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.