Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

L’anglès com a llengua de comunicació global: reptes i oportunitats

Assignatura Llenguatges i ContextosCiències Educació, 2013-2014

Introduction

375 million native speakers of English +225 million people speak it as a second language (ESL) +1200 million people use it as a ‘foreign’ language (EFL)

The spread of English

Early 16th C to mid 19th C.:

Colonisation of North America, Australia and New Zealand, Asia and Africa.

Late 20th C.:

Former colonies adopted English in expanding educational systems.

USA’s economic and political power. Cultural influence.

Our target can’t be native-speaker competence but instead using English successfully in a multicultural context.

As speakers of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), we need to have a strong multilingual communicative competence:

Need to be aware of how any speaker’s own culture and first language (L1) affects the way they express themselves, both verbally and non-verbally, in English.

Need to have examples of oral production in English from a variety of speakers’ origins.

Need not only to accept but to make the most of different accents, linguistic expressions, etc.

See the English language as an effective means to communicate with people from all over the world for professional, academic, or personal reasons.

Therefore, consider English as a global language or as a lingua franca, not the possession of a few.

Different terms for a similar concept:

World English(es)

Global English(es)

English as a Global Language

English as a Lingua Franca

International English

So , what’s in it for me?

Questions to debate:

1. Who does English belong to?

2. What is the language most used on the www?

3. What is or are the languages/s of the sciences?

4. Does English give us more or less freedom?

5. Is it a menace for minority languages such as Catalan?

6. Should it be present in our university classrooms?

7. Does it help you to know English? Will it help you in the near future?

Reflections

Reflections

1. Teachers, teacher trainers and materials should show learners the importance of ELF; the aim should never be to become a native speaker of English but to be a successful ELF user in a variety of multilingual contexts

2. The students’ L1 is a powerful tool in their L2 learning process and provides an important cultural and linguistic ground for global communication

Reflections

3. The classroom should easily represent a real L2 situation, not an imitation L1 situation

4. Materials and exams should include many more examples of English produced by successful users of English from a variety of countries and in different linguistic and cultural contexts

Bibliography

David Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (Cambridge: CUP, 2003)

David Crystal. English as a Global Language (Cambridge: CUP, 2003)

Tom McArthur. The Oxford Guide to World English (Oxford: OUP, 2002)

Kachru, B.B., Kachru, Y. & Nelson, C.L. (eds.). The Handbook of World Englishes. (Blackwell Publishing, 2006)

Gnutzmann, C. (ed.). Teaching and Learning English as a Global Language (Tübingen: Stauffenburg-Verl., 1999)

Thank you very much!

See you next week!

sonia.prats@uab.cat but Campus Virtual better!

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona