VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
LÊ THỊ HƯƠNG

AN INVESTIGATION INTO ATTITUDES OF
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF ENGLISH
TOWARDS TEACHING
AND LEARNING WORLD ENGLISHES AT HONG
DUC UNIVERSITY

(Điều tra về quan điểm của giáo viên và sinh viên
tiếng Anh đối với việc dạy và học các loại tiếng Anh
trên thế giới tại Trường Đại học Hồng Đức) M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10 HA NOI – 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI

ELT: English language teaching
EFL: English as a foreign language
FLF: Foreign Languages Faculty
HDU: Hong Duc University
IE: International English
L2: second language
L3: third language
NS: Native speaker
NNSs: Non-native speakers
RP: Received Pronunciation
S: Students
T: Teachers
WEs: World Englishes

v

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 (first six items):
Students and teachers‟ attitudes towards “Standard English” 21
Table 1 (last seven items): Students and teachers‟ attitudes towards the concept of “World
Englishes” 23
Table 2: Students' attitudes towards learning native or non-native English 25
Table 3: Teachers‟ views on teaching World Englishes 28
Table 4: Reasons teachers choose to teach World Englishes 31
Table 5: Reasons teachers avoid teaching World Englishes 32
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TABLE OF CONTENTS


1
1
2
2
3
3
3
4
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
7
8
9
vii

1.3. World Englishes………………………………………………………….
1.3.1. What is World Englishes?
1.3.2. Attitudes towards teaching and learning World Englishes…………….
1.3.2.1. To teach Standard English or World Englishes……………………
1.3.2.2. Current attitudes and perspectives on teaching and learning World
Englishes……………………………………………………………………
1.4. Summary…………………………………………………………………
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………
2.1. Background to the study…………………………………………………
2.1.1. Introduction of the Hong Duc University……………………………

16
17
17
17
18
18
18
19
19
20
20
20

20
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3.2.2. Students and teacher‟s attitudes towards the concept of “World
Englishes”…………………………………………………………………….
3.2.3. Student‟s attitudes towards learning “non-standard” varieties of
English………………………………………………………………………
3.2.4. Teachers‟ negative views on teaching “non-standard” varieties of
English in the classroom……………………………………………………
3.2.5. Reasons teachers choose to teach World Englishes……………………
3.2.6. Reasons teachers avoid teaching World Englishes…………………….
PART C: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS……………………….
1. Summary of major findings………………………………………………
2. Suggestions of the study for World Englishes teaching……………………
2.1. Interaction with EIL users………………………………………………
2.2. Assessment focusing in communicative effectiveness…………………
2.3. Teaching materials representing EIL users………………………………

39
40
41
I
I
IV
VII

1

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study
The world is presently witnessing a rapid increase in the use of English as a
language of wider communication. More and more countries are making English their
lingua franca to communicate with the rest of the world - not only with native English-
speaking countries, but also with non-native English-speaking countries in
international settings. It is high time for Vietnamese teachers of English to change their
attitudes toward so-called “standard English.” In Vietnam, only English broadcast on
the BBC (British Broadcasting Company), VOA (Voice of America), or ABC
(Australian Broadcasting Company) - in other words, only English used by speakers in
Kachru‟s Inner Circle countries - is considered to be “standard English.”
At Hong Duc University (HDU), English-major students are always taught
English in some standard textbooks followed TOEFL or IELTS format from the first
year until they graduate. So students and teachers believe that “standard English” can
become very useful to help them communicate effectively in foreign companies but
most people do not conduct business in that way. I often hear my former graduate
students, who are now working for Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese companies in
Vietnam, complain that it is difficult for them to understand Japanese English, that is,
the variety of English spoken by speakers of Japanese. Or they will say that their

Within the scope of a minor thesis, this study attempts to investigate the attitudes of
students and teachers of English at Hong Duc University towards teaching and learning
World Englishes therefore the most suitable participants should be from the 2
nd
year
students who have just got used to with these terms and teachers of English in Foreign
Languages Department at Hong Duc University.

