Teaching world Englishes to native speakers of English in the USA

Abstract

The global spread of English has increased opportunities for native English speakers in the US to interact with other speakers of world Englishes (WE). However, these native speakers are rarely encouraged to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for intercultural communication, often resulting in a one‐way communicative burden imposed on the WE speakers. To explore ways to redress this problem, a pilot project was conducted in an English IV class at a public high school. The purposes were to raise students' awareness of the global spread of English and its implications and to have them explore ways to communicate effectively with WE speakers. This paper describes the instructional unit developed for the project and its effect on students' views on various issues related to communicating with WE speakers, and on their perceptions and comprehension of WE speech samples. The instructional effect was investigated by pre‐ and post‐questionnaires and dictation tests, classroom observations, and post‐study interviews. A total of 17 students participated. Results of t‐tests for the questionnaires and dictation showed no significant effect except on beliefs about second language acquisition and perceived comprehension of the speech samples. Classroom observations and interviews revealed individual differences in the instructional effect. The paper offers implications and future directions.