Abstract
The lingua franca status of English in transcultural settings questions the orthodox pedagogical principles and mainstream approaches of English language teaching. To mirror the relationship between English as a subject matter and English as a globalised sociolinguistic phenomenon, some scholars call for revisiting the conventional approaches of pedagogy. Still, the response to the call for a transition from the monocentric methods of English language teaching is slow. Teachers have multiple concerns about how to incorporate a global dimension into a general English language course for undergraduates. The present study aims to address this gap by offering a practical example of how to address English as a lingua franca phenomenon in a general English language course. The study showcases classroom practices for raising awareness of today’s complexity of English use as a worldwide lingua franca. Ten Saudi undergraduates at a Saudi university participated in the study. The study shares the participants’ critical reflections on what they have learned from the course. Analysis of the participants’ reflections reveal that approaches based on complexity theory increased their familiarity with English linguistic diversities, developed their transcultural awareness and improved their ability to cope with English functional and contextual diversities. It is hoped that this showcase study can provide some guidance for the further implementation of a global dimension in other contexts.
Highlights
Conventional approaches to English language teaching (ELT) have assumed that the goal of learners is integration or communication with Anglophones
The present study aims to address this gap by offering a practical example of how to address English as a lingua franca phenomenon in a general English language course
At the end of the course, students were asked to write a critical reflection report on what they learned from the English as a Lingua Franca” (ELF)-oriented sessions
Summary
Conventional approaches to English language teaching (ELT) have assumed that the goal of learners is integration or communication with Anglophones. This study adapts the expression “English as a Lingua Franca” (ELF) as a paradigm that views the ELF phenomenon as communication involving a number of interrelated complex systems that include individuals’ mental representations of language, language as a social system, communicative strategies and English itself This theoretical framework is suggested by Baird, Baker and Kitazawa (2014). The present study attempts to fill this gap by reporting a pedagogical practice that incorporates ELF-oriented dimensions into an English language learning course for university students in Saudi Arabia, and it reflects critically on the efficacy of the course from the students’ perspectives What distinguishes this showcase study from previous ELF-oriented showcases (e.g., Rajprasit, 2021) is its complexity theory-informed perspectives
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