3

4. Significance of the study
How to help students of English have enough knowledge and experience to
meet the increasing requirements of today society is a big question to almost teachers.
World Englishes can become an efficient instrument to solve that question. Firstly, this
study will be of considerable interest to both language teachers and students who
concerns on teaching and learning World Englishes. Secondly, the study provides an
useful background on the theory and perspectives related to World Englishes for those
who want to develop more on the topic. Last but not least, this study hopes to provide
teachers and students of English an analysis on attitudes towards teaching and learning
World Englishes at Hong Duc University in order to decide whether to teach or learn
World Englishes or not.
5. Research Questions
In an attempt to investigate teachers and students of English‟s perceptions of
World Englishes, the present study examined three related domains including teachers‟
and students‟ understanding of World Englishes concept, their attitudes towards
“Standard English”, and their attitudes to teaching and learning “non-standard”
varieties of English in the classroom. In light of the goal of the study, the following
research questions were posed:
1. How do teachers and students understand the concept of “World Englishes”?
2. What are teachers and students‟ attitudes towards the so-called “Standard English”?


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1. Learning Attitudes
1.1.1. Definitions of attitudes
There have been considerable researches on attitudes towards language learning
and, according to Gardner (1979), there is an undeniable mutual relationship between
attitudes and motivation in language learning.
There are many definitions of the term. Among them, Gardner (1985:91-93)
claims that attitude is an evaluative creation to some referent or attitude objects,
inferred on the basic of individual‟s beliefs or opinions about the referent. In addition
to that, in Gibb‟s opinion (1988), attitude is generally defined as a state of mind, which
is influenced by feelings, experiences of the world and belief. More clearly, Hallorah
(1967) states that attitude represents an individual like or dislike towards an item.
Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an “attitude object”, i.e. a person,
situation or event. People can also be “ambivalent”, meaning that they simultaneously
possess a positive and a negative bias towards the attitudes in question
The above definitions show people‟s attitudes towards certain referent object, a
behavioral intentions component and a cognitive component involving belief about the
object. In language learning, we can see students‟ attitudes in their feelings and belief
about the way of acting towards the lessons, learning style, teachers and the course
books.
1.1.2. The role of attitudes in language learning
Attitudes and learning always go side by side. Garder and Lamper (1972) both
agree that “success in mastering a foreign language would depend not only on
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intellectual capacity and language aptitude, but on one‟s attitudes towards
representatives of that language as well.”

English-speaking countries of the world, and is therefore the variety spoken by those
who are often referred to as "educated people"; and it is the variety taught to non-native
learners. But most native speakers of English in the world are native speakers of some
nonstandard variety of the language, and English, like other Ausbau languages (see
Kloss, 1967), can be described (Chambers and Trudgill, 1997) as consisting of an
autonomous standardised variety together with all the nonstandard varieties which are
heteronomous with respect to it. Standard English is thus not the English language but
simply one variety of it.
1.2.2. Standard English is not an accent
There is one thing about Standard English on which most linguists, or at least
British linguists, do appear to be agreed, and that is that Standard English has nothing
to do with pronunciation. From a British perspective, we have to acknowledge that
there is in Britain a high status and widely described accent known as Received
Pronunciation (RP) which is sociolinguistically unusual when seen from a global
perspective in that it is not associated with any geographical area, being instead a
purely social accent associated with speakers in all parts of the country, or at least in
England, from upper-class and upper-middle-class backgrounds. It is widely agreed,
though, that while all RP speakers also speak Standard English, the reverse is not the
case. Perhaps 9%-12% of the population of Britain (see Trudgill and Cheshire, 1989)
speaks Standard English with some form of regional accent. It is true that in most cases
Standard English speakers do not have "broad" local accents i.e. accents with large
numbers of regional features which are phonologically and phonetically very distant
from RP, but it is clear that in principle we can say that, while RP is in a sense,
standardised, it is a standardised accent of English and not Standard English itself. This
8

point becomes even clearer from an international perspective. Standard English
speakers can be found in all English-speaking countries, and it goes without saying that
they speak this variety with different non-RP accents depending on whether they came
from Scotland or the USA or New Zealand or wherever.

