Welcome to a deep dive into "World Englishes and Decolonial ELT," a crucial topic for anyone studying or teaching English today. This article will explore why rethinking our approach to English language teaching is essential, challenging traditional ideas about what constitutes "correct" English and advocating for more inclusive, culturally sensitive educational practices.
Understanding World Englishes and Decolonial ELT
"World Englishes" refers to the diverse varieties of English that have evolved globally, adapting to different cultural and social contexts. By the 1980s, scholars like Kachru (1985, 1992) highlighted this plurality, emphasizing that these Englishes represent unique linguistic, cultural, and pragmatic realities. This recognition suggests that a "one size fits all" approach to English teaching, often defaulting to inner circle English, is no longer effective or beneficial for students.
The Problem with Standard Language Ideology
The idea that a standard variety of a language is inherently more "correct," "intelligible," or "appropriate" for formal settings is known as Standard Language ideology. This ideology often fixes a specific variety as a benchmark, typically British or American English, inadvertently devaluing other regional, national, or global Englishes. This can lead to linguistic discrimination, placing those who don't speak these standard varieties at a disadvantage in academic and professional environments.
Our insistence on correcting students' English based on native-speaker standardized models, especially when they are adapting the language to express their identities and backgrounds, can be seen as a form of linguistic discrimination.
Decolonising English Language Teaching
Decolonising English Language Teaching (ELT) involves actively identifying, making visible, and undoing the systems, practices, and structures that perpetuate unequal and hierarchical dynamics within language education. This means challenging the colonializing ideologies that have historically informed ELT curricula, leading to unjustified inequality, frustration, and exclusion.
From Colonialism to Decoloniality
To decolonise ELT, it's vital to understand these concepts:
- Colonialism: Refers to the historical period where European countries directly occupied and exploited other territories, often deeming indigenous customs and languages as inferior. While said to have "ended" in the late 1900s, its legacy persists.
- Coloniality: Describes the ongoing, persistent unequal relations of power, knowledge production, race, and participation that can be traced back to colonialism but operate in the present. This includes subtle biases in language education.
- Decoloniality: An active process that urges us to dismantle these persistent unequal dynamics. In ELT, this means scrutinizing whether our perspectives on language reinforce hierarchies of "superior" or "inferior" languages, "correct" or "incorrect" ways of speaking, and "competent" or "incompetent" speakers.
Moving beyond the native speaker as the sole model is a core tenet of decolonial ELT. Instead, the focus shifts to encouraging intelligibility among speakers, recognizing that proficiency in an inner circle variety is not the only valid goal.
The Importance of Intercultural Competence in ELT
Developing intercultural competence is crucial for navigating the complexities of World Englishes. It's not just about linguistic proficiency; it's about understanding and interacting with people as complex human beings with multiple identities.
Key Components of Intercultural Competence
Intercultural competence involves:
- Intercultural Attitudes: Cultivating curiosity, openness, and a readiness to suspend disbelief about other cultures while also questioning assumptions about one's own. This means being willing to relativise one's values and beliefs and to "decentre" – seeing things from an outsider's perspective.
- Knowledge: Not just knowledge about a specific culture, but understanding how social groups and identities function in general. This includes knowledge of social processes and how one might be perceived by others, as well as some knowledge about other people and their varied social identities.
- Skills: The ability to acquire new knowledge of cultures (skills of discovery and interaction), and to interpret documents or events from another culture, explaining and relating them to one's own (skills of interpreting and relating). This also involves knowing how to resolve misunderstandings.
- Critical Cultural Awareness: The ability to evaluate perspectives, practices, and products in one's own and other cultures based on explicit criteria. The goal is not to change learners' values, but to make them conscious and explicit in any evaluative response, promoting respect for human dignity and equality.
It's important to remember that intercultural competence is an ongoing process, never complete or perfect. There is no perfect "model" to imitate, nor should learners be expected to acquire the social identity of a native speaker. The foundation lies in attitudes of openness and curiosity.
Navigating Linguistic Diversity in the English Classroom
The classroom is a key space for promoting linguistic diversity and intercultural understanding. Teachers play a pivotal role in shaping learners' perspectives.
