MY English – Empowering foreign language learners to make the target language their own
7th Webinar TESOL Italy with TESOL Ukraine
Come and join us to support the Ukrainian ELT community!
Professor Kurt KOHN
Link to Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7416973473
Abstract
The Standard English (SE) preference firmly anchored in many English teachers’ attitudes and practices has been identified as a major problem hindering speaker-learners from developing competence for emancipated Global Englishes (GE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) communication. In this webinar,
I will address the issues involved from a social constructivist perspective according to which speakerlearners acquire the language taught by developing their own MY English version in their minds, hearts, and behaviour. Orientation and guidance are mediated through their requirements of communicative and communal success and their quest for speaker satisfaction. Critical is not the English taught but
what speaker-learners are pedagogically allowed and encouraged to do with it. Intercultural virtual exchanges enable ELT students of different linguacultural backgrounds to communicate with each other using their English as a pedagogical lingua franca. Communication monitoring and pedagogical mentoring help them develop their own voice. In short, GE/ELF pedagogy meets ELT!