CC BY
19THE ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Sadokat Abbaskhan kizi Sharipova sadoqatsharipova826@gmail.com Fergana regional branch of Uzbekistan State Institute of Arts and Culture
Abstract: The function of English as a lingua franca for communication needs rethinking in the teaching of English as a foreign language classroom as a consequence of globalization. The present contribution is an empirical study carried out in an Italian university environment which aims to show how teachers should take on board awareness raising activities in the recognition of other varieties of English which, albeit not exploited as benchmarks for language testing and certification, must nevertheless boast a relevant place in the global scenario. This can be achieved in practical terms by interrogating an expressly made corpus of Chinese English news texts and carrying out simple concordance activities.
Keywords: lingua franca, concordances, foreign language, globalization, ESOL, TOEFL, CEFR.
The worldwide spread of English is just one of the many different developments subsumed under the general phenomenon of globalization. It is furthermore associated with boundless mobilities and, as such, is the language of globalization. If, on the one hand it is true that language is a vital commodity in the globalized world, it is on the other also true that globalization raises issues for second language learning and teaching. As a result, the function of English as an international tool or as a lingua franca (ELF) for communication needs rethinking in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. This does not only require that teachers help their students develop the linguistic skills needed to understand various kinds of accents and in turn be understood by others, but it also paves the way for an enhanced awareness of the existence of non-native speakers all over the world who use English as a means of communication. With this in mind, it is essential that teachers respond appropriately to equipping their students with the skills needed in the face of cultural and linguistic differences emerging between interactants in an international context, as, for example, Mauranen (2006) has highlighted in her study of misunderstanding and repair strategies in ELF communication. The present contribution is an empirical study which investigates how instances of written ELF can be used to make EFL teachers come to terms with the concept of the other; in particular, the other with respect to the standard (British or American) English model, object and target of an institutional teaching syllabus. This otherness exists in its own right and as a natural consequence of cultural and sociolinguistic realities in other parts of the world.
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Thanks to developing technology and the widespread availability of documents, teachers are now in a position to access and save in electronic format - assembled as a general or specific corpus and which they can subsequently interrogate - a large amount of authentic English data from all corners of the world. This innovative means of retrieving and investigating information about the language has clear implications for future teacher training courses and the updating of EFL teaching methodology. The work we present is supported by corpus evidence provided by a collection of articles from the on-line version of the China Daily newspaper, published in China, a country belonging to Kachru's Expanding Circle. The aim of our analysis is two-fold, both purposes linked to each other like a pair of stepping stones: 1) to sensitive teachers of the existence of different English around the world, which represent the voices and interests of different non-native speakers in their sociolinguistic and cultural uses of the language by identifying unfamiliar or even inventive lexicon grammatical features that appear in the corpus; 2) to propose an analytical framework that can be applied to any variety of texts in order to enhance EFL teaching methodology. Thus we emphasize that the main aim of this paper does not lie in an attempt to investigate how much regularity/stability there actually is in the use of a standard form of English (EFL), but simply to raise awareness and acceptance of other English. From a contextual point of view, the paper will first provide some background information on the Italian university teaching context, and then focus on some of the main issues prevalent in the EFL and ELF debate. After a description of our objectives, methods and materials, preliminary data will be provided from a small-scale case study, carried out on a corpus of articles from the on-line version of the China Daily newspaper. Results from this study will serve as a possible instance of good practice for teachers in creating awareness-raising activities for themselves (and consequently their students), such as interrogating a corpus of articles from the above-mentioned newspaper (or indeed others) and investigating unfamiliar localized forms that may be identified (with respect to the standard language) by means of a simple concordancing software.1
At present English is the dominant language in the educational sector in Italy, as all over the rest of Europe, where it is primarily taught as the first foreign language and almost totally EFL biased, where accuracy is considered to be the norm, be it regarding productive skills in either the written or the spoken code. Native and non-native speakers alike demand allegiance to and achievement of the native speaker standards; neither pronunciation nor general written works are allowed to present any L1 interference. Moreover, EFL teaching institutions (in secondary and further education) design their courses often to match the requirements of international examination boards such as the University of Cambridge English for Speakers of