Critiquing ELT Materials and Curricula
Educational materials and curricula are as important as teacher and student discourses. We must critically analyze them by asking:
- Whose culture and language models are predominantly presented, marginalized, or ignored?
- Whose knowledges and ways of life are presented as desirable or "modern," and which are dismissed?
- What effects do these representations have on the learning process?
Many mass-produced English textbooks historically lack diversity, often focusing exclusively on topics and figures from Anglophone countries (USA, UK) or presenting cultures in homogenizing ways that lead to harmful stereotypes. This can make materials feel distant, demotivating, and even alienating for students whose everyday lives and interests are not represented.
Promoting Local Relevance and Critical Skills
To counter this, teachers and students can modify tasks to promote locally relevant activities. Some textbooks are now locally produced with the intention of including familiar places, topics, and cultural practices (e.g., in Saudi Arabia, Chile, Colombia).
Furthermore, ELT should teach critical skills to:
- Recognize and deal with power imbalances in English use.
- Negotiate meaning and dynamic identities.
- Reduce linguistic and cultural discrimination.
- Promote empowerment and social justice.
The Role of the Intercultural Teacher
The "best" teacher in this context is neither exclusively a native nor a non-native speaker, but rather someone who can help learners see relationships between their own and other cultures. This involves fostering interest and curiosity about "otherness" and encouraging self-awareness from diverse perspectives.
Teachers should develop learners' linguistic competence (grammar, appropriate language) alongside their intercultural competence. This means enabling students to understand and accept people from other cultures as individuals with distinct perspectives, values, and behaviors, viewing such interactions as enriching experiences.
Teachers do not need to be the sole source of cultural information; they can acquire knowledge alongside their learners and focus heavily on developing skills and attitudes. The skills of comparison, interpreting, relating, and discovery are crucial for both teachers and students.
World Englishes in Practice: Examples of Diversity
English is an organic, ever-changing language that cannot be pinned down to a singular variety. Its plurality is evident even between well-known varieties like British English and American English, extending to others like Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian Englishes.
Differences can be significant across:
- Spelling: Canadian English combines American and British influences (e.g., "tire centre").
- Vocabulary: "Aubergine" (British) vs. "eggplant" (American, Australian, New Zealand); "courgette" (British) vs. "zucchini" (American).
- Pronunciation/Accent: Significant differences that can even lead to misunderstandings (e.g., "today" vs. "to die" in Australian English).
- Grammar: American usage of "I had gotten" versus British English "I had got."
Recognizing these variations is key to equipping learners to navigate the "real world of English use," where they will be exposed to a wide range of usages and speakers who do not conform to traditional, unrepresentative standards.
Frequently Asked Questions about Decolonial ELT
What is World Englishes in ELT?
World Englishes in ELT refers to the approach of recognizing and incorporating the diverse varieties of English spoken globally into English language teaching. It moves away from focusing solely on "standard" British or American English, preparing students to communicate effectively with speakers from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Why is standard language ideology problematic?
Standard language ideology is problematic because it artificially fixes one variety of English as superior, leading to linguistic discrimination against other varieties. It can disadvantage learners whose natural way of speaking differs from the imposed standard, fostering inequality and potentially stifling their ability to express their own identities.
What is intercultural competence in language learning?
Intercultural competence in language learning is the ability to understand and interact effectively with people from different social identities and cultural backgrounds. It involves developing attitudes of curiosity and openness, acquiring knowledge about social groups, and possessing skills to interpret, relate, and discover new cultural information, all while maintaining critical cultural awareness.
How can ELT materials be decolonised?
ELT materials can be decolonised by critically analyzing whose cultures and languages are represented or ignored, challenging stereotypes, and ensuring local relevance. This means incorporating diverse global and local perspectives, topics, and figures, and giving students the tools to analyze and critique power imbalances embedded in language and culture.
What is the difference between colonialism and coloniality?
Colonialism refers to the historical period of direct political and geographical occupation by European powers. Coloniality, on the other hand, describes the persistent, unequal power relations, knowledge production, and social hierarchies that continue to operate in the present, even after the formal end of colonialism. Decoloniality is the active process of undoing these ongoing structures.