What is your problem with English? Conversations (in and) about English as an international language at a UK university. Rachel Wicaksono.York St John University. The 14th Conference of the International Association of World Englishes, Hong Kong, 5 December 2008

1. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk Rachel Wicaksono Head of Programme MA TESOL York St. John University, UK The 14 th Conference of the International Association of World Englishes Hong Kong, 5 December 2008

2. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk What is your problem with English? Conversations (in and) about English as an international language at a UK university

3. York St John University library

4. Overseas students lack ‘the most basic language skills’ York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7358528.stm ‘ Degrees are being awarded to overseas students who speak almost no English, claims a whistleblowing academic.’ BBC News June 2008

5. The ‘gift’ of English: from us to you York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk Mr Brown was greeted by the Indian minister of state for commerce Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah visited an Indian women's project January 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7198546.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7198546.stm

6. No monolithic lexicon York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk background Speakers of all languages, “… have different vocabularies, depending on the communities they belong to (age, residence, job, hobby, religion, ethnicity, clubs, etc). What (expert) listeners understand changes with their community membership (and their role in the conversation).” (Clark 1997, 579 - 81)

7. Meaning as process 1 York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk background “… what multilingual communities have known all along: language learning and language use succeed through performance strategies, situational resources, and social negotiations in fluid communicative contexts. Proficiency is therefore practice-based, adaptive and emergent.” Canagarajah (2007: 923)

8. Meaning as process 2 York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk background “ [multilingual] speakers are able to monitor each other’s language proficiency to determine mutually the appropriate grammar, lexical range and pragmatic conventions that would ensure intelligibility.” (Canagarajah 2007: 925)

9. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk background “… native speakership is neither a privilege of birth nor of education, but “acceptance by the group that created the distinction between native and nonnative speakers”.” Braine (1999: xv), citing Kramsch (1997: 363) background Native speakership

11. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk background “ Research is also beginning to show how bad some native speakers are at using English for international communication. It may be that elements of an [English as a lingua franca] syllabus could usefully be taught within a mother tongue curriculum.” (Graddol 2006: 87) ELF and inherited EL?

12. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk 30 UK students on a ‘TESOL and Language Studies’ module, third year BA English Language and Linguistics. 20 International students on a ‘Communication Skills’ module, pre-undergraduate Foundation Programme. Interviewed (and recorded) each other and used the information to plan lessons (TESOL) or prepare a presentation/report on ‘English as an International Language ’ (Communication Skills). Task

13. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk 24 recorded semi-structured interviews submitted. 7 interviews (whole or part) were transcribed, using a code that captured aspects of the interaction. Data collection

14. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk analysis Conversation analysis. “… how the parties are embodying for one another the relevance of the interaction and are thereby producing the social structure. ” (italics in the original, Schegloff 1999: 113) Data analysis

15. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk analysis Listen to an extract from the data and read the transcript. Data analysis

19. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk implications “… it is not necessary to show how people develop vested interests in being different from one another… without such vested interests being created from one moment to the next, people usually develop metacommunicative procedures for altering their communicative codes in order to make sense of each other. When communicative differences become irremedial, it is because there are sound political or economic reasons for their being so.” (McDermott & Gospodinoff 1979: 277) Implications?

20. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk references Braine, G. (1999). Non-native educators in English language teaching . Mahwah, New Jersey: Erlbaum. Brown, G. (2008). English - The World's language. 2008 speeches. Available online at: http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page14289.asp [last accessed 6/6/08] Canagarajah, S. (2007). Lingua franca English, multilingual communities, and language acquisition. Modern Language Journal , 91(focus issue), 923-939. Clark, H. H. (1997). Dogmas of understanding. Discourse Processes , 23, 567-598. Clark, H. H. (2001). Conversation. In N. J. Smelser & P. B. Baltes (Eds.) International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences . London: Elsevier. Gargesh, R. (2006). South Asian Englishes. In B. B. Kachru, Y. Kachru & C. L. Nelson (Eds.) The handbook of world Englishes (Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics). Oxford: Blackwell. Graddol, D. (2006). English next . British Council. Available online at: http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-english-next.pdf [last accessed 6/6/08]. References

21. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk references Hall, C. J. (2005). An introduction to language and linguistics: breaking the language spell. London: Continuum. Jenkins, J (2007), English as a lingua franca: attitude and identity . Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kachru, B. B., Kachru, Y. & Nelson, C. L. (eds) (2006). The handbook of World Englishes . Oxford: Blackwell. Richards, K. (2007). Introduction. In K. Richards and P. Seedhouse (Eds.) Applying Conversation Analysis . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Schegloff, E. A. (1992). In another context. In A. Duranti and C. Goodwin (Eds.) Rethinking context: language as an interactive phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Schegloff, E. A. (1999). Talk and social structure. In A. Jaworski & N. Coupland (Eds.) The discourse reader . London: Routledge. References

22. York St John University | www.yorksj.ac.uk What kind of English do you speak? The construction and use of ideas about English as an international language