MANDANA ARFA-KABOODVAND (UNIVERSITY OF ESWATINI)
SAIDA AKBAROVA (Westminster International University in Tashkent)

THE STAKEHOLDERS’ VIEWS OF TEACHING ENGLISH AS AN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE : WORLD ENGLISHES/ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

Since the mid-20th century, English has become the main international language of communication. More recently, the debate over what standard English is or should be, and which variety of English should be practised in classes is attracting more attention. Many scholars have considered mutual comprehensibility of the language used in a conversation acceptable, which applies to both accent and accuracy. This may seem like a relief to non-native teachers (NNTs) who may not be as fluent English users as NTs; however, through examples and some data that we are collecting, we would like to argue that the issue is rather complicated even for NNTs. Firstly, without a norm and clear criteria, every language flaw can be considered acceptable; therefore, if we do not provide support to our students to gain language proficiency of speakers of certain parts of the world, such as England and some parts of the US, many will not appreciate our efforts. Besides, they may lose opportunities. To rest our case, we have collected the students' opinions concerning world Englishes and their preferences, interviewed potential employers in the international market, and sought the opinion of some English language teachers mainly working in developing countries. The findings suggest that students' and teachers' expectations may diverge from the current trend.

Mandana Arfa-Kaboodvand holds a PhD in TESOL from the University of Exeter, UK. She has worked as a language teacher, university lecturer, and teacher educator for 30 years in Iran, Uzbekistan and Eswatini. Her research interests include language teacher education, language teaching and culture, social justice, and EAP.

Saida Akbarova has a PhD from the Uzbek State World Languages University in applied linguistics. She is a senior Lecturer at Westminster International University in Tashkent (Uzbekistan). She is passionate about improving her student’s learning through research. Her research interests include teacher effectiveness, second language acquisition, assessment and materials development.