Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello,

I was wondering if any one out there has any recommendations for text books that offer 'World English' accents in their listening sections? I have a student who is Intermediate-Mid and is looking to work on listening/speaking skills that incorporates world English.

Thanks so much in advance.

Best,

Melissa

Hi Melissa, and welcome to the forums! I suspect that 'World English' is still very much an artificial construct (that nobody really speaks) from idealists (and I don't mean that in a negative sense!), so probably the best you'll be able to do is expose your student to the wide range of English-speaking accents (using YouTube etc). But what with the prestige and respect still apparently given to core native-speaking varieties (British, American English), I doubt if there are (m)any publishers who've released textbooks dealing with even the range of English-speaking accents (let alone a 'World English'). Which just leaves the theoretical-polemical works by the likes of Jennifer Jenkins (of The Phonology of English as an International Language fame - search Google for 'jenkins phonology' ) to pore over and perhaps use in your own teaching of acceptable (to other non-natives especially, versus the native so-called "perfect") pronunciation.

Sorry that I haven't been of much help, and please tell us if you manage to find any resources that are more like what you wanted!

Ooh, just spotted this on Amazon (whilst reading reviews of Jenkins' books):
http://www.amazon.com/World-Englishes-P ... pd_sim_b_4 (World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching, by Andy Kirkpatrick (Paperback with Audio CD))

Note the plural though! (-es) (Edit: But then, you did say "'World English' accents", I've only just noticed! (I didn't quite see the word 'accents' before )).

Thank you so much, fluffy! I have actually heard of World Englishes before (my prof. uses it for his 'Politics of Global English' course and he raves about it!).

I guess I'm trying to find a book that incorporates more 'English' listening in it due to the fact that I am skype teaching my student. Youtubes are a wonderful way to look at accents and dialects, but I wonder how I would introduce those over skype. Any thoughts?

Thank you again for your thoughtful ideas!

Best,

Melissa

Hi again Melissa, glad I could help. I've yet to use Skype, but if it's anything like MSN Messenger (or you can run MSNM or email simultaneously with it) then you'll be able to paste YouTube clips into the chatbox or email then whilst talking.