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World Englishes, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 4764, 2001. 08832919

Teaching world Englishes to native speakers of English in the USA

RYUKO KUBOTA*

ABSTRACT: The global spread of English has increased opportunities for native English speakers in the
US to interact with other speakers of world Englishes (WE). However, these native speakers are rarely
encouraged to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for intercultural communication, often resulting
in a one-way communicative burden imposed on the WE speakers. To explore ways to redress this
problem, a pilot project was conducted in an English IV class at a public high school. The purposes were to
raise students' awareness of the global spread of English and its implications and to have them explore
ways to communicate effectively with WE speakers. This paper describes the instructional unit developed
for the project and its effect on students' views on various issues related to communicating with WE
speakers, and on their perceptions and comprehension of WE speech samples. The instructional effect was
investigated by pre- and post-questionnaires and dictation tests, classroom observations, and post-study
interviews. A total of 17 students participated. Results of t-tests for the questionnaires and dictation
showed no significant effect except on beliefs about second language acquisition and perceived compre-
hension of the speech samples. Classroom observations and interviews revealed individual differences in
the instructional effect. The paper offers implications and future directions.

INTRODUCTION
The colonial and postcolonial spread of English worldwide has created a number of
varieties of world Englishes (WE). The stratification of WE has been represented in terms
of three concentric circles: the Inner Circle (English as a mother tongue), the Outer Circle
(English as an additional institutionalized language), and the Expanding Circle (English as
a foreign language) (Kachru, 1985). This global phenomenon is increasingly affecting daily
communication among people within the Inner Circle countries. For instance, many parts
of the United States that host immigrants, international students, and/or foreign visitors
witness a greater amount of communication in English among people with different
cultural, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds than ever before.
While many nonnative speakers of WE try to improve their communicative skills in
English by attending ESL/EFL classes, the Inner Circle native English speakers rarely
receive training to develop the awareness and communicative skills needed for interacting
with speakers of Englishes that are different from their own variety. This imbalance
imposes one-way accommodation on Outer Circle and Expanding Circle speakers, who
often receive the blame for miscommunication. Such an inequality is also reflected in
prejudices and discrimination against speakers of non-mainstream US English1 at work
places and campuses (Lippi-Green, 1997). In light of the philosophy that communication is
a shared effort and that not only the speaker of a non-mainstream language but also the
listener who speaks the `mainstream' language must share communicative responsibility
(Lippi-Green, 1997), it is necessary for Inner Circle native speakers to develop a positive
attitude toward other WE speakers and skills in comprehending WE. This need is
particularly pressing for our younger generations, since they increasingly experience
face-to-face communication with various WE speakers on campuses and at work places.

* School of Education, The University of North Carolina, CB 3500, Peabody Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-
3500, USA. E-mail: rkubota@email.unc.edu

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48 Ryuko Kubota

This pilot project addressed this need by teaching American students in a high-school
English IV class some concepts and issues related to communication with WE speakers.
The purposes of this paper are to introduce the instructional unit on WE developed for this
pilot project and to report the effect of the instruction on students' views about issues
related to communicating with WE speakers and their perceptions and comprehension of
WE speech samples. It is important to note that this project was exploratory in nature. The
instructional content, strategies and materials were experimental, and the effectiveness of
the instruction cannot be generalized since the context was very specific. Nevertheless, this
project generated some important future directions for raising the awareness necessary for
cross-cultural communication among mainstream English native speakers.

RATIONALE AND CONCEPTS

One of the central concepts in the research field on WE is the spread and stratification of
English in the world (Kachru, 1997a). The three concentric English-speaking Circles (i.e.,
the Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circles) represent the spread and stratification of English
from its different historical, sociolinguistic and literary contexts (Kachru, 1985, 1997a).
The estimated number of English speakers for all three Circles is over two billion; the
English-using population in Asia alone is far greater than the total populations of the
USA, the UK, and Canada combined (Kachru, 1997b). These figures indicate that English
no longer belongs only to `native speakers' of the Inner Circle; it is used by other people in
bilingual/multilingual situations with various forms of pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax
and discourse.
With increased human mobility around the globe, the worldwide spread of English also
implies increased diversification of English in the Inner Circle countries such as the USA.
Many US college campuses, for instance, have faced a challenge in communication
between international teaching assistants (ITAs) or professors, who use Outer or Expand-
ing Circle varieties of English, and undergraduate students who are Inner Circle native
speakers of English. Researchers have analyzed this challenge by focusing on ITAs'
linguistic, sociocultural and discourse competencies and teaching skills (e.g., Halleck
and Moder, 1995; Hoekje and Williams, 1992; Tyler, 1992; Williams, 1992). However, it
is not only ITAs and international professors that are responsible for communication
difficulties. The difficulties can also be caused by mainstream English speakers' intolerance
toward speakers of Englishes that are different from a certain national norm. Lippi-Green
(1997) presents examples of discrimination and prejudices against speakers of non-main-
stream English such as Hawaiian Creole, Ebonics (see, e.g., World Englishes, vol. 19, no. 1),
Asian and Hispanic varieties in various contexts including schools, jobs, courts, films, and
so on.
In human interaction, both the listener and the speaker should share responsibilities so
that communication takes place. However, often a speaker who uses non-mainstream
language carries all of the communicative burden and the member of the dominant
language group feels justified to reject his/her role as a listener (Lippi-Green, 1997). What
prevents a member of a dominant language group from sharing a communicative
responsibility are not only biases against non-mainstream forms of language but also
racial/ethnic prejudices. Research found that undergraduate students' ethnic stereotypes
negatively affect perceived accentedness and listening comprehension of lectures that they
listen to (Brown, 1992; Rubin, 1992; Rubin and Smith, 1990). Inner Circle mainstream

