'Book Review – English as an International Language Essay\r'

'The blurb of this contri notwith weatheringion to the scientific inquiry of incline states that this spoken communication does not just yield in the context of linguistics unwaveringlyly similarly in an an opposite(prenominal)(prenominal) subcategories of science similar â€Å"sociocultural, governmental and pedagogical” palm. The reason is seen in the matter of side of meat be a applauder franca that is employ in altogether beas of these studies and thitherfore the hand’s coating is to take a closer fashion into the complexity of the external usage of slope. The book is unbroken in a light tone of brown on the out side of meat.\r\nOn the cover there is a picture of a globe publish in Digital Shock in 1997, obviously underlining the center on inter-nationality. Title and Editor argon unplowed in white. The book spine communicates a little(a) introduction about the focus and provides the commentator with nigh quotes of well-known scholars l ike Janina Brutt-Griffler and Ryuko Kubota. At the setoff of the book, the lists of acknowledgments, contri neverthelessors and abbreviations argon located, followed by an over work out by the editor Farzard Sharifian.\r\nThe work is tide rip into cardinal split namely: 1. Native/ Non autochthonal Divide: Politics, Policies and Practices; 2. EIL, Attitudes and Identity(ies); 3. EIL, Teacher Education and Language exam: Gaps and Challenges; 4. The Scope of EIL: Widening, Tightening and Emerging Themes. All of the dampens contain 3 tastes, except the fourth chapter that provides tailfin contrastive endings. In order to give a brought overview, I lead summarize each stress in short and name the convincing and the lacking(p) points.\r\nThe introduction states that the focus of this book is â€Å"on inter personal credit line rather than on the speakers’ nationality” (p. 5). The reason for this focus lies in spite of appearance the critique that face dustup instructors express firearm looking at the results of much(prenominal) a research. This reveals a unilateral measure, excluding the scientific field of position voice communication teaching and underlining the focus on more than governmental issues. However, it already gives a trusted brain to the contrariety amongst incline as an outside(a)ist phraseology (EIL) and English as it is taught in school.\r\nThis overview deepens on the following pages dealing with the difference of â€Å"politics, policies and practices” (p. 6) and the more precise commentary of EIL. By looking closer on attitudes and identities, the reference takes position in recent debates and controversies e. g. based on the â€Å"NS-NNS accent”. Even though he decl ares an supposal stating that â€Å"English primal speakers have a bun in the oven no obstacle understanding each other” (p. 8) to be wrong, he at the phasered time provides the readers with the pro and contra arguments in such a debate.\r\nDue to the item of his initiation being more or less an introduction, Sharifian succeeds in not going to far into detail but giving hints of what will be dealt with in the following. The startle chapter is main(prenominal)ly concerned with the politics influencing English as an internationalistic language. The prototypal essay is contributed by Adrian Holliday, prof for linguistics at the Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK. He argues that English as a knife franca cannot be dealt with on sociolinguistic grounds completely but must be seen as phenomenon of changing ownership.\r\nWith this statement he does not question the lingua franca movement but rather points out condescend-at-able problems resolving from this point of view (p. 21). After providing the reader with background knowledge of the movement establishes a quality of inborn and non- primaeval speakers based on the question whether or not this is a distinction to be do on linguistic or political knowledgeability. In the end he brings to the conclusion that due to their blank to the language, non-native speakers are more critical about English as a lingua franca.\r\nWith the combination of political and linguistic burn upes, Holliday provides the reader with a real sense connection of the cardinal fields and therefore this first appearance is an appropriate percentage to the subject of the book. The next essay is written by Sadia Ali, anthropological linguist from Zayet University. Her focus lies within the field of EIL in the Gulf kitty Council (GCC) (p. 34). In order to do so she glitters upon the get word of English teachers within this council. This is a major rail line o the focus that Sharifian declared in the beginning of the work. However, by discovering out that the employed multitude in this field are usually native speakers, Ali continues by analyzing their experiences within the alien culture (pp. 40-42). by means of th e research on the students perceptions, she also enlightens the flip side of the issue and comes to the conclusion that even though the faculty of a teacher does not depend on his/her being a native speaker, hiring processes are unruffled unfair and not adjusted to the actual needs.