Murray, Heather

RERO DOC Digital Library

The Globalization of English and theEnglish Language ClassroomClaus Gnutzmann and Frauke Intemann (eds.)Gunter Narr Verlag, Tu¨bingen, 2005, 287pp.,e48.00ISBN 3 8233 6136 8The term ‘the globalization of English’ can beinterpreted in at least three ways. It can refer to theincreasing intrusion of the English language intothe lives of town and city dwellers all over the world.This is a worrying phenomenon. Not only does itthreaten to contaminate or wipe out locallanguages and cultures, but it also skews the socio-economic order in favour of those who areproficient in English. How should the non English-speaking world react?The globalization of English can also refer to therapid spread of English as a second and foreignlanguage. The world’s non-native speaker (NNS)to native speaker (NS) ratio for English isestimated to be between 2 to 1 and 4 to 1 (Crystal1997; Graddol 1997). With this preponderance ofNNS speakers of English, it seems clear thatNNS–NNS communication is far more commonthan NS–NS or NNS–NS communication; in otherwords, English used as a lingua franca (ELF) is byfar the most common form of English in the worldtoday. But can ELF be considered a variety ofEnglish in its own right? Descriptions of WorldEnglishes (e.g. Melchers and Shaw 2003) normallyfollow Kachru’s (1985) geographical classificationinto ‘inner circle’ countries (where English isgenerally the L1), ‘outer circle’ countries (whereEnglish plays an institutional role as an L2), and‘expanding circle’ countries (where English is learntas a foreign language). Inner circle Englishes havebeen described and codified, and outer circlevarieties are also in the process of standardizing(Crystal 1997). Should learners in expanding circlecountries therefore continue to look upon NSEnglish as their model? Or should they follow theexample of outer circle countries and confidentlydevelop their own standards of English based oneffective NNS–NNS communication? Howmuch should English teachers around the worldknow about and even participate in thisdevelopment?Finally, the globalization of English can refer tochanges taking place in all varieties of English dueto contact with other varieties. Does this mean thatEnglish will become more homogeneous, unifyingaround one world standard? Or will it perhapslead to NSs losing their role as custodians of thelanguage?The Globalization of English and the English LanguageClassroom attempts to answer almost all thequestions posed above. It is a collection of 17papers given at a conference held in Braunschweig,Germany in 2003. Many of the authors are well-known in the field and therefore in a good positionto contribute to the discussion. The book is dividedinto five sections, each devoted to a particulardimension of global English or its implicationsfor ELT.Section 1, ‘Political and sociocultural dimensions’.looks at some consequences of the globalization ofEnglish in two rapidly developing countries, SouthAfrica and India. South Africa is often counted as aninner circle country, yet the majority of its citizensare not native speakers of English; in fact, it wouldbe more accurate to locate South Africa in the outercircle. In her article, Janina Brutt-Griffler uses casestudies to illustrate the point that poverty cancondemn speakers of English as a second languageto low English proficiency, which in turn blocksaccess to better-paid jobs. Those who, throughlanguage, are excluded from the chance to improvetheir socio-economic position naturally prefer tobecome more proficient in English rather thanpreserve their mother tongue. Brutt-Griffler arguesthat this spread of English to other social classes hasnothing to do with linguistic imperialism, which isethnically based, but is part of a class-basedstruggle. People need the opportunity to becomehigh-proficiency bilinguals before they can becomeconcerned with preserving their L1. In the secondarticle in this section, Mahendra Verma depictsa similar situation in India: global English and ITensure that economic (and political?) power belongto the ‘whiz kids’ of the new elite, whose parents canafford to send them to English-medium schools.Section 2, ‘Linguistic and sociolinguisticexemplification’, is devoted to exemplifying theimpact of English on other languages. Ulrich Bussesummarizes research on English words assimilatedinto the German language, a phenomenon that hasbeen going on for some time, but which hasrecently intensified. The German language is in noway threatened by borrowed English words, butBusse calls for development of a more criticalattitude to the use of anglicisms in the media.Frauke