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English speakers are partly responsible for the perceived communication `problems' that
non-mainstream speakers face, and both parties need to come together with trust and
empathy to create a common discourse (Crittenden, 1994).
The stereotypes and prejudices against non-mainstream languages held by members of a
dominant language group are constructed by the discourses and social practices that
surround them. Lippi-Green (1997), for instance, demonstrates how selectively Disney
movies use particular accents to represent certain types of characters. One way to liberate
people from such prejudiced discourses is to expose them to linguistic diversity through
cross-cultural communication. Research shows that the more courses American university
students take from ITAs, the more positive their attitudes actually become toward them
(Plakans, 1997; Rubin, 1992; Rubin and Smith, 1990). This indicates that awareness of WE
and associated issues as well as experiences interacting with WE speakers can help Inner
Circle mainstream English speakers resume their part in communicative responsibility.
Educational efforts to enhance Inner Circle English native speakers' sensitivity toward
other WE speakers have been made in areas such as ESL/EFL teacher training (Brown,
1993; 1995; Brown and Peterson, 1997), international business (Jarvis and Stephens, 1994),
college freshman orientation training (Jacobson and Sleicher, 1998), and partnership
training between ITAs and undergraduate students (Rubin, 1992). Introducing issues on
WE can also be part of multicultural education in public schools where students develop
awareness and attitudes necessary for functioning in a culturally and linguistically diverse
society. However, very few such educational interventions exist. Thus, an instructional
unit was developed as a pilot project in order to raise high school students' awareness of
the global spread of English and its implications, and to have them explore ways to
communicate effectively with various WE speakers.
Although the stratification of English is often represented by three concentric Circles,
this categorization is rather simplistic, since it does not address the many varieties of
English within a Circle or a nation (Tripathi, 1998). In fact, it became clear during the
planning stage of this project that addressing the domestic varieties of English would be
necessary, because they are the most familiar varieties for the students involved in this
study. Domestic varieties in the US context include regional varieties that can be found in
areas such as Boston, New York, Texas and the South, and ethnic varieties such as
Ebonics. Regional varieties are distinguished from mainstream US English (see note 1),
and they contain mainly phonological and lexical variations. Ethnic variations such as
Ebonics demonstrate different variations, and often become a focus of debate in educa-
tional contexts (Perry and Delpit, 1998). This paper categorizes such domestic varieties of
English as part of WE, although they will be referred to as `American Tongues' (taken
from the title of a video, American Tongues, used in the instruction) where a distinction is
necessary.
Another aspect of WE relevant to this project involves politics of Anglicization and
linguistic and cultural implications of the spread of English. Researchers have critically
examined how the global spread of English affects and reinforces political, economic,
social, cultural and educational policies and practices within and between nations (e.g.,
Phillipson, 1992; Pennycook, 1994). Phillipson (1992) argues that the dominance of
English in various contexts produces and reproduces structural and cultural inequalities
between English and other languages, constructing and legitimating linguistic imperialism.
While the dominance of English produces and legitimates unequal allocation of resources
and knowledge, it also Anglicizes and transforms other languages (cf. Baumgardner, 1997;

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50 Ryuko Kubota

Hilgendorf, 1996; Ridder, 1995; Kubota, 1998). An analogy can be made between the
global spread of English and `McDonaldization,' in that linguistic homogenization limits
the maintenance and promotion of linguistic/cultural diversity and linguistic human rights
(Phillipson, 1998).2 Pennycook (1994) explores the dominance of English further beyond
the unidirectional power relations implied by linguistic imperialism. He examines the
complexity of language policies in Malaysia and Singapore and explores possibilities of
appropriating English in order to emancipate the knowledge and identities that have been
subjugated by unequal relations of power. Exploring implications of the spread of English
can be an intellectual challenge for high-school students. Nonetheless, basic concepts such
as linguistic domination/subordination, cross-linguistic influences, linguistic privileges,
and language possibilities constitute knowledge that is essential for students to understand
their communicative responsibility.
The concept of sharing communicative responsibility echoes the notion of `mutual
accommodation' in multicultural education (Nieto, 1996: 334). In a community that
promotes monoculturalism and monolingualism, the dominant group forces the
dominated group to accommodate and acquire the dominant way of life. However, a
multicultural society affirms cultural and linguistic differences and rejects one-way
accommodation. In communication between Inner Circle mainstream English speakers
and other WE speakers, the accommodation should be mutual with both parties exploring
ways to establish effective communication.
Establishing mutual accommodation can be facilitated by mainstream English speakers'
understanding of facts about second language acquisition. There is a general misconcep-
tion that anyone can quickly acquire native-like proficiency in a second language when
immersed in a second language environment. However, research indicates that the
acquisition of academic language skills in a second language is a long process (e.g.,
Cummins, 1981; Thomas and Collier, 1997). Furthermore, for those who start learning the
language after puberty, the attainment of native-like proficiencies tends to be more
difficult than for younger learners (e.g., Johnson and Newport, 1989; Krashen, Long
and Scarcella, 1979; Patkowski, 1980, 1994). Fossilization (Selinker, 1972) can also occur
in the process of second language acquisition, preventing learners from becoming native-
like speakers of the language. As Lippi-Green (1997) points out, one's accent is analogous
to one's physical characteristics, such as height, that are difficult to alter. While people
generally agree that discrimination based on one's height would be unfair, they often feel
totally justified to judge others' abilities and intelligence based on what forms of language
they speak. It is necessary for Inner Circle native speakers of mainstream English to
develop critical awareness of such biases and develop empathy, tolerance, and positive
attitudes toward other WE speakers.

