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Language user group

and language teaching


Bilingual and
multilingual education

By group 4

L2 users lives,
experiences and
situation are as varied as
human lives can be.
L2 users reflect the
amazing diversity of
humanity.

two Danish and


Brazilian
businessmen
are using
English to do
business with
each other

a Cantonese
man is
speaking
Mandarin in
London

A Japanese
woman is using
Spanish on
holiday in
Spain

Cook ,1991

1. Multi-competence Background

a perspective called multicompetence, originally


defined as the compound
state of a mind with two
grammars
Multi-competence is not a
model of second language
acquisition
The multi-competence
perspective was productive
in supporting the growing
movement to regard the L2
user
As multi-competence came out of
a Chomskyan tradition

a way of looking at
second language
acquisition from the
vantage point of the L2
user as a distinct kind of
person rather than

Cook (2007c) distinguished five


meanings of language

Language 1

A representative
system known by
human being

Human language

Language 2

An abstract entity

The english language

Language 3

A set of sentences

Everything that has


aor could be said.
(the language of
Bible)

Language 4

The possessio of a
community

The language of
French people

Language 5

The knowledge in the


mind of an individual

I have learnt
French as a
foreign language
for 8 years

Multi competence was conceived in language 5

2. Communities and language user groups


people united by a
people who belong
uniform style of
to a social network
speech (Bloomfield,
(Gumperz &
1926
Levinson, 1996)Speech

communi
as people living in ty

an area such as the


Lower East Side of
New York (Labov,
1966)

The core value of a community


minority ethnic community is seen as
identifying itself with its own
language, protecting it and
maintaining it as a heritage

An individuals use of two


languages supposes the
existence of two different
language communities; it does
not suppose the existence of a
bilingual community (Mackey,
1972,
554)
what Brutt-Griffler
(2002) terms

This denies the reality of


the multilingual
communities in the world
with more than one
language at their core

the multi-competence of the


community?
multilingual community as normal
multi-competence reversalviewing
monolingual community as an aberration
Toronto

mother tongue
English

Mother
toungue
French

speakers of
neither
English nor
French

2,746,480

58,590

2,160,330

Vietnam Speak Italian


In their
ese and
workplace
Just
as
the
concept
of
individual
Canagarajah (2007), Linguistic
Poles
multi-competence stressed the L2
diversity is at the heart of
user in their own right
multilingual communities.

DE SWAAN HIERARCHY

English

HYPECENTRAL
SUPERCENTRAL
12 Super Central
Languages.

CENTRAL
PERIPHERAL
(LOCAL)

6 languages were
dispersed via
colonialism: Arabic,
English, French,
Portuguese, Russian,
and Spanish
Baha
sa

Mina
ng

4. Groups of language users


People speaking
their L1 to each
other

English L1 speakers in London or


Polish L1 speakers in West London

native local
language

people using an
L2 within a larger
community

Bengali L1 speakers using English L2


in shops etc in London

central
language

people using an
L2 internationally
for specific
functions

international communicators;
purpose specific (Seaspeak),
academic, religious, business, etc

supercentr
al
language

people using an
L2 globally for a
wide range of
functions

English as Lingua Franca

hypercentr
al
language

people
Mandarin for other Chinese dialect
historically from
speakers; returnees
a particular
community (re-)
acquiring its
language as an L2

Identity
language

EFL

no-one is a native speaker of ELF


no-one treats it as their prime
identity
they simply use it for
communicating with other people
De themselves.
Swaan (2001) sees the acquisition
like
of second languages as typically
going up the hierarchy.

hypercentr
al
supercentr
al
central
local

De Swaan
(2001) claims
that L2 users
are the glue
that keeps
these societies
together

As well as these six reasonably distinct groups, other groupings seem


to combine these categories in one way or another.

Tourists for example expect to be able


to get along with L2 English,
regardless of the local language
Japanese tourists using English in
Cuba
A further groups;
People gaining an education
through a second language.
There are also people who return to
their country of historical origin
and need to reacquire the first
language, or indeed to acquire it
for the first time
A large group consists of children
being taught a second language as
part of the school curriculum or CL
group

Finally it is perhaps obvious


that an individual may have
multiple memberships in
these groups

5. Language groups and SLA research


How SLA research handles these
groups
Group B central languages come out
of untutored acquisition
The supercentral language acquired
by
GroupD,
C the acquisition of the
Group
hypercentral language, is starting to
be studied as a specific form of
acquisition
CL group of learners in classrooms
and the group of immigrants to the
United States

6. Language groups and language teaching


Group B learning
concerned
and ethnic minority children and immigrants
teaching
of central languages
The target is four types of
The content of the
learner:
curriculum is defined in
1. Settled communities such as Hong
terms of can-do
kong
statements
2. Refugees
3. Migrant workers
characteristicstheir limited use across
Group
C teaching
supercentral
4. Partners
andof
spouses
of learners
for a small range of
languages
functions.
its use for public domains in
The most
Europian countries
different countries
taught
languages
English

50% of all pupils

German

northern and eastern


Europe

French

southern Europe

Russian

the Baltic and


Bulgaria

Language Passport
(2007
in
co
rp
or
at
ed

The project set up by the


Council of Europe called the
Common European Framework
aims
to facilitate communication and

interaction among Europeans of


different mother tongues in order to
promote European mobility, mutual
understanding and co-operation, and
overcome prejudice and
Two goals:
discrimination
Understanding a conversation
between native speakers
Understanding a native speaker
interlocutor.
World English
roup D. teaching the hypercentral language
English as an International Language
Retain their own l1
English as Lingua Franca
identity
to teach this particular variety of
English for global use for many
functions.

on establishing and teaching the


ELF variety of English

Some varieties of English have indeed


become independent of British or
American national standards,
Indian
Singaporean
Australian
So there has been a danger of
confusing the two issues
British English should be taught as a
central language in a particular
country rather than a local standard
(in india)

The functions of English


hypercentral and central
language are different

7. Conclusions

So language teaching has to be clear whether it is


teaching:

- a local language to people who want to take part in a


monolingual local language community

- a central language to people who want to take part in


a multilingual community where the language is used

a supercentral language to people who want to use it


for specialist cross-national uses
a hypercentral language to people who want to use it
for a range of purposes across the globe.

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