Assignment - EIC

SUBJECT ASSIGNMENT:
ENGLISH IN THE COMMUNITY

GENERAL INFORMATION:

This assignment must be done in groups and has to fulfil the following conditions:

- Length: between 6 to 8 pages (without including cover, index or appendices –if

there are any).
- Font type: Arial or Times New Roman.
- Font size: 11.
- Spacing: 1.5.
- Alignment: Justified.

The assignment must be written in this Word template and has to follow the instructions
on quotes and references detailed in the Study Guide.

Also, the assignment has to be submitted following the procedure specified in the
document: “Subject Evaluation”. Sending it to the tutor’s e-mail is not allowed.

It is strongly recommended to read the assessment criteria, which can be found in the
document “Subject Evaluation”.

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 Assignment - EIC

Assignment instructions:

Read Barbara Seidlhofer’s article (available here and also in recommended

readings before writing your insights. Bear in mind also Graddol (2006) – course
materials.

After the readings, discuss the following questions in essay form:

 Whose English should we teach? American, British, Australian - or an

International English which belongs to nobody and everybody?
 Should the pronunciation of English by non-native teachers attempt to
imitate native speakers or should teachers put their own accent and
personal identity into their pronunciation of English?
 Should the pronunciation of English by non-native speakers attempt to
imitate native speakers or should teachers allow their learners to put their
own accent and personal identity into their pronunciation of English?

Do not forget to:

a) Provide a title for the essay.

b) Link the three issues. Don’t write three separate mini-essays.
c) Quote Graddol and Seidlofer if you need to, but express your opinions on these
issues and clarify how you reach such opinions.

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 Assignment - EIC

Name and surname(s): Miledy Aguilera

Login: DOFPMTFL3898521
Group: Alone
Date: 01/29/22

WHAT TYPE OF ENGLISH SHOULD BE EDUCATED AND LEARN?

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 Assignment - EIC

coaching and Gaining Knowledge concerning English has brought about diverse kind of issues
such as which is the suitable kind of English that should be taught and learned in the classroom,
as well as which kind of pronunciation of English by non-native mentors and learners should be
used and spoken in the classroom.
To begin with, a language such as English achieves a genuine global status when it develops a
particular role that is recognised in every country. Such a role will be most evident in countries
where large numbers of people speak the language as a mother tongue-in the case of English,
this would mean the USA, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa,
some Caribbean countries and a sprinkling of other territories. Nonetheless, no language has
ever been spoken by a mother-tongue majority in more than a few countries, chiefly in Latin
America. To achieve such status, a language has to be taken up by other countries around the
planet. They must decide to give it a special place within their communities.
Also, a language can be made a priority in a country’s foreign-language teaching, even this
language has no official status. It becomes the language which children are most likely to be
taught when they arrive at school, and the one most available to adults who-for whatever
reason-never learned it or learned it badly, in their early educational years. In addition to this,
there is a great variation in the reasons for choosing a particular language as a favoured foreign
language. Those reasons can be historical tradition, political expediency, and the desire for
commercial, cultural or technological contact.
In a well-supported environment, resources will be devoting to helping people have access to
the language and learn it, through the media, libraries, schools and institutes of higher learning.
There will be an increase in the number and quality of teachers able to teach the language.
Books, recordings, computers, telecommunication systems and all kinds of teaching materials
will be increasingly available.
Moreover, as it is known English is the medium of a great deal of the world’s knowledge,
particularly in such areas as science and technology. And access to knowledge is the business
education so an interesting question has come out whose English should be taught in the
classrooms. Undeniably, there are many types of English. For instance, American English,
British English, Australian English and so on.
Moreover, it can be deduced that for a mentor it is thoroughly difficult to use a type of English
in their classes or just stick to one since nowadays, learners are likely to be exposed to different
kinds of input. For example, electronic devices such as tvs, or mobile phones which can help
them not only to be updated with the latest news but also, they can learn and listen to different
varieties of English, so it means the mentor must be aware of it.
As it is known global demand for English language learning is stronger than ever, it makes the
case against “untrained natives”. Taking pride in the quality of our teaching and teachers, yet it

