The Roundtable discussion was good we tentatively touched on really serious topics without starting a cat fight. They were looking for agreement and at the end they got very broad agreement that a standard test for English used globally would be useful.
1. The panel didn't really identify that Modern English is no longer relevant to teach as the international lingua franca. Mercedes from S America introduced Jennifer Jenkins' work. Ms Jenkins has identified a core for Global English. Teaching or testing anything besides that core is a step backwards as far as I'm concerned. The panel didn't get this far into the present never mind the future lol.
2. There was brief mention that native speakers have to modify their speaking and English is no longer their language that everyone else has to learn. That was a bold whisper and progressive.
3. There was tiny mention of written English and Spoken English as separate with separate standards and testing. We were not clear on this - how could we be we were not clear on point #1
4. There was a tiny foray into the difference between accent and intelligibility. The panel had no idea about this distinction therefore none on how to manage/test/resolve it.
The panel had no idea about most of these points so everyone was pretty gentle with their contributions. The fact that Pearson Roundtable invited out-spoken radicals like me really showed they were interested in a frank conversation and they got it.
Good on them. Lots more work to be done.
Judy Thompson
1. The panel didn't really identify that Modern English is no longer relevant to teach as the international lingua franca. Mercedes from S America introduced Jennifer Jenkins' work. Ms Jenkins has identified a core for Global English. Teaching or testing anything besides that core is a step backwards as far as I'm concerned. The panel didn't get this far into the present never mind the future lol.
2. There was brief mention that native speakers have to modify their speaking and English is no longer their language that everyone else has to learn. That was a bold whisper and progressive.
3. There was tiny mention of written English and Spoken English as separate with separate standards and testing. We were not clear on this - how could we be we were not clear on point #1
4. There was a tiny foray into the difference between accent and intelligibility. The panel had no idea about this distinction therefore none on how to manage/test/resolve it.
The panel had no idea about most of these points so everyone was pretty gentle with their contributions. The fact that Pearson Roundtable invited out-spoken radicals like me really showed they were interested in a frank conversation and they got it.
Good on them. Lots more work to be done.
Judy Thompson