Effective communication in English between its two billion users (Crystal, 2008), requires comprehension of others’ English and a willingness to accept differences in English. While some studies have attempted to measure the attitudes of Inner Circle (IC) (Kachru, 1985) respondents towards IC Englishes, and other studies have focused on attitudes of Outer Circle (OC) and Expanding Circle (EC) respondents to IC English, there is a dearth of research on OC and EC respondents’ attitudes to non-IC English. Therefore, this study addressed the need for further research focusing on OC respondents’ attitudes to EC users’ English. Specifically, this study of 31 Singaporeans attempted to gain an understanding of their attitudes towards Expanding Circle Accents of English (ECAE). This study drew on direct and indirect approaches in language attitude research, involving a verbal-guise task using semantic differential scales to elicit attitudes to speakers on a range of solidarity and status traits, and interviews. Descriptive statistics derived from mean scores were used for quantitative analysis of the data from the verbal-guise task, while coding procedures were used for qualitative analysis of the interview data. The findings show the respondents displayed predominantly negative attitudes to eight of the eleven ECAE and slightly positive attitudes to three. Phonological features common to the ECAE, notably mispronunciation of particular phonemes and vowels added to consonant clusters, affected the respondents’ attitudes. Moreover, certain prosodic features and the perceived degree of attractiveness and assertiveness affected attitudes to the ECAE. These findings indicate accent can affect listeners’ attitude to speakers. The implications of this study have relevance to the discussions on World Englishes and English as an International Language to the extent that notions of attitude and intelligibility are central to both. Furthermore, the findings suggest attitude might be of greater significance than intelligibility when evaluating others’ English.

The status of English as the language of international communication is by now well-established. However, in the past 16 years, research has tried to emphasize the fact that the English spoken in international contact situations and between people with other first languages than English has different needs than the English spoken locally amongst native speakers, resulting in the emergence of English as a lingua franca (ELF) as a scholarly field. However, the impact of findings in ELF has so far only led to a moderate shift in English language teaching. Especially in expanding circle countries, where ELF should have the biggest impact, change is only gradually becoming palpable. Accent and pronunciation, as one of the biggest factors on both identity and mutual intelligibility (Jenkins 2000; 2007) are at the root of discussion. The scope of this study is therefore to examine accent choices and the extent to which native speaker ideology informs the preferences of ten speakers of ELF and 27 German natives with experience in international communication. Both ethnographical and sociolinguistic methods, as well as auditory analysis have been applied and conducted. The auditory analysis of six variables in the recorded speech production of the ten speakers suggests that there is no significant preference of one norm-giving variety over the other. Rather, speakers tend to mix-and-match General American- and Standard Southern British English-like features in their pronunciation. When reporting their accent ideals, the idea of a ‘neutral’ English accent is mentioned by four participants. Neutral accents seem to have been understood as ‘unmarked accents’. Expressed beliefs on their own English pronunciation show a comparatively high level of reflection on and confidence in their own production. Results from a rating task and a survey given to 27 German participants reveal attitudes that are more negatively stacked. While Germans reported openness towards NNS (non-native speaker) accents and showed awareness of the priority of intelligibility over accent choice in both their own and others’ pronunciation, they still largely reported NS accent preference. The ratings of the production from ten ELF speakers confirmed this and showed that ‘neutral’ is equated with native-like. In the light of these findings, issues are discussed that ultimately relate to the influence of NS Englishes, identity and the development of English as an international language.

Although the focus on English as a global language is apparent in the Swedish curriculum today, many educators do not take advantage of world literature and non-native English authors in their ESL classrooms. With the help of empirical research, we investigate the benefits of using such literature for gaining global awareness. Furthermore, we analyze the activities and teaching approaches used in the empirical studies. Through this essay, we summarize the empirical research used for this essay and synthesize the results to find out what implications were found. It shows that using non-native fiction helps students to learn and explore different cultures, which also expands their global view. Apart from this, teaching methods such as discussions, literature circles, presentations, blogging and collaborative learning deepened students' global view and cultural awareness. The teaching methods that were used while working with world literature showed that students were conscious of their own learning and developed this ability by working in a social environment. This paper concludes with describing the limitations of writing the study, and presents a future research project that involves the field of world literature.

