Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hanzhi Wang
Professor Samantha
ENGL 106
There is an article written by Matsuda and Mastsuda to discuss about the current
situation of English as a commonly used world language. In the article, the author points out
that English is a complicated and integrated language, which includes not only complicated
grammatical construction, but also complex amount of contents that might be absorbed from
other languages. As Matsuda and Matsuda state in the article that many English language
users today use this language as a medium of international and international communication,
often in tandem with other languages. With the growing understanding of the complexity of
English, there has been an increasing interest in considering the pedagogical implications of
World English (WE) (Matsuda, 370). In a word, the articles overall statement is that
In the article, the authors present five principles for readers to know how the English
teaching functions. The first principle is Teach the Dominant Language Forms and
Functions. For this perspective, the author believes that one of the English teachers
obligations is to help students discern the standard English from discursive amounts of
understand the privileged status of some certain various English, however, the authorization
of these standard English might lead to economic and social marginalization of other
languages and even other English varieties as a result (Matsuda and Matsuda, 372). As far
as Im concerned, I am one of the supporters of the opinion in Matsudas principle one, which
is English learners should respect other varieties of English while at the same time embrace
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the standard Englishs contribution to the globalization and improvement of productivity due
I also a proponent of Matsuda and Matsudas principle two, which is Teach the Non-
Dominant Language Forms and Functions. For my opinion, to be able to know how English
functions in various cultural situations is one of the best ways for English learners to develop
alternative uses of English can actually work against the goal of helping students develop an
accurate understanding of how the English language works and how it changes over time
(Matsuda -372).
Overall I am in favor of the five principles in the article, because I think that the five
principles are listed in an order of English progressing step by step. For instance, you have to
learn the basic structure of the standard English as stated in principle one, then you can move
on to other dialects of English, which is supported in principle two Teach the Non-dominant
Language Forms and Functions. With familiarity with both standard English and extended
English, learners start to have the ability to distinguish the boundary between descriptive
English and prescriptive English, which is supported in principle three Teach the Boundary
Between What Works and What Does Not. Furthermore, when we are familiar with the the
fixed pattern grammatical perspective, we should move on to the practical use of English,
indicated in Teach the Principles and Strategies of Discourse Negotiation, so that we can
use English as a tool to get what we want. When we become more specialized in English, we
can delve into the details of English and correct the possible mistakes, so that we can support
the principle five Teach the Risks Involved in Using Devotional Features.
myself in the standard use of English while I am chatting with native speakers, I dont think
that native speaker pronunciation should be taught as a model in an English course. For my
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own experience, I used to listen to BBC News broadcast before I go to sleep, but I failed to
understand the content on VOA News when the BBC News application on my mobile phone
didnt work. According to Matsuda and Matsuda, English teachers dont have to only teach
dominant English because non dominant forms also have different and valuable social
meaning, the reason why non dominant forms are also works for international student who
learn English as an additional language like me is varieties of English, the important idea
about learning English is make English become more familiar to me, not learning how to
The reason for which I prefer to get to know more than one kind of standard English is
that more and more people from all over the world learn English now, and there is no one
specific pronunciation or usage of English can apply to all of these English learners. In order
to show how important it is for English to be flexible, Rhode points out that For every
native speaker, there are three nonnative speakers As China continues to grow, meanwhile,
some fear that a form of Chinese could replace English as the world's global language within
three generations (Rohde, 1995). These evidence shows that more and more people learn
English, therefore, it is hard to standardize their learning materials.While that happens, the
hardest truth is if English keeps being unchanged, there might be possibility that other
I have potential specialty in this subject because I have a friend who speaks English with
Arabian accents, so I can take him as a subject of English as second language learner and
myself as a subject of English as foreign language learner. When I am having daily chat with
my Arabian friend, both of us might have usual difficulties understanding each other fully
even if both of use produce correct and meaningful sentences during our conversation. There
was one time I failed to understand my study partners meaning when we talked because he
speaks Arabian accent English and I usually listen British accent English as a practice. Also
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only knows about British accent English isnt enough for me, so I always wanted to learn
American accent when i was in my high school, but it is too expensive so I postponed it until
Overall, it is worth noticing that standard English does play an important role in
constructing the dominant position of English as a world language. However, we should also
see that what distinguishes English apart is its speakers tolerant and embracing minds.
Therefore, we should embrace the complexity of English varieties and enhance Englishs
flexibility.
Work Cited
Matsuda and Matsuda. World English's and the Teaching of Writing, 2010.
Rhode, David. As English Spreads, Speakers Morph It into World Tongue, 1995.