Raising senior secondary school students’ awareness of Global Englishes using a presentation task

English is often used as a global lingua franca by speakers of different linguistic backgrounds, who shape the language to achieve their communication purposes. This practice adds to the linguistic diversity of a language which, far from being the monolithic entity which the English language teaching industry proposes, enjoys as many varieties as the communities of speakers who employ it in their formal and informal interactions. Some sociolinguists, thus, posit the adoption of a Global Englishes-oriented pedagogy in English language teaching which can enhance learners’ awareness of the kaleidoscopic variety of Englishes. In line with this proposal, a classroom-based study was implemented to integrate a module on Global Englishes within the English language curriculum of four intact classes of senior secondary school students in Italy (N = 96), who worked in groups to perform a presentation task. Before this empirical intervention, participants were administered a 33-item preliminary questionnaire which investigated their use of English beyond their English language classroom and their attitude to Global Englishes. Following an event-contingent design, they also kept solicited journals after two classes devoted to the preparation of the presentation task, which gave insight into their opinions about the English variety they were examining. Moreover, they kept journals immediately after listening to their peers’ presentations as well as after giving their own presentation, thus reflecting on the features of these varieties which most struck their attention. After the intervention, a final questionnaire was administered with a set of 24 closed-ended items, which measured changes in the participants’ attitudes to Global Englishes. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were employed to analyse the questionnaire data quantitatively by using the software R, whereas the data emerging from the solicited journals were examined by using both a qualitative content analysis procedure and a corpus-based approach, which were conducted by implementing the software packages NVivo 1 and #Lancsbox, respectively. Findings of the quantitative data show a prevailing global orientation to English language learning which remained stable across the intervention, while a more traditional orientation decreased after the intervention, though it still indicated the pre-eminence of British and American English as desirable learning goals for some students. Qualitative content analysis as well as corpus-based analysis corroborate the findings of the quantitative analysis. Furthermore, they indicate that through the presentation task the participants achieved a more critical understanding of the role of English in the global context and a deeper awareness of how some English varieties, and their relevant communities of speakers, are perceived in the sociocultural environment surrounding them. These findings show that Global Englishes Language Teaching may integrate into the paradigm of transformative pedagogy. Pedagogical implications are outlined as well as some recommendations for future research.

Keywords: presentation tasks
solicited journals
English as a Lingua Franca
pre- and post-test design
World Englishes
Global Englishes
transformative pedagogy
classroom-based study