Why should we use nonnative and World Englishes in listening materials?

Because of the global nature of English, it is spoken in myriad accents, whether it is a native or nonnative language. Most speakers of English are nonnative and World English speakers, not native speakers from North America or the United Kingdom. However, most ESL and EFL listening materials comprise only North American or British English. English has native speakers on every continent, as well as nonnative speakers from practically every nation in the world. Therefore, we, as ESOL teachers, represent the English language more accurately and more realistically when we include as many of these speakers as possible in listening materials. I am not suggesting that we replace our North American and British English listening materials with nonnative and World English materials, but simply that we add to our existing repertoires of listening materials.

Given the worldwide demographics of English (Crystal, 1997) and the likelihood that ESOL students will use their English with other nonnatives (Seidlhofer, 2005) and/or with World English speakers, listening materials should feature a variety of accents. Moreover, if students live in countries with large immigrant populations, such as the United States, they need to be prepared to interact with English speakers from everywhere in the world. Even if teachers cannot find published materials using diverse accents, they can identify sources of nonnative and World English and create their own materials. This article gives examples of how I do this with my students in oral communication courses.

How can we use World Englishes in listening materials?

One example of how World Englishes can be used as listening material is a lesson featuring a video featuring Dr. Wangari Maathai (1940-2011), the first environmentalist ever to win a Nobel Peace Prize. In this excerpt from a 2007 speech to the Royal Geographical Society, Dr. Maathai tells an inspirational story. Before showing my students the video, I give them an incomplete transcription. The final part, containing the conclusion and the moral of the story, is missing from the transcription. I divide the students into small groups, have them read it, and ask them to discuss how they think it will end. After this discussion, I show them the complete video so that they can hear the end and compare their predictions with the actual end of the story. After this, I give them the complete transcription of the video. Next, I have them listen for the effective ways in which Dr. Maathai uses sentence stress and pauses. As they listen to the video again, they read along with it and mark the pauses within sentences and the stressed words. Then they practice reading the transcription aloud, with the pauses and stress they have heard and marked. Eventually, each student gives a presentation to the class in which they tell folktales from their own countries using pauses and stress to make their presentations effective.

How can we use nonnative English in listening materials?

Despite Wangari Maathai’s stature as a Nobel laureate, none of my students have known about her until I did this activity with them. I like to incorporate eloquent World English speakers like Dr. Maathai because people like her are underrepresented in the ESOL textbook literature and are largely absent from many types of curricula. Conversely, among nonnative English speakers whom I include in listening material and who are well known to many ESL students in the United States, one is a household name in 14 countries (thirteen in Latin America, plus the United States), appearing on television six days a week: Jorge Ramos. His audiences respect him as a journalist and author and they admire him as a celebrity.

With U.S. demographics and immigration and as the context, I introduce this interview with Jorge Ramos with a brief quiz:

1. Which statement was true as of the last census in 2010?
1. There are about 20 million Latinos in the US out of a population of over 308 million.
2. There are about 35 million Latinos in the US out of a population of about 308 million.
3. There are about 50 million Latinos in the US out of a population of about 308 million.
4. None of the above statements are correct.
2. What is the highest rated nightly newscast in Miami, NYC, LA, and Chicago?
1. CNN
   
2. ABC
   
3. NBC
   
4. CBS
   
5. none of these
3. T / F In less than 100 years, Latinos will become the majority in the US.
4. Complete this sentence: Without the _________ vote, no candidate can be elected President of the US.
5. Which statement is true?
1. The US is not considered a Spanish-speaking country.
2. The US is the world’s largest Spanish-speaking country.
3. Only Mexico is a larger Spanish-speaking country than the US.
4. The US is not a Spanish-speaking country.

Students work in pairs or small groups to discuss and guess the answers to these questions and then listen to the relevant excerpts (3:17-4:46 and 48:13-49:00) from the interview for the correct answers. They then receive transcriptions of the excerpts from the interview that they have watched and listened to. I have my students do a variety of other activities that require them to listen to different parts of the video that are also related to U.S. demographics and immigration. Although Ramos covers many topics during this lengthy interview, I choose to focus on his discussions of U.S. demographics and immigration because they are topics that my students are likely to hear about or read about in the news media.

The incorporation of Jorge Ramos in listening material can be inspiring to Latino ESL students who have never heard him speak English. However, the information in this particular interview can be of interest to all who live in the United States and to those who live in other countries and would like to learn more about the United States. Students from all countries can be assigned to find video or audio interviews in English with famous people from their communities, and activities can be formulated based on these materials.

How can we select the appropriate nonnative and World Englishes to use with our students?

When selecting listening materials and considering how they will fit into the rest of the curriculum, I find it helpful to plan according to four criteria: who my students are, what they are interested in, what my pedagogical objectives are, and what my students’ objectives are. It’s often a good idea to use materials by speakers from the parts of the world that your students come from. In multilingual classes, this gives them the opportunity to familiarize each other with the speakers and the contexts of the materials. In classes where the students are all from the same background, the context may already be familiar. Students are often motivated by materials that feature people they admire and they find it interesting to hear them speaking English. Depending on your students’ objectives, an understanding of nonnative and World English speakers might be more useful than an understanding of native speakers from North America or the United Kingdom.

Should we use listening materials by nonnative and World English speakers differently than we use listening materials by native English speakers from North America and the United Kingdom?

I do not use listening materials by nonnative and World English speakers any differently from how I use traditional listening materials. The only difference is that all the nonnative and World English materials I use are authentic (not intended for ESOL). But, again, this approximates the real world in ways that many textbook materials do not. With no need to incorporate nonnative and World English listening materials differently from the way we use more traditional listening material, a wide variety of Englishes can be considered equally valid and accessible for use with our students.

What are some high-quality sources of nonnative and World Englishes to use with our students?

CNN
Cooking and recipes by chef José Andrés
C-SPAN
Democracy Now
National Public Radio
Nobel Peace prize laureate speeches
Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED)
Time Magazine Ten Questions interviews
United Nations

REFERENCES

Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

Seidlhofer, B. (2005). English as a lingua franca. ELT Journal, 59(4), 339-341.

Mary Romney is an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, where she teaches pronunciation and other areas of oral communication in the International Teaching Assistants Program. Her interests include pronunciation, cross-cultural communication, and the worldwide demographics of the English language.