TEACHING ENGLISH AS

AN INTERNATIONAL
LANGUAGE

T H E C H A N G I N G R OL E OF
LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Willy A Renandya
 Teaching English as an International Language

Abstract
Due to the emergence of English as a global language, there is a need for teachers to critically
examine their pedagogical practices and adjust their roles so that they are more in keeping
with the principles that underlie the teaching of English as a global or international language. In
this paper I discuss traditional teacher roles that continue to be relevant today, examine
established teacher roles that require a critical examination as they may no longer be relevant,
and re ect on newly emerging teacher roles that are based on the principles of teaching English
as an international language. I conclude by suggesting that teachers should take a critical
stance towards their roles and adopt new roles that are more attuned to the changing status
English as a global language.

Introduction
One of the key factors in the successful implementation of an English as an International (EIL)
approach to teaching English is the teacher. To implement an EIL approach, the teachers need to
learn and do a lot of things – they need to understand what it means to teach English in the EIL
context; they need to know what kinds of roles they should play in promoting EIL pedagogy and
what roles they should be critical about if they want to put into practice an approach to
teaching English that is compatible with EIL principles; they also need to be willing to learn new
knowledge and skills before they can comfortably assume their new roles in teaching EIL.

In addition, and perhaps more importantly, they need to develop a favourable attitude towards
the teaching of EIL. While the professional literature indicates that many applied linguists seem
to give whole-hearted support to the EIL model of teaching (Mckay, 2002; Shari an, 2009), the
reality at the ground level is that many teachers are less eager to embrace EIL models of
teaching. Citing Jenkins’ (2007) work, Llurda (2009: 126), for example, maintains that “...
language teachers in general, and NNESTs [Non-native English Speaking Teachers] in particular,
hold attitudes towards EIL that are far from being enthusiastic.”

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In this paper, I rst look at the traditional roles of language teachers. Two sets of roles are
discussed. The rst set refers to those that all good language teachers are expected to play, as
these roles are based on general educational principles or second language teaching principles.
Included in this rst set are such roles as: motivator, needs analyst, materials developer,
organizer of learning activities, monitor of student learning and provider of language input.

The second set of roles refers to those that require a critical examination as they may run
counter to some of the EIL principles discussed in the second part of the paper. Examples of
teacher roles under this category include those that view the teacher as an ambassador of the
inner-circle culture, model of the native-speaker variety of English, user of western-based
teaching methodology (e.g., communicative language teaching), and promoter of English-only
classrooms.

The second part of this paper examines a set of EIL principles and the kinds of teacher roles
that re ect these principles. EIL-oriented teacher roles such as promoter of intercultural
competence and multiculturalism, promoter of other varieties of English, critical user of course
books and teaching methodology are discussed in this section. Lastly I conclude by suggesting
that the teachers take a critical stance towards their roles and adopt new roles that are more
attuned to the changing status English as a global language.

Traditional Teacher Roles

The users and uses of English have changed a great deal in the past thirty years or so. A lot
more people now use English and many of these people are non-native users of English. It’s been
estimated that some two billion people speak the language (Graddol, 2006; Ur, 2009), many of
whom are non-native speakers of English. In addition, people now use English for far more
diverse purposes than ever before (see for example, McKay, 2002).

Within the ELT world, the purposes for which English is learned have also undergone a major
change. Many learn English in order to get a job, to be able to access information from the
internet, to be able to communicate with their English-speaking friends or business clients, or
for some other pragmatic reason. For most of these people, their goal is not to acquire native-
like competence in English, but to know enough English to meet their communicative needs.

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Given these changes, what kinds of roles do teachers need to assume? Do they need to
completely abandon the so-called traditional roles that they have been carrying out for many
years in order to be considered in sync with the changes that are happening in the world today?
Not necessarily. For any change to be meaningful and sustainable, the rst step would be for
teachers to carefully examine their existing roles and re ect on these roles in relation to the
demands of teaching English in today’s world.

Traditional teacher roles that re ect sound educational principles

Regardless of the teaching methods they use and the contexts of teaching in which they work,
all good teachers are expected to perform certain roles that are considered essential in their
job. One of the most important roles is to instruct. As instructors, they are expected to be able
to teach in a manner that the students can understand easily and in a manner that engages the
students to participate optimally in the lesson (Wlodlowski, 1999). This often requires the use
of clear and simple language with appropriate signposting at critical points in the lesson.

