World Englishes in the EFL Classroom: The Reality

As recently as the mid 1960s, English programs in both the UK and the US were mostly focused on national views of language, and the English language has been studied from the perspectives of two largely monolingual countries (Bolton, in ‘Thank you for calling’: Asian Englishes and ʼnative-like’ performance in Asian call centres). Despite the vast changes, English departments have seen in the last 60 years, including calls for the recognition, and indeed acceptance, of the pluricentricity of English, a movement away from a largely monolingual ideology that has, at its center, the idea that English has a single standard, little has changed in the language classroom, particularly in EFL contexts. Theoretical discussions about English and Englishes abound, and today, even though World Englishes-based language teaching pedagogy is increasingly discussed, such discussions have not moved beyond the theoretical. Attempts to integrate either new varieties of Englishes into the language classroom, particularly in EFL contexts, have been met with opposition at best and hostility at worst. This paper begins with an overview of scholarship on World Englishes and then examines first the role of World Englishes scholarship in general, followed by an account of the role of the academic world in perpetuating the powerful position of Inner Circle varieties today. It concludes with a section on how best WE-informed pedagogical practices might be incorporated into language programs and classrooms.