Global Englishes: Motivation and Islamic Conventions in English as an International Language

Jeremy Ben Royston Boulter

October 2012

Do Arab students in their own country find presentation of the target language in their native cultural context more motivating than the presentation of the target language in its native cultural context?

Abstract. The English in the EFL classroom is still often considered to be indelibly linked to the culture of the target language, which often means the culture of Britain or the USA. How well a student assimilates the target culture is often regarded as the principle measurement of how far they will be able to acquire both near native fluency and accuracy. Recently, however, there have been concerted efforts to internationalize the context in which English is taught. Often this leads to attempts to deculturise the target language by targeting the purpose the language is being taught for, for example, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), or to limit its application to national syllabus design according to subject and government religious policy, as is done in Iran.  Others propose English being taught as an International Language (EIL) – the practical English used between non-native speakers of English of different nationalities when communicating with each other (Sprichtinger 2001: 59). More radical still is the notion that English teaching be customized to fit the culture of the learners. It is this latter idea that this study pursues. Among the Global Englishes is a sub-dialect of English used by native and non-native Muslim speakers of English which can be called Muslim English. This study is a tentative approach to discover whether teaching such an English would be more or less motivating and accessible to Arabic, and in particular Saudi, English language learners.

Contents

Abstract. 1
Introduction. 4
Background of Study in the Saudi Context. 4
The Nativisation of English in the Monolingual Classroom.. 4
The Place of Intercultural Comparison in the EFL Classroom.. 6
Literature Review.. 8
Methodology. 10
The Research Design. 10
Participants. 11
Collection of the Data. 12
Results and analysis. 12
Discussion. 18
Limitations. 19
Implications. 20
References. 21
Appendix 1: Questionnaire. 23
Appendix 2: Interview.. 31