Global TESOL for the 21st Century. Heath Rose

book are entirely devoted to the topic of exploring Global Englishes innovations in language classrooms. The first chapter explores key constructs underpinning the field, and also contains a detailed overview of the most up-to-date version of the GELT framework. Chapter 2 adopts a highly accessible curriculum approach in its exploration of the implications of Global Englishes for TESOL, which our book summarises much of our content from. The fourth chapter in the book then explores educational innovation models, which will be of interest to teachers in management roles who are able to exert force to introduce top-down changes to curriculum within larger educational institutions. Overall, this book provides a state-of-the-art overview of the field. The second half of the book will also be of relevance to researcher-practitioners, as the focus moves from practice to research.

      Selvi, A.F. and Yazan, B. (2015) Teaching English as an International Language. TESOL Press.

      This book outlines the various facets of teaching EIL, including chapters on materials and methods, assessment, culture and curriculum development. It is published by TESOL Press, and accordingly squarely positions teachers as its target readers, making ideas very accessible. Much of the content in Selvi and Yazan’s book is covered in similar books (including this one). However, one advantage of Selvi and Yazan’s book is its concise format of just 50 pages. Thus, the book is likely to appeal to busy teachers, and may be a good resource to use in professional development workshops and short teacher-training courses.

      Richards, J.C. (2017) Curriculum Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

      This is a new edition of Jack Richards’ very popular book on curriculum development. Although it does not deal at length with many of the issues we have raised in this chapter on teaching EIL, it does go into considerable depth regarding the various facets and considerations for developing and innovating a curriculum. The book covers all of the various stages in the process of curriculum development including situation analysis, needs analysis, goal setting, syllabus design, materials development and adaptation, teaching and teacher support, and evaluation. Jack Richards has been the authoritative scholar on curriculum development for more than 40 years, and this book is a consolidation of that knowledge.

       Part 2

       Global Classrooms and Curricula

       3Language Norms in the Global TESOL Curriculum

      Pre-reading Activities

      Think

      Kachru (1986) described English as ‘the fabled Aladdin’s lamp’ (1986: 1). Think about why he explained the language this way and how you would describe English.

      Discuss

      In small groups, discuss the following:

      (1)What is Standard English? Why do some authors prefer to use the capitalised Standard English or ‘standard’ English instead of standard English?

      (2)What role does Standard English have in English language classrooms worldwide?

      (3)Who are native speakers and non-native speakers of English worldwide? What do you think about the native/non-native distinctions and why?

      Introduction

      Historically speaking, language standards and language norms were dictated by those who held power such as royalty, the court and the upper classes (Galloway & Rose, 2015). For example, before the global spread of English, the Chancery Standard, based on the language of the courts, was established to enhance communication across the nation of England. These norms are increasingly challenged by the global spread of English, which has led to the emergence of a post-modern phenomenon where people with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds use the language to communicate in their own ways. It generates variations that are different from established language norms and causes destabilisation of those norms. This has been a challenge to people who seek to adhere the norms as linguistic benchmarks, including teachers (Seidlhofer, 2018). This chapter includes an examination of discussions surrounding the spread of English from social, political, economic and educational perspectives and effects these have had on language standards. Furthermore, the chapter offers an exploration of the implications of norm-bound beliefs within the context of English Language Teaching today. It also introduces examples of programmes and courses that promote EIL awareness and increase EIL experiences in English language classrooms. Finally, the chapter concludes by addressing future directions for the successful implementation of EIL-oriented pedagogic actions, as they pertain to language standards.

      Key Concepts

      TESOL practitioners must be aware of these concepts associated with language norms because they are fundamental components of language and language teaching.

      Standard language

      People tend to be open to the concept of a uniformed language, since they tend to see the imposed language uniformity via a one-and-only legitimate standard variety as necessary (Milroy, 1999, 2001) and to accept assumptions, such as the existence of uniformity in languages operating with notions of standards (Seidlhofer, 2018). As described in Jenkins (2015a), ‘[Language standards] are the prescriptive language rules which together constitute the standard and to which all members of a language community are exposed and urged to conform during education, regardless of their local variety’ (Jenkins, 2015a: 22).

      The variety of language considered to be the standard is called a Standard language. A Standard language is used as a yardstick against which other varieties of the language are measured. In this regard, a Standard language can be considered as a prestige variety within a society (Jenkins, 2015a).

      Nevertheless, a Standard language, which is assumed to be uniform especially in its grammar and vocabulary, is never actually achieved. As language is always changing, uniformity is regarded as an idea in mind rather than a reality (Bhatt, 2001, 2005; Milroy & Milroy, 1999); and ‘it seems appropriate to speak more abstractly of standardisation as an ideology’ (Milroy & Milroy, 1999: 22–23). Lippi-Green (1997) defines the ideology as ‘a bias toward an abstract, idealized homogenous spoken language, which is imposed and maintained by dominant bloc institutions and which names as its model the written language, but which is drawn primarily from the spoken language of the upper middle class’ (Lippi-Green, 1997: 64).

      As the previous two chapters have shown, in terms of TESOL, it is important to re-evaluate the use of a Standard English as a role model. We need to take into account the sociolinguistic reality that languages are unstable in nature because users utilise them in their own ways depending upon the contexts and aims. Moreover, as a result of constant changes in circumstances, especially globalisation, English has been spread globally; and the standards have been considerably shifting to keep up with those changes (Seidlhofer, 2018).

      Native speaker standards

      Standards in TESOL are often attributed to the idea of a native speaker. That is, a native speaker is often positioned as a user of the correct or desirable norms and thus Standard English. However, as Chapter 1 explored, there are several approaches to define native speakers (e.g. Cook, 2008; Davies, 2003). The common one is based on birth: a person who learnt first in childhood; on knowledge: a person who has a subconscious knowledge of rules; or on identity: a person who has a sense of belonging in a language community (Cook, 2008). Although there are many different groupings of native speakers, a person who learnt English first in childhood is usually considered as a native speaker and often is used as a role model in English Language Teaching (Cook, 2008). However, taking into account the global spread of English and the current sociolinguistic reality (Graddol, 2006), the use of native speakers as role models for English language learners has been questioned (e.g. Cook, 1999, 2008, 2012, 2016; Davies, 1991, 1996, 2003, 2013; Medgyes, 1992; Paikeday, 1985; Rampton, 1990). Further to this, as native speakers (in the narrow definition