Culture and language are intrinsically linked, and the question of how to approach teaching culture whilst teaching a language is always going to be one teachers have to ask themselves. A textbook is a tool which is meant to aid teachers and remove some of the burden of decision-making from their shoulders. A good textbook should thus give a teacher all of the tools needed to teach a language, including answers to the aforementioned question. This study was a content analysis of four English Language textbooks used in Swedish high schools. The main focus was on how these textbooks present different cultures. This was then contextualized by comparisons with previous research, with cultural theories, and by a comparison with the guidelines which are presented in the Swedish curriculum. The study found that the textbooks contain little representation of cultures which are not natively English-speaking or which exist outside of the so-called Inner circle of English language, and that even when non-Inner circle cultures are represented, they are either viewed through and Inner circle lens or as a minority culture in an Inner circle context. Furthermore, the literature which is included in the books adheres strictly to the English literary canon as it is generally defined. The textbooks thus do not encourage the teaching of English as an international language, and they therefore go against the guidelines of the Swedish curriculum. They are also representative of a global issue of conservatism in ELT which has been highlighted previously by other authors—and to the existence of which they provide further and current proof.

<p>English is the most expansionist language in the world today. Currently, native speakers are outnumbered by non-native speakers by a ratio of 3:1, a ratio that is set to grow to 10:1 within the next ten years. One of the consequences of a language growing so rapidly is that its new users tend to ignore already accepted standards. In what linguists refer to as the outer and expanding circles of English-speakers (mainly in Africa and Asia) new varieties and standards of English are now being invented.</p><p>In this study, the effects of the current expansion of English on the teaching of English in Swedish upper-secondary schools are explored. Questions raised include: Should teachers of English in Sweden reflect the changing nature of English in their teaching? Should they readily adopt the New Englishes that are emerging or should they teach with the standard they have always used? The national curriculum for the teaching of English in Sweden is discussed in some detail. The guidelines therein are evaluated in terms of their ability to capture the changing face of English as well as their ability to give solid guidance to teachers in a classroom situation.</p><p>Findings derive from linguistic literature and from interviews conducted with English teachers at upper-secondary level. One of the main conclusions of the study is that whilst the national curriculum recognises the global diversity of English, its goals are overambitious in what it tries to achieve and thus it fails to provide teachers with practical guidance in their day-to-day teaching. A recommendation, therefore, is that the curriculum should be clearer in spelling out the importance of adhering to native standard varieties of English. However this does not mean that teachers should ignore the cultural diversity of the English-speaking world.</p>

With nearly two billion speakers across the world, English has come to exist in all shapes and colors. Many functions and contexts in which English is found in the world are accounted for in the massive scientific effort to document the language’s global development. World English, New Englishes, and English as a Lingua Franca are concepts that aim to explain the different forms that the language takes in different countries. This paper explores the global development of English in its Swedish form, but shifts focus from second language English speakers to the native speakers of English who grow up in Sweden with parents from English-speaking countries. With most of the Swedish population being highly proficient in English, native English speakers in Sweden are more exposed to non-native English varieties spoken by second language speakers than the varieties used in their heritage countries. To understand how they are affected by their non-native environment, I interviewed seven students from an English heritage language instruction class at a Swedish upper secondary school. The 16- and 17-year-old students had parents from USA, UK, Australia, Ireland, and New Zealand, and unique stories about their experiences with the English language. Each student was interviewed individually and asked questions about their language abilities, their varieties, and their connections to their heritage countries. Information about their linguistic and biographical backgrounds was used to analyze the differences in their perspectives. The students considered it a great advantage that their native language was so widely spread, but they acknowledged that it to some extent led to them being disconnected from their heritage cultures, in some cases more than others.

abstract: This study investigates the uses of English in advertising in Brazil and the attitudes of Brazilians towards the use of different difficulty levels of English in advertising. Using a two part, mixed-methods approach, drawing from quantitative and qualitative methods, I utilized a corpus study to examine English uses in Brazilian magazines and a survey to investigate the difficulty of English slogans as a determinant for people's attitudes towards English in advertising. For the first part, three major Brazilian news magazines, Veja, Época, and ISTOÉ were used. From three issues of each magazine, results showed that 57% of the advertisements in all nine magazines contained English in different parts of the advertisements, with most occurrences in the product name, followed by the body copy, headline, subheadline, and slogan. English was used to advertise a number of different product types, but was especially used for advertising cars, electronics, events, and banks. It was also found that the majority of English was used for its symbolic representations of modernity, prestige, globalization, and reliability. Using a survey for the second part of the study, I investigated how Brazilian participants judged four advertisements that featured English slogans that were comparable to slogans judged to be easy or difficult to understand in a similar study conducted by Hornikx, van Meurs, and de Boer (2010). Participants were offered attitudinal choices to mark off on a 4-point Likert scale, where they indicated their attitudes towards the English slogans provided. They were also asked to determine if they understood the slogans and to translate them to indicate their actual understanding of the slogans. Participants showed more positive attitudes towards the uses of English than negative attitudes. The survey provided evidence that with the very low numbers of correctly translated slogans, many participants believed they understood the slogans, which could prove to be more of an indicator of positive attitudes than their actual understanding of the slogans. This project provides an example from one Expanding Circle context touched by the far-reaching influences of World Englishes. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Applied Linguistics 2014