CREATING A LESSON UNIT

This project was conducted in an English IV class at a public high school in North Carolina (see
more detailed descriptions about the class later). The lesson unit on WE consisted of a total of eight
sessions (55 minutes each) which were taught during eight weeks (generally, one session a week) in the
fall semester of 1998. The overall goals of the unit were: (1) to understand that there are many
varieties of English used in the United States and in the world, (2) to understand a brief history of
English, (3) to understand the difficulty of acquiring native-like proficiency in a second language, (4)
to explore ways to communicate effectively with WE speakers, and (5) to critically investigate

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Teaching world Englishes to native speakers of English 51

implications of the global spread of English. The instructor of this unit was a female who was not the
regular teacher of the class but was certified to teach English and had formerly taught at the same
school. This instructor and I created lesson plans together prior to the project. The instructional
objectives, materials and approaches were further modified as the instruction proceeded. The
instruction included mini-lectures, visual aids, whole class discussion, group work, videos, free
writing, and guest speakers. The intended pedagogical principles derived from critical pedagogy (cf.
Frederickson, 1998; Freire, 1970/1993, 1998) and efforts were made to make the instruction dialogic,
inquiry-oriented and collaborative. However, because of some uncontrollable factors described later,
the pedagogical approach tended to be teacher-directed.

Day 1
The objectives of this class were (1) to become aware of the existence of American Tongues, (2) to
examine one's own perceptions about American Tongues, and (3) to reflect on one's own experiences
interacting with speakers of American Tongues. First, students wrote what kinds of regional and
ethnic varieties of English that they knew of and what feelings they had toward different varieties of
English. After a short discussion on their writing, the class watched segments of a video, American
Tongues. After watching the video, students wrote their reactions to the video. Then, the class
engaged in a discussion on the issues addressed in the video, including the kinds of English
presented, their impressions about them, people's feelings toward them expressed in the video, and
communicative responsibility. Finally, the class wrote what they learned.

Day 2
This session focused on international varieties of English and had the following objectives: (1) to
understand different types of WE, and (2) to reflect on students' experiences of interacting with WE
speakers and their perceptions about WE. First, students listed, in writing, countries where English is
spoken or countries from which immigrants come to America already knowing English, and the ways
they would communicate with people with limited English proficiency. Then, the instructor
introduced the three concentric Circles of WE and historical trends of immigrant populations in
the United States, showing that more and more immigrants are coming from the Expanding Circle
countries. After a short discussion on what students wrote earlier, the class watched segments of
fiction and non-fiction movies which include WE (i.e., Mississippi Masala, El Norte, Blue Collar and
Buddha, Dim Sum, Break of Dawn, Living on Tokyo Time, and Story of English). After students
shared their impressions, on a world map they identified the countries where the speakers in the
videos originated. Finally, the class wrote what they learned.

Day 3
The objectives of this class were (1) to discuss why it is necessary to communicate effectively with
speakers of WE, and (2) to discuss why it is necessary to think critically about the global spread of
English. Students first wrote down their responses to these questions. After sharing responses, the
instructor introduced some facts from the census data on language minority populations, linguistic
diversity among them, and their expected growth (Lippi-Green, 1997; local newspaper on the Web).
As for the international context, the instructor presented a world map with Inner, Outer and
Expanding Circle countries color coded and shown with different scales to reflect their relative
proportion of the world's population (Crystal, 1997a: 361). In order to further study the need for
intercultural communication, students, working in pairs, read and summarized different newspaper
articles on various sectors in North Carolina that are making efforts to meet the needs of immigrants.
The pairs then shared their findings. Finally, the instructor led a discussion on the spread of English
using an analogy of the domination of Microsoft.

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Day 4
This session moved to the topic of the historical development of English and the status of English
in various countries. The objectives were (1) to understand a brief history of the English language,
and (2) to further understand the global stratification of English. First the instructor introduced the
historical development of the English language by showing examples of Old, Middle and Early
Modern English. The shift from Old English to Middle English due to an influence of French was
emphasized as an example of how language shifts are related to power. Then, students worked in
small groups to study the linguistic situation of one region such as Australia and New Zealand, the
Caribbean, former colonial Africa, South Africa, and South Asia by reading descriptions with a map
from Crystal (1997b) and a website called Ethnologue.3

Day 5
Since the class did not finish the group project in the previous session, each group continued their
work from Day 4, and the class discussed their findings.

Day 6
This session consisted of presentations given by two university professors: a male from India and a
female from Mexico. The objectives were (1) to listen to and interact with WE speakers, and (2) to
understand some of the social and cultural issues related to English in these countries. The speaker
from India talked about linguistic diversity in India and presented clips of audio news from the
Internet which had an Indian accent or an American English accent. He also discussed the influence
of American culture and English on Indian popular music. The speaker from Mexico discussed the
love/hate relationship that Mexicans feel toward English (i.e., the US invasion of Mexico vs. tourism,
business, material goods, and popular culture) and presented demographic and linguistic facts about
Spanish-speaking people in the United States. She also mentioned how English is influencing Spanish
by showing some popular magazines. After listening to the guest speakers, students asked them
questions and wrote down what they learned.