Another key role of the teachers that re ects sound educational principles is that of a
motivator. In mainstream education, it has now been rmly established that motivation plays a
key role in learning. Study after study has shown that the relationship between motivation and
academic achievement is consistently positive (e.g., Brophy, 1998).

It is not di cult to nd support for the positive impact of motivation on learning. Motivated
learners are enthusiastic, goal-oriented, committed, persistent and con dent learners. They are
willing to work hard to achieve their goal and do not easily give up until they achieve that goal.
In the classroom, these learners are engaged in a range of activities that we know contribute
directly and signi cantly to learning. They are more attentive during lessons, they take notes to
help them retain information, they ask questions when the teachers’ explanation is not clear
and they re ect on their understanding of the lesson (Wlodkowski, 1999).

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Although motivation is not as extensively discussed and researched in the second language
eld, the key research ndings on the role of motivation in second language learning have
largely echoed those in general education. A renowned second language motivation researcher,
Zoltán Dörnyei, for example, in his seminal book Motivational Strategies in the Language
Classroom contends that “... during the lengthy and often tedious process of mastering a
foreign/second language (L2), the learner’s enthusiasm, commitment and persistence are key
determinants of success or failure.” (Dörnyei, 2001: 5).

There are many other “traditional” roles that teachers need to assume because these roles
re ect sound educational principles and help them ful l their responsibilities. For instance, at
the curricular level, they are expected to carry out tasks that relate to curricular issues,
although many may not be directly involved in curriculum development. Thus the roles of the
teachers often include the following (Brown, 1995; Richards & Lockhart, 1994)

Needs analyst. The teacher surveys the students’ learning needs and styles and uses the
information gathered from the survey as a basis for planning and developing future courses.
Good teachers carry out needs analyses on an on-going basis and make use of the information
to customise their lessons so that the needs and aspirations of the individual students can be
optimally addressed.

Materials developer. The teacher writes his or her own teaching materials, or where this is not
possible, selects published materials and adapts them according to curricular requirements,
learner needs, his/her own teaching styles, and socio-cultural factors.

Monitor and assessor of students’ learning. The teacher continually assesses the students’
learning in order to monitor their progress, or lack of progress, and uses this information as a
basis for developing remedial lessons, revising course materials or introducing new teaching
methodologies, or other course improvement purposes.

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At the procedural level in the classroom, teachers may assume a number of roles that relate to
more immediate pedagogic concerns. Described below are such roles that second language
experts believe to be important for both native and non-native speakers teachers of English
(e.g., Medgyes, 1994). Harmer (2007: 109-110) lists the following teacher roles, but cautions
that while these roles may facilitate learning in the language classroom, teachers must be
exible in carrying them out and be willing to take alternate roles depending on the group of
students they are teaching.

For example, some students might prefer a more dominant teacher role (a controller) where the
teacher does almost everything for the students, but others may be more comfortable with the
teacher playing a more facilitative role (a resource), where the students take a more active role
in organizing learning in the classroom.

Controller. This word may have a negative connotation as the teacher is seen as an autocratic
gure whose job is to transmit knowledge and tightly regulate student behaviour. This role is
often associated with a teacher-fronted mode of learning, which many experts (e.g., Lee, Ng &
Jacobs, 1998), believe is not conducive to learning.

However one can argue that there are many occasions during a lesson where the teacher must
act as a controller – when introducing a new topic for which the students have little prior
knowledge, when explaining a di cult grammatical concept or vocabulary meaning, when
organising structured group activities, when arranging for question-answer work or when
encouraging the students to stay engaged and focused during task work (Harmer, 2007). Thus,
the watch word here is exibility in carrying out this role in that the teacher must not stick to
this role all the time.

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Prompter. In a foreign or second language class, the teacher often plays a prompting role when
the students are not sure about how to perform a task or how to respond to teacher questions.
During oral task work, for example, the students may be struggling for words to express
themselves, or may lose their train of thought. The teacher can o er hints or suggest words or
phrases. Harmer (2007: 109) points out that when prompting the students, “we need to do it
sensitively and encouragingly but, above all, with discretion.” This is because the key purpose of
prompting is for us to provide just “the right amount of encouragement” so that we don’t run
the risk of “taking the initiative away from the student” (Harmer, 2007: 109).

