tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132547320196715283.post1727565587375114769..comments2023-04-21T15:19:04.905+08:00Comments on Being Multilingual: The globalization of English: implications for the language classroom =Guest post=Madalena Cruz-Ferreirahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14782492322928803326noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132547320196715283.post-91460888670880150022011-04-18T04:11:43.080+08:002011-04-18T04:11:43.080+08:00I am a German and I attach worth on it that one he...I am a German and I attach worth on it that one hears from my accent where I am from. Unfortunately, the speech among born Germans have become very uniform. Speaking with a strong regional accent is largely seen as sign of bad education. There is sometimes real discrimination against those who do not speak plain Standard German.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1132547320196715283.post-70370892284120694702011-04-09T03:00:26.125+08:002011-04-09T03:00:26.125+08:00"an ELF approach allows speakers to retain th..."an ELF approach allows speakers to retain their identities through their accents, a linguistic right that very few would dare to deny to native speakers, but which nonnative speakers are continually denied."<br /><br />By whom? Unless a non-native speaker is very talented indeed, they will always retain an accent that evokes their maternal language, which is absolutely fine: in fact, it is to be preferred. Just as we have US and British (and South African and antipodean) native speaker accents, so we have distinctive German, Italian, Portugese, Slavic and Chinese accents.<br />I'd go further, and say that I find highly-schooled European speakers who have been trained to "have no accent" i.e. some sort of unplaceable Received Prononciation, a bit creepy and unpleasant to listen to. It's often associated with a very careful, over-inhibited style of oral expression which is rarely much fun to engage with. What's more, I suspect that for every such speaker that has "succeeded" in their mastery of English, a multitude of "failures" who have been told their English is not good because it contains traces of the pronunciation of their mother tongue.<br />Native English speakers cannot fail to betray their origins when they open their mouths; no reason to exempt those who learned it later from this, and indeed, every reason to encourage it.<br />Let's plug out the horrible inhibiting grammarians who infest language teaching, and start a worldwide English party where everyone is welcome to join in the fun.Douglas Carnallhttp://cabinetbeezer.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com