The Era of Pragmatic International English

International English Revisited

EFL and Teacher Education IS InterSection

TESOL International Convention
Examining the E in TESOL
New Orleans, LA March, 2011

Dr. Jeremy Sykes, National Taiwan University of Science and
Technology
The Era of Pragmatic International English
1. The scale of expansion of pragmatic
international English
2. Many different perspectives on the spread
of English globally.
3. What is Pragmatic International English?
4. What is happening (and not happening)
in Taiwan.


The Era of Pragmatic International English

1. The scale of expansion of
pragmatic international
English

human global network of people
participating in free markets has expanded
from 800 million people five years ago, to 3
billion people now: half the population of the
planet.
The International Research Foundation for
English Language Education

President of TIRF, Reece Duca said that
the threshold of expectation is going up.
There is and will be a huge growth in the need
for local knowledge workers who have three
critical skills: the knowledge of their domain
of expertise, their ability to solve problems,
and their ability to communicate in English.
The International Research Foundation for English
Language Education


In this expanding economic battle ground,
there is no doubt that the global winners will
be those which have work forces which can
employ the English language efficiently.
The International Research Foundation for
English Language Education
From 1950 to 2000 most international business
was organized using local regional offices, where
local languages dominated.
Advent of global communication browsers like
Google
The importance of English for basic
communicative purposes in business has
exploded.
Even at the local level, employees find
themselves needing to use functional business
English.

The International Research Foundation for English
Language Education

The Era of Pragmatic International English
2. Many different perspectives
on the spread of English
globally.
Why global English may mean the end of
English as a Foreign Language

English as an
International
Language
A Global Response to Global English
Graddol:
English learners are getting younger.
Across the world, from Chile to
Mongolia, from China to Portugal,
English is being introduced in primary
schools, with greater compulsion, and at
steadily lowering ages (p.88).
Globish: Robert McCrum
According to the British Council, one third of the
worlds population will all be trying to learn English at
the same time (p.276).

Microsoft + Dow Jones = Globish (p.281)

In a Globish world, everyone has access to an
unlimited supply of data which floats, detached from
all cultural anchors, in the infinite reservoir of
cyberspace (p.286).

Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an
international language. New York: Oxford University
Press. *
Llurda, E. (2004). Non-native-speaker teachers and
English as an international language. International
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14(3), 314-323.
Seidlhofer, B. (2004). Research perspectives on
teaching English as a lingua franca. Annual Review of
Applied Linguistics, 24, 209-239
McKay, S. (2003). Toward an appropriate EIL pedagogy:
Re-examining common ELT assumptions. International
Journal of Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 1-22.



Research in the Realm of International
English



Larry Smith (Smith, 1988; Smith and Nelson, 1985; Smith and Rafiqzad, 1983)
proposes:

1. Intelligibility: word level recognition in context

2. Comprehensibility: assign accurate referential meaning:

Non-Koundanya well qualified prospective bridegroom for
graduate Iyangar girl..Mirugaservsham No dosham..Average
complexion. Reply with horoscope. Madras The Hindu

3. Interpretability: apprehension of intent, purpose, and meaning behind an
utterance.


English Standards for Non-Native Speaker to
Non-Native Speaker of International English
EDMOND H. WEISS


I will never do anything
consciously that damages the
power and precision of the
English language which I regard
as a priceless legacy



1.
Diane Larsen-Freeman: Research on the Grammar of Discourse

2.
Marianne Celce-Murcia
And
Elite Olshtain

Discourse and Context
in Language Teaching

Cambridge University Press 2007
A New Approach to Second Language
Acquisition
The Era of Pragmatic International English

3. What is Pragmatic
International English?
1950 to 2005:
most international business was organized using local
regional offices, where local languages dominated.
2005 to ~:
Arrival of global communication browsers like Google
The importance of English for basic communicative purposes
in business has exploded.
Even at the local level, employees find themselves needing to
use
Functional business English
Functional Business Language?
Functional Business English in the
International Context
1. This is the English needed to explain ideas,
communicate requests, convey information,
and express needs.
2. It is a pragmatic English stripped largely
stripped of Anglo-American similes and
metaphors.
3. It is the practical language needed in report
writing, e-mails, text messaging, and Skype.