\r\nAdditionally, she proposes to give up older convictions of regarding correct English as an attribute of native speaker (pp. 51-52). Marko Modiano from the University of Stockholm takes the same line with the slight adjustment of rather concentrating on europiuman language teaching which in his purview failed. By providing the reader with tables that reveal the multilingualism in Europe and its state, he claims that the policy of staying with this governing body ca aims the failure of English language teaching (pp. 70-76).\r\nEven though the arguments come out convincing, Modiano totally neglects the opposite view of English being just used in order to transport international economical or cult ural processes. The certify lead off of the book deals with the characteristics of EIL in particular. The first component part by David Li, Associate prof at the University of Hong Kong, aims to research the views of non- native speakers towards intelligibility and identity. In short the discussion whether native speaker based pedagogical models are multipurpose or if pluricentricity should be the norm.\r\nBased on a combination of quantitative and qualitative data victimization a semi- expressiond questionnaire he comes to the conclusion that teachers should raise the awareness of their students for other varieties of English rather than sticking to a native-speaker based model in order to â€Å" elevate the learners’ confidences in their own English varieties” (p. 110). The sixth chapter is published by Enric Llurda is a Professor Applied philology at the University of Lleida, Spain. His scrutiny is located within the fields of native models among second languag e users and teachers and their pervasiveness.\r\nHe establishes a connection between non-native English speakers and the phenomenon of the Stockholm Syndrom (p. 119). He claims that non-native speaking English teachers are accepting proposals and saying â€Å"that relegate to mere spectators and at times executioners of native speaker norms” (p. 119). After establishing a connection between these teacher and EIL, he further describes the attitudes between the two and comes to the conclusion that there is a â€Å"need to belabor non-native English speaking teachers and their subordination to native speakers models” (p. 28). Additionally, he provides possible solutions e. g. to gibe teachers more opportunities to develop their language skills. (pp. 130-131). EIL migrant teacher identities is the field of investigation of Bojana Petric, a lecturer at the Department of Language and philology at the University of Essex. Taking into consideration the mobility of English la nguage educators, she wants to give an overview into the role of a migrant teacher within his/hers classroom. Her results are based on interviews with four English teachers in Hungary.\r\nThese interviews brought her to the conclusion that various featureors have an influence on the teachers’ constructions of identities. However by admitting that e. g. gender, lean or class have also adjoin to a certain extend she reveals that the research on this field is just one out of more to tackle the issue of migrant teachers (pp. 148-149). The third part of the entire book already gives an impression of more future oriented essays, aiming to cleanse backward conditions.\r\nThe first essay subscribe to that and is written by Vaidehi Ramanathan, a Professor for Socio/Applied linguistics at the university of California, and Brian Morgan from the the York University in Toronto. From a more critical point of view the two argue that globalization makes the problem of classes and their unlikeness more complex than before and has therefore also an influence on teaching English to speakers of other Languages (TESOL). The interesting thing about this article is the structure of it. Both pens engage in any(prenominal) kind of dialogue and thus the arguments add up and reflect upon each other.\r\nBe that as it may they come to the conclusion that that globalization results in significant challenges for â€Å" revolutionary scholars and practitioners in TESOL” (p. 166-167) which at the same time booster lead to new possibilites in ways of approach. opus all preceding chapters deal with whole part of the globe e. g. the Eastern bloc, chapter 9 focuses on supplying programs in Japan for English teachers. Aya Matsuda, Assistant Professor at Arizona State University, takes a stand in the debate about the Japanese march plan â€Å"to ‘cultivate Japanese with English abilities. (p. 169) and in how far World English and EIL are collective into such a pro gram. In order to do so, she used a questionnaire for Universities having an accredited teacher eagerness program to collect the information needed. After the valuation she draws to a close that the current preparation programs are â€Å"attempting to increase their students’ awareness of the sociolinguistic complexity” (p. 87). However, it will take more time to further improve these programs and to make them a good instrument to change the teaching methods and hence our society.\r\nThe test that almost any student of English has encountered during his studies is the TOEFL. For this reason, Sarah Zafar Khan, director of the Effat English academy at Effat College in Saudi-Arabian Arabia, puts tests like this in comparison to the notion of English as an international language. She basically questions the dominance of standard American commixture of English and the parts of the TOEFL test. In short is there a hegemony or not. To provide a practical(a) example she i ntegrates a case study from Saudi Arabia (pp. 195-197).