MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA Katedra anglického jazyka a literatury The Speaking Part of the Maturita Exam in the Light of English as a Lingua Franca Bakalářská práce Brno 2015 Vedoucí práce: Autor práce: Mgr. Radek Vogel, Ph.D. Karolína Šimková Prohlášení: „Prohlašuji, ţe jsem závěrečnou (bakalářskou, diplomovou, rigorózní, disertační práci) vypracoval/a samostatně, s vyuţitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.“ .................................. Podpis Acknowledgments: I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Radek Vogel, Ph.D. for his help and giving me valuable advice connected with this thesis. Table of content 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 6 2 ENGLISH AS A LANGUAGE ................................................................................. 7 2.1 THE NAME OF THE LANGUAGE ................................................................. 7 2.2 WHAT ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA MEANS ................................... 7 2.2.1 ENGLISH AS A COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE .............................. 8 2.2.2 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EFL AND ESL ..................................... 9 2.2.3 ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA vs. ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE ........................................................................................................... 11 3 USAGE OF ENGLISH ............................................................................................ 13 3.1 GROUPS OF ENGLISH SPEAKERS ............................................................. 13 3.2 BUSINESS ENGLISH ..................................................................................... 15 3.3 THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH ......................................................................... 15 4 ENGLISH AND SCHOOL ..................................................................................... 17 4.1 EUROPEAN SCHOOLS ................................................................................. 17 4.2 ENGLISH AT SCHOOL ................................................................................. 18 4.2.1 TEACHING METHODOLOGY IN TEFL/TESOL ................................. 19 4.2.2 ACCENTS IN ELF ................................................................................... 20 5 THE MATURITA EXAM ...................................................................................... 23 5.1 THE FORM OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE PART OF THE STATE EXAM ......................................................................................................................... 23 5.2 ELF IN THE MATURITA EXAM DOCUMENTS ........................................ 24 5.2.1 SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 30 6 THE PRACTICAL PART ....................................................................................... 33 6.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT .......................................... 33 6.2 PARTICIPANTS .............................................................................................. 34 6.2.1 TEACHERS .............................................................................................. 34 6.2.2 STUDENTS .............................................................................................. 35 6.3 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 36 6.3.1 TEACHERS .............................................................................................. 36 6.3.2 STUDENTS .............................................................................................. 37 6.4 OVERVIEW OF FINDINGS ........................................................................... 37 TEACHERS ............................................................................................................ 37 STUDENTS ............................................................................................................. 47 7 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 61 RESUMÉ ........................................................................................................................ 63 SOURCES ...................................................................................................................... 64 LIST OF APPENDICES ................................................................................................. 67 1 INTRODUCTION In the last few decades, English has become a language used for international communication. At meetings, conferences, or other encounters, people of different nationalities and language backgrounds want to communicate with each other and they use English for this purpose. Other areas where English dominates are technology, computers, entertainment, media, and many others. People realize that basic knowledge of English is necessary for understanding all given information and it should be a part of basic education. The authorities of many countries are aware of this situation and that is why English has become a part of their national curricula. However, according to Crystal the number of non-native English speakers outnumbered the native ones (Crystal, 425), which has brought many variations of the original English. Nowadays the question what English is appropriate is becoming quite topical in many countries including the Czech Republic. The main aim of this research study was to find out if the above mentioned facts are taken into consideration in the process of education of the young Czech generation. As most young people graduating from the third level education have to pass the Maturita Exam in English, the research was focused on the spoken part of this exam. It was carried out in the form of a questionnaire for both the students and teachers .Both the students and the teacher were informed that the questionnaire is done for the purpose of this bachelor thesis. The questionnaire contained three parts – English as a Lingua Franca, The Maturita Exam and General part. The students and the teachers got the Czech version of the questionnaire. All of the answers were carried out and added to this thesis. 6 2 ENGLISH AS A LANGUAGE 2.1 THE NAME OF THE LANGUAGE To start discovering English as a Second Language it is useful to mention the history of the word “English” and “England”. “By the end of the th 6 century, however, the term Angli (“Angles”) was in use – as early as 601, a king of Kent, Aethelbert, is called rex Anglorum (“King of the Angles”) – and during th the 7 century Angli or Anglia (for the country) became the usual Latin names. Old English Engle derives from this usage, and the name of the language found in Old English texts is from the outset referred to as Englisc (the sc spelling representing the sound sh, /ʃ/). References to the name of the country as Englaland (“land of the Angels”), from which came England, do not appear until c. 1000” (Crystal, 7). 