English is the most expansionist language in the world today. Currently, native speakers are outnumbered by non-native speakers by a ratio of 3:1, a ratio that is set to grow to 10:1 within the next ten years. One of the consequences of a language growing so rapidly is that its new users tend to ignore already accepted standards. In what linguists refer to as the outer and expanding circles of English-speakers (mainly in Africa and Asia) new varieties and standards of English are now being invented. In this study, the effects of the current expansion of English on the teaching of English in Swedish upper-secondary schools are explored. Questions raised include: Should teachers of English in Sweden reflect the changing nature of English in their teaching? Should they readily adopt the New Englishes that are emerging or should they teach with the standard they have always used? The national curriculum for the teaching of English in Sweden is discussed in some detail. The guidelines therein are evaluated in terms of their ability to capture the changing face of English as well as their ability to give solid guidance to teachers in a classroom situation. Findings derive from linguistic literature and from interviews conducted with English teachers at upper-secondary level. One of the main conclusions of the study is that whilst the national curriculum recognises the global diversity of English, its goals are overambitious in what it tries to achieve and thus it fails to provide teachers with practical guidance in their day-to-day teaching. A recommendation, therefore, is that the curriculum should be clearer in spelling out the importance of adhering to native standard varieties of English. However this does not mean that teachers should ignore the cultural diversity of the English-speaking world.

The present thesis considers the topic of English as a Lingua Franca as it is perceived and experienced by three groups: the ELF research community, ELT professionals, and ELF users themselves. This thesis first presents an overview of the theoretical foundations of ELF research, identifying key topics with which the ELF research community has grappled in recent decades. In order to determine how much closer the ELT community has gotten to aligning teaching policy, practices, and goals to students' specific needs and expectations, sociolinguistic research in the form of seven semi-structured interviews was conducted with L2 English speakers who use ELF to live, work, and study in their daily lives, and the ELT professionals tasked with developing their English skills in the classroom. The content of these interviews is then analyzed with regard to the specific needs and expectations of ELF users and the concerns of ELT professionals, followed by a discussion of the key issues uncovered in these interviews in light of the theoretical background of ELF research. The author provides suggestions for further research aimed at improving the ELT community's role in developing ELF proficiency in the expanding circle. Keywords: English as a Lingua Franca, English Language Teaching, Expanding Circle, ELF...

The study examined three Japanese junior high-school English teachers’ initial years of full-time employment. It investigated the type of pedagogical puzzles these teachers experienced, how their practice developed over 18 months, and my role as a Teacher of Teachers (TOT). Drawing on linguistic ethnography, this study took an ethnographic approach to understanding the teachers’ social context and used techniques from discourse analysis to consider how they interpreted their puzzles and constructed their practice. These techniques were also used to analyze my working relationship with the teachers. The purpose of this endeavor was to contribute to the understanding of novice teacher development in an ‘expanding circle’ country. Over the course of the study, I observed the teachers’ classes and interviewed them once or twice a month. Using the coding of interview transcripts and class fieldnotes, I identified Critical Incidents that represented the teachers’ pedagogical puzzles and typical practice, as well as my role as a TOT. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory(CHAT), I analyzed how elements of the social context brought about the teachers’ pedagogical puzzles and affected their capacity to address them. Coding of the interviews and a microanalysis of the interactions showed my role as a TOT. Overall, the CIs gave an emic portrait of each teacher’s experience and my efforts to support them. The pedagogical puzzles the teachers faced were a result of their personal histories and school conditions. These puzzles did not change, which indicates that teachers will face complex issues that cannot be resolved. Understanding them, however, can promote teacher development. Applying CHAT, I could identify the conditions that helped determine the types of pedagogy in which teachers engaged. I tried to fulfill my role as a TOT by conducting a form of reflective practice (RP). An examination of the RP I conducted with the teachers challenged the notion that it involves the sequential steps of identifying issues, attempting to resolve them, and reflecting on one’s efforts. This dissertation concludes with a discussion about the contributions it has made toward the field of English teacher development: using CHAT to understand the English teaching experiences, the development of an understanding of RP as it can be carried out in the field, an understanding of novice teachers in expanding circle countries, and the value of linguistic ethnography for researching novice teachers.