Participant. There are times when the teacher might take part in an activity as a participant,
and not as a teacher. Taking this role will allow the teacher to understand the students better
not only in terms of how they learn and process information, but also in terms of the kind of
di culties they encounter in their learning.

For example, when asking the students to write an essay on a certain topic, the teacher can
actually write an essay him/herself so as to understand the kind of planning, drafting, rewriting,
and editing that is required of the students to produce a good piece of writing. This teacher role
can help us become more tolerant and sympathetic towards our students’ learning process,
which in turn helps us better anticipate our students’ learning di culties.

Resource. At the other end of the continuum to the teacher-as-controller is the teacher’s role
as a resource. This teacher role is particularly relevant when the students are working
independently following a period of instruction but still need help from the teacher.

For instance, when preparing for a class presentation, the students might need help with
certain words, phrases or with certain linking words or discourse markers that will help them
organise the ow of their presentation; they might ask for tips on how to begin their
presentation in order to get the attention of the audience, etc. When implementing an extensive
reading programme, for example, the teacher can act as a resource by suggesting the kinds of
books that the students nd interesting but at the same time written in an accessible and
comprehensible language.

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Two things need to be said about the roles of teachers that I have described above as
'traditional'. Firstly, these roles are traditional in the sense that they are time-honoured roles
that have found their respectable place in the classroom. They are based on rm educational
principles and are valued by researchers and practitioners alike.

Secondly, although these are desirable roles, teachers need to continually re ect on these roles
and adopt those that are appropriate for the kinds of learners they are working with, and also
be willing to take on di erent roles at any one time depending on such factors as the age of the
learners, their levels of pro ciency, the goal of instruction and the socio-cultural background of
the learners.

As Hedge (2000: 29) points out, “the precise interpretation of these functions would also be to
some extent socially and culturally dependent.” Thus in a socio-cultural setting where the
teacher is seen as an authority gure, he or she might adopt the more authority-oriented roles
(i.e., controller or instructor) and perhaps introduce the more learner-oriented roles of teaching
(i.e., participant or facilitator) gradually.

Traditional teacher roles that re ect the old paradigm of language

teaching
Many of the traditional teacher roles discussed in this section can be traced to a set of
assumptions that underlie a still dominant ELT pedagogy known as the communicative language
teaching (CLT). McKay (2003: 3) describes some of these key assumptions:

ELT research and pedagogy should be informed by native speaker models

The cultural content for ELT should be derived from the cultures of native English
speakers.
The culture of learning that informs communicative language teaching (CLT) provides the
most productive method for ELT.

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It is clear that these assumptions have an unmistakable reference to an ideology known as

‘native-speakerism’ (Holliday, 2006). Essentially, a native-speakerist perspective is
“characterised by the belief that ‘native-speaker’ teachers represent a ‘Western culture’ from
which springs the ideals both of the English language and English language teaching
methodology” (p. 385).

Although this ideology is currently being challenged and also considered untenable in light of
the status of English as a lingua franca, the native speaker models are still widespread in the
ELT world. Native speakers are considered to be the ideal English teachers, ones that have far
greater facility in using uent and idiomatic language, that have deep understanding of the
target language culture, that also possess a pedagogical expertise which is far superior to
those of their non-native counterparts and that are capable of teaching the students to acquire
native-like competence in the language (Llurda, 2009; McKay 2003; Phillipson, 1992). It is little
wonder that the native speaking English teachers often receive special treatments in the job
market, i.e., they are given preference in hiring and receive higher remunerations and more
perks (Braine, 2010).

Given the prevalence of the native speaker models, and the fact that CLT still enjoys widespread
popularity in the inner, outer and expanding circle countries, many teachers still believe that
their main responsibilities are to help their learners achieve native-like uency and acquire in-
depth knowledge of the socio-cultural conventions and norms of the native English speaking
communities. Their preoccupation with the native speaker models of teaching often results in a
mismatch between their pedagogical practices and their learners’ learning goals and the EIL
context in which English is used today (Mckay, 2003).

This is probably not surprising because as Brown (2012) pointed out, the native speaker models
have traditionally been used as a basis for curriculum development. So for a long time,
“curriculum developers have assumed (a) that students need to learn the English of native
speakers (NSs), (b) that educated NSs of English should serve as the model and standard ...” (p.
148).

