Aseel Nassar TEFl 22752 Dr.

Hazim Bader 15 February 2014

To Teach Standard English or World Englishes? A Balanced Approach to Instruction

Summary: This article discusses the differences between the standard English and the world Englishes. It is also outlines why and how teachers can inform their practice to create a balanced approach to teach English as ESL or EFL. This balanced approach should fit the context and students needs for a global interaction, because English now is a universal language or we can call it a genuine lingua franca. The writer tries to give a clear definition for standard English, but he gives an obvious statement that there is no agreed upon definition for it. Because there is no world recognized governing body that dictates what should and what shouldn't be included in such a standard English . This lack of clear agreed upon definition of the term creates a problem for teachers and students of English. However, the writer gives three characteristics for standard English; the easiest to recognize in print, used by newspapers, and it relates to the speakers social class and education. English teachers get more confused when they tried to find clear definition by research. The writer gives negative consequences for teaching slandered English and he provides each point with one or two explicit examples. First, it's a native speaker model, so it's unrealistic for ESL learners or EFL learners to use

it. Secondly, insisting on standard English can devalue other variation of English that exist around the world. For instance, the differences in Singlish that is being used in Singapore considered inferior. Finally, teaching standard English may build up discrimination by using underlying codes for race and ethnicity. Then the writer talks about world English which is the norm that includes all varieties of the language. After that he classifies the usage of English into three concentric circles: the inner circle plays the traditional bases of English that are used in UK and USA, the outer circle that exists in the countries which have gone through extended periods of colonization by users of inner circle like Nigeria and Singapore, and the expended circle that is being used for businesses and international purposes and a large number of people use it. The writer notes that the number of people who speak English is expending. As a result, using standard English in class is unreliable in the global context. Moreover, English speakers in the world use English in their own way to express their culture and identity. The writer comes to an conclusion which is the usage of standard English and world English in the class creates problems. So teachers dont know how to decide what variety to teach their students. Then he gives the teachers two solution. Firstly, teachers can inform their practices about different varieties of English. Secondly, consider a balanced approached to teach English. This approach includes three key considerations ; to begin with, consider teaching context in which English is taught and used. The context choice based on teachers education, students needs, the model usefulness and the availability of materials and tests. For example, Doha English Speaking School that follows the British curriculum hires teachers with UK recognized qualifications and it has the needed media. Moreover, teachers should show students that their own English is valuable even if it differs from what is presented in class, which will increase students ability, confidence and desire to communicate in English. Finally, because English is a global language teachers should prepare their

students for future interaction with speakers of varieties of English by showing them different varieties, teach them strategic intercultural competence skills. He ends his article by giving two classroom activities where teachers use a balanced approach. The first activity is to ask students to brainstorm and find idiomatic expressions in their native language and translate them into English, then discuss their meanings to determine if or not the expressions have a logical meaning in English. The second activity is raising discussions about different types of English and make student watch and hear news reports via the internet from different places all over the world that will make them feel and notice the varieties in English .

Reflection:
After reading this article I have to admit that I'm glad that I had the chance to read it. Because it tackles an important subject and it contains helpful information for my student life and my practical life as a future English teacher. Furthermore, reading the article was enjoyable and easy at the same time because there are different types of clarification. The writer raised up an important issue I have never thought about when I was a student at school, because I always thought that the perfect English is the British or the American. Neither the curriculum nor the teachers mentioned that there are varieties of world Englishes around the word and yes they differ in some rules, but that doesn't mean that they are inferior or devalued. So in my opinion the teacher should mention this to his or her students and tell them to be confident about their English. So me as a future teacher I will not oblige my student to pronounce the words in a certain accent. I want them to know that the main goal is just to be intelligible and give them the confidence about their language. In addition the writer's argument make sense because he gives a huge amount of quotations, also a definition for every term and he explains it by using many examples for the same idea from real life which help me to understand the idea and connect it with the example that I get the most. Using this amount of

examples is beneficial because once you read them you have no place for miss understanding. The language was easy and not complicated. The writer in the begging of his article defined every new basic term and they are standard English and world English. After that he shows its problems and its bad effects on students when using English globally. There is a point where I disagree with the writer which is about the negative consequences of teaching standard English which is" Standard English is a native speaker model which may be unattainable for many second language learners. Therefore, it may be unrealistic to use a native-speaker model for language learners who, by definition, can never become native-speakers without being reborn (Cook 1999, 187). I strongly disagree with this quotation because anyone can speak like a native speaker without being reborn all what he need is an intensive practice. It is good that the writer shows his attitude when he recommends a balance approaches to teach English. But what I noticed that he didn't take opposing opinions for the balance approache which he recommends. What I like the most in this article is the reliability that the writer has. He uses many reliable sources such as; Kachru, Crystal, Tollefosn, El-syed etc. Also I like that he gives classroom activities at the end of his article which can help in the balanced approach. Not just that he also gives a list of sites like the access to the international corpus of English (www.ucl.ac.uk\english -usage /ice) . These sites help the teacher in applying the balanced approach. By giving these sources he supports the balanced approach which he recommends . To conclude, this article opened my eyes on things that I never thought about, also I have got a lot of benefits from this essay because it offers different ways that students and teachers can follow to develop their English and to be able to communicate globally in English. The examples that the writer uses to explain points are very useful. In addition, the class room activities and the links that he provides for English learners and teachers help them to be able to interact with speakers of varieties of English.