Participating in seminars and discussions “An Introduction to EAP – Academic Skills in English” Lesson 4.

Participating in seminars and discussions

“An Introduction to EAP –

Academic Skills in English”Lesson 4

Objective

You will make use of a specific text and of a film to complete an assignment to support your ideas.

You will practice some skills you will need to participate in seminars and discussions with groups of other students.

Assignment

Who owns the English language? Does only one original and authentic standard

variety exist? Or are there several global centres, native or non-native, each with their own standard variety of English?

English Today

3 groups of users:

Those who speak English respectively as- a native language = ENL- a second language = ESL- a foreign language = EFL

Neat classifications become increasingly difficult

Who speaks English today?

English as a Native Language (ENL)- Language of those born and raised in one of the countries

where English is historically the first language to be spoken (i.e. mainly the UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand)

- ~ 350 million speakers

English as a Second Language (ESL)- Language spoken in a large number of territories which were

once colonized by the English (e.g., India, Nigeria, Singapore)- ~ 350 million speakers

Who speaks English today?

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) - Language of those for whom it serves no purposes within their

own countries- Historically, EFL was learned to use the language with its

native speakers in the US and UK - ~ 1 billion speakers with ‘reasonable competence’

Difficulties with the three-way categorization

ENL is not a single variety of English There are large groups of ENL speakers in ESL

territories and vice versa. It is based on the concept of monolingualism, but bi-

or multilingualism is the norm. It is based on the basic distinction between native

speakers and non-native speakers, with the first group being considered superior regardless of the quality of their language. (cf. McArthur 1998)

Three circle model of World Englishes

Kachru (1992: 356) Most useful and influential model World Englishes divided into 3 concentric circles:

1. Inner Circle:

~ ENL countries, ‘norm-providing’

2. Outer Circle:~ ESL countries, ‘norm-developing’

3. Expanding Circle: ~EFL countries, ‘norm-dependent’

The English Today debate

Non-native Englishes as ‘deficit’ (Randolph Quirk): Non-native Englishes are inadequately learned versions of

‘correct’ native English forms Non-native Englishes are not valid as teaching models

Non-native Englishes as ‘difference’ (Braj Kachru): ‘Native speakers [of English] seem to have lost the exclusive

prerogative to control its standardisation’ What Quirk describes in terms of deficit is in the global context

a matter of ‘difference which is based on vital sociolinguistic realities of identity, creativity and linguistic and cultural contact’.

A successful participant in group discussions

Different perspectives on an issue

Look at the following statement on education and consider it from the different perspectives of the people involved:

“A seriously disruptive child should be excluded

permanently from school.”

Different perspectives on an issue

Useful language comparing perspectives