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Thus, there is still a tendency to put a great deal of prestige on native-like pronunciation and
insisting that instructional activities should be designed to help learners acquire native-like
accents, although all the students aspire to do is to be able to converse in simple English with
their English speaking business partners, many of whom are non-native speakers of English.
There is also a tendency to rigidly adhere to the native standard varieties of English (Llurda,
2009; Mckay, 2003).

This is despite the fact that in many expanding circle countries, the teachers themselves may
not speak these standard varieties (perhaps due to their lack of exposure to these varieties and
also lack of communicative experience with people who speak these varieties), and as a result,
may not be able to consistently model these varieties to the students. Making the native
standard varieties the target of learning is thus linguistically and pedagogically problematic.

Echoing earlier writers (e.g., Philipson, 1992) who challenged the CLT approach which promotes
a pedagogic model based on native speakerism, Alptekin (2002) dismisses the CLT model of
teaching as “utopian, unrealistic, and constraining in relation to English as an International
Language (EIL)” (p. 57). He argues that the model of communicative competence as currently
embodied in the CLT approach does not re ect how English is used in cross cultural settings in
the world today – a view shared by many EIL researchers (e.g., Llurda, 2009; McKay, 2002,
Shari an, 2009).

A more appropriate model of communicative competence will need to take into account the use
and users of English today. An intercultural model of language learning has been proposed and
is beginning to gain acceptance among researchers, practitioners and educational bodies such
as the Council of Europe (Corbett, 2010). For example, the Common European Framework of
Reference of Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment, states the goal of language
education thus:

In an intercultural approach, it is a central objective of language learning to promote the

favourable development of the learner’s whole personality and sense of identity in response to
the enriching experience of otherness in language and culture. (Council of Europe, 2001: 1, cited
in Corbett, 2010:1)

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Similarly, Alptekin (2002: 57) contends that an intercultural model of communicative

competence within ELT:

... would encompass local and international contexts as settings of language use, involve native-
nonnative discourse participants, and take as pedagogic models successful bilinguals with
intercultural insights and knowledge. As such, it would aim at the realization of intercultural
communicative competence in ELT.

An acceptance of the native speaker models in ELT encourages the teacher to adopt roles that
conform to the assumptions underlying these models. Some of the most well-known teacher
roles that re ect these assumptions are described below.

Native language model. Given the preference for native varieties, non-native English teachers
often nd themselves under the pressure to take on the role of native language model (Llurda,
2009). He or she has to use a native standard variety such as British or American English. Only
those who have acquired native-like competence are deemed suitable to take on this role. Of
course, this can be problematic in places where the majority of the English teachers are non-
native English speakers whose pro ciency in English is often not at the higher end of the
pro ciency scale.

I remember when I rst started my career as an EFL teacher some two decades ago. Although I
am not a native speaker of English and my level of pro ciency was not that high then, I strived
to project myself as a model of a British speaker and insisted that my students adopt RP
(Received Pronunciation) as the desired pronunciation target.

My experience, however, is not unique. WL, an experienced EFL teacher from China (see vignette
on last page), had a similar experience. Her early teaching approach was characterised by the
belief that the desired goal of instruction was to achieve native-like pro ciency. Like me, she is
now well aware of the need to continuously and critically re ect on her roles in the classroom
and is willing to change in line with the changing status of English as an international language.

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Representative of native English speaking cultures. The central task of the teacher is not only to
help the students attain native-like competence, but also to teach the cultural norms and
conventions of native English speaking communities. Language and culture cannot be separated;
teaching English entails teaching native speaking English cultures. The teacher sees him/herself
as a ‘representative and interpreter’ (Ellis, 1996: 213) or ‘ambassador’ (Llurda, 2004: 319) of
the English cultures in the classroom.

This role nds its classroom application in the choice of teaching and learning materials, i.e.,
only those materials that contain cultural norms from inner circle countries are selected for
instruction. In an ESP course for a group of learners in Vietnam who want to seek employment
in the service sector, for example, the teacher might select a textbook that illustrates service
exchanges commonly found in UK or US settings, in the belief that exposing the learners to such
exchanges is pedagogically bene cial.

