FACULTY OF ARTS AND LANGUAGES SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF MODERN FOREIGN LANGUAGES LTE 1004 Dimenses polticas do ensino

de lngua inglesa Semester 1, 2013 Encontro de 18.04.2013 Laura Bagnara

SCHMITZ, J.R. To ELF or not to ELF? (English as a Lngua Franca): Thats THE QUESTION FOR Applied Linguistics in a globalized world. RBLA, Belo Horizonte, v. 12, n. 2, 2012. p. 249-284.

1.Why should Europeans, Africans, Orientals or Latin Americans be made to feel that they are not real speakers of English unless they speak with a British or American accent and conform to grammar rules that even educated native speakers tend not to obey? According to the text, language spread throughout the world and that there are now more nonnative speakers of English than native ones (p. 252). Nowadays, English is a global language, the most used language in the world. In this sense, the majority of English speakers are from the outer or the expanding circles and, since they use language for different purposes and in different situations it has changed along the years. These changes are normal as language belongs to who uses it and consequently language is adaptable. The point is that the inner circle countries do not accept this adaptation of English language according to the context needs where the language is used. They struggle to maintain an imposition of rules and accent defending that who does not follow these normative rules are not able to use English properly. In my opinion, this is more than a conservative position which would maintain the bond between native and non-native speakers avoiding to suffer interference in their language. In fact, the inner circle countries want to maintain their hegemony and defending a normative language the countries in the inner circle are avoiding a loss of power and prestige (p. 276-277) Thus, Europeans, Africans, Orientals and Latin Americans are made to feel that they are not real speakers of English because they do not belong to the inner circle. And, maybe, sometimes, these nonnative speakers force themselves to develop a native accent (is near to

the accent produced by people who belong to the inner circle) in order to e accepted as native too. 2.Some applied linguists may view AL as being apolitical, but this is not the case for language teaching and language testing are political issues with social, economic and cultural implications in a globalized world.After reading this passage, what is your opinion about the political issues and which applied linguistic group do you fit? 3.Now that you might be aware about these political issues, what would you say about the relation between EL, power and ELF here in Brazil/UFSM/English courses? In my point of view teaching English is more than differentiating and teaching what is right and what is wrong in the language. Teaching English involves context situations, purposes, adequateness sense, and cultural values, that is, teaching English involves models. These models, according to Jenkins (SCHMITZ, 2012, p. 270 apud JENKINS 1998, p. 124), are points of guidance and, so, English teacher are supposed to make decisions of

approximate students more or less of a model according to the specific situation of teaching and learning process. In this sense, I believe the role of an English teacher is to show some cultures differences of English speaking countries, rather than follow a sense of correctness. And this is why I agree with the author when he states that that teaching English always involve political issue (p. 269-270), once making decisions is, indirectly, choose political positions. As an English teacher I try to show my students these cultural varieties emphasizing that English language is not just Britain and America. When they ask me the correct way to pronounce a specific word I always try to break the notion of correctness to introduce a sense of adequateness. Normally I stress the ubiquity of English in the world to explain that there is a variety of pronunciations, rhythms, intonations in this language showing them that nowadays to speak in terms of correct pronunciation as being the pronunciation of a native speaker does not make sense. Moreover, I seek to teach English as a global language which belongs to everyone. However this is not the reality of English courses and even of schools in Santa Maria. In these specific contexts, the use of the English language in different contexts is not the focus; the focus is on norms and, mainly, the way native speakers use English. On the other hand, at UFSM language course the focus in on literacy. That is, the focus is on make students aware of teaching language variations, possibilities, cultural/contextual differences, stressing the importance of analyzing the context of situation in which language is being used, who is involved in this situation, what are the intentions between the lines of a text. In this sense, our university is forming new teachers that can teach ELF aware of the role power and politics play in it.