sociolinguists are agreed, that Standard English is a dialect. As we saw above, Standard
English is simply one variety of English among many. It is a sub-variety of English.
Sub-varieties of languages are usually referred to as dialects, and languages are often
described as consisting of dialects. As a named dialect, like Cockney, or Scouse, or
Yorkshire, it is entirely normal that we should spell the name of the Standard English
dialect with capital letters.
Standard English is however of course an unusual dialect in a number of ways.
It is for example by far the most important dialect in the English-speaking world from a
social, intellectual and cultural point of view; and it does not have an associated accent.
It is also of interest that dialects of English, as of other languages, are generally
simultaneously both geographical and social dialects which combine to form both
geographical and social dialect continua. First, the distinction between Standard
English and other dialects is not arbitrary or a matter of slicing up a continuum at some
point of our own choice, although as we have seen there are some difficulties. This is
inherent in the nature of standardisation itself. There is really no continuum linking
Standard English to other dialects because the codification that forms a crucial part of
the standardisation process results in a situation where, in most cases, a feature is either
standard or it is not. Secondly, unlike other dialects, Standard English is a purely social
dialect. Because of its unusual history and its extreme sociological importance, it is no
longer a geographical dialect, even if we can tell that its origins were originally in the
southeast of England. It is true that, in the English-speaking world as a whole, it comes
in a number of different forms, so that we can talk, if we wish to for some particular
10

purpose, of Scottish Standard English, or American Standard English, or English
Standard English. (Bizarrely, the British National Curriculuim document suggests that
American and Australian English are not Standard English!) And even in England we
can note that there is a small amount of geographical variation at least in spoken
Standard English, such as the different tendencies in different parts of the country to
employ contractions such as He‟s not as opposed to he hasn‟t. But the most salient

This model does not only prove that there are different ways to look upon the
use and spread of English, it
also points out clearly that
there are clearly different
levels of English. Germany,
for example, is a country that
obviously belongs to the
Expanding Circle, and
therefore, the level of
English should be expected
to be a lot different from
those who live in the Inner Circle. L2 stands for ‟Language two‟, meaning the second
language of a person. English is a L2 or even L3 for many people all over the world.
Kachru argues that the term World English is a better way of describing the global use
of English than International English. The argument he uses is that the word
„international‟ implies that there is an international variety of English that has been
codified, accepted and taught around the world, which, according to him, is far from
reality. Another reason for opposing the word international is that it is often used
inaccurately, and according to Kachru it often refers solely to „America, Britain and
Australia‟ (Kachru, 1997, p. 70).
What does “World Englishes” mean?
The Expanding Circle
China, Egypt, Indonesia,
Israel, Japan, Korea,
Nepal, Saudi Arabia,
Taiwan, Russia,
Zimbabwe, South Africa,
Caribbean Islands
(EFL)
The Outer Circle

academic world. She stresses the fact that the level of English is dramatically
decreasing in third world countries (Bamgbose, 2001, p. 357), and that something
should be done to turn the tide again.
1.3.2. Attitudes towards teaching and learning World Englishes
1.3.2.1. To teach Standard English or World Englishes?
Since teaching local varieties of English (such as Singlish) may be just as
problematic as teaching inner circle Standard English, English language teachers may
find themselves in a quandary as to what type of English to emphasize to their students.
We recognize that many English language teachers may not have the luxury of
deciding what variety to emphasize and teach to their students because this may
already be mandated by Ministries of Education, school boards, and/or school
directors. Nevertheless, we suggest that teachers can inform their practices about the
13

different varieties of English that exist and consider a balanced approach to teaching
English. Such an approach would include three key considerations:
1. Teachers need to carefully consider their teaching context (McKay 2002).
2. After choosing their target of instruction based on that context, teachers should
value their learners‟ current English usage (El-Sayed 1991).
3. Teachers need to prepare learners for future international English encounters by
exposing them to other varieties of English (Matsuda 2003) and by teaching them
strategic competence when interacting with speakers who speak other varieties of
English.
1.3.2.2. Current attitudes and perspectives on teaching and learning World Englishes
as a Lingua France.
In any context of language learning and teaching, the issue of what to learn or to
teach is bound to rise. In the case of ELT, the debate in recent decades has been about
which English to aim for. For a majority of ELT experts in the Inner Circle as well as
in some members of Outer and Expanding Circle the competing standards are still
British or American English. Other members of the Outer Circle, however, have started