This may in fact have the opposite e ect, because the mode of interaction exempli ed in the
course book may be completely di erent from that in the Vietnamese context, where the
discourse participants may be mostly English speaking bilinguals from non-native speaking
countries.

Roles re ecting the CLT approach. Teachers often describe their roles in relation to the
teaching approach they employ. Since CLT is still the dominant approach in the world and most
teachers are familiar with it and are employing this approach to some extent, I will focus on
teacher roles that re ect CLT assumptions. In implementing CLT, the teacher needs to rely less
on teacher-fronted or teacher-directed teaching and employ more learner-centred teaching.
Instead of a central, authoritative gure in the classroom, he or she is a learning facilitator;
instead of a teacher or instructor, he or she is a friend or counsellor (Ellis, 1996). Karavas-Dukas
(1995, cited in Hedge 2000: 28-29) lists a number of teacher roles that re ect a learner-
centred methodology:

Table 1: Teacher roles in a learner-centred methodology

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General Role Speci c Role

Source of advice Counsellor, Advisor, Personal Tutor

Facilitator of learning Helper and Guide

Sharing roles Participant, Student, Cooperator

Caring roles Friend, Caretaker, Supporter

Learner-centredness is premised on the idea that learning is primarily the learner’s

responsibility. By taking the roles above, the teacher hopes to create learners who can take
charge of their own learning and eventually become autonomous or independent learners.

CLT-oriented methodology also places a premium on communication. Learners are encouraged

early on to make use of the target language using whatever limited resources they have at
their disposal. According to Breen and Candlin (1980: 99, cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2001:
167):

The teacher has two main roles: the rst role is to facilitate the communication process
between all participants in the classroom, between these participants and the various activities
and texts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching
group. The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the rst role and arises from it.
These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; rst, as an organizer of resources
and as a resource himself, second as a guide within the classroom procedures and activities ...

One way in which learners can be given ample opportunity to communicate in the language is
through pair work or group work activities. Thus instructional approaches such as cooperative
learning are thriving in CLT classrooms, where the teacher’s main role is to organise structured
group tasks that allow active and interactive language use through information gap and
information sharing activities.

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Intrinsically, there is nothing wrong with CLT methodology and the teacher roles that it inspires.
In fact, CLT might work well in places where instructional practices that encourage interaction,
independent learning and group-based learning are valued by the community. It is the
indiscriminate and wholesale application of the methodology without regard to the socio-
cultural contexts and purposes for which English is being learned that should be discouraged. In
a country such as Japan where the teacher is expected to play a more direct role in the
classroom, conducting communication activities using group work may be problematic, as
recounted by a Japanese EFL teacher below (Richards & Lockhart, 1994: 108):

If I do group work or open-ended communicative activities, the students and other colleagues
will feel that I’m not really teaching them. They will feel that I didn’t have anything really
planned for the lesson and that I’m just lling in time.

What teachers need to do is not to reject or dismiss CLT methodology and its associated
teacher roles as being downright irrelevant to EIL teaching; what they need to do is to develop a
more critical stance towards the work that they do and be more critically aware of the
advantages and limitations of their current approaches to teaching so that they can adopt a
new set of roles that are more aligned with the role of English as an international language.

Teacher roles that re ect EIL principles

There are many roles that teachers can assume to help them achieve their teaching goals. The
actual roles they take and the way they interpret these roles depend on many factors, e.g., the
kinds of schools in which they work, their personality and teaching style, their cultural
backgrounds and the teaching methods they use (Richards & Lockhart, 1994). There is however
one additional factor that needs to be considered, namely the changing landscape of English in
the world today. As English is now de facto the language of international communication, the
roles of the teacher need to be expanded to include those roles that are well attuned to the
assumptions and principles for teaching English as an international language.

From the previous discussion, there are a number of principles that can be used as a basis for
discussing EIL-oriented teacher roles (see Mckay, 2012, for a more extensive discussion of EIL
principles):

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The promotion of intercultural, rather than native-speaker, competence

The promotion of an awareness of other varieties of English
The promotion of multilingualism in the classroom
The promotion of instructional materials that include both local and international cultures
The promotion of socially and culturally sensitive teaching methodology

The principles above require that the teachers take on a new set of roles. There are of course
teachers who already assume these new roles, but for others, these roles may be completely
new and will take a bit of time to be integrated into their existing role set. I discuss below
possible roles that support the application of the EIL principles in the classroom.

