Copy - Pt 1: Why an ELF approach speeds accelerates progress

English as a Lingua Franca & Native Speakerism

Part 1 - 2021

Why an ELF approach accelerates progress

01

What language learners want

02

What is English as a Lingua Franca?

03

Native Speakerism

Quiz:What percentage of conversations every day are conducted by non-native speakers?

90% !!!

90%!

What Students Want

What language do your students use to describe their goals?

What our students say

I want...

to sound like a native

to be fluent

advanced vocabulary

advanced grammar

to sound like I do in my 1st language

What do our students really need?

They need to...

sound like themselves

feel confident

remember words they know

feel adequate

be respected

Jennifer Jenkins andEnglish as a Lingua Franca

It is the use of the English language as a global means of inter-community communication ...any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice and often the only option

What is English as a Lingua Franca? ?

...a language per se, it is a toolWe don't teach ELF, it is a lense

What ELF is not....

Questions:How is ELF different from ESL, EFL, ESP, EAP, ESOL and more? What changes do we need to make to our curriculum in order to teach in/for an ELF context?

According to ELF experts:

1. Pronunciation and rhythm patterns
2. Varying use of grammar:
1. correct/incorrect
2. standard/non-standard/different
3. Idioms
4. Phrasal Verbs

And this has a huge impact on our students

Native Speakerism

The idea that native speakers are only from so-called western countries: USA, UK, Australia, NZ, South Africa.

Who does English belong to?

Scottish

In addition, multiple (correct) varieties of English have developed

Nigerian

Malaysian

Scottish

Philipino

And many many more...

Indian

Variety of Englishes

According to Adrian Halliday:

Native-speakerism is a pervasive ideology within ELT, characterized by the belief that ‘native-speaker’ teachers represent a ‘Western culture’ from which spring the ideals both of the English language and of English language teaching methodology (Holliday 2005).

But it's more than that...

Speaking a language is not a qualification and does not measure or guarantee your ability to teach well

According to Adrian Halliday:

Native-speakerism is a neo-racist ideology that has wide-ranging impact on how teachers are perceived by each other and by their students. By labelling teachers as separate 'native speakers' and 'non-native speakers', it falsely positions them as culturally superior and inferior with separate roles and attributes.

And even more...

What impact does this have on learners of English, on multilingual English users?

1. Focus on intelligibility/clarity
2. Focus on the pronunciation features that lead to intelligibility (LFC)
3. Use a wide variety of non-native speaker accents - they outnumber 6-1
4. Focus on interactions between non-native speakers (authentic and realistic model of how English is used)
5. Focus on intercultural communicative skills (instead of focusing on JUST British/American cultural things)
6. Use non-native speakers as valid models (listening exercises etc)
7. Awareness-raising of ELF

Seven principles of ELF

I welcome your questions...

Deepika Vasudevan Qualified Bilingual English teacher from India