Clear communication in a second language involves gaining
progressive control over the systems of options in the
new language

The smaller the number of meaning distinctions a learner
controls, the more dependent on context his or her
language is likely to be, both in terms of understanding
and in terms of being understood. (Lock, 2005)

The Issue of Grammar in EIL
Marianne Celce-Murcia identified four particular
"discourse framing" patterns for discussion: one
which sets up further elaboration; one which
builds to a climax; one which sets up discussion;
and one which relates episodes to one another.
These patterns of grammar "set up discourse".

Many such patterns exist, and can be included in a
communicative English language curriculum.
The Grammar of Discourse
Students are taught structures in writing
and spoken presentation so that they can
use these structures to accomplish
particular purposes in active
communicative engagement with others
Discourse Structures
Use of wh-questions to obtain different kinds of
information.
Use of different moods and modalities to show
the speakers relationship to addressee,
strength of the request, nature of the service
requested.
Use of Referrers to refer to entities not
immediately obvious from the context.
Use of various forms of thematic organization
(e.g. passive voice and clefts) to foreground and
background information. (Lock, 2005)
Gaining Control of Meaning

The Era of Pragmatic International English



4. What is happening
(and not happening)
in Taiwan.

2007~08 Graduate for
Secondary Education & Higher Education
Offered
Degree
Type
Secondary
Education
Associate Bachelor Master Ph.D.
Total
Count
Graduated 269,431 43,803 228,645 49,976 2,850 594,705
Source: Department of Household Registration,
Ministry of Education
594,705
88% of High school graduates went on to college & University
31% of University graduates went on to graduate school
272,448 52,826
Birth rate is on the decline
Inability to Communicate in English
The problem is that most young
Taiwanese students who go on to
college and then into the world of work,
are not able to communicate with
others in spoken English, despite all the
years of English language instruction
which they have received.
World Interaction in English
The upcoming generations of Taiwanese students
will increasingly find that they need
to be able to speak functional International English,
so that they can engage with the Global English
world around them.

If they are unable to raise to the challenge, Taiwans
competitiveness in the world economy, and its
future as an independent economy, will suffer.


University Sponsored Initiatives
National Taiwan University of Science and
Technology

* All students must take courses in
communicative English to graduate.
* Language Professors are encouraged to use
innovative teaching and assessment methods.
New Post Secondary Initiatives
in Second Language Instruction
A QUESTION OF
PHILOSOPHY:

Should we teach
language as a
prerequisite to
using it?

OR

Learn it through
communicative
activity?

1. What is our philosophy of language learning?
How does language develop?
1. Language is not acquired well by
attempting to learn a series of set
language parts by accumulation.

2. Learners actually construct a series
of systems, known as interlanguages
which are gradually grammaticized
and restructured as learners
incorporate new features.
Ellis (2009)

How do you learn to converse?
If students are to
develop stronger
grammatical control
over their expressive
language, and
incorporate new
vocabulary, they have
to first exercise their
interlanguage.
It is pointless to wait for
students to acquire
proper structures
first before offering
them opportunities to
converse.

Pedagogical Principle One for Communicative
Language Learning: Create a Communicative Context
1. Communicative language skills can only be learned in an
environment where active communication is taking place all
the time.
Teachers should strive to create lesson plans where students
spend at least 50% of their class time in active
communication
2. Improvements in communicative language skills come AFTER
people attempt to communicate with each other.

Pedagogical Principle Two for Communicative
Language Learning: Teach Through Tasks
1. The most interesting things to communicate are things
that relate to real tasks in the real world.

2. The focus of instruction should be on content not on
language instruction itself.
Widdowson (1998) there is a fundamental difference
between task and exercise (depending) on whether
whether linguistic skills are viewed as developing
through communicative activity or as a prerequisite for
engaging in it.

What is a task?
Ellis:
1. A work plan designed to precipitate leaner
activity.
2. Seeks to engage learners in using language
pragmatically rather than just displaying
language.
3. Involves real-world processes of language use.
4. A task can involve all four skills.
5. A task engages students in higher level
cognitive processes.
6. A task has a clearly defined communicative
outcome.