Intercultural competence. As the contexts of use of EIL are culturally varied, it is appropriate for
the teacher to take an active role in promoting intercultural learning. Thus, in an EIL classroom,
the teacher does not only take the role of a language teacher, whose job is to help the students
develop linguistic competence, but also of an intercultural teacher, whose job is to help the
students acquire intercultural communicative competence by fostering the ability to use English
to communicate with other speakers of English from linguistically and culturally varied
backgrounds.

Corbett (2010), among others, has suggested that teaching intercultural competence is not a
trivial matter and requires a set of knowledge, skills and attitudes. An intercultural teacher,
according to Corbett (2010: 2), should work towards helping learners achieve Byram’s (1997)
ve savoirs: (1) Knowing the self and the other; (2) Knowing how to relate and interpret
meaning; (3) Developing critical awareness; (4) Knowing how to discover cultural information;
and (5) Knowing how to relativise oneself and value the attitudes and beliefs of others.

Thus, when teaching these skills, the teacher may engage the students in activities that raise
awareness of their own culture and other people’s cultures; promote greater understanding and
respect of their own culture and others’ cultures; develop more positive and accepting attitudes
towards cultural di erences, and; raise awareness of the potential misunderstandings that can
occur in cross-cultural interactions and of the need to develop skills to resolve potential
communication problems.

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Corbett’s (2010) book, Intercultural Language Activities, provides a wealth of teaching ideas
that EIL teachers can use to promote intercultural learning. These activities are designed to aid
learners develop skills in observing, describing, comparing and evaluating their own community
and other communities’ cultural practices. These cultural practices are often re ected in the
way people interact with each other and in how they choose words, expressions and other
linguistic and non-linguistic resources to signal their communicative intents, thus providing the
learners with the necessary cultural and linguistic information they need to develop
intercultural communicative competence.

Awareness of other varieties of English. Traditionally, one of the key roles of the teacher is to
promote inner circle varieties of English. Indeed, in many places in the world, native speaker
varieties are still widely favoured, as they are considered the most prestigious, and also
regarded as the most legitimate models for language learning. However, the roles of an EIL
teacher should not be limited to providing language materials that re ect the inner circle
varieties. He or she should also assume the role of a provider of other varieties of World
Englishes, in particular those that the learners are more likely to come into contact with.

For example, when teaching a group of business people from Thailand who have business
dealings with business people from Singapore, it makes sense to include teaching materials
that depict features of Singapore English commonly used by Singaporeans in business settings.
In addition to exposing learners to di erent varieties of English, the teacher will need to
develop a repertoire of methodologies that can be used to help the learners develop a more
positive view of the other varieties of English spoken in the outer and expanding circle
countries, which, while di erent from the inner circle varieties, are equally legitimate.

Multilingualism in the classroom. Many traditional ELT classrooms still promote monolingualism,
which is based on the belief that the best way to teach English is to make English the only
language used in the classroom and to ban students' rst language in the belief that the use of
the learners' mother tongue will interfere with the learning of the target language.

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This belief has come under severe criticism by a number of language scholars (e.g., Philipson,
1999) who assert that the monolingual tenet is not based on sound reasoning or on facts. There
is no strong empirical evidence to support the claim that English is best taught monolingually.
The fact that a lot of people in the world attain high pro ciency levels in two languages and
become e ective bilinguals despite the methods of teaching they learned under provides
support for Philipson's (1999) position that the monolingual tenet is but a fallacy, a misleading
notion that can do more harm than good.

In the context of EIL, it is more appropriate, in most instances, for the teacher to promote
bilingualism or multilingualism. This is because it is neither realistic, nor desirable, to produce
monolingual users of the new language. In many ELT contexts, it is in fact desirable to equip
learners of English with the ability to use both English and the mother tongue with ease.

A case in point is when students later work as interpreters or translators where they should
develop a high degree of pro ciency in both languages so that they can process information
from one language to another with ease and uency. Thus there are situations where the
teachers can fruitfully take on the role of a model of multilingual users and also promote
multilingualism by making use of a pedagogy that supports multilingualism.

