Teaching English as a Foreign Language Introduction and historical background Fayiz Alsani

Why English? World Englishes Circles within circles Language Varieties Lingua Franca – who speaks it to whom? words/ words/

Outer Circle: India, Singapore, Malaysia, Nigeria 300 million speakers Expanding Circle: China, Russia, Brazil, Europe, Asia > 1000 million speakers Inner Circle: UK, Ireland, USA, Canada,Australasia, South Africa 380 million speakers English spoken in today’s world (Kachru, 1985)

How many words are in normal circulation in written and spoken English nowadays, which a native speaker ‘knows’? – Plag (2003): 45,000-60,000 words (considerably less than the contents of the OED!) – Crystal (2003: 426): around 60,000 words for an educated speaker’s active vocabulary and 75,000 for passive and active. Plag, I. (2003) Word-Formation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Crystal, D. (2003) English as a global language. (2 nd Ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

How many words does a speaker of English need to be able to use to take part in everyday conversation? There is a core of 2,000 words which are used and re-used, and they are sufficient for most ordinary conversation (although we need other specialist words to talk about individual topics of interest). McCarthy, O’Keeffe & Walsh (2009) The Vocabulary Matrix: Understanding, Learning, Teaching. Andover : Heinle, Cengage Learning EMEA 2010 (p.7) How many words does a speaker of English need to be able to use to take part in everyday conversation? There is a core of 2,000 words which are used and re-used, and they are sufficient for most ordinary conversation (although we need other specialist words to talk about individual topics of interest). McCarthy, O’Keeffe & Walsh (2009) The Vocabulary Matrix: Understanding, Learning, Teaching. Andover : Heinle, Cengage Learning EMEA 2010 (p.7)

Coverage of words in English No. of Words used 1 st 2000 words 2 nd 2000 words 3 rd 2000 words 4 th 2000 words 5 th 2000 words 10,000 words For regular conversation 83% coverage 5% coverage 3% coverage 2% coverage 1% coverage = 94% coverage

Some Acronyms EFL – English as a foreign language ESL – English as a second language ESOL – English for speakers of other languages EAL – English as an additional language ELT - English language teaching L1- mother tongue L2 – the language that is being learned, also called the ‘target language’

Historical Development to ELT World War II – effect and consequences Transportation IT and other technologies Telecommunications Tourism International trade and commerce

Approaches and Methods An Approach concerns the theory regarding language and language learning. It’s the source of the underlying practices and principles. A Method is the practical application of an Approach – activities, roles, materials, syllabus. A Procedure is the ordered sequence of techniques. A Technique is a simple activity (e.g. the finger technique used for contractions).