Promoting a World Englishes Perspective through Podcasts

As the most widely studied and spoken language worldwide, English is a medium of communication between speakers of varied language backgrounds. Global English users need not converge on any one variety; rather, they need adaptive, flexible skills that support communication with speakers of diverse World English (WE) varieties (Kirkpartick 2007). Nevertheless, many English learners and teachers around the world continue to adhere to ‘native speaker’1 models that prioritize language varieties from English-dominant nations, such as the United States or the United Kingdom (Tseng 2019). We have encountered this perspective first-hand in our work in Indonesia. Hanung has taught English and trained teachers at an Islamic University in Central Java for over twenty years. Tabitha has nearly twenty years of experience in ELT, including three years as a visiting instructor at Hanung’s institution. Among the students and teachers we have worked with in Central Java, the dominant language learning model is the ‘native English speaker’. For instance, on a survey given to our first-year English-major students, 81 percent reported wanting to ‘sound like a native speaker’. To challenge this tendency, Simanjuntak and Lien (2021) encourage the use of materials from global and local language communities. Using diverse listening materials can help students understand a wide variety of language varieties and accents and adapt to dialects they have never encountered before. We found podcasts, free audio recordings which are automatically delivered to users’ devices, to be a particularly rich and convenient source of listening materials featuring WE speakers. In the sections below, we describe our teaching context and use of podcasts. We close by discussing how our approach could transfer to other contexts where students and teachers continue to aspire to ‘native speaker’ models, and offer recommendations for teachers interested in shifting to a WE approach and exposing students to varied linguistic norms through podcasts. We collaborated to design lessons for ‘Listening for General Communication’, a course for first-year English majors. The students met weekly from September to December, 2021. Because of COVID-19, the course was taught asynchronously online, with the exception of in-person sessions in weeks 13 and 14. Podcasts were well suited to asynchronous online teaching because their easy accessibility facilitated students’ independent listening. Teachers can create their own podcasts (for a discussion of teacher-created podcasts, see Ingham 2022), but we found several high-quality podcasts online which featured WE speakers. Class activities revolved around seven episodes of the 22.33 podcast, which features participants in exchange programmes sponsored by the US Department of State. We used this podcast because it features speakers with diverse accents, language use, and perspectives, and focuses on intercultural encounters. With the wide variety of podcasts available online, teachers can find podcasts featuring diverse speakers which match their course objectives, contexts, and aims. In Indonesia, English is compulsory at the secondary and tertiary levels, so our students had studied English for approximately six years. Many students at Islamic universities such as ours come from secondary schools whose curriculum focuses primarily on the teaching of Islam. English instruction at these schools focuses on receptive skills, to allow students to access texts about Islam and Muslims written for international audiences. Students typically also study Arabic, but have stronger English skills due to English’s status as the first foreign language in Indonesia, and its use in mass media. The language model used in that media is most commonly standard American English. Students in our English Department take courses in language, linguistics, and teaching methods, and most enter with language skills at the B1 or B2 level. After graduation, most students gain employment as English teachers. At the beginning of the semester, we asked students to reflect upon their future use of English. Although most hoped their own language use would come to match ‘native speaker’ norms, students also acknowledged that they would probably use English to communicate with people using a variety of language norms. They expressed interest in listening to WE speakers and learning about people from around the world. We introduced the podcasts and explained that they featured WE speakers, thereby exposing students to diverse language varieties. In the first asynchronous session for each podcast, students completed pre-listening activities. Podcasts featuring WE speakers typically discussed contexts unfamiliar to our students, so these activities were essential to support comprehension. When students had some relevant prior knowledge, we activated that knowledge through reflection, opinion sharing, and hypothetical situations. When significant content was new to students, short readings, visuals, and online research helped build background knowledge. Taking the Observing Ramadan podcast as an example, students shared their own memories of observing Ramadan, considered which aspects of Ramadan might be surprising to a non-Muslim, and looked up new vocabulary, such as ‘muscle through’ and ‘famished’. Students were expected to complete while-listening activities between the two sessions. A benefit of podcasts is that students can adjust the audio speed and listen to the podcast repeatedly, if needed. To further support students’ comprehension of the WE speakers, we offered instructional scaffolds. For some lessons, students received a graphic organizer to track the various voices and topics. In other lessons, questions were divided into sections corresponding to timestamps in the podcast, helping students know when to listen intensively. For Observing Ramadan, students completed a chart with the names and nationalities of the six speakers by entering each speakers’ perspective on challenges related to fasting and non-Muslims’ awareness of Ramadan. In the second asynchronous session, students completed post-listening activities to build on and apply what they had learnt from listening. These discussions aimed to help students make personal connections and identify universal human values across the WE speakers’ varied contexts. For example, the application questions for Observing Ramadan asked students to reflect on what non-Muslims could learn from experiencing Ramadan. Students responded favourably to the use of podcasts featuring WE speakers, and felt their language skills had improved. One student explained, ‘My understanding of vocabulary and pronunciation increased, without me realizing it.’ On a survey the end of the semester, 89 percent of students said they felt their vocabulary had increased, and 76 percent reported that they appreciated the opportunity to hear good pronunciation. Students were also positively inclined toward the WE language models, which included speakers from Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Jordan, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and Yemen. Students said the speakers’ accents and vocabulary were not as difficult to understand as they had anticipated. In fact, some preferred listening to WE speakers, as the following comment reveals: ‘For me personally, listening to speakers who use English as their additional language is more easier than native speaker because we are both learning, so we have some similarities in pronunciation, or use general words.’ Students appreciated the slower speech and simpler vocabulary used by WE speakers. Students especially appreciated podcasts focused on familiar topics. Favourite episodes included Observing Ramadan, an episode about a Muslim prison chaplain in Canada, and one about a journalist who studied in Indonesia. A student explained that she preferred these episodes because ‘the experiences of the interviewees relate to our lives’. We found that the best-received podcasts were those with topics connected to students’ experiences. We see great potential in the use of podcasts featuring WE speakers in other contexts where the ‘native speaker’ model continues to hold power. We have several recommendations based on our experiences. First, we recommend orienting students to the purpose of listening to diverse WE speakers. As mentioned above, most of our students initially wished to sound like a ‘native speaker’, so it was important to offer a rationale for our seemingly contradictory WE paradigm. We believe that helping students consider the importance of engaging with a wide variety of WE speakers resulted in higher motivation and interest. Second, we suggest finding materials that include content related to students’ lives. Although our goal was to expose students to new language varieties and perspectives, we found that students were more interested when at least some of the content was familiar. They needed to be able to make personal connections with the material. When those connections do not come naturally, teachers should use teaching strategies such as guided reflection, discussion, and hypothetical scenarios to help students see how the speakers’ experiences are similar to or different from their own. Lastly, we encourage the use of materials which not only include diverse language varieties but also offer exposure to new cultures. Podcasts from diverse cultural contexts support the development of intercultural competence in addition to language competence. Given its focus on intercultural exchange, the 22.33 podcast was a rich source of such content. Other podcasts with diverse global speakers and intercultural themes include: Global Voices, Voices of Exchange, Rough Translation, The Europeans, and Sound Africa. As other practitioners use these and other podcasts to expose students to WE speakers, we hope they will also share their experiences. Last version received November 2022 Hanung Triyoko is the Head of the Language Development Unit at UIN Salatiga, Indonesia. He is an enthusiast for mutual relationships among educators across the globe and for encouraging his students and colleagues to have everyone’s unique contribution to use language as means of peace and better understanding of life and humankind. He is known as a master trainer and developer of a massive open online course (MOOC) for various levels of English teachers in Indonesia sponsored by RELO of the US Embassy. Email: [email protected] Tabitha Kidwell is a Professorial Lecturer in the TESOL programme at American University, and was previously a visiting lecturer at UIN Salatiga, Indonesia. She teaches academic writing, applied linguistics, and TESOL methods courses, and has conducted professional development for language teachers around the world. Her research focuses on innovative pedagogies, intercultural teaching approaches, and language teacher education. Email: [email protected]

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