Instructional materials. In EIL settings, one would expect to nd instructional materials that
represent the world cultures, not just those from the inner circle countries. However, despite
the growing awareness of the role of English as an international language, teaching materials
often re ect the cultures of native English-speaking countries.

Yuen (2011) examined two series of widely used junior secondary English language textbooks in
Hong Kong and found that these course books contained a great deal of cultural material, but
that the cultures of English speaking countries gured much more prominently compared to
those of the Asian and African countries. He concluded that the over-representation of the
English speaking cultures was problematic as it went counter to the goal of English language
teaching in Hong Kong, which, according to the Hong Kong Ministry of Education is “to extend
students’ knowledge and experience of the ‘cultures’ of other people” (Yuen, 2011: 7).

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In the context of EIL, there is then an urgent need to encourage teachers to be more mindful
when selecting and using instructional materials so that there is little or no mismatch between
what is mandated in the curriculum and the kinds of instructional materials that are used in the
classroom. Yuen (2011) and others (e.g., Matsuda, in press) have suggested that there is a need
to increase the teachers' awareness of the cultural contents of their instructional materials and
judge for themselves whether these cultural contents re ect the cultures of speakers of English
as an international language. They should not simply become passive consumers of commercial
course books, but should "become more aware of their role as critical textbook users or even
textbook writers ... " (Yuen, 2011: 8).

Socially and culturally appropriate teaching methodology. As should be clear from the earlier
discussion, ELT methodology is culturally laden. CLT methodology, for example, is based on
certain Western-oriented assumptions and beliefs that may not be universally applicable or
acceptable. McKay (2003) and others (e.g., Ellis, 1996), for example, maintain that the adoption
of CLT in the classroom often means that the teacher has to introduce a new ‘culture of
learning’, which may clash with the learners’ culture of learning.

In CLT, the overemphasis on meaning rather than form, process rather than product, uency
rather than accuracy can be a source of unhappiness or a feeling of frustration among learners
who grow up in a culture that values the mastery of grammatical skills and other linguistic
forms (Ellis, 1996). When the new way of learning is too dissimilar to the old way of learning, the
learners may not learn very much, or worse, develop unfavourable attitudes towards learning
English. Ellis (1996) pointed out that CLT-based activities that have “a communicative or
process orientation were not highly valued by students from traditional backgrounds” which
could result in “passive resistance or non-learning on the part of the student” (p. 214).

Given the diverse socio-cultural settings in which English is taught today, teachers will need to
use what has been termed ‘a socially and culturally appropriate teaching methodology’
(Kramsch & Sullivan, 1996; Mckay 2003;). Such teaching methodology will have to be ‘culturally
attuned and accepted’ (Ellis, 1996: 213) by the local community in which English is taught. For
this to happen, teachers will need to take on the role of critical users of teaching methodology.

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As ELT methodology originated from the West and is based on a Western-based culture of
learning, one of the things teachers needs to do would be to unearth the cultural values
associated with the teaching methods and critically evaluate their suitability vis-a-vis the local
cultures.

For example, if certain tasks or activities are likely to cause resistance on the part of the
learners, the teacher can consider (i) replacing the tasks with ones that are more in sync with
the local culture of learning; (ii) reframing the tasks so that they are more aligned with the
local culture of learning and; (iii) if the teacher believes that the tasks are pedagogically sound
and will produce more e ective learning, they may be introduced gradually so that the students
have enough time to familiarise themselves with the new way of learning.

Conclusion
The ELT landscape is changing and it is changing rapidly. In the 1970s, the goal of learning
English was based on a theory of learning that favoured native speakerism. Regardless of the
purpose of learning, the goal of learning was often pre-determined to be a native speaker
variety of English and a native speaker competence. Pedagogical practices were similarly
characterised by assumptions and beliefs that can be traced back to a culture of learning that
is valued by the native speaker cultures of learning. Accordingly, the teacher took on roles that,
to a large extent, conformed to these assumptions.

As English has now obtained a status as a global language, there is a need for teachers to
critically examine their pedagogical practices and adjust their roles so that they are more in
keeping with the principles that underlie the teaching of English as a global or international
language. This however does not mean that the teachers should abandon their ‘traditional’ roles
and take on completely new roles.

As I have argued in the paper, some teacher roles are based on widely accepted principles of
learning which the teacher should continue to cherish. There are however other teacher roles
that need to be critically examined as they are based on assumptions that may not be in sync
with the realities and principles of EIL.