Day 7
The last two sessions focused on topics related to communicating with WE speakers. One topic left
from Day 5 was also addressed. The objectives of Day 7 were: (1) to understand the impact of the
global spread of English on other languages; (2) to understand some facts about second language
acquisition, and (3) to explore ways to communicate effectively with WE speakers. Students read and
answered comprehension questions about a `shock news article,' in which many content words were
replaced by Spanish words in order to illustrate how it feels when one language is invaded by
another, underscoring the point that the people who know the language of power are more privileged
than those who do not. Then, the instructor used football/tennis analogies to discuss the two-way
nature of communication and the importance of taking communicative responsibility. For issues of
second language acquisition, the length of time it takes for immigrant children to learn academic
English skills and the age factor present in the likelihood of acquiring native-like pronunciation were
introduced with concrete examples. To underscore the influence of English on other languages and
linguistic diversity in the world, newspapers in various languages were shown to the class, and
students worked in small groups to study how much English is used in articles or advertisements.

Day 8
The objectives of this final class were (1) to review the topics discussed in the unit, and (2) to
explore strategies for cross-cultural communication with WE speakers. After reviewing the topics
and contents introduced in previous sessions, the same movie segments that the class had viewed on
Day 2 were played again. Then, the class watched part of a video titled The World of Diversity,

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Teaching world Englishes to native speakers of English 53

analyzed the miscommunication that happened in the episode, and discussed how to make the
situation better. Students finally reflected on the entire unit in writing.

THE EFFECT OF INSTRUCTION

This study investigated how the instruction affected students' views about issues related
to communication with various WE speakers and their perceptions and listening ability of
WE speech samples. The investigation included pre- and post-questionnaires, pre- and
post-dictation tests, classroom observations, and post-study interviews. This section
describes the setting, methods, and results of the investigation.

The school and the class

The public high school in which this project was conducted is located in a rural town in
North Carolina. The total population of this school district is approximately 13,000. The
socioeconomic status of the population in this district ranges from the poor to the upper-
middle class. Although the town is adjacent to both a small town and a large city that host
major universities with a considerable number of international students and faculty, the
population of this district is predominantly white (about 71%) and black (about 28%). The
Hispanic population at the time of this project was very small, but projected to increase.
The total number of students at the school is approximately 1,700 with approximately the
same racial composition as the district population.
The class in which this project was conducted was an English IV class. There were 20
students all together and 17 of them (9 females and 8 males) participated in the study.
Among the 9 female students, 8 were white and 1 was black, and among the 8 male
students, 5 were white and 3 were black. All the students were college-bound. The average
GPA of the students was 2.59 (highest 3.79 and lowest 1.46 with SD .72). At the beginning
of the project, students filled out a survey on their background. The age ranged from 16 to
18, with an average of 17.1. All of the students were native speakers of English. In terms of
overall experience, the class ranged from students who had had experiences with cultural
diversity to those who had had only minimum exposure to cross-cultural encounters. Two
female students had visited Europe and one male had visited Canada, but the rest of the
students had never been abroad. Fourteen of the 17 students had been born and raised in
North Carolina and all of them had visited other states. All students except one had
studied a foreign language (mostly Spanish). Nine students had no friends who were
nonnative speakers of English and 10 students had never had opportunities to interact with
nonnative speakers outside of the school. Seven students had had a teacher who spoke with
a foreign accent. Twelve students had seen foreign movies with subtitles and 8 students had
read foreign literature in translation, while only 3 students had been to ethnic festivals. The
class attendance for this unit was fairly good; 11 students attended all the sessions, while 2
students missed two sessions and 4 students missed one session.
As mentioned earlier, the instructor was a female certified to teach English. As a former
teacher at the same school, she was familiar with the general student body. The regular
English teacher of this class was present in the classroom when the instruction took place.
He provided AV equipment, encouraged students to turn in papers, and sometimes
commented on instruction.

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Methods of investigation
In this project, both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to investigate the
effect of the instruction. The instruments used for the quantitative analysis consisted of
pre- and post-study questionnaires and dictation tasks. There were two questionnaires: A
questionnaire on general perceptions of language and WE (`General Perceptions Ques-
tionnaire'); and another on speech samples that the class listened to (`Speech Sample
Questionnaire'). The General Perception Questionnaire contained a total of 20 statements
divided into three sections: 5 statements on beliefs about language acquisition and
learning, 12 statements on perceptions about English and its varieties, and 3 statements
on desire to communicate with WE speakers.4 Students responded to each statement on a
Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 9 (strongly agree). They filled out the
same questionnaire before and after the project. The Speech Sample Questionnaire was
developed by modifying the instruments used by Delamere (1996) and Chiba et al. (1995).
This questionnaire had a total of 30 items which were divided into 4 sections: 8 items on the
quality of speech, 5 items on the level of understanding, 11 items on the personal traits and
background of the speaker, and 6 questions on desire to communicate with the speaker.
Before the project, students listened to 6 audio-recorded speech samples. The samples
represented 6 WE speakers from Australia, China, India, Ecuador, Nigeria, and France.
All of the speakers had formal education in their home country, and were either
professionals or graduate students. They spoke about education in their home country
for one minute into a tape recorder. These speeches were not identical, because the
investigation was not focused on whether students respond differently to these different
varieties of English, but on whether the students' attitudes toward various WE changed
after the instruction. Students listened to speech samples one by one and responded to a set
of 30 statements on a Likert Scale ranging from 1 to 9. Students were instructed to respond
to the items based on how the speakers speak, not what they say. Another question was
whether the instruction on WE would improve students' listening of these speech samples.
In order to investigate this, a dictation test was given immediately after they responded to
the questionnaire for each speech sample. Three short sentences or phrases were selected
from each speech sample (the number of words for each item ranged from 5 to 11, with an
average of 7.2). Students listened to each sentence/phrase only once and wrote down what
they heard. Two students who had missed the class on the day the pre-questionnaires and
tests were administered completed the same tasks one week later in a separate room.
The qualitative investigation involved class observations and interviews with 13 students
at the end of the project. Each class was both audio and video recorded. To obtain more
detailed information, more frequent in-depth interviews would have been necessary.
However, due to the tight school schedule, interviews were conducted only once. Also,
because of a time constraint at the end of the school term, it was not possible to interview
all the students.

