TEXT 06

The (in)appropriate speaker model?

"Anyone working in the field of English as a Lingua Franca (henceforth ELF) has to face sooner rather than later a serious contradiction: that despite the widespread acceptance of the extensive role of English as an international lingua franca and its increasing number of functions in this respect, there is still an almost equally widespread resistance to this lingua franca’s forms. Given the well-established sociolinguistic fact that languages are shaped by their users, and that nowadays “native speakers are in a minority for [English] language use” (Brumfit 2001, 116), it would make sense for English language teaching to move away from its almost exclusive focus on native varieties of English. This suggestion always meets, however, with strong resistance from many quarters, and this is particularly so in the case of accent. The result is that two particular native speaker English accents, Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA), continue to command special status around the English speaking world including international/lingua franca communication contexts where sociolinguistic common sense indicates that they are inappropriate and irrelevant." 

Source: adapted from: JENKINS, J. (Un)pleasant? (In)correct? (Un)Intelligible? ELF Speakers' perceptions of their accents. In: MAURANEN, Anna and RANTA, Elina (Ed.).English as a Lingua Franca:Studies and Findings. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, p.10-35.