1 The globalization of English and the English language classroom (2nd ed.) (pp. 9-24) 2010.
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Other Languages (ESOL), who base their examinations on the descriptors of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This design is also confirmed by requirements in both academic and other professional circles where international certifications such as ESOL (First Certificate English, Cambridge Advanced and Proficiency) and (Test of English as a Foreign Language) TOEFL attest the non-native speaker's ability to produce native speaker-like language and are seen as a kind of valid visiting card or key qualification on a curriculum vitae. In the particular case of Italy, university degree syllabuses look to and apply the CEFR for benchmark levels of students' competences, where an "accurate" B1 is required of non-language specialists reading for degrees in disciplines ranging from the sciences to the humanities, and a highly desirable C1-C2 for language specialists. Interestingly enough, ESOL covers a less specific 130 countries around the world while on the TOEFL site, reference is made to acceptance in the Inner Circle countries . Both sites thus imply, rather short-sightedly, that both British and American standards are the only acceptable norms on a worldwide scale. Indeed, what is emerging with some clarity is that in view of the present globalization through English and of English, insistence on a 'monochrome' native-speaker standard has now become an anachronism that inevitably leads to some confusion in the discourse of and about linguistics and language teaching which manifests itself in a number of contradictions and discrepancies. What we need is a critical appraisal of language use and language teaching analogous to what we find in other areas of English study, and a fostering of language awareness in the true sense of the word with regard to how language functions in social contexts of use.2
Teachers must come to terms with the fact that university students will be confused by what is meant by EFL and ELF. For them the acronyms might seem synonymous, since their practical language studies go under the name of EFL, yet what learners are required to do is to make use of their institutional language training to carry out prospective future language activities in the outside "international" world. Consequently, for the uninitiated Italian student, EFL and ELF could mean one and the same thing, but it should be made clear that in the Italian language learning environment at least, the "variety" taught is only one, and more importantly, not necessarily "the one" they will encounter in other non-native speakers of English from other nations. Furthermore, in many Italian university English departments, we are faced with a somewhat schizophrenic situation: while on the one hand, in all parts of the course of studies except practical language classes (i.e. cultural studies, literary studies, linguistics and language education) we celebrate multiculturalism, pluricentrism, postcolonial "writing back", language variation and change and pluri-and multilingualism, on the other, the ideal, as far as language proficiency is
2 Teaching and learning English as a global language: Native and non-native perspectives (pp. 59-72) 2012. I icclT^^^^H 396 http://oac.dsmi-qf.uz
concerned, is very much that of a usually monolingual native speaker of Standard English. As we have already implied, the spread of English has an ambivalent character: it is a lingua franca necessary for international communication and it is a vehicle for the spread of a culture influenced by the United States of America and, to a lesser extent, Western Europe. The term "spread" is of the utmost significance and used in contrast to the potentially synonymous "distribution" as explained by Widdowson in his dichotomy of the two terms. Teachers should get their students aware that, paradoxically, aiming at native-like command of the language may even prove counterproductive and discouraging in successful ELF communication, especially in consideration of the risk of unilateral idiomaticity, while it will make EFL communication more rewarding psychologically. Native speaker varieties, therefore, might be considered to be 'unrealistic standards' and consequently unreachable goals for non-native learners who need the language for different purposes than do native speakers. Non-native speakers have to be intelligible to other non-native speakers as most of them will never communicate with a native speaker of English. As a consequence, it will be the task of EFL teachers to help their students develop common pragmatic strategies of achieving reciprocal understanding. Awareness Raising Awareness raising means incorporating into the learning curriculum a familiarity with other realities that students are more than likely to meet in any of the inner, outer and extended circles, of which they may themselves become a permanent or temporary member once they have left their formal learning environment. While it is indeed not difficult for students to envisage interacting with native speakers in a native-speaker environment.
As we have attempted to stress so far, questions about the relationship between ELF and EFL, particularly their impact on the English language classroom, must be addressed in view of learning objectives. While there is no getting away from the fact that any teaching requires the definition of goals and objectives i.e. something that the teaching and learning is directed at (in pedagogical terms, prescription), learning goals in language teaching have traditionally been formulated with reference to standard language as we have highlighted in previous paragraphs. What we are advocating is not a rejection of all norms and standards, but a reappraisal of their justification. Particular attention should be paid to such issues as communication, accommodation and identity formation. There is no thoroughly described - let alone institutionalised - variety of EFL as yet and so it is not possible to teach and learn it, yet necessary to recognize it. As Widdowson puts it, "linguistic description cannot automatically meet pedagogic requirement" and it would therefore be wrong to assume that "findings should directly and uniquely inform what is included in language courses". Language teachers should thus refer to, but not defer, linguists.
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All in all, globalization changes the conditions under which language teaching and learning take place. In this sphere, as in others, some of the most significant changes are economic. People have always learnt languages for economic reasons. Some commentators have suggested that languages are coming to be treated as economic commodities, and that this view is displacing traditional ideologies in which languages were primarily symbols of ethnic or national identity.
References
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