Andy Kirkpatrick argues that EFL teachers need to be both multilingual and multicultural - is this raising the bar to high?
Q:Although you were born in the UK, you were brought up in Malaysia and have lived and worked in many countries, including China, Singapore, Myanmar and Australia. Are there any particular experiences?
A:Growing up in Malaysia and Singapore with people who spoke several languages alongside English meant that I always saw such multilingual English-speaking people as normal and never thought that their English was in any way strange. When I started teaching English in Hong Kong in the late 1970s, I became irritated at the ideas of "correctness" that were being propagated by many of my colleagues, especially as these pronouncements were often made by people who were themselves monolingual. I thought then, as I do now, that being monolingual was a great disadvantage for a language teacher.
Q:You've been quoted previously as saying that "standard English only exists in grammars". How would you reply to the accusation that some local teachers teach grammar and vocabulary that is simply wrong, not only compared to some native English ideal but also in relation to the local variety?
A:An English language teacher from somewhere in the UK who finds himself/herself teaching in Australia is not going to do down very well if he/she starts correcting his/her students when they use an appropriate variety of Australian English. Language teachers must know and respect local varieties.
Q:There are a great many monolingual, and possibly monocultural, native-speaking English teachers all over the world. What implications do you think this has for teacher training?
A:I think we need to establish a body that promulgates minimum qualifications for registration as an English language teacher. Being multilingual and multicultural needs to be part of these minimum qualifications.
A course in world Englishes is also vital in helping English language teachers understand how different varieties of English have developed and in what ways they differ and why, and the implications of all this for ELT.
