February 2008 home | PDF | SWF |

Title
Standards and Competence in English as an International Language Pedagogy

Author
Ahmet Acar

Bio Data:
Dr. Ahmet Acar is working as a researcher at Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey. He is an editor of the Asian EFL Journal, senior associate editor of the Journal of English as an International Language, senior advisor for the Chinese EFL Journal, regional journal senior advisor of the Asian Education Index and a basic reviewer of Foreign Language Annals

Abstract
The global spread of English has resulted in varieties of English in different sociolinguistic and sociocultural contexts. The emergence of varieties of English in diverse settings has raised the issue of whether to adopt a single standard English for all English contexts or to recognize a variety of standards. This paper aims to investigate the issue of standards in teaching English as an international language. While the native standard English is advocated as the model in the expanding circle, it is argued that raising the students’ awareness of varieties of English should also be recognized in EIL pedagogy. The issue of standards is furthermore discussed in relation to the concept of competence in English as an international language pedagogy.

Key words: English as an International Language, EIL and competence, in Kachru’s expanding circle

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