Factors Influencing EFL Learners’ Attitudes toward English Varieties

Arifumi Saito

doi:10.36892/ijlls.v3i2.623

Abstract

This study explores how intercultural communication and the knowledge of ‘English as an International Language’ (EIL) affect EFL learners’ perception and attitudes toward “non-native” English varieties. Since EIL encourages non-native English speakers to use their own English with expressions reflecting their cultures and identities, introducing EIL in EFL classes is expected to lead EFL learners to positively change their mindset for English varieties and enhance their confidence in their own English. In this research, Japanese and Chinese/Vietnamese college students were divided into two groups and assigned different readings (EIL vs. non-EIL readings) before the discussion on English varieties. After the intercultural communication, participants were asked to write about their ideas on EIL, and their reflective writings were qualitatively analyzed to examine how the knowledge of EIL would influence the students’ attitudes toward English varieties. As a result, the Japanese students who did the EIL readings showed a positive attitude toward “non-native” English varieties, including ‘Japanese English’. In contrast, the Chinese and Vietnamese students showed a negative attitude toward them across the board even after learning about EIL. We aim to investigate the reasons and backgrounds of the results including what makes the difference between the Japanese and the Chinese/Vietnamese students.

Highlights

Along with globalization, the number of English language users has been growing rapidly, and it has become an international language to connect people with diverse linguistic backgrounds and to be widely used in various communication modes (Ramos & Gatcho, 2019)
5.2 Analysis and Discussion As mentioned in the analysis and discussion of the Japanese students’ reflection sheets, the reason why the Japanese participants in the experimental group followed the idea of English as an International Language (EIL) seems to be the positive encouragement they received from the four EIL readings to recognize and actively use their own English variety in the internationalized world where many different Englishes are spoken
For the Japanese participants, there was a clear difference in their attitudes toward nativized varieties between the control and the experimental group; the Japanese participants who did the EIL reading showed positive attitudes toward the nativized varieties including their own (Japanese English) while the Japanese participants in the control group still exhibited a strong preference toward ‘Standard English’

Summary

Introduction

The number of English language users has been growing rapidly, and it has become an international language to connect people with diverse linguistic backgrounds and to be widely used in various communication modes (Ramos & Gatcho, 2019). Some of them (Görlach, 1997; Jenkins, 2006) have argued the importance of introducing various English varieties in EFL education. With the background, ‘English as an International Language (EIL)’ started being highlighted as the instrument to introduce English diversity (both native and non-native) into the EFL curriculum. EIL is a term created by Smith (1976) whose aim was to encourage EFL learners to accept their English varieties and gain ownership of English, which potentially leads to high L2 confidence and performance of the learners. Other EIL researchers (e.g., Nakamura, 2002; Lee, Nakamura & Sadler, 2017) stressed the crucial role of EIL to develop L2 confidence in EFL education based on the outcome of their empirical research

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