Authentic Materials in Acquainting Learners with World Englishes

Authentic Materials in Acquainting Learners with World Englishes . Foreign language education has become a significant phenomenon in the present age. Responding to personal or professional needs, people learn a foreign language to qualify for overseas education, to communicate with colleagues in international businesses, or to prepare themselves for roundtheworld travel. In order to understand the phenomenon, a lot of wide knowledge related to the process of language acquisition, second or foreign language education, and specific knowledge of foreign language teaching pedagogy, testing and evaluation, etc. have become especially important. According to Cook (1999), foreign language teaching has, broadly speaking, two goals: Firstly, students learn the formal properties of a language and get some practice using it in communicative situations, typically realized in the classroom. Secondly, students actually communicate with people in an L2 environment, realized outside the classroom. There emerge new areas of research in English Language Teaching (ELT) including the relationship between ELT and World Englishes (WEs), English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). In many schools of WEs, EIL and ELF exists the interaction between people (e.g., nonnative speakernonnative speaker; native speakernonnative speaker) in choosing a common language–i.e., English–to communicate. Therefore, it is open to question that whether it is necessary to teach ‘standard English’ or English varieties to develop students “communicative competence” (Hymes, 1972). This is also a big challenge that most teachers of English are commonly facing in such countries as China, Korea, or Viet Nam as stated by Le (2012). Therefore, using a variety of sources beside the textbooks especially authentic materials rooted in different Englishes may bring a prospective outcome. This writing mainly aims at introducing some sources for teachers to get authentic materials to use in English teaching to acquaint their students with a variety of English in the world. Because of the limit of the article, the specific sociolinguistic aspect – regional dialects, specifically of English, is taken into consideration to draw some implications for foreign language education. The study consists of four points as follows: 1: Language, Dialects and Varieties 2: Standard English and World Englishes 3: Authentic materials 4: Implications in English Language Education

Part I: Introduction

Foreign language education has become a significant phenomenon in the presentage Responding to personal or professional needs, people learn a foreignlanguage to qualify for overseas education, to communicate with colleagues ininternational businesses, or to prepare themselves for round-the-world travel Inorder to understand the phenomenon, a lot of wide knowledge related to theprocess of language acquisition, second or foreign language education, andspecific knowledge of foreign language teaching pedagogy, testing andevaluation, etc have become especially important According to Cook (1999),foreign language teaching has, broadly speaking, two goals: Firstly, studentslearn the formal properties of a language and get some practice using it incommunicative situations, typically realized in the classroom Secondly,students actually communicate with people in an L2 environment, realizedoutside the classroom There emerge new areas of research in English LanguageTeaching (ELT) including the relationship between ELT and World Englishes(WEs), English as an International Language (EIL) and English as a LinguaFranca (ELF) In many schools of WEs, EIL and ELF exists the interactionbetween people (e.g., nonnative speaker-nonnative speaker; native speaker-nonnative speaker) in choosing a common language–i.e., English–tocommunicate Therefore, it is open to question that whether it is necessary toteach ‘standard English’ or English varieties to develop students

“communicative competence” (Hymes, 1972) This is also a big challenge thatmost teachers of English are commonly facing in such countries as China,Korea, or Viet Nam as stated by Le (2012) Therefore, using a variety of sourcesbeside the textbooks especially authentic materials rooted in different Englishesmay bring a prospective outcome This writing mainly aims at introducing somesources for teachers to get authentic materials to use in English teaching toacquaint their students with a variety of English in the world Because of thelimit of the article, the specific sociolinguistic aspect – regional dialects,

specifically of English, is taken into consideration to draw some implications forforeign language education The study consists of four points as follows:

1: Language, Dialects and Varieties

2: Standard English and World Englishes

3: Authentic materials

4: Implications in English Language Education

Part II: Development II.1 Language, Dialects and Varieties

There have been a number of definitions of language, especially in comparisonwith dialects According to Trudgill (1978) “if two speakers cannot understandone another, then they are speaking different languages.” (p.15) whileWardhaugh (2006) challenged that definition by providing the examples ofCantonese and Mandarin people in China, who will not be able to understandeach other in speaking but will be able in writing so he defined language as what

