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Comments on Jennifer Jenkins’s “Implementing
an International Approach to English
Pronunciation: The Role of Teacher Attitudes
and Identity”
A Reader Responds
MITSUO KUBOTA
Kansai Gaidai University
Hirakata, Japan
■ In order to explore the feasibility of an English as a lingua franca
(ELF) approach, Jenkins (2005) examined the role of nonnative-
English-speaking (NNES1) teachers’ attitudes and identity toward
English accents by interviewing eight NNES teachers from the expand-
ing circle. The study, based on the actual voices of the participants,
illustrated the NNES teachers’ adherence to acquiring so called native-
English-speaker (NES) accents because of their attitudes toward NES
accents—considering them to be appropriate targets. The study also
showed that the participants’ struggles led them to realize that their
accents are part of themselves and therefore should not be devalued.
1
Jenkins uses the terms NS (native speaker) and NNS (nonnative speaker) without refer-
encing a language. The use of these terms is problematic because this unmarked usage
requires marked versions when discussing other languages, thereby making English the
norm to which other languages are compared.
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2. I was in sympathy with the participants because their experiences echo
my own, having been a learner and teacher of English in both the
expanding and inner circles. However, I found Jenkins’ underlying
assumptions problematic because they fail to consider the sociopoliti-
cal/historical context, in a way parallel to an ideology of Othering
(Kumaravadivelu, 2003; Palfreyman, 2005; Pennycook, 1998, 2001)
which marginalizes and stereotypes NNESs as one group in contrast
to Self. In this brief article, I isolate Jenkins’s problematic assumptions
toward identity, attitude, and teaching ELF shaped by Othering ideology
hoping that it will provide insights for future research on pronuncia-
tion in relation to identity. Nevertheless, I recognize that my interpre-
tations are also driven by my assumptions; thus, they are subject to
challenge as well.
ASSUMPTION 1: OTHER WANTS TO ACQUIRE
NES ACCENTS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO IDENTIFY
WITH SELF
I found problematic Jenkins’s assumption regarding identity, which
directly equates a desire to sound like an NES with a desire to identify
with NESs. Jenkins, quoting Norton (2000), highlights the learners’
understanding of their future possibilities as an important aspect of
identity in language learning. In addition, the list of questions in the
interview prompts (p. 543) focuses on NNES teachers’ perceptions and
attitudes toward teaching pronunciation and their own and NESs’
accents, with one question asking about bad experiences regarding
their accents2 that Jenkins used to reason about the participants’ atti-
tudes. This procedure suggests that Jenkins assumes the learners’
desire to identify with an NES group is influenced by past experiences
and awareness of future possibilities, which results in their attempting
to approximate their accent to one of the NESs. I, as an NNES teacher,
would like to point out that the desire to acquire NES accent among
learners in the expanding circle as well as sojourners in the inner cir-
cle oftentimes is devoid of a desire to identify with NESs. Based on
my experience, many NNES teachers studying in the inner circle are
privileged members at home, and oftentimes intend to go back to
their homeland after their study. They do not necessarily wish to par-
ticipate as a member in the inner circle community. Looking back on
2
Jenkins only asked NNES teachers about bad experiences caused by their accent, instead
of posing the question more neutrally.
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3. my own learning experience, the attempt to approximate my own
accent to a particular NES group did not always coincide with an
attempt to become a member of the group. The participants in
Jenkins’s study also perceived their hypothetical ability to produce
native-like accents as “a good command of the language,” “to sound
as much as the model,” and “linguistic ability to pick up accents and
reproduce them” (p. 538); it is important that none of these com-
ments suggest that they perceived NES accents as markers for identify
with a NES group. Given that the participants’ current or future pro-
fession is English teaching, it is natural that they wish to acquire an
NES accent to model as a target. The participants’ voices as well as
my own learning experience led me to infer that NNES teachers feel
they need to acquire an NES accent to be identified as a good learner
and a capable teacher of English, which is not equivalent to identifica-
tion with NESs.
ASSUMPTION 2: OTHER SHARES THE SAME
CONCEPT TOWARD DESIRABLE ACCENTS AND
NES ACCENTS AS SELF
It appears that the collected data are interpreted solely based on
Jenkins’s etic point of view, as if she and the participants share an
identical view or concept toward NES and favorable accents.
It is evident that Jenkins interpreted her data assuming that NNES
teachers would find their accents favorable if they think it is close to
NES accents. This assumption led Jenkins to conclude that the four
participants who liked their accent despite their inability to sound like
an NES were contradictory, whereas she concluded that the other four
participants who did not like their accent because they did not think
it sounded like an NES accent were consistent. I found this assumption
simplistic, and it echoes what I see as a common, fallacious NES
belief—that NNESs are trying to emulate them, when in fact they may
be trying to emulate successful NNES teachers’ and learners’ accents
and pronunciation.3 I believe that the ideal and favorable accents for
experienced learners, such as Jenkins’s participants, are constructed
through complex negotiations while these learners are exposed to
both NESs and NNESs.