2.2 WHAT ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA MEANS From the historical point of view the term lingua franca was originally “a pidgin, probably based on some Italian dialects in its earliest history, and included elements from Spanish, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Greek and Persian” (Jenkins, 1). It was only later that English became a lingua franca. “Because of the international spread th of English that has been growing apace since the latter part of the 20 century, English is frequently the mutual language of choice in settings such as conferences, business meetings, and political gatherings” (Jenkins, 1). According to Jenkins, the English for native speakers should not be part of the definition of ELF and that term should bear on the English for non-native speakers only. Barbara Seidlhofer prefers the description of ELF by herself as: “any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option” (Seidlhofer, 7). In these days, many people learn English for communication and Firth describes it as: “a ´contact language´ between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common (national) culture, and for whom English is the chosen foreign language of communication” (240). As it is visible from the text by Firth, the word “foreign” was 7 mentioned. In the next subchapter the difference between EFL and ESL will be displayed. The term lingua franca is “any lingual medium of communication between people of different mother tongues, for whom it is a second language” (Samarin, 371) or in words of Penny Ur: “interactions between two people whose mother tongue is not English” (Ur, 85). English as a Lingua Franca is not the only name of English as a common language. Barbara Seidlhofer describes the variations of English as a common language as follows: English as an international language (EIL) (e.g., Jenkins, 2000; McKay, 2002) English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) (e.g., Gnutzmann, 2000; Seidlhofer, 2001) English as a global language (e.g., Crystal, 1997; Gnutzmann, 1999) English as a world language (e.g., Mair, 2003) English as a medium of intercultural communication (e.g., Meierkord, 1996)” (Seidlhofer, 210) The main purpose of a common language is to be able to communicate with a person who does not speak the same language, that is why people “need the language not in order to interact within a specific English speech community, but rather to communicate with other English speakers (some native but probably most non-native)... In other words, they need to learn English as a lingua franca” (Ur, 85). 2.2.1 ENGLISH AS A COMMUNICATION LANGUAGE English has become a common language from many points of view. The history of this language is extensive but it is not the main purpose of this thesis. It is enough to mention that English has spread all over the world continuously and in these days “ELF interactions often occur in influential networks, (i.e., global business, politics, science, technology and media discourse)” (Seidlhofer, 211). “For the first time in history, a language has reached truly global dimensions,” (Seidlhofer, 211). According to Seidlhofer English “is being shaped, in its international 8 uses, at least as much by its non-native speakers as its native speakers. This process has been accelerated by the dramatic expansion of electronic communication through the Internet,” (Seidlhofer, 211). However, English is not taken so seriously as it used to be as it is getting more used by non-native speaker. “Many interactions in English are between participants who do not control standard grammar and whose lexis and pronunciation do not conform to any recognized norm. We could describe this as a process of internationalisation and destandardization. Nonstandard, unedited English is becoming more and more visible” (Melchers & Shaw, 195). 2.2.2 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EFL AND ESL Teaching methods of English language not as a mother language are divided into two categories: EFL = English as a foreign language ESL = English as a second language The EFL teacher is an English teacher who teaches English to speakers of other languages in a non-English speaking country, whereas the ESL teacher is a teacher living and teaching English in an English-speaking country; the teacher´s students are most likely students who are from non-English speaking countries but are now living and studying English in an English-speaking country. The ESL student needs English immediately, he or she may not need to worry about grammar right away but may need to learn basic survival skills as quickly as possible. The EFL student may not be as concerned about learning English as quickly as possible because he or she is probably living in a country where he or she speaks the primary language of the country and is able to take care of the necessities of daily life. In Czech schools, English is being taught in EFL version and English teachers should follow important aspects of EFL. Jenkins mentions 4 main areas which are important for maintain intelligibility: 1. Most consonant sounds – there is a different sound between words “this” /ðɪs/ and “thin“ /thin/; even though the “th” is written in the same way, the pronunciation is different (Jenkins, The Phonology of English as an International Language). 9 2. Appropriate consonant cluster simplification = adding a sound is better than deleting sound – e.g. word “vegetable” should be pronounced as /'vedʒɪtəbl/ and if it is not pronounced correctly, e.g. without sounds “e” and “ɪ” then misunderstanding between two people could appear (Jenkins, The Phonology of English as an International Language). 3. Vowel length distinction – it is important to distinguish between e.g. “beat” /'bi:t/ and “bit“ /'bɪt/, otherwise the meaning is really different (Jenkins, The Phonology of English as an International Language). 4. Nuclear stress – it is important to stress the important part of the utterance, otherwise the listener might get lost, e.g. “blue one” and “blue one” (the highlighted words are the stresses) (Jenkins, The Phonology of English as an International Language). In connection to ESL and EFL teaching there are various types of teachers where Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is the main title: “Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL): The acronym TESOL is a general industry term used to describe educating English Learners. Within TESOL, the following terms are used (How to Become an English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher, 2015): Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL): TESL involves teaching English to speakers of other languages and it most often interchanged with the term ESL teaching/teachers (How to Become an English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher, 2015). Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL): TEFL involves teaching English abroad where English is not the primary language (How to Become an English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher, 2015). English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL): ESOL programs, which may also be referred to as English as a Second Language programs, generally teach basic grammar, vocabulary and colloquial terms and phrases to ELLs in a community college, community program, or online program setting (How to Become an English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher, 2015). 10