“can be used to refer either to a single linguistic norm or to a group of relatednorms” (p.28) Fishman (1972) defined language to be “a superordinatedesignation” (p.23), which shared the view of Trudgill (1978) in that languagesare “autonomous” (p.16) Put it differently, language is an independent linguisticbody including vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation which can help people

to intelligibly communicate with each other For instance, some languages areVietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, English, Russian, etc

One of the uses of language in society is to build and sustain meaningfulrelationships among people (Spolsky, 1998) When we meet people for the firsttime in a social context, our first reaction often includes speculation, on the basis

of their spoken language and dialects to know about where they come from, andwhat social class they belong to Such speculation leads one to form a fullerimage and understanding of people, which may or may not be accurate

Dialects, according to Trudgill (1978, p 17), strictly speaking, refers to

“differences between kinds of language which are differences of vocabulary andgrammar as well as pronunciation” Thus, dialects are ‘heteronomous’ (Trudgill,

1978, p 16) or “a subordinate designation” (Fishman, 1972, p.23) In otherwords, while language is independent, dialects are dependent Language anddialects can be distinguished in terms of size, in which a language is larger than

a dialect, and prestige, in which a language has a prestige but a dialect does not.For example, Vietnamese is a language with a lot of dialects of different regionsalong Vietnam and of different social classes in the society

Dialects used to be regional but now they may be regional at one time and social

at another time Because when mentioning the term dialects, in some people’sminds, they are related to “provincial, perhaps not well educated”, many of thescholars would rather use the term variety to connote its technical meaning

A variety of language is defined by Hudson (1996, p.22) as “a set of linguisticitems with similar distribution” while by Ferguson (1972, p.30) as “any body ofhuman speech patterns which is sufficiently homogeneous to be analyzed byavailable techniques of synchronic description and which has a sufficiently largerepertory of elements and their arrangements or processes with broad enoughsemantic scope to function in all formal contexts of communication.” In terms ofthese definitions, there are a number of varieties of English such as standardEnglish, American English, Cockney English, Indian English, etc Varieties of alanguage include all variation in terms of dialects, registers, pidgins, creoles, etc.depending on one’s regional background, social class and network, ethnicity,gender, age, and style, so on

II.2 Standard Language and World Englishes

From that perspective, according to Trudgill (1978, p.32), standard language,

“somewhat imprecise”, is a ‘proper language’ having prestige He also stated that

“standard languages are the result of a direct and deliberate intervention by society”,

which must be passed through four processes of ‘standardization’ includingSelection, Codification, Elaboration of function and Acceptance (Haugen, 1966).(1) Selection: a particular variety, which may be existing or not, of greatsocial and political importance is often chosen to be developed into a standardlanguage to gain prestige and be accepted by people.

(2) Codification: dictionaries and grammar books are often written by suchagency as an academy to fix the variety so that people agree on and then canlearn to produce correct forms

(3) Elaboration of function: all functions must be possible to be used informal contexts such as in parliament, law suits, educational and scientificdocuments, literature, etc but new conventions for using existing forms are alsodeveloped

(4) Acceptance: the variety has to be accepted by the relevant populationusually as the national language

Because most varieties of language change over time, the standard languagecannot remain unchanged as new lexical items and new conventions for usingexisting forms are added Thus, there has been a hot debate on standard English.Trudgill (1978, p 17) defined standard English as follows:

Standard English is that variety of English which is usually used inprint, and which is normally taught in schools and to nonnativespeakers learning the language It is also the variety which is normallyspoken by educated people and used in news broadcasts and othersimilar situations The difference between standard and non-standard,

it should be noted, has nothing in principle to do with differencesbetween formal and colloquial language, or with concepts such as

‘bad language’ Standard English has colloquial as well as formalvariants, and standard English speakers swear as much as others

