the Variability of English as a Lingua Franca: The Pedagogical Implications for English Language Teachers in Nigeria.

Abstract

English has assumed the status of global lingua franca as it is now being used amongst non-native speakers as official/ national language and an international language. Unfortunately, in Nigeria little attention has been paid to how this global variety can be incorporated into language curriculum, pedagogy and assessment practices. Thus, this paper explores the variability of incorporating English as a lingua franca (ELF) variety into teaching and learning of the language in a second language learning (L2) contexts by eliciting data from non-native teachers of English. It aims to find out the teachers' awareness of English as a Lingua Franca, their preferences and their choice over accuracy versus intelligibility. The study involved 20 non-native English language teachers in Gombe State University, with different linguistic backgrounds. The data were collected using a questionnaire, and the constructs measured with Likert scale statements. The findings showed that non-native English language teachers are aware of ELF and different English varieties, but rather, prefer the British standard as a model for themselves and their students. The paper also argues that establishing the variability is necessary because with the wide use of English language throughout different fields and geographical settings, variations of English in terms of phonology, lexico grammar, pragmatics, discourse and syntactic elements, have emerged. Hence the need to inculcate this variety to take into account the use of Englishes in different intercultural and multicultural encounters where people have different first languages and cultural backgrounds. Such movement will truly reflect its current diversity and wide range of its users.