Rukisu teja” which is based on a real Latvian family-run business and can be incorporated into both Business English and Entrepreneurship courses.

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