Historically, the standard English derived from the English dialects used in andaround London but even within standard English, there are a number ofdifferences attracting attention The differences not only lie in vocabularies butalso in grammatical aspect Any speaker can be said to speak various dialectsdepending on the circumstances of a discussion: When chatting together, twostudents from Southern America can speak in southern American English butwhen they speak in a conference at their college in New York, they can speak inStandard American English Nowadays, English is not a single entity any longerbut it is widely mentioned as World Englishes taking into account all varieties ofEnglish not only in the Inner Circle, which comprises the old-variety English-using countries namely the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,but also in the Outer Circle, which comprises countries where English has longbeen used as a second language or official language in education, governance,literary creativity, and popular culture, such as India, Singapore, South Africa,the Philippines, etc.; and especially in the Expanding Circle countries whereEnglish has various roles and is widely studied such as China, Korea, Japan,

Vietnam, etc According to A Suresh Canagarajah (2006), globalization and

digital technology have blurred the marginal line among native speaking countries, second English-speaking countries and foreign English-speaking countries and created new English Thus, nowadays, people learningEnglish are not only to communicate to native speakers but also to speakers ofother languages It is clear that the number of non-native English speakersoutnumber that of native English speakers English now is not English of the UK

English-or of the USA but the global English English-or wEnglish-orld Englishes Many people nowquestion that what the Standard English is, the Standard British English or theStandard American English; “if there are two, why not three? If three, why not adozen?” (Braj B Kachru & Celcil L Nelson, 1996)

II.3 Authentic Materials

First and foremost, the definition of authentic materials should be taken intoaccount In the literature of second language acquisition and learning, the term

"authentic materials" has been defined in different ways Probably, the mostcommon definition is offered by Nunan (1999), in which authentic materials aredefined as "spoken language data that has been produced in the course ofgenuine communication, and not specifically made for purposes of languageteaching and learning." Gebhard (1996) also helps to clarify the above definition

by giving examples of authentic materials that teachers have used in teachingforeign languages Some of his examples, which may serve as source materialfor lesson planning, are: newspapers, TV commercials, quiz shows, cartoons,news clips, comedy shows, movies, soap operas, professionally audio, (taped)short stories and novels, letters, advertisements, radio ads, songs, documentaries,and sales pitches

In the last 20 years, the use of authentic materials in the ELT classroom hasdrastically become a common practice and it is highly acknowledged that thatapplication has brought about many positive results According to Brinton(1991), authentic materials can reinforce students’ associating the languageclassroom with the outside world Gebhard (1996) sees authentic materials as away to "contextualize" language learning When lessons are centered oncomprehending a menu or a TV weather report, students tend to focus more oncontent and meaning rather than the language itself Such materials providestudents with a valuable source of language input, so that they are not beingexposed only to the language presented by the textbooks and the teachers Also,some researchers indicate that more authentic materials are needed in theclassroom because of the wide disparity that is often found between materialsdeveloped specifically for English language teaching and real-lifecommunication Porter and Roberts (1981) show several mismatches betweenauthentic materials and non-authentic materials in terms of spoken and writtenlanguage For example, conversations recorded for language texts often have a

slow pace, have particular structures which recur with obtrusive frequency, andhave very distinct turn-taking of speakers Also, hesitations (such as “uh’s” and

“mm’s”) are often missing, and sentences are very well-formed with few if anymistakes Simultaneously, real-life records are rarely in such good quality It iseasily noticed that background sounds as well as daily spoken expressions areoften included In other words, what the language learners hear in class isdifferent from that in the real world In many cases, the language used inclassrooms is a stilted use of real-life language, and authenticity is lost because

of a need to teach specific language points in a way that some teachers feelwould be more understandable for learners

Brosnan et al (1984) justify the importance of the use of authentic materials inthe classroom in this way:

a Language is natural Authentic language offers students the chance todeal with a small amount of material which, at the same time, contains completeand meaningful messages

b Students need to be able to see the immediate relevance of what they do

in the classroom to what they need to do outside it, and real-life material treatedrealistically makes the connection obvious

II.4 Implications in English Language Education

Because the number of nonnative English users is on a drastic increasesurpassing that of native ones, it has come to be the case that the interactionalcontexts in which nonnative speakers use English with nonnative ones dominatecommunication in reality compared to the fast shrinking of the interactionalcontexts in which nonnative speakers communicate with native ones in English

