A pedagogical framework for teaching English as an international language(EIL)

1. A pedagogical framework for teaching English as an international language(EIL) WEN Qiufang National Research Center for Foreign Language Education, BFSU

2. EIL, ELF and EFL • EIL: English as an international language • ELF: English as a lingua franca • EIL=ELF • EFL: English as a foreign language • ELF≠ EFL

3. ELF and EFL

4. The focus of my talk • A framework for teaching English as a lingua franca or an international language • From the teacher’s perspective

5. Topics to be addressed • Motivation • Two proposed solutions and their problems • A pedagogical framework • Advantages of the proposed framework

6. 1. Motivation Who owns English? • Non-native speakers outnumber English native speakers The total number of native speakers ? The total number of non-native speakers?

7. 380 million 300 million 1 billion Kachru’ three circles of English

8. Graddol (1997) • The center of authority regarding the language would shift from native speakers to nonnative speakers.

9. “English as a world language does not ‘belong’ to mother tongue speakers of English alone, but to all those who can make effective use of it.” (Lee, 1981: 1)

10. Conceptual and practical • Quite a number of scholars have made a strong argument against taking the native-speaker’s English as a norm for non-native speakers. In their view, we should teach English as a lingua franca rather than as a foreign language. We shoud promote ELF-oriented pedagogy.

11. Conceptual and practical • Conceptual • Many people think this kind of revolutionary idea cannot be refuted easily. • Practical • What to be taught in classroom? • How to evaluate our students’ performance?

12. Topics to be addressed • Motivation • Two proposed solutions and their problems • A pedagogical framework • Its advantages

13. Proposal 1 • L2 user model（Cook，1999）

14. Vivian Cook (1999) • The language used by successful L2 users can be a model for L2 learners. • Treat L2 users in their own right but not imitation of native speakers, deficient native speakers, failed natives. • Comparing the characteristics of native speakers and of L2 users is like comparing tomatoes and apples, useful only at a gross level.

15. Tough questions • Howe to differentiate successful L2 users from unsuccessful ones? What are the criteria? • How can we describe and define “successful”? • Success in using English can be found in various fields, such as business, diplomacy, journalism, and education. • Apart from the difficulty of identifying a viable non-native model, there is a strong doubt about the existence of essential differences between the English system used by successful L2 users and that used by native speakers (Gao 2008; Wen and Yu 2003; Yu 2006).

16. Divided views about the use of English in China • China English as an independent variety • Supporters, e.g. Jiang & Du, 2003；Li，1993） • Opponents, e.g. Gao，2008；Yu，2006；Wen & Yu，2003） • No empirical evidence

17. Empirical studies: Examples • A small-scale study of nativized features in China’s English newspapers (Wen & Yu, 2001) • The use of evaluative adjectives in China’s English newspapers (Yu, 2006) • The use of creation-and-transformation verbs in China’s English newspapers (Gao, 2007)

18. Empirical studies: Examples • Instead of identifying individual successful users for description, study the collective product, i.e. English used in the official media such as The 21st Century, China Daily, TV script • To what extent English has been nativized in Mainland China?

19. Develop，grow，make, change, produce, transform, create, build Research questions • What are the linguistic features (semantic, lexical and grammatical features) of the top eight creation-and-transformation verbs (TECVs) in China’s English newspapers? • To what extent are the nativized features of TECVs intelligible and acceptable to native and non-native speakers of English?

20. Data-collection • An established corpus of China’s English newspapers (CCEN), composed of 1860 articles from three English newspapers (China Daily, Shanghai Star and Beijing Review • Published in 2002, with 1,058,961 tokens and 20,338 types. • Only comprises articles about domestic events from first-hand sources.

21. Questionnaire • Intelligibility and acceptability • Five-point scale on intelligibility • Ask them to write down what they have understood • Five-point scale on acceptability

22. Major findings • The distribution of senses of some of the TECVs varied in CCEN and NBNC. • Semantic broadening and subtle semantic variations are found • In regards to semantic prosody, positive senses of the TECVs more frequently used in CCEN

23. Major findings • Some collocations more frequent and a few unique • Grammatical features: intransitive use of TECVs more frequently, Verb + Noun + Preposition more frequently

24. Major findings • Most of nativized English in China’s context can be understood and accepted by both native and non-native speakers of English. • Native and non-native English speakers’ interpretations of the verb collocations varied.

25. Major findings • Native speakers tend to show higher degree of acceptability than non-native speakers. • The nativized features tend to be more intelligible to female respondents than to male respondents.

26. General conclusions • More quantitative differences than qualitative ones • Almost all the qualitative differences being lexical rather than grammatical

27. Proposal 2 • ….the result of the description of how English is being used in the international context could be potentially used as a model for L2 learners（Seidlhoufer,2001) • the assumption underlying this proposal has been challenged by several scholars (Alptekin 2010; Canagarajah 2007; Ferguson 2009).

28. Misconceptions • Function ≠ Product “LFE is intersubjectively constructed in each specific context of interaction. The form of this English is negotiated by each set of speakers for their purposes.” (Canagarajah, 2007: 925) “ ELF is an international medium of communication. It has no native speakers and no proper culture of its own to speak of .” (Alptekin, 2010: 101)

29. Misconceptions • Impossible and unnecessary to codify an ELF but possible and necessary to research the use of ELF

30. Misconceptions • What to be learned≠what to be achieved

31. Conceptual issues There is a danger that the overemphasis on the nativized variety will move non-native variety further and further apart until a stage is reached where English can no longer be served as lingua franca

32. Many layers of English • At the center • The common core shared by all speakers of English • On the periphery • the nativized features from a variety of cultures which shadow on the first layer

33. Topics to be addressed • Motivation • Two proposed solutions and their problems • A pedagogical framework • Its advantages

34. 3. A pedagogical framework

35. Three types of linguistic variety taught in relation to the learner’s proficiency

36. Common core andperipheral features of English Native variety Common core Non-native varieties including the interlocutor’s own variety Peripheral features

37. Requirements on L2 learners’ Output • Linguistically • On the phonological level: allow to have a foreign accent while emphasizing mutual intelligibility • On the morphological level: more tolerant of morphological errors but do not encourage • On the syntactic level: correct sentence structures (SVO)

38. Requirements on L2 learners’ Output • On the lexical level: more tolerant of mixed use of British and American words: expect to learn nativized lexical words and phrases

39. 3. A pedagogical framework

40. Cultural component • Introduce the world to China • Introduce China to the world

41. Wen, 2004: 175

42. Intercultural competence Speaking ability FlexibilityClarifying/Negotiating Willing to comprise Tolerance Empathy Egalitarian attitude Listening ability Sensitivity Multi-perspective Knowledge of dif. cultures

43. A model of cross-cultural communicative competence (Wen, 1999) In a book entitled “Spoken English Testing and teaching” in Chinese • Present a paper entitled “Globalization and intercultural competence” at a conference “English and globalization: Perspectives from Hong Kong and Mainland China by the Chinese University of HK in 2002 • Paper published in English in 2004

44. 3. A pedagogical framework

45. Pragmatic • Universal rules • Target language rules • Rules of other non-natives

46. Pragmatic What kind of English will be used here? What kind of pragmatic rules will be used?

47. Setting for ELF

48. Pragmatic Open, dynamic, on-line generated

49. Pragmatic objective • Abilities to generate appropriate communicative rules and strategies

50. Topics to be addressed • Motivation • Two proposed solutions and their problems • A pedagogical framework • Advantages of the proposed framework