Intemann follows on with an analysis ofAviation English, the formally prescribed andartificially restricted lingua franca used by pilotsand air traffic controllers. Using authentic cockpitdata, Intemann shows that NNS pilots and204 Reviewscontrollers also need to be able to understandspoken NS English, and that their NS colleaguesshould be made aware of communicationdifficulties caused by deviation from AviationEnglish phraseology. Finally, in the last article in thissection, Christiane Meierkord investigates thenature of the global English lexicon, which can beimagined as the product of verbal interaction in theEnglishes of speakers from the inner, outer andexpanding circles. She then analyses examples fromher own (still rather small) corpus of ‘Interactionsacross Englishes’ to characterize the properties ofthis new, hybrid lexicon.Section 3, ‘Teaching and learning English in a globalcontext’, actually contains little about teaching andlearning, but a great deal about the question ofstandard forms and models for global English.Since the newly developed lingua franca varieties ofEnglish have not yet been codified, ClausGnutzmann argues, Standard English (i.e. NSEnglish) should continue to be used as thelinguistic model for ELT in Europe, although‘teaching models will have to become as tolerant oferrors as possible’ (p.117). Barbara Seidlhoferreplies by pointing out that, rather than beingmonolithic, Standard English is in fact somethinglinguists find rather hard to define. She then goeson to critically review and debunk argumentsfavouring NS language norms in ELT. JenniferJenkins reinforces the argument for an ELF model,summarizing her by now well-known work on a newcore pronunciation model for international English(Jenkins 2000), which legitimizes NNS accents. Inthe second half of her article, Jenkins considers theimplications of this model for teaching, andoutlines the pedagogical steps teachers would needto take in teaching pronunciation for ELF. In hercontribution, Svenja Adolfs emphasizes the pointthat NS English does not always provide a modelfor NNSs, reporting on how international studentsbecome disillusioned in their desire to imitate NSswhen they encounter local dialects during studies inBritain. As a result, many students change theirgoals from sounding like a NS to understandingNSs and being understood in their own NNSvariety. Finally, Allan James considers evidence forthe existence of identifiable ELF varieties. After firstidentifying several general linguistic features, heargues that, because of the specific situations inwhich ELF arises, descriptions must also be relatedto sociocultural aspects of use.The last two sections of the book concernthemselves with English teaching, as promised bythe book’s title. The five articles in Section 4,‘Learners in primary, secondary and highereducation: focus on Europe’, provide the reader withsituated glimpses of how global English is affectingvarious kinds of European learners and, to someextent, government education policy. Janet Eneverdescribes an emerging bourgeois ‘parentocracy’ inHungary that has successfully demanded early-startELT for its children,whileAngelikaKubanek-Germanlooks at ELTmaterials used in German schools andquestions their realistic reflection of English in the(European) learner’s world. Two further articlesfocus on what could be called the success of Englishlearning in Europe. Margie Berns and Kees de Botreport on an impressive comparative study (soon tobe published in book form) of English proficiencyamong secondary school students in Belgium, theNetherlands, France and Germany. According to thestudy, the extensive and easily accessible presenceof English in many European countries, both insideand outside schools, is leading to different groups oflearner-users creating ‘their personal languageenvironments according to their individual needsand capacities’ (p.210). This situation, as well asdiffering attitudes to learning English, helps toexplain differences in teenagers’ English proficiency.Ulrike Jessner’s article makes the point that, formany Europeans, English is often learnt as a thirdlanguage, facilitated by previous language learningand contributing to general language awareness.But what model of English do proficient Europeanlearners feel most comfortable with? ElizabethErling presents a study of university English majorsin Berlin, whom she classifies into (1) a US-friendlycluster, (2) a pro-British cluster and (3) a linguafranca cluster, demonstrating that, although highlyproficient, European learners are far from agreeingon a European model of English.Some implications of global English for teachereducation are discussed in Section 5, ‘English asa global language—what do future teachers have tosay?’ Unfortunately, there are only two articles inthis section. Maike Grau reports on a surveyconducted among future English teachers studyingat a German university. Her findings show thatstudents are fairly open to teaching materials thatinclude a variety of NS and NNS accents, andgenerally receptive to the notion that the mainpronunciation objective should be internationalintelligibility as opposed to near-nativeness.However, when survey questions become concrete(e.g. whether or not to correct ‘s’ for ‘th’ or ‘if youwould be’ for ‘if you were’), the majority vote forcorrection towards the NS model. In Grau’sopinion, this only reflects the fact that futureteachers have not been adequately exposed to theReviews 205concepts and related decision-making implied byan acceptance of NNS English as a suitable modelfor German pupils. In another vein, George Braine’sarticle reviews research on NNS teachers ofEnglish, covering studies of teacher self-perceptions as well as learner appraisals. Brainesummarizes results for NNS teachers thus:NNS teachers admit that they rely on textbooks,apply their knowledge of the differences betweenthe L1 and the L2, use the L1 as the medium ofinstruction, . . . are sensitive to the needs ofstudents, know the students’ background andhave exam preparation as the aim of teaching.(p. 282)He ends by calling for greater emphasis on ELF andglobal English in the education of NNS teachers.What makes this book attractive first and foremostis its list of contributors, of which about half areknown internationally for their research and writingin the field. However, even high-profile experts canonly churn out so many new findings per year:about half the contributions are really re-presentations of previously published research andarguments. The new research (especially the Bernsand de Bot paper) is, however, interesting andworthwhile. The fact that the book actually practiseswhat it preaches and is written in the English of thecontributors—NS or NNS—also impressed mefavourably.Books based on conference papers can probably beexpected to discuss questions rather than answerthem, and this one certainly discusses all thequestions I raised at the beginning of this review,which is no mean feat. However, and perhapsinevitably, the papers tend to discuss the questionsin terms of highly local situations, making it difficultto draw more general conclusions. Thus, becausemost of the contributors are European appliedlinguists and language educators, the dominantfocus of the book is Europe, although, asmentioned, situations in South Africa and India arealso analysed.Finally, who is The Globalization of English and theEnglish Language Classroom for? The title makes itsound as if it might be for teachers who want adviceon how to take account of NNS Englishes in theirteaching, but it isn’t. Nothing is offered that isdirectly applicable in the ELT classroom. I see itrather as a collection of evidence and argumentsthat could be used with students as a basis fordiscussion in (applied) linguistics and teachereducation courses. Some global Englishaficionados may be disappointed that so few of thepapers discuss anything new; but for future appliedlinguists, teacher trainers, and teachers new to thefield, particularly those based in Europe, this is asgood a way as any to enter the discourse.ReferencesCrystal, D. 1997. English as a Global Language.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Graddol, D. 1997. The Future of English? London:The British Council.Jenkins, J. 2000. The Phonology of English as anInternational Language. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.Kachru, B. 1985. ‘Standards, codification andsociolinguistic realism: the English language in theouter circle’ in R. Quirk and H. G. Widdowson(eds.). English in the World: Teaching and Learningthe Language and Literatures. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Melchers, G. and P. Shaw 2003. World Englishes.London: Arnold.The reviewerHeather Murray is a senior lecturer in theDepartment of Applied Linguistics at the Universityof Berne, Switzerland. Her main areas of interestare English for scientific communication, Englishas a lingua franca and teacher language awareness.She is also involved in an EU project aimed atstandardizing evaluations of school-basedlanguage learning and teaching.Email: murray@aal.unibe.chdoi:10.1093/elt/cci110206 Reviews

The Globalization of English and the English Language Classroom

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

RERO DOC Digital Library