In this chapter, I tried to provide a brief description of the theoretical knowledge
relating to the study. Included is learning attitudes and its important role in teaching
and learning English. This chapter also included views on Standard English from a new
angle, the term “World Englishes”, debates and attitudes around teaching and learning
it. 15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1. Background to the study
2.1.1. Introduction of the Hong Duc University (HDU)
Hong Duc University was established by the Decision No. 797/ TTg issued by
the Prime Minister on the 24
th
September 1997. The university was founded on the
basis of three separate colleges of Thanh Hoa Province namely: The Teacher Training
College, the Economics & Technology College and the Medical College. Nowadays, it
is a public, multi-discipline, and multi-branch institution in Vietnam Higher Education
System which focuses in training scientific and technological cadres up to a four-year
degree standard to meet the socio-economic development requirements of the Province
and the neighboring provinces.
2.1.2. The teachers
Most the teachers who are in charge of teaching English to the students of
English belong to the foreign languages faculty (FLF). There are 33 teachers, in which
2 teachers of French, 1 teachers of Russian and the rest are the teachers of English. As
for the teachers of English, 25 of them have been training to teach the English major
students. However, due to the limited number of students who rolled in the foreign
languages faculty, only 20 teachers of English are in charge of teaching these students.

dealt with the basic concept of Standard English and World Englishes. The third
section (items 14-24) related to students‟ view on native and non-native English.
A three-page questionnaire for teachers of English composed of 23 Likert-type
items and two open-ended items, was divided into four sections. The first section
contained demographic questions in order to gain demographic information about
teachers. The second section (items 1-13) dealt with the basic concept of Standard
English and World Englishes in order to review teachers‟ practical understandings of
World Englishes. The third section (items 14-23) related to teachers‟ view on teaching
17

World Englishes. Finally, in the fourth section, teachers were asked to rate their own
reasons for choosing or avoiding teaching World Englishes.
2.2. 2. Interviews
The interview questions were structured to get better insights into the research
questions and to discuss further information about the items raised in the questionnaire
for teachers to clarify more on the reasons for teachers to choose Standard English or
World Englishes to teach so that the study would be more sufficient and valid. The
interview was carried out in English in the form of an informal conversation between
the researcher and 20 teachers of English at FLF. Each interview lasted about 10
minutes. The questions in the interview were based on the questions in the
questionnaire for teachers, but were extended to get more through understanding of the
matter. The data collected from the interview was recorded, transcribed for the
purposes of the study.
2.3. Procedures
Most questionnaire items of the questionnaire were structured to explore
students and teachers‟ attitudes towards World Englishes. The researcher did not
design all questionnaire items but modified most of them from other researchers
because there are many similar and useful items which can suit the researcher‟s
purpose.
2.3.1. Piloting the questionnaire

participants for the interview: Whether the participants had taught World Englishes in
2012-2013 academic year, in previous years, or had not taught it at all; which kind of
English they choose to teach their students. The aim of the interview was to get in-
depth answers to second and third research questions:
2. What are teachers and students‟ attitudes towards the so-called “Standard English”?
3. What are their attitudes to teaching and learning “non-standard” varieties of English?
A total of five interview questions were prepared for the teachers to answer. The
interviews were carried out in English.
2.3.4. The participants
The study was carried out with 186 students of English from the second year at
FLF, HDU belonging to 2 big groups: university students and college students and 20
teachers of English. 165 of students are females and 21 are males, 15 of teachers are
females and 5 are males.