Integrating EIL in EFL Contexts

Integrating EIL in EFL Contexts

Integrating EIL in EFL Contexts

Introduction

The notion of English as an International Language (EIL) has become more and more popular. English Language Teaching (ELT) plays important roles as channels of transferring English to learners. One crucial issue to be discussed is what kind of English to be taught, regarding the emergence of new varieties of English. Therefore, this paper will explain the notion of EIL, ELT in Indonesian context, reasons of teaching EIL, followed by suggested activities to be integrated in one of EFL contexts, Indonesia, which can be adapted to different EFL teaching contexts.

Notion of EIL

According to Kachru (in Kachru and Nelson, 2001: 13), the circle model captures the global situation of English in the following way:In Inner Circle countries, English is the prominent first-language, for instance in Britain or America. Outer Circle countries; on the other hand, use English as the second language because of colonial contact, such as in Singapore and India. Here, English stands as a language of wide and important roles in education, governance, literary creativity, and popular culture. In Expanding Circle countries such as Indonesia and Japan, English does not receive special status but has various roles and is widely studied but for more specific purposes than in the outer circle, including (but certainly not limited to) reading knowledge for scientific and technical purposes.

Regarding the vast array of purposes in various contexts, English has become an International language, means thatEnglish is actually used and developed in the world; as a language owned by not only native speakers, but also all who use it; instead of being a prerogative property of certain groups of people (Pennycook, 1994, Boyle, 1997, McArthur, 1998, McKay, 2002 and Rajagopalan, 2004). Moreover, as a lingua franca of the past century and the new millenium, English is one of the most important means for acquiring access to the world's intellectual and technical resources. Bamgbose (2001) further adds that as English expansion has prospered in different countries around the world, it is inevitable that English has become more diverse. English Language Teaching (ELT) plays important roles as channels of transferring English to learners mainly in EFL contexts. One crucial issue to be discussed is what kind of English to be taught, regarding the emergence of new varieties of English. The following discussion will take Indonesian context as its example.

ELT in Indonesian Context

English expansion comes to Expanding Circle countries where English is not used officially or in daily life. One of the examples is Indonesia, a large archipelago with more than thirteen thousand islands with different spread of development. Most educational systems and institutions are mainly centralized to JavaIsland, the most densely populated island. In Java, however, English is a prerequisite for partaking in a huge number of activities, mainly for jobs. English is highly valued and more international schools and English courses are established (Mantiri, 2004).

The status of English as a foreign language has not changed since fifty years ago in Indonesia (Jazadi, 2004). In Indonesian educational system, English is a compulsory subject to be taught in all schools from lower secondary to upper secondary schools. Even in some elementary schools, English is offered as an elective subject. Most English exposure comes from television, the Internet and radio. There is very limited exposure to formal or academic English since only few English-written newspapers are available.

English is also widely used in business and education. In this globalization era, Indonesians do a lot of export and import business with foreigners from not only Western countries, but also China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Taiwan. Meanwhile, in education field, the demand of the use of English in schools is increasing. As a result, the establishment of international schools in Indonesia is booming. Parents competitively educate their children in these international schools and if necessary, send them to study in English speaking countries. The teachers teaching in these international schools are from various countries such as United Kingdom, America, Australia, Singapore, The Philippines, India, and China. Doing business with foreigners and the booming of international schools make Indonesians get more exposureof diverse English varieties.

However, only three English varieties are acknowledged in Indonesia: American, British, and Australian English, which are parts of inner circle countries. Nevertheless, due to the booming of international schools which come from Singapore, Singaporean English begins to be widely recognized. In addition, many companies hire professionals from other countries such as Philippines, India or other foreigners who use English as their language of communication. These countries are parts of outer circle countries. Some identified problems arise when these varieties of English are not fully comprehended not because of their poor English; rather, because Indonesians are not accustomed to them. This fact signifies the importance of introducing these other varieties of English. Here, ELT professionals play very important roles in achieving this. Literaturesand media from these countries (e.g. radio, newspapers) can be very helpful to portray how English is used intensively and extensively in their daily life.The following is more detailed advantages of teaching EIL.

Why teaching EIL:

  1. Encouraging ownership of language.

Based on the given definition about EIL, English belongs to all users of English in which EIL teaching will boost students’ sense of belonging toward English. In a way, it is in accordance with the globalization in which International English will serve this purpose of cultural neutrality. Furthermore, there is a growing tendency in many countries, in which English is used as a channel of expressing their own values and identity (Graddol, 1997 cited in Modiano, 2001: 341). English is used more practically for business, informal and educational purposes. The nativized versions of English writing, novels, and television, not to mention the hybrid mixing of languages in daily life, for instance, are few examples that they resist to adopt the Inner Circle English (Canagarajah, 1999: 42 and Rubdy, 2001). In this context, an effort to impose on English culture fails, mainly because they refuse to become native-like. They still want to be identified with their national identity. They do not want to be “westernized”. Thus, teaching EIL will support the desire to maintain their national identity when communicating with other speakers.

  1. Equipping students with the skills and strategies to cope with other varieties in order to communicate internationally.

