Which/whose English to teach?

From Sergei

My students often ask me what kind of English I teach – British or American and I’m always at a loss. I often ask myself what accent I have and is it really important to put a stress on ‘decent’ pronunciation? I often ask myself if I have to teach all aspects of English grammar, especially after I watch CNN and the only grammar structure I hear are Present / Past Simple and Present Perfect.

This was my forth visit to the UK. Last time was in 2004. Actually, that was the time when I started thinking about what kind of English I teach and what is more important accuracy and sophistication of language or just fluency, sufficient vocabulary and good receptive skills? In 2004 I lived in the immigrant neighborhood. There were people from Iran, Pakistan, Poland, Lithuania and the only language they could speak was English. That also was the first time I got acquainted with northern accent when somebody asked me “Are you RUssian?” You understand what I mean J

I think this visit helped me to decide on the way I teach. I have never paid much attention to pronunciation unless the students pronounce the words more or less correct and I have never tried to reach a perfect British pronunciation. Hope, I never will. On this course I noticed how lenient you all were with the awful mistakes I made so I’m starting to think that grammatical accuracy is not important to be understood, unless you are preparing for the English exam J

I was always furious with the ELT authors who put such things as: GCSE, boarding school, ASBO, etc. on the tests and texts. English has become international and students in the other countries do not have to be aware of your local things. J Sorry, Helen. So, in my teaching I will continue to emphasize that English is an international language and the learners should speak simple, fluent and understandable English.


From Tanya

For me it was great to listen to 25 non-native speakers talking English in their unique way. A harmonious polyphony…This is what some experts call ‘lingua franca’ in action, for a meaningful purpose. Whether we choose this or that variety of English to speak or teach is really a matter of personal choice and preference as long as we understand each other in a good way. The modern speaker of English is indeed, or at least should be the intercultural speaker in his/her own right – like me, like Luis, like Rania or Kristie, like Helen and Hai Ling – culturally diverse and unique. We use the same language but in our culturally unique ways. I wish the course had provided space for a discussion about how we see the future of ELT in this changing reality of interactions via English which are more likely to happen between non-native speakers of English(like our Lancaster experience). What are the methodological and cultural implications for us as teachers of English?