1.
Difficulties in defining the model – General American – negatively
defined; RP codified, but – which current changes fall within its scope?
2.
Variation in native/artificial models – which features are
indispensable in the syllabus?
3.
Phonological/phonetic? (Systemic/phonetic) issues? Pedagogical aspects
of RP - certain features of RP or
of deep/common underlying representation of english are present in all native
varieties, comprehension requirements, system preservation; phonetic accuracy
targets; can one define a minimally sufficient phonological system? how does it
relate to a language type? what about learneability of such a system?
4.
Offering EFL learners a product: What are the teaching aims?
Psychological factors: native-like accent means education, equality, social and cultural membership, not
wanting to be distinguished as "foreign speakers" of the language, “An
accent, for most people, is something, they would prefer to speak without”,
Foreign accent - a failure to learn something?, “learning the wrong thing” (Abercrombie
1953). the age of learners: children and young people vs. adults; limitless
ability to learn languages by the young; English taught already at schools
5.
Feasibility of LFC? Do we have an artificial model which provides an
alternative to native ones? which elements of non-native varieties should be
included and why? Practical/economic matters: sufficient materials, their
availability, corpora. The potential costs of providing them? Exposure to the
model. But: native models - does a teaching situation really provide sufficient
materials, corpora, exposure etc? Also: simultaneous exposure to different
models
6.
Methodological considerations: the teacher provides a native-like model,
the students not required to imitate it, they can speak LFC (not clearly defined
which features need to be acquired/simplified/etc, cf. also point 3 above) -
contradiction: why does the teacher need to speak RP/GA/etc model then?
7.
Teaching non-native varieties - potential influences on native speech;
analogous situation in varieties of English round the world, e.g. Pidgins (leading
to Creole varieties), Pennsylvania Dutch (German), Minnesota, Hawaii (Japanese;
Creole varieties), Wales – Welsh substratum in English, also present day
London – Asian influences, London in turn has always had a major impact on the
pronunciation of English. Learner’s second language becomes a new variety of
the language learned, e.g. German L1
->
English L2 ->
Minnesota English; Japanese L1 ->
English L2 ->
Hawaiian English; or language mixing ->
pidgin ->
Creole
8.
English seen as an "endangered" language - English has had an
impact on a number of languages – now a reversal – is accepting influences
– development of "world Englishes" – dilution of English (?)
continuous dilution of the LFC model – gradual formation of separate varieties
– in fact breakdown not facilitation of communication (?)
9.
History: situations when a semi- or non natural koinè was
accepted; ancient Greek koinè, Austrian German, modern Indonesian
10.
Defining a native-speaker of English; a speaker is native in his/her L1
(L1’s), while this L1 may be e.g. Japanese American in Hawai ‘i or Hawai
‘i Creole English; so, in SLA one could talk of attaining native-like
competence within a given variety (¬ in English in general); also, to be
native means to be non-hesitant in the use of a language in any situation; this
does not seem to be attainable by a
foreigner unless…
dkasia@ifa.amu.edu.pl
joanna.przedlacka@mercury.ci.uw.edu.pl