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References
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Braine, G. (2010). Nonnative speaker English teachers: Research, pedagogy, and professional
growth. New York: Routledge.

Brown, J.D. (1995). The elements of language curriculum. Boston, Massachusetts: Heinle &
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Brown, J.D. (2012). EIL curriculum development. In Alsago , L., Hu, Guangwei, & Mckay, S. L.,
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(pp. 147-167). New York: Routledge.

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Byram, M. 1997. Teaching and assessing intercultural communicative competence. Clevedon, UK:
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Language”. London: British Council.

Kramsch, C., & Sullivan, P. (1996). Appropriate pedagogy. ELT Journal, 50(3), 199-212.

Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational strategies in the language classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge

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Ellis, G. (1996). How culturally appropriate is the communicative approach? ELT Journal, 50(3),
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Harmer, J. (2007). The practice of English language teaching (4th ed.). Essex: Pearson Education
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Holliday, A. (2006). Native-speakerism. ELT Journal, 60(4), 385-387.

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Llurda, E. (2004). Non-native-speaker teachers and English as an international language.

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native models among L2 users and teachers. In F. Shari an (ed), English as an international
language: Perspectives and pedagogical issues (pp. 119-134). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Matsuda, A. (2012). Teaching materials in EIL. In Alsago , L., Hu, Guangwei, & Mckay, S. L.,
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(pp. 168-185). New York: Routledge.

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Mckay, S.L. (2012). Principles of teaching English as an international language. In Alsago , L., Hu,
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English as an international language: Perspectives and pedagogical issues (pp. 1-18). Bristol, UK:
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Vignette
I have been teaching English in Chinese colleges for over nine years. I still remember the days
when I started teaching English: During my rst meeting with my students, I always asked them
to listen to BBC or VOA every day and imitate the speakers, believing that speaking like the
native speakers of English was an essential step for them to be successful language learners. In
class, I spared no e ort in correcting students’ “non-standard” pronunciation. However, despite
the endeavour made by my students to acquire the “native” type of pronunciation, most of
them, especially those from the rural areas of China whose only access to aural English was
their teacher’s accented pronunciation, failed to attain this goal and became very frustrated
with the experience.

It is the chance to attend a teacher-education program in Singapore that reveals to me that

intelligibility should be the goal of pronunciation training. I now adopt a di erent approach to
teaching English. Yes, I still correct my students’ pronunciation mistakes, but my focus is on
those which are likely to cause misunderstanding in comprehension. Whether or not my
students’ pronunciation sounds native-like is no longer a concern for me.

Such change is also taking place in my choice of the instructional materials. I am now adding
audio materials spoken by people with various accents, such as the Singaporean one or the
Indian one in class listening activities (which I never considered a suitable thing to do before).
Interestingly, my students seem very interested in the speakers’ pronunciation di erences and
start to accept the view that English is spoken in a wide variety of ways. Awareness of this fact
renders my students more tolerant of their own pronunciation style — which is re ected in
their willingness and con dence to participate in class discussion. Another bene t is that an
unfamiliar accent is no longer regarded as “strange” or “bad” by my students; they simply view
it as being “di erent”.

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Another change I would like to highlight is that in the past I was preoccupied with acquainting
students solely with the British and American cultures, under the belief that they would only
communicate in English with people from these cultures. Motivated by the realisation that
English is increasingly assuming the role of an international language and my students will
probably communicate with people from all over the world, the majority of whom are non-native
speakers of English, I am now consciously including materials that depict the cultural
characteristics of people from countries such as Japan, Korea and Saudi Arabia. Students’
interest in such information is more intense than I had expected: Thanks to the omnipresence of
the Internet, they have already made some foreign friends who are not native speakers of
English.

To sum up, I think my role as an English teacher has undergone great changes. In the past, I was
obsessed with helping students acquire native-like English, under the assumption that their
future interactants would all speak in the same “standard” style. My experience abroad has
taught me the importance of knowing about the existence other varieties of English. So far, I
have already embarked on the journey to acquaint my students with other English varieties,
although the amount of time devoted to such an endeavour is limited due to all kinds of
practical concerns. I am happy to note that my students have developed a more positive
attitude towards other varieties of English.

WL – EFL Teacher, PRC

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