World Englishes - Teacher’s notes

Topics: General English – English as a Lingua Franca

Level: A2 and above

Skills: Speaking, Listening and Writing

Link to video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypYAM8A4CJQ&t=13s

Aims:

● To discuss the meaning of different expressions used in some varieties of

English.
● To make predictions before watching a video.
● To listen for gist and for detail.
● To analyze the concepts of English as a Lingua Franca and World
Englishes.
● To discuss and analyze Brij Kachru’s model of World Englishes.
● To construct a for/against argument using an adapted version of the 7Cs of or
do a meaningful role-play.
● To do a K-L-W reflection task at the end of the lesson.

Use of language:

● To review Simple Present to express opinion and describe facts.

● To learn / review different tenses for the discussions.
● To learn / review ELF expressions.
● To learn / review linking words to express agreement and disagreement.

Before watching

1. In pairs or with the teacher, students read the speech bubbles and
explain them using their own words. There is no right or wrong answer
at this stage. If they have heard some of these expressions before,
students can tell their classmates about the context of the conversation.
2. There is no right or wrong answer. The idea is that students relate the
expressions to English as well as other languages they are familiar with.
They can focus on spelling, word order, etc.

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World Englishes - Teacher’s notes

3. Students share their answers with another pair of students, depending

on the class size. There is no right or wrong answer at this stage.

While Watching

4. Students watch the full video and check their answers in exercise 1.

Answers:

1. Say me well to them: Give them my regards. / Say hi to them from

me. (Nigeria)
2. To prepone: To move a time or date closer (as opposed to
postpone) (India)
3. belanja: treat (Singapore / Singlish)
4. lekker: approval / good, nice, tasty. It can be used as an adj or adv.
(South Africa)
5. sunnies: sunglasses. More examples: arvo: afternoon/ spag bol:
spaghetti bolognese/smoko: cigarette or coffee break. (Australia)
6. Double double: coffee with two creams and two sugars. (Canada)

5. Students watch the video again and match the expressions to their
corresponding countries. They also check if their predictions in exercise 2 were
correct.

Answers:

1.e 2.d 3.f 4.c 5.a 6.b

Fast finishers: Ask students to provide examples of the different varieties the
speaker mentions: slang, familiar, formal, literary, business.

After Watching

6. Students discuss the questions in pairs, small groups or with the teacher,
depending on the class size.

● Students discuss the meaning of English as a Lingua Franca. If they are

not familiar with this concept, relate it to what the speaker said about
World Englishes and how it is used for communication worldwide.
● They focus on the Three circles image on the right and, after reading the
text on the image, they discuss what the information might represent.

7. Ask students to read about Brij Kachru’s model of World Englishes and
match the three names in their corresponding definitions.

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World Englishes - Teacher’s notes

Answers:

a. Inner circle
b. Outer circle
c. Expanding circle

When you correct this exercise, you can ask students what they think about
their classification in order to prepare them for the Follow-up task (argument).

8. Students use the internet, if necessary, and do some research on more

countries to include in this classification. They can also take their own
countries into consideration, if they are not already included in the examples.

Answers may vary:

● Inner circle: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Some

Caribbean Territories.
● Outer circle: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Tanzania, Kenya,
Philippines, and many more…
● Expanding circle: Japan, France, Germany, Egypt, and many more...

Source: https://www.linguisticsonline.net/post/braj-kachru-s-model-of-world-
englishes-the-three-circles-of-english

9. Students discuss where their countries would be/are included and whether
they agree or disagree with this inclusion.

Follow-up tasks

10. Students or the teacher choose one of the tasks suggested. It can also be a
written task, depending on students’ level and needs.

Task 1: This task can be done by all level students.

Suggestions for lower level students: Try to give students more useful and
simple phrases to express agreement and disagreement. You can choose some
from this website and scaffold the task a little bit more.
https://www.englishclub.com/speaking/agreeing-disagreeing-expressions.htm

Suggestions for higher levels:

● Students can read this infographic containing an extended version of the

7Cs of argumentation and work on a more complete argument.
https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/infographic/7-cs-building-rock-solid-

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World Englishes - Teacher’s notes

argument They can lso take advantage of this larger list of useful
language
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?
pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.uen.org%2Fcore%2Flanguagearts
%2Fwriting%2Fdownloads
%2F7C_argumentation.pdf&clen=1311947&chunk=true

Task 2: This task can be done by all level students.

You might need to allow students to look for more expressions on the internet
or use the ones from the video. Some suggested resources include:

Varieties of English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvbEODnJVTc

Introduction with Ed Pegg: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC8O7bUPl98

World Englishes: https://blog.pimsleur.com/2020/07/16/what-are-world-

englishes/

Varieties of English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvbEODnJVTc

Reflection task

Students take some time to reflect on the lesson takeaways. They can either
do it and hand it in so that the teacher can read their opinions or they can
share it in class and use it as a lesson closure.