Toward an appropriate EIL pedagogy: re‐examining common ELT assumptions

Abstract

This article argues that the teaching of English as an international language (EIL) should be based on an entirely different set of assumptions than has typically informed English language teaching (ELT) pedagogy. To begin, several defining features of an international language are described. Because these features have altered the nature of English itself, the author maintains that the pedagogy for teaching English must also change. The author then describes how two developments -a dramatic increase in the number of second language speakers of English and a shift in the cultural basis of English -have significantly altered the nature of English. These changes challenge several common assumptions of ELT pedagogy, namely that: interest in learning of English is largely the result of linguistic imperialism; ELT research and pedagogy should be informed by native speaker models; the cultural content for ELT should be derived from the cultures of native English speakers; the culture of learning that informs communicative language teaching (CLT) provides the most productive method for ELT. The article ends by positing major assumptions that should inform a comprehensive theory of EIL pedagogy.

Indonesian Tertiary Students’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Local Culture vs Target Culture Reading Materials in English Reading Class

“…This is in line with what has been suggested by McKay (2003aMcKay ( , 2003b that teaching and learning EIL should be different from teaching and learning of any other second or foreign languages. What is needed, then, is a paradigm shift (McKay, 2003b, Sharifian, 2009).…”

“…It is widely accepted fact that today English is a global lingua franca (ELF) and has become an international language (EIL) (Crystal, 1997;McKay, 2003aMcKay, , 2003bSeidlhofer, 2004, 2005, and Sharifian, 2009. English has achieved this status because it is not only used among people from English speaking countries, but also used and spoken by a large numbers of people whom English is not their mother tongue.…”

Indigenous Culture and Academic Discourse: A Critique of English Textbooks in Pakistan

“…The reason behind this is not the rapid increase in native speakers but the growth in the number of non-native speakers who are of the view that learning of it (English) as an additional language will be beneficial for them (McKay, 2003). Graddol (1999, p.62) has well before predicted about the decline in the native speakers of English in the coming fifty years.…”

The Slaughter of Kachru’s Five Sacred Cows in Brazil: Affordances of the Use of English as an International Language

“…Much has been said about the spread of English and its implications (e.g., Cain, 2008;Graddol, 2006;Jenkins, 2006;McKay, 2003) in a world where non-native speakers of English are said to outnumber www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/selt Studies in English Language Teaching Vol. 2, No.…”

“…Although some efforts have been made in this direction in the applied linguistics literature worldwide (e.g., Kachru, 1996;Rajagopalan, 2010) and in Brazil (e.g., Finardi & Ferrari, 2008;Zaidan, 2013), the transfer of this reflection to English language teaching, use and policies in Brazil (e.g., Finardi & Ferrari, 2008;Finardi & Prebianca, in press) and elsewhere (Bhatt, 2001;Cain, 2008;Jenkins, 2006;Kachru, 1996;McKay, 2003;Seidlhofer, 2001) falls short of its expectations.…”