Limitations of this study

Before presenting the results of the investigations, it is necessary to emphasize that the
results should not be generalized because of the small sample size, and limitations of the
validity and reliability of the instruments for measuring the change in students' perceptions
and attitudes over time. Many factors such as seriousness of the students and the criteria
they used in responding to the questions seemed to affect the results (see the qualitative

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Teaching world Englishes to native speakers of English 55

investigation discussed later). These limitations constrain the generalizability of this study.
Also, the particular setting in which the instruction took place might have influenced many
aspects of learning. As mentioned earlier, the unit was taught by an outside instructor
rather than by the regular teacher of the class. Also, a lack of formal testing seemed to turn
the formal atmosphere in the beginning into a casual mood. Some students seemed to take
the classes less seriously as time went by. There were one or two students who kept their
heads down on their desks toward the end of the unit. Also, due to the experimental nature
of this project, some activities, such as group work on linguistic situations in certain
regions of the world, did not yield the expected learning outcomes. More instructional time
would also have helped students develop more in-depth understanding of the issues
discussed.
Another difficulty was an existing pattern of classroom interaction that was incompa-
tible with a dialogic, collaborative and inquiry-oriented approach. Although the project
attempted to use such an approach, the class seemed to be more used to passive and
teacher-directed learning. The classroom had desks arranged in rows, and the students
apparently had not been used to class discussion. During the first session with this seat
arrangement, it seemed that only about one-third of the class was engaged in discussion.
With a hope to increasing student participation, the desks were subsequently arranged in a
semi circle. This seating arrangement, along with the instructor's use of more open-ended
questions, encouraged students' expression of their opinions. However, by the end of the
second session, students were overlapping with each other when speaking out. On Day 3,
in order to establish a protocol for class discussion, the instructor suggested that students
raise their hands before speaking. However, this rule made only a few students become
regular volunteers to respond to the instructor's questions. Also, those volunteers were
talking only to the teacher, not to the entire class. At times, it was very hard to hear their
voices, and there was almost no student-to-student interaction. Although this project
aimed at developing critical understanding of the global spread of English, these limita-
tions seemed to become one of the factors that prevented students from engaging
themselves in critical discussion. These limitations and difficulties should be taken into
consideration for interpreting the results.

Results of the quantitative investigation

For the General Perception Questionnaire, the reliability of the three scales (i.e., beliefs
about language acquisition and learning, perceptions about English and its varieties, and
desire to communicate with WE speakers) was measured to see if the pre- and post-
questionnaire means of each scale could be compared. The results did not yield high
enough reliability to permit comparisons. Thus, a matched-pairs t-test was run item by
item. The results of these t-tests showed that three out of five statements on students'
beliefs about second language acquisition had a significant increase in means (p < .1). They
were Q2 (Anyone can learn to speak perfectly in any foreign language if s/he lived in the
country where the language is spoken: p .005), Q3 (All immigrants to the United States
will develop native-like English skills after one year if they try hard to learn: p .044), and
Q5 (It is easy for me to learn to speak any foreign language like a native speaker of that
language: p .001) (note that all of these items were reverse coded). All the rest of the
items except for four had higher means on the post-questionnaire, although the differences
were not significant. The questions with non-significantly lower means on the post-
questionnaire were Q6 (Foreigners and immigrants in the United States should get rid

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of their foreign accent: reverse coded), Q7 (Everyone in the world should speak English:
reverse coded), Q9 (Learning a foreign language is important for American people), and
Q10 (The global spread of English is a good thing: reverse coded), which means that
students increasingly believed that foreign accents should be eliminated, everyone in the
world should speak English and so forth.
For the Speech Sample Questionnaire, the mean score of each item across the six speech
samples was calculated. In order to see if the pre- and post-questionnaires mean scores of
each of the following four scales the quality of speech (Q18), the level of understanding
(Q913), personal traits and background of the speaker (Q1424), and desire to commu-
nicate with the speaker (Q2530) could be compared in the aggregate, reliability among
the mean scores was measured. The results yielded high reliability figures in the range
Alpha .91 to .99. Thus, a matched-pairs t-test was run to compare pre- and post-
questionnaire means for each scale. Although the mean score of the post-questionnaire
in each of the four scales was higher than that of the pre-questionnaire, only the second
scale (i.e., the level of understanding) demonstrated a significant difference (p .084).
Each of the dictation items was scored in terms of correct words written. Out of the total
possible score of 129, the pre-test mean was 99.18 and the post-test mean was 100.53. A
matched-pairs t-test found no significant difference.

Attitudes toward ethnic and linguistic diversities

The instruction on WE, particularly during the earlier sessions, prompted students'
expressions of their candid feelings toward linguistic and ethnic diversity around them.
Some of these voices indicated students' naivety and negativity toward linguistic and
cultural diversity. On Day 2, during a discussion on interacting with people with different
racial and linguistic backgrounds in the community, the following exchange occurred:
Teacher: Is there any particular language you hear more and more?
Student:5 Spanish.
Tony: Too much.
......
Teacher: Are there many Mexican students in this school?
Students: Not very many. Four.
Tony: They're going to take over the world. I'm serious.
John: They're more organized than we are.
......
Teacher: Do you see any groups other than Mexicans coming here?
Ashley: I went to the orientation at X University. All I saw were Chinese
people. One out of four were Chinese!
John: They are Asian.
Ashley: Asian.
......
Teacher: Do people all over the world need to speak English?
Several students: Yeah.
Teacher: If they do, how come they need to speak English, if they don't live in
America or Canada?
Linda: When they come over here, they need to speak it so that we won't
have trouble communicating.

