Speaker
Description
This study investigates the perspectives of non-native English teachers at a small university in Southern Việt Nam regarding their agreement and disagreement to Larry Smith's three assumptions of English as a global lingua franca: 1) Learners do not need to internalize the cultural norms of native speakers of English, 2) The ownership of English as an international language becomes "de-nationalized," and 3) The educational goal of learning English is to enable learners to communicate their ideas and cultures to others. It adopts survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to the informants. The findings indicate a cognitive controversy of English teaching as a global lingua franca of today.
Specifically, the preliminary analysis points out a complexity of informants' perspectives on Smith's assumptions. Some agree to Smith by emphasizing the emergent practical use of global English. Some others advocate for a balanced approach that incorporates both native English proficiency and global communicative competence. Notably, however, while there is broad acknowledgment of the emergence and importance of cultural inclusivity aiming at effective cross-cultural communication in English, some informants sound unassertive to Smith's assumptions and tend to conserve the tendency of teaching English in a model emphasizing the norms of the native speaker’s language.
