ENGLISH TEACHING & LEARNING IN THE GROWING WORLD By Ton Nu Nhu Huong, EdD -College of Foreign Languages – Hue University

OUTLINE OF THE PRESENTATION THE CONCEPT OF STANDARD ENGLISH IN THE WORLD NOWADAYS NEW CHALLENGES FOR ELT IN THE GROWING WORLD RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ELT IN VIETNAM

THE PROPOSITION T hough Widdowson is correct to say that offering periphery students competence in standard dialects is a way of empowering them, he is limited in thinking that ‘standard English’ has to be learned and used without modifications and should be canonized for universal official purposes… If ‘standard English’ is to be an international language, then the natural process of hybridization, diversification, and development cannot be controlled… The term ‘standard’ must then be used more flexibly… There will be multiple systems of English with their own norms and rules of usage… pragmatic systems developed in the process of linguistic interaction by each speech community to conduct effective communication. This dynamic conception of linguistic systemization assures us that appropriation by periphery communities can take place without sacrificing intelligibility of communication with other speech communities Canagarajah (1999, p.181)

RESPONSES Discussions on Widdowson’s proposition and Canagarajah’s responses respectively; Implementing these views in the English teaching and learning in Vietnam and implications for ELT in Vietnam

WHAT IS STANDARD ENGLISH? Streven in Larry Smith’s edition (1983, p.88) defines Standard English as “a particular dialect of English, being the non-localised dialect, of global currency without any significant variation, universally accepted as the appropriate educational target in teaching English; which may be spoken with an unrestricted choice of accent”.

Quirk (1982) and Crystal (1994) assert that Standard English is the English used by the most powerful, namely the US, Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia. Widdowson in Canagarajah (1990, p.180) argues that if local students are not equipped with standard dialects, they are denied access to “gate-keeping contexts of institutional communication”.

Tollefson (1991, p.1) relates the relationship between language policy and language education with focus on power and inequality

Chew in Graddol and Meinhof (1999, p.38) sees Tollefson as arguing further that language is a factor in creating and sustaining economic division. Phillipson (1992, chapter 3) in his idea of linguistic imperialism (namely English imperialism) depicting the spread of English as a post- colonial scheme over almost all developing countries to maintain the native English- speaking countries’ dominance over these periphery countries.

Phillipson (1992, pp ) also introduces the term of linguicism where he considers the global spread of English as closely bound with its “dominating society’s cultural, social, emotional and linguistic norms, thus maintaining an unequal distribution of power and resources

Pennycook (1994) argues that we cannot teach just a language per se because it is bound up with its own worldly ideology. Chew (in Graddol and Meinhof, 1999, p.40) reuses the term “linguistic capital” by Bourdieu and Passeron (1977) meaning the possession of English to refer to other forms of capital - “educational qualifications and higher incomes”

OTHER VIEWS Prodromou (1997) sees the benefits of the English language outweigh the disadvantages in his assertion: “English is more than an instrument of American world domination – great literature is written in English worldwide and great relationships, I am sure, are forged through English as a lingua franca” (p. 13).

Attitude towards English teaching nowadays Widdowson’s proposition (in Canagarajah, 1999) is that Standard English can just be learned and used “without modifications and should be canonized for universal official purposes”. IS IT TRUE?

ELT in VIETNAM English teaching & learning in Vietnam Students’ attitude towards Global English Teachers’ attitudes towards World Englishes and EL imperialism Educational administration

Status of English in Vietnam According to Tran (2000), after joining ASEAN, “Vietnam can be listed as one of the Expanding Circle countries, where English is taught and learned as a foreign language” (p.27).

Students’ attitude towards Global English Teachers’ attitudes towards World Englishes and EL imperialism Educational administration: In Vietnam, EL imperialism cannot be an issue of concern because the government through the MOET (Ministry of Education and Training) has interfered in every level of ELT; namely, political, social, economic, cultural and educational aspects.

IMPLICATIONS Changes at all levels: National policy for education The role of Teachers of English The role of learners of English

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