The Challenges Of English As An International Language

1101 Words5 Pages

Fatima Khoulane
TESOL Program
November 30, 2016

For the last centuries, English has been an international language inasmuch is impossible to find a country without citizens who are English speakers. English language gained this position from its large existence in science fields as well as its wide use in communication around the world. This has encouraged a lot of countries to teach it in schools and universities hand in hand with American or British culture since these two cultures represent the native places where English emerged, also since language is considered as the pot of culture and is inseparable from it. This act has brought about a lot of debates and conflicts. The researchers have been split into two groups: a group that defends teaching language along with culture believing that it increases students? knowledge of the language and the conditions under which it emerged, and another group that is against that way of teaching arguing that it leads to alienating native students from their own culture and reinforces cultural hegemony. The huge variation between the two opinions evokes the need for solutions to help teachers preserve their students? cultural identity while still teaching them about world cultures in ELT. On one hand, a group of researchers declare that they can not separate culture from language because it is inevitable to talk about the culture when talking about its language. The context where a term is produced, how and why it is used are what

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