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Teaching world Englishes to native speakers of English 57

Student: If we visit their country . . .

Teacher: If we want to visit there . . .
Tony: We wouldn't have to learn the language.
......
Teacher: Let's just pretend Mr Park (the regular teacher of the class) was from
Germany and he had a very thick German accent, and he got up and
talked to you every day, and he lectured most of the day . . . How
many of you could not tolerate and switch to another class?
(About one half of the students raised their hands.)

These opinions represent xenophobia, a homogenized view of Asian people (that they
are all Chinese), an ethnocentric attitude (that Americans do not need to learn foreign
languages), and avoiding interaction with nonnative speakers of English. These discussions
elicited students' authentic voices about their feelings toward non-American people and
their language, making these feelings and opinions a topic for class discussion. As the unit
proceeded, these voices were not expressed publicly. However, students' attitudes did not
seem to improve significantly as the quantitative results show, which indicates a difficulty
of transforming these perceptions through critical inquiry.

Individual differences in attitudes and perceptions

The data on students' previous experiences, personal backgrounds and reflections on
their learning were not detailed enough to arrive at any comprehensive picture of the
impact of the instruction on each individual student. Nonetheless, the information
obtained indicated that the unit affected students in several different ways. The following
grouping, based on class observation, students' reflective writings, and interviews, roughly
correspond to the rank-ordered grouping of students based on the mean scores of the post-
Speech Sample Questionnaire, post-General Perception Questionnaire on desire to com-
municate with WE speakers, and the total scores of the post-dictation test. Although this
grouping does not represent absolute categories, they are helpful to understand a general
tendency. The first group, consisting of about two-fifths of the class at the top of the rank-
ordered scale, generally enhanced or maintained positive attitudes toward linguistic
diversity. These students generally had more previous exposure to and interest in cultural
and linguistic diversity. The second group, consisting of another two-fifths, had less
previous experience, and was not as enthusiastic as the first group about their learning
experience. It was difficult to determine the impact of the instruction for this group. The
third group, about one-fifth of the class, consisted of students who seemed to be either
indifferent or negative toward linguistic diversity, and their attitudes became more
negative.
First, about two-fifths of the students, regardless of where they were born and raised,
developed or maintained positive attitudes toward linguistic diversity. Some of them had
already had positive attitudes in the beginning, but one student did not. For instance,
David, a black male who was born in North Carolina and lived in San Antonio, Texas
from age 10 to 17, had several friends from Asian countries. He sometimes asked me
questions after class about the kind of visa necessary for his girlfriend in Thailand to come
to the USA, or opportunities available for him to learn Japanese. He was always engaged
in learning, but never spoke up in class. In his last writing, he wrote, `I haven't really
gathered much of anything new because I knew lots of it anyway. I'm used to talking with

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58 Ryuko Kubota

foreigners.' On ways to communicate effectively with WE speakers, he wrote, `Show

positive posture towards the speaker so that you will be more in tune for what is being
said.' Jodie, a white female who recently moved from Virginia where she was born and
raised, also wrote for the final reflective writing, `First, and most importantly, we must
have an open-minded perspective on the different ways people speak English and to listen
carefully to try to communicate with them.' She often volunteered to respond to the
teacher's questions, although she spoke very softly, and always took writing tasks
seriously. She indicated that she had several friends in Virginia who were nonnative
speakers. Alice, another white female, was born and raised in North Carolina. She did not
have as many nonnative English-speaking friends as Jodie, but she had baby-sat an Asian
girl. She appeared sociable but rarely spoke out in class. In the interview, she talked about
a teacher from West Africa in her school:
Alice: Mr. Jones. I had him for Geometry. Yeah, he's got a big accent . . . Everybody
else likes to pick on him kinda, but I think he is neat. It's cool to have a teacher
like that, it adds a variety kinda, it's not as boring. I liked him. I don't think
many people, like in my class now, like him as much as I do . . . `Cause when I
was fifteen or so, I met this guy from Australia he came to my church for
singing, so that's when I started to like all kinds of accents and stuff, I like
English accents, and I think Mr. Jones is neat too, so . . .
The instruction made Alice more aware of prejudices held by people. She wrote in response
to the video, American Tongues, `I just can't believe how culturally racist some people are.'
While the above students had had previous experiences with WE speakers, Kevin, a
black male, had not. Kevin seemed to have little interest in the beginning but gained more
interest and positive attitudes as the time went by. He was born and raised in North
Carolina, had no nonnative English speaking friends and had seen no movies with
subtitles. Yet, his responses on the questionnaires and dictation scores made large gains.
In the final writing, he wrote, `Very interesting talking with and learning from the speakers
that came in and talked to us.' In the interview, he said, `I've started respecting foreign
languages more than I have before y'all came.'
The same group of students also included a couple of students who were generally
positive throughout the unit, but their scores for some parts of the post-Speech Sample
Questionnaire, particularly the section on the personality of the speaker, declined.
Matthew, a white male, who grew up in North Carolina but whose parents are from the
Northeast, commented in the interview that the unit taught him that there are so many
varieties of English and that body language from another culture can affect communica-
tion. When asked about the decrease in scores, he said, `I tried just to be more neutral on
some of them, because I didn't want to make any assumptions either ways.' A similar
comment was made by Cindy, a white female who had spent most of her life in Virginia.
She said, `I don't think you can really tell that (i.e., personality) from what we learned
about English and how different speakers speak . . . ' These students apparently changed
the way they judged the speakers and speeches based on how they speak.
The second group included students whose post-questionnaires and dictation scores fell
in the middle range. Some of these students slightly improved their scores, while others
lowered their scores. These students generally had less previous exposure to WE speakers
than the first group. For example, Sarah, a white female who was raised in North Carolina,
said `No' when asked whether her feelings toward different varieties of English changed.

