Nurturing Global Listeners: Increasing Familiarity and Appreciation for World Englishes

The acknowledgment of world Englishes highlights the need for engendering greater linguistic flexibility among students and educators. Pertaining to listening, such flexibility can be addressed partially through materials and experiences providing increased familiarity with varieties of world Englishes. Examples of world Englishes should be provided while maintaining their integrity. Publishers overlook opportunities for increasing familiarity with world Englishes when materials are created that do not depict the Englishes from the regions they are attempting to portray. In addition, institutions often overlook the resources available in their own environment, focusing learner attention on Englishes provided by members of the Inner Circle, and ignoring the rich bounty they have within their own evironment. Increased exposure to English varieties is one step. Global listeners must also be reminded to recognize the validity of varieties of English. In particular, they must be reminded to acknowledge and accept the validity of their own. This paper describes the methods used in Chukyo University's Department of World Englishes for developing familiarity and acceptance of English varieties, including students' own.