English is massively used in the world with more L2 users than L1 users (Crystal, 1997 and Graddol, 2001). Thus, new varieties of English emerge; and they are gradually accepted because they bring mutual intelligibility and retain the distinctive identity of the users. Here, it must be noted that one goal of EIL teaching is to accommodate the diversity and bring mutual intelligibility since most speakers of EIL are not “foreign speakers of the language but the international speakers” (Jenkins, 2002 and McKays, 2002). Many people in Indonesia, for example, need to speak English to Chinese clients or Japanese colleagues. In other words, English is not used to the Inner Circle users. ELT cannot neglect or ignore this phenomenon. These new varieties of English should be identified, recognized and introduced to learners of English.Teaching EIL will enrich the students knowledge on English varieties which will also increase their familiarity on English varieties used all around the world. They are given chances to be exposed to these varieties. In addition, they will get more new vocabulary since there are several words cannot be found in the English dictionary wherein native tongue best expresses. By doing so, their intercultural knowledge will be broadened and communicative strategies such as guessing meaning from the context will be acquired.

Suggested Activities

Level: Pre-intermediate

Type of activity: Listening for details

Objective: Students can comprehend a short speech.

  1. Filling in the blank

And now of course six years have already passed. I have never told the story before. The friends who saw me again on my return were very happy to see me alive. I seem sad but I said to them it’s exhaustion. Now I’ve got over my loss a little which is to say not entirely but at least I know that he returned safely to his planet for a day break I could not find his body. It was not such a heavy body. And that night I love listening to the stars. They are like 500 million little bells. This to me was the saddest and the loveliest landscape in the world.

Level: Intermediate

Type of activity: Listening for comprehension and details

Objective: Students can comprehend a short speech.

  1. Short answer questions
  2. When did the story happen?
  3. How did the speaker’s friends feel when he returned?
  1. Summarize and retell the story

Possible Sources

  1. Play a dialogue of two businessmen, for example one from Taiwan and another from Singaporean. You can adapt this based on your situation.
  2. Listen to a radio with Singaporean or Jamaican news announcers.
  3. Play a movie clip from other varieties.

Level: Advanced

Type of activity: Grammar awareness.

Objectives: 1. Students can know Singaporean English Variety.

2. Students can analyze the differences between the Singaporean English and English or American English.

Read the following excerpt of conversation!

(CK, a boy of nearly 6, and his next door neighbour, whom he calls ‘Uncle’)

[N is at the door of the CK's' house]
CK: Uncle! Uncle get me my ball, I got big one for you.

N: Why?

CK: Inside the house.

N: Where's that big bicycle?

SK: Gone. [SK is CK's mother]

CK: Big bicycle taken away.

N: Taken away already.

CK: No. Because going Toa Payoh.

N: Going Toa Payoh. Oh oh. Then bicycle go first ah. OK you go with them.

CK: Don't mind hah. Know where also.

N: Ah.

CK: There my gra- my grandmoth- my my- My uncle also went.

N: Next time you grow up you take over the big one.

CK: Yeah. [N laughs]

CK: Then my mo- brother take over my one. [CK & N laugh] Yeah ah.

N: As soon as he take yours ah,you take your father's one. [N laughs]

Discuss the following questions!

  1. Which variety of English is used in the conversation?
  2. Where do you have interactions with the people who speak this English variety?
  3. What do you notice from the conversation above?
  4. What are some ways that this English variety differs from British or American English?

Conclusion

Globalization has been an active agent of the English spread all over the world which results in more diverse varieties of English.Hence, it is impossible to ignore the learners’ diversity in ELT. As long as the diversification does not cause unintelligibility, there is no need to impose on certain variety of English. ELT should be utilized to introduce EIL and to enrich the students’ familiarity towards EIL. In the case where “native- speaker minded” still flourishes, it might be difficult to integrate EIL in their teaching contexts but it is worth trying since other varieties of English have the same potential to be explored.

References

Bamgbose, A. (2001). World Englishes and Globalization. World Englishes 20(3), pp. 357-363.

Boyle, J. (1997). Native-speaker Teacher of English in Hong Kong. Language and Education, 11 (3), pp. 163-181.

Canagarajah, A.S. (1999). Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in English Teaching. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

Graddol, D. (2001). English in the Future. In Burns, A and C. Coffin (Eds), Analysing English in a Global Context (pp. 26-37). London: Routledge.

Jazadi, I. (2004). ELT in Indonesia in the Context of English as a Global Language. In B. Y. Cahyono and U. Widianti, The Tapestry of English Language Teaching in Indonesia(pp. 1-15). Malang: StateUniversity of Malang Press.

Jenkins, J. (2002). A Sociolinguistically Based, Empirically Research Pronunciation Syllabus for English as an International Language. Applied Linguistic 23 (1), pp.83-103.

Kachru, B. B and C. L. Nelson. (2001). World Englishes. In Burns, A and C. Coffin (Eds), Analysing English in a Global Context (pp. 9-25). London: Routledge.

Mantiri, O. (2004). Problematic Issues of ELT in Indonesia. In B. Y. Cahyono and U. Widianti, The Tapestry of English Language Teaching in Indonesia(pp. 29-35). Malang: StateUniversity of Malang Press.

McArthur, T. (1998). The English Languages. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.

McKays, S. (2002). Teaching English as an International Language. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press.

Modiano, M. (2001). Linguistic Imperialism, Cultural Integrity and EIL. ELT Journal 55/4: 339-346.

Pennycook, A. (1994). The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language. New York: Longman Group Limited.

Rajagopalan, K. (2004). The Concept of “World English” and its Implications for ELT. ELT Journal 58/2: 111-117.

Rubdy, R. (2001). Singapore’s Speak Good English Movement. World Englishes 20 (3), pp. 341-355.