Hi Alex,

I was very interested to read you comments about English as a Global Lingua
Franca, especially your students' expected use of English. Students in the
'expanding circle' of English usage are learning English to speak to 'each
other', not to 'us' ('inner circle', native speakers), yet a lot of published
TESOL material seems to be unaware of this. I mean textbooks, training materials
and research. I'm currently reviewing a best-selling 'Japan-specific' textbook
which advises teachers to force their Japanese students to shake hands and
maintain direct eye contact because it's 'an important part of English'. Oh
dear.

I like that you pointed out the irony that papers on the 'Lingua Franca Core'
and 'what form will Global English take?' typically come from the UK. American
researchers, or people actually working in the wider world such as Japan, don't
engage with this 'debate' because they know that Global Standard English is
American English! Or at least, the common target (or 'core') is American
English, with each speaker missing the target in the way determined by their L1.
From my experience of international businesspeople and academics, this situation
offers the best chance for mutual intelligibility, which is of course the whole
point of a lingua franca.

Would you (and other pronsig members) agree with the following? In my opinion,
ELF phonology is not as fraught with sociopolitical issues as researchers such
as Jenkins assume. (Jenkins 2000, also cf.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2004/jan/22/tefl.wordsandlanguage) Jenkins'
concerns about 'native speakerism' apply more to other areas of language
teaching, such as the sociolinguistic examples I gave above. In other words, if
we make a prescriptive statement that a particular pronunciation of a segment
should be the global 'norm,' we are just delineating an area of phonological
space. To English learners, it is just a statement about articulatory behaviour:
it is irrelevant that the norm comes from a particular 'native' variety.
Whereas, if we state that a certain sociolinguistic practice should be the
global 'norm' (e.g. the handshaking example above), this is cultural
imperialism, because it is a statement about social behaviour.

Having said this, of course, I'm Australian, so a rigid requirement for American
English pronunciation would put me out of a job! Oh well. Incidentally, what are
your university students majoring in? English? Or do they take English as part
of another degree? I haven't taught at any universities in Japan, only a senmon
gakko (for one semester). I worked for Japanese companies as a technical
proofreader and on-demand English teacher; usually preparing businessmen for
overseas postings. However, I'm planning to return to Japan in 2011/2012, and
will aim to work at a university then.

Steph


--- In iatefl_pronsig@..., "pronsig_mod" <pronsig_mod@...> wrote:
>
> Hi Steph,
>
> Glad the idea hit the spot! I'm trying to get my head around the way that
stuff works. I think it's the kind of area where research can genuinely help
teaching.
> ELF hasn't really made it to Japan, or at least to the people I've been in
contact with. Although David Graddol and Andy Kirkpatrick talked about it in the
plenaries at the JALT conference last year, there was little mention of it from
people working locally. Japanese people are most likely to use English as a
lingua franca with people from other Asian countries or from South America. I've
discussed the situation with university students and the answer I get every time
is that they want native speaker teachers and they want to aim for 'native'
competence. Of course it's a fairly limited set of students who voluntarily
attend classes with a native speaker, have opinions on the subject, and are able
to express them in English...
> I find it interesting that older people here prefer generally British English,
while the younger generation, perhaps just for practical reasons, tend to prefer
American and Australian.
> My feeling from working with students here is that the "ELF" movement is very
Euro-centric and the descriptions, for example, of the Lingua Franca Core might
work for a European English but not for a global English.
> Japan is at the moment in the process of bringing Communicative Language
Teaching into the school system. That includes a push over the next few years
for all school English classes to be taught in English. It will be interesting
to see how things pan out.
> I'm teaching university students in Yokohama. What was your experience of
teaching in Japan?
>
> Alex.
>
>
>
> --- In iatefl_pronsig@..., "stephanie gilkes" <stephaniegilkes@>
wrote:
> >
> > Hi Alex,
> >
> > Thank you for responding so quickly. Your suggested topic sounds perfect!
> >
> > As you've noted, there is a huge discrepancy in the depth of knowledge in
this particular field between researchers (typically Japanese academics/doctoral
candidates at English-speaking universities) and practicing English teachers
(both Japanese and non-Japanese).
> >
> > The beauty of your topic is that the hard work has already been done to
describe the phonological processes, so my focus would be on the practical
application of these descriptions: making them accessible and relevant to a
teaching context. That fits the descriptors for a M.Ed project nicely... Thank
you!
> >
> > R.e. Global Englishes/English as a Lingua Franca: yes, it's a big topic in
Australia. At a policy level, there's concern about the financial ramifications.
The education 'export' sector (i.e. overseas students studying in Australia) is
our 3rd largest export: $12.5 billion annually and rising. So naturally there's
concern that if/when inner circle nations (US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ) lose
their gatekeeper status for the English language, there'll be no need for
students to go to those nations to study.
> >
> > What are the issues in Europe re ELF? How about in Japan?
> >
> > Steph
> >
> > --- In iatefl_pronsig@..., "pronsig_mod" <pronsig_mod@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi Stephanie,
> > >
> > > Have you got any initial ideas to work from?
> > > Given your interest in technical phonology, Japanese and that you want
something applicable to teaching... How about a comparison of how reductions
occur in casual speech in Japanese and English? There's been a lot of research
but I haven't seen attempts to transfer it properly to teaching. I'm working in
Japan - it would be interesting to see if there are short-cuts to good
pronunciation.
> > > There's a big focus on English as a Lingua Franca in Europe at the moment.
Does that apply in Australia? (Oh, are you in Australia?)
> > >
> > > Do let us know how you get on,
> > >
> > > All the best,
> > >
> > > Alex.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --- In iatefl_pronsig@..., "stephanie gilkes"
<stephaniegilkes@> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hello PronSIG members,
> > > >
> > > > Can anyone help? I'm looking for a research topic (in the area of
phonology and TESOL) and time is running out! Aaargh!
> > > >
> > > > I have an honours degree in phonology (topic: stress-conditioned
allomorphy in Ngayarda languages of Western Australia) and would like to
continue researching in phonology, but now in relation to TESOL. I have taught
English in Japan and Australia and now examine for IELTS, so anything that looks
at phonology in relation to one of those contexts would be most relevant.
> > > >
> > > > Does anyone have any suggestions?
> > > >
> > > > Stephanie
> > > >
> > >
> >
>