We explored the proposal that overt repetition of verbal information improves the acquisition of a native accent in a second language. Mandarin-speaking Chinese learners of English were recorded while repeating and reading out English sentences before and after one of three treatments: (a) repeating native English sentences subvocally,…

The aims of this study were 1) to examine the effectiveness of the World Englishes instructional model in enabling students to improve their listening comprehension towards varieties of English, and 2) to investigate students' attitudes towards the use of the World Englishes instructional model. The methodology of this study followed a…

As English becomes an established lingua franca in the ASEAN region, what should be the pedagogical approach to oral skills and pronunciation teaching in the region? Should teachers target common features and patterns developing in ASEAN English or target more "Western" pronunciation? This study strives to balance the discussion of the…

A questionnaire study was conducted to examine how 120 highly experienced EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers in Japan adjust their pronunciation in order to facilitate and refine their students' learning skills to approach mutual intelligibility in second language (L2) classrooms (i.e. "pronunciation-specific teacher talk").…

This paper first briefly reviews the concept of intelligibility as it has been employed in both English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and world Englishes (WE) research. It then examines the findings of the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a list of phonological features that empirical research has shown to be important for safeguarding mutual intelligibility…

This paper tests claims concerning the English as Lingua Franca (ELF) movement's position within the world Englishes paradigm. To do so, it considers the writings of Jennifer Jenkins, a leader in this movement, on what she calls "phonological intelligibility", and the writings of Larry Smith, an established scholar on intelligibility in…