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does not require its teachers to be trained. Moreover, “standard English” exists. “Standard”
English exists only in grammars. It is an idealised norm. English operates as an international
lingua franca and the great majority of communication in English is between people who come
from non-Anglo backgrounds. There are many more “second” language speakers of English
than there are first language speakers and this has led to the development of several varieties of
English. In many cases, therefore, one of these varieties, a local or a regional one, is far more
likely to be an appropriate classroom model an imported “Anglo” one.
In today’s complex and globalising world, well-trained, multilingual and culturally refined
teachers are needed to teach learners of English, the overwhelming majority of whom are
bilingual and who are learning in culturally diverse context and for an extraordinary complex
range of needs, stretching from local to international. It is time for those involved in the ELT
occupation to resist the employment of untrained native or non-native speaker teachers and to
promote the advantages of employing trained teachers.
From a moral point of view, educational institutions should be under an obligation to ensure that
students are not exposed to untrained teachers. While in Britain and Australia people need to
obtain clearance before they can work with children.
What is more, it is better when learners become aware of these variations. Thus, pupils can
know alternatives of expressions as a consequence the teaching situation has become more
complex.
In addition to this, all the communicate successfully in “English”, but which “English”? The
probability are that it not the language you hear in chat shows and soaps on British or American
television, but rather a range of “Englishes”, with enough of a common core to make it viable as
a means of communication., sometimes labelled “Euro-English”, is in the process of evolving to
serve as a European lingua franca. As yet, however, this variety of English has not been
described, largely because it is at such an embryotic stage in its evolution.
With any degree of certainty is that English as a lingua franca in Europe (ELFE) is likely to be
some kind of European-English hybrid which, as it develops, will look increasingly to
continental Europe rather than to Britain or the United States for its norms of correctness and
appropriateness.
on the other hand, as long as there is no sound empirical basis for a description of how the
language is actually used, the forms ELFE will take will remain an object of speculation.
The interactions among “no-native” speakers of English from a wide variety of first-language
backgrounds, and to investigate what happens linguistically when English is used as a lingua
franca. In addition to this, it focuses on pronunciation and lexicogrammar (vocabulary plus
grammar), some intelligibility problems when English is spoken as an International Language.
ELFE lexicogrammar is based on a corpus of interactions in English among fairly fluent
speakers from a variety of first-language backgrounds.

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The emergence of so many different kinds (or “varieties”) of international English has caused a
number of linguistics to question the use of native speaker pronunciation models in the teaching
of English. Their argument is that native speaker pronunciation models in the teaching of
English. Native speaker accents are not necessarily the most intelligible or appropriate accents
when a non-native speaker is communicating with another non-native speaker.
As regards intelligible, pronunciation for EIL, it is essential to identify which pronunciation
features are crucial for mutual understanding when a non-native speaker of English talks to
another non-native speaker and which are not at all important. These are often not the same
features that are crucial and unimportant for a native speaker of English.
Along with the variety of uses in different fields, non-native speakers have also brought about a
variety of Englishes, in the linguistic sense. Since English used as a lingua franca
characteristically manifests itself in spoken language, accent is one evident area of this
diversity. According to those who appreciate linguistic diversity, variation in accent is
acceptable as long as intelligibility and conversation flow will be secured. This means that
interlocutors are required high-grade accommodation skills as well as cultural sensitivity since
many of the English accents — native or nonnative — they will encounter will be unfamiliar to
them.
It is even claimed that a European variety of English the mentor is drawn to use International
English in order to convey messages to their learners. Firstly, it is essential to define what
International English is. According to McKay (2002), in her book entitled Teaching English as
an International Language defines it like this “International English is used by native speakers
of English and bilingual users of English for cross-cultural communication. International
English can be used both in a local sense between speakers of diverse cultures and languages
within one country and in global sense between speakers from different countries”.
Furthermore, Mr. Brutt-Griffler identifies four central characteristics of the development of
Global English. These ones are econocultural functions of the language which means that World
English is the product of the development of a world market and global developments regarding
science technology, culture and the media. The transcendence of the role of an elite lingua
franca- it means that World English is learnt by people at various levels of society. The
stabilization of bilingualism through the coexistence of world language with other languages in
bilingualism/multilingual contexts-it concentrates on World English tends to establish itself
alongside local languages rather than replacing them, so it contributes to multilingualism rather
than jeopardize it and language change via processes of world language convergence and world
language divergence. It means English owes its global spread.
What is more, the demand “English” in schooling will remain strong in the foreseeable future.
Consequently, it is being learnt by people at different levels of society, not just the socio-
economic elite. Undeniably, it is expected to establish alongside local languages rather than