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Teaching world Englishes to native speakers of English 59

When asked whether she wanted to communicate with WE speakers, `If I happened to be
there, I would, but I'm not interested in going out to communicate with them. It's not a big
deal.' Except for teaching swimming to some Asian females, she did not have much
experience in interacting with people from different cultures. Sarah was one of the people
in this group who seemed to be neither enthusiastic about the topic nor overtly negative
about linguistic diversity. While Sarah's scores slightly improved, some of these students
lowered their scores on the post-Speech Sample Questionnaire. Nancy, a black female who
was born and brought up in North Carolina, always took instruction and free writing tasks
seriously. She commented in the interview, `I enjoyed hearing about different ethnic groups
and different languages and learned about different countries,' but she was not aware that
some of her scores declined. Laura, a white female, wrote in the final writing `They (the
classes) taught me about the millions of languages that people use every day, and where
they are used. I also learned how to listen at how people pronounce their words to
understand what they say.' However, she commented in the interviews that her feelings
toward WE speakers did not change. She attributed her higher scores on the pre-Speech
Sample Questionnaire to the fact that she completed the task in a separate room due to her
absence from the previous session.
The third group consisted of people who were uninterested in the topic or had negative
feelings toward cultural/linguistic diversities. Their scores on the post-questionnaires and
dictation generally decreased. Jason, a white male who grew up in North Carolina, was
quiet but always attentive in class and had the highest GPA in the class. However, he
commented in the final writing, `I do not think these classes were helpful at all, this is
information that I will never actively use, therefore I don't need it.' He reiterated the same
point in the interview. Jay, a white male, was quiet in class and often times unengaged. In
his last writing on the most interesting things he learned, he wrote, `Guest speakers. They
pretty interesting. No effect on me, however.' He did not think that the classes were useful.
Tony, a white male who openly expressed a xenophobic comment in the beginning of the
unit, was often unengaged in the class as well. Although he learned that `many people
around the world speak the English language,' he did not think his feelings toward
different varieties of English changed, and did not have any comments on the decrease in
his scores. Both Jay and Tony were born and raised in North Carolina, and had minimum
experiences with nonnative speakers of English. It is interesting to point out that Tony had
studied Spanish since elementary school, but this apparently did not positively affect his
attitudes toward cultural/linguistic diversity.
The students in this class had different previous experiences and attitudes toward
linguistic diversity. For some students, learning about WE was not totally new. They
tended to begin with positive attitudes, which were enhanced by the instruction. Some
students who had less exposure to WE speakers engaged in learning. For this group, it was
difficult to determine the kinds of effect of the instruction on WE. Still others were
uninterested in the topic, and the instruction did not positively impact their attitudes and
view of linguistic diversity.

IMPLICATIONS

This pilot project aimed at raising high-school students' awareness of issues on WE

and assisting them in exploring ways to better communicate with WE speakers. The
effect of this project on students' attitudes toward and comprehension of WE, measured by

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60 Ryuko Kubota

pre- and post-questionnaires and dictation tests, was positive overall, and the statistical
analysis revealed significant improvement in students' understanding of the difficulty of
second language acquisition and perceived understanding of speech samples. However,
other areas, such as perceived quality of speech samples, perceived personal traits of WE
speakers, and desire to communicate, did not demonstrate statistically significant
improvement. During an earlier session, class discussion prompted students' expression
of their xenophobia, stereotypes, and ethnocentrism, which further justified the necessity
for this intervention. The project also revealed individual differences in students'
previous experiences, their attitudes toward and interest in cultural/linguistic diversity,
and the effect of the instruction on their attitudes and interests. The results of this pilot
project offer some pedagogical and educational implications in the following areas: (1)
the difficulty of critically examining the global spread of English; (2) the need for
creating classroom interaction that is conducive to critical examination of the issue; (3)
the need to use more experiential approaches when exploring cross-cultural communi-
cation strategies; (4) the need for earlier interventions for promoting cultural/linguistic
diversities; and (5) the need for more emphasis on cross-cultural/linguistic awareness in
foreign language learning.
First, one of the difficulties of this project was manifested in the result that, despite the
efforts to engage students in critical inquiry, students increasingly believed that everyone in
the world should speak English, that the global spread of English is a good thing, and that
learning foreign languages is not important for Americans. This indicates the difficulty
of critically engaging students in issues of the global spread of English, which does
appear to have certain benefits for international communication (Crystal, 1997b). For
the beneficiaries of the spread of English, namely, speakers of English, it is difficult to
see the problems and issues addressed by authors such as Phillipson (1992, 1998),
Pennycook (1994) and Skutnabb-Kangas and Phillipson (1994). For native speakers of
mainstream English, who are privileged to be at the top of the global linguistic hierarchy
of power, it is particularly difficult to imagine a situation where one's own language is
stigmatized and threatened, or a situation where English is appropriated to express a
different world view. Another reason for this difficulty seemed to be students' limited
awareness of linguistic diversity in the world. In order to understand the problem of
English replacing other languages, one needs to know that thousands of languages exist
in the world. However, the spread of English in and of itself obscures this fact.
Linguistic diversity in the world as well as issues of power in language use should be
an integral part of a project about WE, as a perspective of critical language awareness
suggests (e.g., Corson, 1999).
Another difficulty in this project was to engage students in critical thinking and
dialogue. Many questions raised in this unit, such as the global spread of English, do
not have a single `right' answer, but involve various social, cultural, economic and political
issues that can be critically examined through dialogue. Raising critical consciousness
through dialogue constitutes the foundation of critical pedagogy. Critical pedagogy, which
aims for transforming educational and social assumptions, structures and practices that
either oppress or privilege people on the basis of categories such as race, ethnicity and
language, questions what is taken for granted and explores ways to achieve democracy and
social justice (Frederickson, 1998; Kanpol, 1997). In critical pedagogy, the way to achieve
this goal is not by transmitting knowledge from teacher to student in a `banking' style
of education, but instead by problem-posing dialogues to raise critical consciousness

