Whose English are you speaking? Whose English will you teach?

As students (or former students) of language teacher education departments in Turkey, you were advised and expected to have native-like competency in English and took many courses covering accuracy-oriented skills (i.e. phonetics and phonology). Although we cannot reject the fact that a heightened awareness in sound system of the language you are learning is essential, did you have a specific target language in mind? Whose language were you advised to learn (British, American, Australian etc.), and whose language were you advised to teach?

Recent research shows that among millions of people who are communicating in English in the world, native speakers of English are the minority compared to those who speak English as an additional language. Besides, there are thousands or millions of people among the native speakers of English, who are raised bilingual or multilingual. Keeping this in mind, how can someone expect you to speak native-like English? Does English belong to a specific nation, or to a geographical area? Who does it belong to? Does it belong to the British, or to the Americans? In today’s world, it both does not belong to anyone, and belongs to everyone!

Suppose that you are an Erasmus student in France and you are talking to a Spanish student. What do you think will determine the success of this communicative practice? Is it native-like speaking, or is it mutual intelligibility? It should be kept in mind that what determines success in an intercultural interaction is the degree to which participants achieve certain goals through conversational practice. Therefore, mutual intelligibility should be taken as the criteria in such encounters rather than accuracy in British or American-like pronunciation.

This idea, of course, can be challenged considering the pedagogical goals of the institutions. Institutions follow curricula, and the teachers follow syllabi. Therefore, course books and predetermined teaching materials generally shape the teaching and learning practices considering whose English it is which is being taught. Yet, an accomplished language teacher should be flexible enough to introduce varieties of English rather than a specific standard form. What is more, what comes as an additional challenge to the previously discussed phenomenon is the need for standardization in teaching. Nevertheless, it is the case that teaching variation is not an obstacle for standardisation.

Any language user is well-equipped to understand that language is for COMMUNICATION. Before deciding whose language to learn and to teach, we should be well aware of the fact that it is the mutual intelligibility that enhances successful communication, be it in your first language or in an additional language. Turkey’s being a dominantly monolingual society with little or no practical use of English generally leads us to the belief that English belongs to the British or to the Americans. However, one should never neglect that English is a lingua franca, through which hundreds of nations communicate and trade with one another!

Using the discussions above, please share your ideas with your friends using the comment link below. Whose English are you speaking? Whose English will you teach? Do you think speaking English with Arabic, Italian, Spanish, Turkish etc. accent is embarrassing? Do you think your roles as a speaker and as a teacher differ in how you speak, both in and out of the classroom? Your questions, comments and critique are welcome.

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