What is task based learning?
the real purpose of
the task is the
cognitive and
linguistic processes
involved in reaching
the outcome that
matters
Ellis (2009)

What is task based learning?
Task-based learning
requires learners to
use much more
complex thinking
processes than the
exercises in most
language text books,
which mainly require
knowledge and
comprehension, with
little application.

What is task based learning?
In Task-based learning, students have to
Synthesize what they have learned, in
order to present their opinions.
They have to use the highest levels of
Blooms Taxonomy: ANALYSIS, SYNTHESIS
and EVALUATION, in order to complete
their task
What is task based learning?
Research on second language acquisition
favors learning a language through
communicative activity:
Craik and Tulving (1975) showed that
retention depends on the
elaborateness of the final encoding.
Material is more likely to be remembered
when information is more deeply
processed
Ellis (2009)

What is task based learning?
In Task-Based
learning students
have to:
DEMONSTRATE
comprehension
by showing they
can use the
information they
have learned in
new situations.

Pedagogical Principle Three for Communicative Language
Learning: The Only Mistake is a Failure to Be Understood
1. What matters is that students are
understood and can successfully negotiate
with non-native speakers of English from
other cultures.
2. Use every bit of English you know
3 Do not worry about incorrect grammar
4 It does not matter if your English has a
definite Chinese feel to it.
1. Using the TOEIC as an accepted assessment.
This permits an increased focus in instruction
on speaking and listening.

Example Aichi Shukutokyo University, Nagoya,
Japan, now offers 442 English communication classes
to its 7,800 undergraduates. Average progress on
TOEIC scores has increased from 72.9 to 125+ since
its new TOEIC program was introduced in 2004
Assessment for Communicative Language Learning:
Use the TOEIC
Application of These Principles at the National
Taiwan University of Science and Technology
These principles are being applied in:
* Daily Living English
* Art and Design English
* Hospitality English
* Business English
* English for Academic Purposes
* Speech and Oral Presentation
* Writing
Two Examples
Business English
English Writing
New focus in International Publishing: EIL
Business Result: Oxford
University Press

1. Focus on
communication in English
in real-life work
situations.

2. Target language:
workplace English for
communication between
non-native speakers of
English

3. Focus on the use of
language in meaningful
and authentic ways.

New focus in International Publishing: EIL
CASE STUDIES
Groups of Four:
1. Read a case situation
2. Review language
3. Study data individually relating to a new case
4. Share data with each other
5. Discuss findings
6. Write a group report of findings
7. Make an oral presentation

New focus in International Publishing: EIL
CYCLE OF LANGUAGE LEARNING:
1. Reading -> Vocabulary /Concepts ->
2. Reading Research -> Synthesis and presentation
of ideas orally in discussion ->
3. Discussion and Analysis ->
4. Written report -> Oral presentation

Students create a fictional Fantasy Island
Then they are taught the writing structures
to:
Create listing order paragraphs (topic sentences, listing-order signals,
concluding sentences, compound sentences, coordinating conjunctions.)
Create How To paragraphs (time order signals, independent and
dependent clauses, adverb subordinators, complex sentences.)
Create descriptions (space order, specific details, adjectives.)

ALL THESE ARE COMPILED INTO A BOOK, AND A READING PRESENTATION
English Writing Skills
New focus in International Publishing: EIL
SEMESTER TEACHING STRUCTURE:
1. 16 lessons with about 4 hours of teaching
material in each lesson.
2. No long reading texts.
3. Emphasis on listening and speaking.
4. Written exercises are kept at a minimum.
5. Focus on formal and informal information
exchange.

TESPA-IS
The English as an International Language
Interest Section of
TESPA
(The Taiwan English for Special
PurposesAssociation)

The EIL-IS TESPA Agenda
1. Research
Disseminating new research on the teaching of
EIL
2. Teaching
Exploring new approaches to teaching EIL
3. Teaching materials
Searching for (and developing) new classroom
materials for teaching EIL


Thank You



The future is now.