3
Some might argue that these NNES accents are to some degree influenced by those of
NESs, but they still are negotiated products between an idealized target and their
identities.
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4. Additionally, I wondered to what extent all the participants, includ-
ing the researcher, agree with the concept of NS. I suspect a discrep-
ancy regarding the concept may have led to Jenkins’s interpretation
of the participants’ attitudes as being contradictory. It has been pointed
out that defining NS is a very complex matter (e.g., Davies, 1991;
Kachru & Nelson, 1996; Paikeday, 1985; Phillipson, 1992; Rampton,
1990), yet it appears that the term NS was used uncritically without
questioning the possibility of discrepant interpretations among the
participants. Jenkins summarized NNES teachers’ perceptions for NES
accents as “‘good,’ ‘perfect,’ ‘correct,’ ‘proficient,’ ‘competent,’ ‘flu-
ent,’ ‘real,’ and ‘original English’” (p. 541). These comments suggest
that the participants hold diverse notions about NES accents, ranging
from a hypothesized ideal speaker to an image more closely tied to
an actual speaker. I believe that the participants’ attitudes toward NES
accents varied depending on the type of NES they were thinking
about. Thus, the interpretation of the data requires clarification of the
NS concept.
ASSUMPTION 3: SELF CAN PROVIDE OTHER WITH
A PREFABRICATED ELF IDENTITY
It appears the underlying assumption that led Jenkins to conduct
the study is that NNESs could take on a prefabricated ELF identity “as
members of an international English-speaking community” (p. 535) if
their attitudes and identities are well understood. As many studies have
demonstrated, language learners develop their identity with consider-
able negotiations while being exposed to various speakers (e.g.,
Kramsch, 1991; McKay & Wong, 1996; Norton, 1997; Ochs, 1993;
Peirce, 1995). In other words, Englishes that NNESs use are the prod-
ucts of constant reshaping while testing intelligibility and negotiating
their identities rather than something provided by NESs. I believe
Jenkins’s introduction of ELF was motivated by a desire to empower
NNESs; nevertheless, I could not stop myself from seeing her attempt
to design a pedagogical intervention by providing learners with a
“learnable” or “teachable” target as keeping them in a powerless posi-
tion, which resonates with the colonial practice pointed out by
Kumaravadivelu (2003)—trying to provide the colonized with English
that is just good enough for the colonizers without changing the status
quo of English.
As Jenkins is also aware, one of the factors that makes many NNES
teachers reluctant to take on the ELF identity is that ELF is seen as
a compromised target. For example, one participant commented that
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5. she “would teach it, but only because she regarded native-like pro-
nunciation as beyond her students’ abilities” (p. 540). It may be pos-
sible for learners to compromise if language is used solely for
exchanging messages. However, language is also a means to express
identity, and it is extremely difficult for learners to compromise their
identity.
The largest drawback of ELF as a means of expressing one’s identity
is that the proposed ELF is a theorized pronunciation model that lacks
NSs. There is no NS of ELF available as a model for learning. I believe
that Jenkins herself recognizes that learning pronunciation is closely
tied to learners’ identity, leading her to conduct the current study.
However, I would ask how can learners identify with a model that does
not have identifiable users? How many NESs are willing to identify with
ELF identity as members of an international English-speaking com-
munity? And is ELF for NESs as well, or only for NNESs to facilitate
their participation in global communication? Jenkins states that “it
seems likely that ELF pronunciation will only be taken up if teachers
themselves ultimately see an ELF identity as providing their students
with accents which will enhance rather than damage their future social
and economic prospects internationally” (p. 542). It may be possible
that the implementation of the ELF approach would gradually produce
ELF users, and those users’ productions would someday be perceived
as a socially and economically powerful model in the international
community. However, if this is the goal, TESOL professionals need to
critically examine the underlying motivation for making ELF a desira-
ble model for NNESs.
THE AUTHOR
Mitsuo Kubota is an associate professor in the Foreign Language Department at
Kansai Gaidai University, Hirakata, Japan, where he teaches sociolinguistics and gen-
eral English courses. He is currently conducting research in an English classroom in
a Japanese university context focusing on students’ construction, negotiation, and
presentation of foreign language identities.
REFERENCES
Davies, A. (1991). The native speaker in applied linguistics. Edinburgh, Scotland:
Edinburgh University Press.
Jenkins, J. (2005). Implementing an international approach to English pro-
nunciation: The role of teacher attitudes and identity. TESOL Quarterly, 39,
535–543.
Kachru, B. B., & Nelson, C. L. (1996). World Englishes. In S. L. McKay & N. H.
Hornberger (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language teaching (pp. 71–102). Cambridge,
England: Cambridge University Press.
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