The debate about whether students of English as a foreign language should be taught standard or international English has been around for a long time, but many important issues may have been ignored.
First, it's not what's taught that really matters; it's what's learned that counts. Language students learn more than what teachers teach. They also learn from what is around them. It includes the language they are exposed to, the language they produce themselves, the paralinguistic expressions of the people they interact with, the whole context of the learning environment inside the classroom and outside in the real world, both during and after a course. If a rich variety of learning options is available, the experience will also be rich and positive.
A second neglected issue relates to the question of who knows best.
Ironically, so far, the main proponents of teaching a variety of international English have been native speakers, or at least native speakers like applied linguists. Very few are teachers and not many are users of English as a foreign language. They have provided expert opinions about the characteristics and benefits of international English and are carrying out the strict research that will soon provide us with very useful descriptions of the different varieties of English used in international communication.
But the danger is that an expert curriculum could be imposed on students without any input from them and without a methodology that makes it useful in everyday life.
Another issue relates to the question of whether research should focus on what non-native speakers typically do when interacting with each other or whether it should pay attention only to what proficient non-native speakers do to communicate successfully with each other.
One way to approach this question would be to know both what typically causes mis-communication between non-native speakers and what makes communication between them easier and successful.
The main question, of course, is: What do non-native speakers want? They need to decide what variety of English they want to learn; what they want to be able to do with the language; what they don't want to be able to do in English; how they want to learn and how they don't want to learn English; what type of materials they want to use or not use; and how they want and don't want to be assessed.
For me, as a native speaker, another question is if I am being arrogant in asserting this?
Isn't the logical conclusion of my position that it is non-native students who should decide what it is that they need?
Whatever the answer to the question, I think applied linguists can make a very positive contribution by describing and clarifying the options in order to help the learners learn for themselves.
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By Brian Tomlinson
Brian Tomlinson from Leeds Metropolitan University, England, is the editor of Materials Development in Language Teaching by Cambridge University Press.
