1887
Volume 76, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0019-0829
  • E-ISSN: 1783-1490
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

Today’s English refers to a state or states of the English language as used by its speakers. There are many varieties of English spoken throughout the world. Today’s English is a term that does not describe a single regional or national variety of English, but a language that extends beyond the national borders of native speakers to include second and foreign language speakers. Recent research focuses on the state of the language, the diversity of its users, the contexts of its use, and the effects on the communities using it.

It has been the practice of those in authority in the Ministries of Education and universities in the Arab World in general and the Arabian Gulf in particular to hire many native speakers of English to teach English in schools and universities. The assumption was that natives with native speakers’ accent are more effective teachers than teachers of English whose native language is Arabic.

Why should an Arab student learn, for instance RP and not any other variety? The writer advocates the practice of hiring a greater percentage of Arabic speaking teachers to teach English in Arab schools and universities. Hiring a particular native speaker of English to teach English to Arab students forces those students to listen and be exposed to a particular variety instead of an international variety that is intelligible and international enough to be accepted by every one. Besides, listening and speaking to a Britisher more an American are not of great importance to Arab students. What is more important are the two skills of reading and writing since they are the only two channels through which western science and technology could be transferred to Arabs. Because of the nature of Arab students’ motivation, the writer advocates the use of more suitable cultural materials.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/itl.76.04els
1987-01-01
2025-02-13
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Abercrombie, David
    (1965) : Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics. Oxford University Press.
  2. Abuhandia, Zakaria A.
    (1984) : English Departments at Arab universities : Toward A Planning based Model in Language Problems & Language Planning, Vol.8, Spring 1984.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Alptekin, Cem and Margaret Alptekin
    (1984) : The Question of Culture : EFL Teaching in Non-English Speaking Countries in ELT Journal, 3, 1 1984.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. El-Sayed, Ali M.
    (1985–86) : Native Speakers and EFL Teaching in the Arab World. In Lexis, The Newsletter of the English Department, Faculty of Arts, Kuwait University, Winter-Summer85-86, No. 5, pp. 59–63.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Fellman, Jack
    (1977) : Language and National Identity : The Case of The Middle East. InTesol Quarterly 1977; II, pp. 157–171.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Gagne, Gilles
    (1982) : Learning the Standard Variety of a Mother Tongue in School. Paper at the XIIIth International Congress of Linguists, Tokyo, 1982.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Greenbaum, S.
    (ed.) (1985) : The English Language Today. Oxford : Pergamon Press.
  8. Hall, David
    (1985) : Attitudes To Language Variation : The Neglected Variable. InIJOAL, Vol.XI, No. I January, 1985, pp. 33–41.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Kachru, Braj B.
    : Models For Non-Native Englishes. In Smith ed. pp. 69–86.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Loveday, Leo
    (1982) : The sociolinguistics of Learning and Using a Non-Native Language. Pergamon Press.
  11. Lowenberg, P.H.
    (1985) : The English Language Today. Oxford : Pergamon Press.
  12. Prater, C.H.
    (1958) : The British Heresy in TESL. in Fishmanet al, pp. 459–76.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Preston, Dennis
    (1981) : The Ethnography of TESOL. Tesol Quarterly, 15.21981.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Staczek, John J.
    (1985) : Varieties of Contemporary English : Implications For Teaching EFL and ESL. A paper presented in the First National Symposium on Language Teaching. 4-6 May, 1985, Kuwait.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Smith, L. and K. Rafiqzad
    (1979) : English For Cross Cultural Communication : The Question of intelligibility. Tesol Quarterly13, 3 1979.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Strevens, P.
    (1982) : World Englishes and the World's Englishes - or Whose Language Is it Anyway?The Journal of Royal Society of Arts, June 1982.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Wilkins, David
    (1975) : Second language Learning and Teaching. London : Edward Arnold.
  18. Zughoul, Mohamed Raji
    (1980) : Diglossia in Arabic : Investigating Solutions. Anthropological Linguistics, Vol.22, No.I 1980, pp. 201–217.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/itl.76.04els
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error