Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Despite the continued growth of linguistic diversification and widespread utilization of English by global speakers with multilingual and multicultural backgrounds, English as a foreign language-oriented pedagogies still profoundly dominate Thailand. To educationally maneuver away from this anachronistic conceptualization, and towards the currently diverse English reality, this study investigated the influence of a World Englishes course administered in a Thai university, on the undergraduates’ perceptions of Global Englishes (GE) and Thai-English. The findings revealed a significantly positive shift of attitudes towards GE and Thai-English. Before the course, the students regarded linguistic Americanization or Britishization as the only internationally acceptable English employment, and intolerance, dissatisfaction, and depreciation were identified against other English varieties. After the course, the students recognized English diversity, and understood the way its varieties are realistically hybridized or dehegemonized across the three Circles. The findings also illustrated that the students appreciated the value of Thai-English, no longer viewed it as a communicative barrier, and refrained from making a social-driven linguistic judgment. To enhance the students’ awareness of English pluricentricity, this study further discussed the integration of GE-oriented pedagogies into English language teaching.