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replace them and be shaped by all its users which means that teachers and learners are likely to
get an input of different types of accents, vocabulary and so on.
As it is common knowledge, all non-English-speaking powers of our globalised world
recognised it as the first foreign language to learn. Moreover, it has broadened learners’
horizons. Also, there are some ways of considering English as an International Language. The
first one is functionally, it means the role of English in the world as an econocultural fact and
give basically one or both of the following kinds of motivation for learning it to apply it; for
example, for international business, and the idealistic one. For example, the potential it provides
for cross-cultural communication and mutual understanding. The second one is conceptually
which focuses on people’s perspective on and attitudes towards this global role of English, the
third one is linguistically which questions how English is spoken and written and the last one
pedagogically, it concentrates on the teaching of English as a Foreign Language or as a Second
Language.
The last three ways agree on focusing on “cumulative” proficiency and on the goal of successful
communication with native speakers. By and large, “intelligibility” is taken to mean being
intelligible to native speakers and being able to understand native speakers.
From today’s point of view, nativized varieties. For example, Indian English, Nigerian English,
Australian English and so on are interesting owing to the fact that the terms generally employed
to refer to them reflect the problematic and crucial role of the nativeness criterion. On the one
hand, they are called “nativized” or “indigenised” varieties, on the other hand, they are also
referred to as “non-native” varieties. In any case, it depicts how deeply ingrained the notion of
nativeness is in any consideration of language theorising, description and teaching.
Taking into account the foregoing paragraph, it can be deduced that pronunciation plays an
important role at the moment of passing on knowledge regarding spoken discourse to learners. It
is unquestionable that conveying messages orally is nowhere as easy as it seems to be due to the
fact that there are many factors that must be given consideration. For example, phonology
which centres around a pedagogical core of phonological intelligibility for speakers of EIL. It is
undeniable that teachers must be aware and capable of providing the right pronunciation,
intonation (rising and falling), voice and voiceless sounds, etc.
Moreover, a research undertaken by Jenkins propose establishing which pronunciation features
impeded mutual intelligibility in her empirical studies of what she terms “interlanguage talk
among non-native speakers of English”. Undoubtedly, this research has helped mentors or
teachers of English to cope with their problems regarding pronunciation by considering some
sounds which are regarded, and taught, as “particularly English” ones by most learners and
teachers, such as the “th-sounds” and the “dark l” allophone. In the conversations analysed by
Jenkins, mastery of these sounds proved not to be crucial for mutual intelligibility and so
various substitutions such as /f, v/ or /s, z/ or /t, d/ for the “th-sounds” are permissible and found