In particular, in most countries in the world, the majority of monolingual orbilingual teachers (nonnative teachers) who may have never encountered native-English-used environment teach their students (nonnative students) who willbecome nonnative teachers in the future Before teaching at school, most teachers

of English have never communicated with any native or even a foreigner whenthey were at school or at the university Their ability of communication in Englishcould just be seen through their grade at the university and they bring thisassumption with them to the school at which they are teachers of English So theyalso become teachers of English speaking in their own accent, surely not a standardEnglish However, when communicating with foreigners including those comingfrom England, America or from the Philippines, South Korea, etc., whether theiraccent is Vietnamese one, provided that they can express themselves fluently andeasily make they understood, they can be successful in communication, and this isthe most important thing in their job However, if they can get an English orAmerican accent, they can have a significantly positive effect on their students whoalways long to listen to standard English but it is extremely difficult, not mentionimpossible, to acquire standard English even when they spend some years inLondon, let alone they have never been there Therefore, the use of authenticmaterials is a good way to acquaint students with the real-context sources ofEnglish around the world, not only those coming from native English speakingcountries Basing on the understanding of world Englishes, some implications can

be drawn out on English language education for teachers as follows

Firstly, teachers of English should try best to increase the chances for students toexpose to different varieties of English instead of only one or two varieties,which are considered ‘standard’ According to Le (2012, p.193), it is advisablethat standard English or ‘native speaker variety’ be ‘considered as a frame ofreference that signals EIL varieties’ because this helps to provide teachers andlearners with a vision and objective to aim for To achieve this goal, teachers offoreign languages should do some research on varieties of English in differentcountries where English is spoken especially to prepare students for regionalvernaculars they are likely to encounter They can also exploit various sources

of English like films, news, newspapers, etc to broaden students’ exposure toworld Englishes (some suggested websites to obtain authentic sources in

appendix 1) It is clear that functional view of the language, not the necessarilynative use, should be taught in ranged and deep explanation while drawingstudents’ attention to the differences in use Taking the pronunciation theconsonant ‘r’ in ‘cart’ as an illustration, while pronouncing the word with ‘r’ isnormal in the U.S., it is considered a bit rural and uneducated in some parts, butnot all, of Britain, especially in the globalization and integration age, many parts

of Britain is engaging in this type of pronunciation Therefore, it is extremelyessential to raise students’ awareness of appropriateness and intelligibility ofcommunicative competence This is the most critical element in foreignlanguage education nowadays rather than teaching students what standardEnglish is

Furthermore, the way to evaluate students should also be adapted to fit thechanges in English language education English tests should be standardized sothat students have chances to encounter Englishes not only of the U.K or the U.S.but also of India, Singapore, Philippines, South Africa, and even Spain, China,etc Moreover, evaluation and assessment should take on a dynamic aspect,focusing on processes rather than on outcomes of standardized decontextualizedtests, i.e the language proficiency and academic achievement of the studentsshould be considered by observing their communicative competence in bothspoken and written forms over the time

However, this application in teaching is not easy for all teachers because itrequires them to devote a lot of time to searching for a variety of document fromdifferent sources and adapt this material to their own classes This process needs alot of attempt and hard work Besides, teachers without good background Englishcompetence can mislead students because of their lack of capacity in processingthe raw material of different sources, some of which may be unreliable (somelesson plans made from authentic materials provided in appendix 2)

Part III: Conclusion

In conclusion, this article has explored varieties of the language – English, andits implications in English language education It is clear that varieties of thelanguage should be taken into consideration in carrying out the languageeducation so that the best result can be achieved Because of the development,English now is not a single identity but world Englishes in which the varieties ofEnglish in native English-speaking countries may be surpassed by the varieties

of English in nonnative English-speaking countries, so it is worth bearing thisfact in mind Teaching English, therefore, means teaching students how todevelop learning awareness and strategies to communicate in English in theglobal environment rather than in the Inner Circle countries These trendsinclude the analysis of different genres of written and spoken language emerging

in contexts where English is spoken as a native language and also in globalcontexts where other varieties of English are spoken Hence, it is important tonote that foreign language teaching in a broader sense involves the teaching ofsuccessful communication in foreign language through the use of an appropriatevariety, which can be enhanced by introducing students with a wide source ofauthentic materials Both teachers and students need not acquire a standardaccent provided that their English is comprehensible