Proceedings of the 23rd International Academic Conference, Venice

THE TYPE OF ENGLISH USED IN TOEIC CLASSROOMS CAN IMPROVE ELS LEARNER MOTIVATION AND ACHIEVEMENT.

NICHOLAS STONE, JASON BARROWS

Abstract:

The debate surrounding the status of learning English as a second language (ESL) has evolved greatly over the past twenty years. During this period, both the identification and classification of new varieties of English, such as Hawaiian, Maltese and Filipino English, has garnered considerable attention around the world from many educators. The spread of new Englishes has had a large impact on teaching, allowing educators to target their teaching methods more accurately to meet the needs of their learners. However, this has not always been the case, as notable examples of Englishes can be found that seem to buck this trend such as Hong Kong English. In the case of non-native Englishes, the question of what is the best approach for educators to adopt; whether or not to teach the local variety or a native speaker model, is worthy of attention. Previous studies into attitudes towards new varieties of Englishes have generally followed a quantitative approach focusing on speakers’ attitudes towards a given English, with few detailed qualitative studies conducted. Furthermore, the current classifications for the emergence and development of new varieties of English have dismissed the importance of speakers’ sense of the value, usefulness and importance of the language they use, or their sense ownership of their English. Little in-depth research has been conducted into how notions of ownership may develop with the development of a new variety of English. To address this lack of data and provide educators with practical suggestions for teaching students of new Englishes, this presentation sets out to explore and examine the language attitudes of young professionals’ attitudes toward the English that they use and how these attitudes can affect ESL learners’ attitudes toward World Englishes. In addition, data from this presentation will add further to the body of the literature concerning the factors affecting new English speakers’ sense of ownership. The results show that when the learners believe their English is inferior to native models, then the notion of ownership suffers, often as a result of learners sensing no usefulness in their English. The motivational level of learners lacking this sense of value in learning a specific variety of English will suffer, and they will search for a more prestigious model of English to study. In such cases educators should change their teaching methods to better meet learners’ language ambitions and abilities.

Keywords: ESL, motivation, TOEIC, ownership, World Englishes, new varieties of English

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2016.023.088

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