Introducing WEs in the EFL classroom in Secondary Education

Abstract

What I would like to discuss in this master's dissertation is how teachers can incorporate World Englishes1 (WEs) in the curriculum without losing a common standard and maintaining mutual intelligibility between the different countries where English is spoken. The whole work will be based on two aspects. On the one hand, Kachru’s three concentric circles (Inner, Outer and Expanding) with its further analysis and the controversial debates on WEs which were originated afterwards. And, on the other hand, on the misinterpretation of the uses of English as an international language which must not be related just to the Inner Circle, but also to the Outer and Expanding Circle (taking into account their different accents and vocabulary). Apart from these two previous aspects, I will also put into practice how we can work with WEs in class by including some exercises and explaining them. Furthermore, there is a final questionnaire carried out by 3rd ESO students which will prove that nowadays we only work with linguistics varieties from the Inner circle and that is why our pupils find difficult to understand other accents from the other two circles.