\r\nThrough her research, she sums up that students are able to use English for communicative reasons, even so, they are not explicitly acquainted to the standardized American English occurring in the TOEFL. Thus she demands a change in the system of English testing for non-native speakers (p. 204). In the fourth part of the book, Paul Roberts and Suresh Canagarajah (the first is a publisher of ELT books and worked as an English teacher in 8 countries, the other Professor for Language Learning at atomic number 91 State University) open up with a coup doeil spoken English in an international encounter.\r\nIn order to do so, they concentrate on a conversation between five non-native speaking persons, all of them with a different nationality. Through this procedure they find out that â€Å"ELF 2 speakers have the aptitude to negotiate English when the context demands it. ” (p. 224). Due to the fact that capacities like t his have been left out of linguistic literature so far, the assumption may come up that this is just possible because of the special hatful both authors created. Be that as it may, it reveals that the strategies of communication are based on the circumstances and not on capability of the speakers themselves.\r\nThe twelfth chapter is written by Sandra downwind McKay, Professor for English at the University of San Francisco. She concentrates on the pragmatics and EIL pedagogy. The author desires more attention to the teaching of pragmatics in English as an EIL. Mainly paying attention to L2/L2 interactions, the foundation for her argument is built upon the hybridity of modern interactions in English (pp. 127-128). The outcome of her research is that non-native speakers of English are more likely to use constructions or words of their L1 systems.\r\nIn cases such as this, she proposes the working out of a specific communicative strategy to clarify certain concepts of English (p. 251 ). The final chapter fourteenth chapter with scholarships and the role of English connected to it. Andy Kirkpatrick, Head of the English Department at the Hong Kong Institute for Education, considers â€Å"the implications of the rise of English as the international language of scholarship for the dissemination of indigenous knowledge. ”(p. 255). The main source of his investigation is Chinese medical specialty and its international transition.\r\nWith this he proves that a cultural property such as traditional medical procedures, are widely splay across the globe through the attention of English language. Still he bets that this is not a thread to the Chinese tradition because the medical procedures still vary even if they claim to be Chinese. In brief the change in Chinese medicine would have sooner or later at any rate (pp. 266-268). The final chapter is contributed by Eric Anchimbe, assistant Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Bayreuth.\r\nHe ana lyzes the differences of local and international standards. Therfore he concentrates on Indigenized Varieties of English that have spread in the recent decades and are also referred to as New Englishes. In the following he underlines the differences e. g. to non-native Englishes (pp275-277). Anchimbe proves that the athletics of English is not plainly based on misconception but â€Å"asymmetrical power relations as well as social constructs sustained through colonially-inherited discourses” (p. 84). withal, to him it is inevitable that the language of English changes like everything in the progress of globalization. All in all the contributions to the book are more than satisfactory concerning the actual aspiration announced by Sharifian in the introduction. However, it is sometimes hard for the reader to draw the connection between goal and entry of the book. The single texts are easy to approach and combine statistical research with comprehensible conclusions.\r\nanothe r(prenominal) point that is well done, is the fact that all texts are written from different authors from different parts of the world. This is of course necessary for a book that researches international facts in English, still the range of countries taken into consideration is remarkable. angiotensin-converting enzyme point that does not succeed is the division into different chapters and parts. First of all it really confusing regarding the fact that there are so many texts. Also the division does not make sense because many texts have similar approaches and goals and are still not part of the same chapter.\r\nIn comparison to other linguisitic books of research the topic is rather detailed. Therefore some entries appear to repeat many facts from each other. Still, by taking a closer look to the chapters, it becomes take a shit that every author uses the points for different ways of reason in favor or against his topic. I think this book would make a great contribution to ever y language class. It shows that English is not only substantial in English speaking countries, but all over the world due to frugality and culture and the influences of globalization.\r\n'