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in some native-speaker varieties. The “th-sounds” and the “dark l” are therefore designated
“non-core”.
Besides this, there are features which proved decisive for EIL intelligibility and which
consequently constitute the phonological Lingua Franca Core. The first feature is the consonant
inventory with the exception of the “th - sounds” and of “dark l”. In addition to this, phonetic
requirements such as aspiration of word-initial /p/, /t/, and /k/, which were frequently heard as
their lenis counterparts /b/, /d/ and /g/ and the maintenance of length before lenis consonants.
For example, the longer /æ/ in the word sad contrasted with the phonetically shorter one in the
word sat.
Furthermore, consonant cluster which means no omission of sounds in word-initial clusters. For
instance, in proper and strap; omission of sounds in word-medial and word-final clusters only
permissible according to L1 English rules of syllable structure as a consequence the word
friendship can be frienship but not friendip.
Another important characteristic is vowel sounds which means the maintenance of the contrast
between long and short vowels, such as the long and short i-sounds in the words leave and live;
L2 regional vowel qualities otherwise intelligible provided they are used consistently, with the
exception of the substitution of the sound /ɜː/ (as in bird) especially /ɑː/ (as in bard). In addition
to this, another feature is production and placement of nuclear (tonic) stress, especially when
used contrastive. For instance, He came by TRAIN vs He CAME by train.
According to Jenkins, these are the main characteristics that the teaching of English for
international communication should concentrate on.
Moreover, James (2000) proposed a conceptual discussion of the place of English in
bi/multilingualism, making reference to a project in its pilot phase, entitled “English as a lingua
franca in the Alpine Adriatic region” He also developed a hypothesis as to what findings the
future analysis of the use of English by speakers of German, Italian, Slovene and Friulian might
yield. The benefit of James’ research focus is merely its delimited range of first languages
aiming at a description of EIL in a specific region.
Nevertheless, there is also a necessity for a broadly based corpus for getting a more general
description of features of EIL from a wide variety of first language backgrounds and a good
range of settings and domains. Moreover, the compilation of this corpus is now at the University
of Vienna (VOICE) under the present author’s direction. VOICE is a corpus of spoken EIL. It
concentrates on unscripted, largely face-to-face communication among fairly fluent speakers
from a wide range of first language backgrounds whose primary and secondary education and
socialization did not take place in English. The verbal communication captured include private
and public conversations as well as private and public group discussions and casual
conversations and one-to-one interviews.

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Moreover, sharpening teachers’ and learners’ speaking skill is a hard work to be done in the
classroom due to the fact that it is difficult to grapple with typical errors which most English
teachers would consider in urgent need of correction and remediation, and which consequently
often get allotted a great deal of time and effort in EIL lesson, appear to be generally
unproblematic and no obstacle to communicate success.
Those errors include, dropping- it means the third person present tense- the pronunciation of /s/.
Then, confusing- which means the misuse of the relative pronouns who and which.
Another problem is omitting, it definite and indefinite articles where they are mandatory in
native speaker language use and the last one but not the least failing to use “correct” forms in
tag questions. Undeniably, one of the main objectives of VOICE is to identify and make
comparisons between foreign-language productions and native-speaker speaking.
However, there seems to be an inclination for particularly idiomatic speech by one participant-a
kind if “unilateral axiomaticity” characterised by metaphorical language use, idioms, phrasal
verbs and fixed ENL expressions such as this drink is on the house or can we give you a hand to
be the cause of misunderstandings. Thereon, it may be worth noting that some specifications in
the self-assessment grid of European Language Portfolio might not be relevant. Also, it is
important to mention that colloquial language is likely to be used on daily basis conversation
with peers or relatives.

CONCLUSION
Were the ideas mentioned over, we are drawn to get to the following ideas or thoughts. The first
one is using and mastering a second language such as English is not a section of cake in view of
the fact that it is common knowledge learners depend on trained teachers who supervise the
different kind of English. Equally, it is important that both mentors and learners be aware that it
is not necessary to stick to a specific accent. What is more, the better you understand different
kind of English, the better you can keep in touch.
Moreover, it is important to overcome pronunciation troubles due to the fact that we can convey
a wrong communication and be misunderstood by learners.

REFERENCES
 Texeira and Pozzi (2014) “Introducing English as an International Language in the
Inner-Circle Classroom: Exploring World Englishes”.

 Seidlhofer (2003) “A Concept of International English and Related Issues: From Real
English to Realistic English”?

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 Jenkins and Seidlhofer (2001) “Be proud of your lingua franca”, The Guardian,
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/apr/19/tefl4

 Ostler (2018) “Have we reached peak English in the world?”, The Guardian. Taken
from: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/27/reached-peak-
english-britain-china

 Ostler and Lane (2010) “The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babel”,
Forums. Taken from: https://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/652780-The-Last-
Lingua-Franca-Forums

 Jenkins Jennifer (2009) “English as a Lingua Franca: interpretations and attitudes”.

Taken from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227663650_English_as_a_Lingua_Franc
a_interpretations_and_attitudes

 Schmitz John Robert (2012) “To ELF or not to ELF?” (English as a Lingua Franca):
That’s the question for Applied Linguistics in a globalized world. Taken from:
http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbla/v12n2/v12n2a03.pdf

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