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Teaching world Englishes to native speakers of English 61

for self- and social-transformation (Freire, 1970/1993, 1998; Frederickson, 1998). This
project, however, was unable to transform students' learning experiences from a banking
style to a truly problem-posing dialogic approach. It is important to create a pedagogical
environment that promotes critical inquiry through dialogue.
This project would also have benefited from increased opportunities for experiential
learning. Although the project involved guest speakers and some videos, it fell short of
providing students more opportunities to actually interact with WE speakers. The core
of critical pedagogy is praxis, reflection and action, dialectically connected (Freire,
1970/1993). Praxis in the context of learning about WE would be to understand the
taken-for-granted role of English in the world, to problematize it through dialogue and
actually interacting with WE speakers, and to reach a new understanding of the role of
English and the role of native speakers of English in intercultural communication. Some
activities drawn from intercultural training might be useful for hands-on experiences,
although teachers need to be cautious about the discourse behind such training that
tends to exoticize and essentialize the culture and language of the `Other' (Chang and
Holt, 1997).
Still a larger challenge is the question of whether educational interventions, such as the
present project, would reduce prejudices among students even if they were implemented
under optimal pedagogical conditions. In this project, many students, particularly those
whose attitudes were less positive, did not improve their attitudes and listening compre-
hension. This indicates a need for starting education about cultural/linguistic diversity at
earlier stages of life. Various studies on racial/ethnic prejudices in early childhood show
that children between the ages of three and five years develop ethnic prejudices (Aboud,
1988). A recent ethnographic study in a British context also revealed that voices of young
children (five- and six-year-olds) reflect and reinforce discourses on race that surround
them (Connoly, 1998). Education for affirming ethnic, cultural, and linguistic diversity
should not only start early but also be pervasive throughout the curriculum (Nieto,
1996). A one-shot intervention such as the present project can affect certain students
such as Kevin, but it would be in no way as effective as continuous educational efforts
implemented in every aspect of the school curriculum.
Related to the issue of curriculum and multicultural education is the role of learning
foreign languages in developing positive attitudes toward cultural/linguistic diversity.
Almost all of the students in this project had studied foreign languages, some even since
elementary school. Nonetheless, some of these students expressed xenophobic and ethno-
centric attitudes. A foreign language class can be an ideal forum for cultivating cross-
cultural/linguistic awareness and understanding. It is imperative that foreign language
educators take the initiative to address and implement linguistic and cultural diversity in
the school curriculum.
As English becomes the major language for global communication, native speakers of
mainstream English in the Inner Circle countries have increased opportunities to com-
municate with users of other WE in various contexts. It is important for younger
generations to remember that, no matter who the interlocutors are, communication is
always a two-way street where both the listener and the speaker share the responsibility to
make their communication successful. While many non-mainstream English speakers,
particularly in the Outer/Expanding Circles need to increase their cross-cultural
awareness and language competencies, Inner Circle native speakers of mainstream English,
often the privileged in international communication, also need to take responsibility for

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62 Ryuko Kubota

listening to and comprehending speakers of different varieties of English. This pilot project
was an effort to address this need in a high-school English class. The results underscore
the necessity of affirming linguistic diversity at all educational levels and creating a
pedagogical environment conducive to developing critical consciousness on the global
spread of English. It is hoped that educators in English-speaking institutions will
further refine and improve this pilot project, and take on the mission of affirming
linguistic diversity and encouraging students to share the communicative responsibility
with speakers of a variety of world Englishes.

NOTES
1. This paper borrows Lippi-Green's (1997) definition of mainstream vs. non-mainstream US English. According
to Lippi-Green, `Mainstream US English speakers function in communities and institutions that rely on formal
education to prepare children for participation in the community. Nationally, these speakers are perceived as
living primarily in the midwest, far west, and some parts of the east and/or as upper middle class or upper class,
as literate, school-oriented, and as aspiring to upward mobility through success in formal institutions' (p. 61).
Conversely, `non-mainstream US English speakers function in communities and institutions which rely less on
formal education systems to prepare children for participation in the community. Nationally, these speakers
are perceived as living primarily in the far south and inner urban centers, and/or as working class or lower class,
as less interested in literacy or school, and as aspiring to local rather than supranational success in formal
institutions' (p. 61).
2. Pennycook (1998) warns against the universal application of `linguistic human rights' (e.g., Skutnabb-Kangas
and Phillipson, 1994), since it tends to essentialize the Western conception of what `language' and `human' are.
3. The URL is h http://www.sil.org/ethnologue i.
4. For reasons of space, the questionnaire used for this study has not been reproduced here. It is available from
the author.
5. The student who uttered this was not identified from the audio or video tape.

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(Received 10 March 1999.)

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