English Language Teaching in France largely centres on 'standard' British and American English, what Lippi-Green (2012: 56) calls a 'mythical beast'. Little to no room is given to other inner-circle varieties (e.g. Australian English), outer-circle varieties/World Englishes (e.g. Indian English), or non-standard varieties (e.g. Liverpool English, known as Scouse, or African American English).
This lack of sociolinguistic diversity in the English L2 classroom reinforces the ideology of the standard language (Milroy 2001) and establishes an implicit hierarchy of varieties of English. It contributes to the stigmatization of some as 'illegitimate'. It fails to prepare our students to interact with speakers of diverse backgrounds.
Several pedagogical activities I use in my teaching draw on sociolinguistic theoretical concepts to remedy this situation. For example, students reflect on the question 'Who counts as a native speaker?' to challenge the native speaker construct (Muni Toke 2013). They explore the structural characteristics (lexical, phonological, morphosyntactic and pragmatic features) of diverse English varieties, as well as their socio-historical context, and the language attitudes towards them (Preston 2013). Students are also explicitly introduced to the prescriptive approach to language, leading to discussions of norm(s), prestige and legitimacy, linguistic insecurity and linguistic discrimination which all relate to the standard language myth. This aims at promoting social justice. In class, language change is presented as an inevitable phenomenon which should not be thought of as decay (Aitchison 2001). Stylistic variation, that is variation according to language use, including a comparison of spoken vs. written data, is analysed to show the 'appropriateness' of different linguistic forms in different contexts. It is pointed out that standard language use is associated with writing where standardization is most prevalent (Gadet 1995: 20).
The emphasis on regional, social (ethnicity, social class, age) and stylistic variation is hoped to demonstrate the diversity of English language use, to foster the acceptance of different accents in L2 classroom and promote different grammars. It seeks to dismantle the view of English as a homogeneous entity stemming from the focus on the 'standard' as an 'idealized language' (Crowley 2003).
References:
Aitchison, Jean (2001) (3rd ed.) Language Change: Progress or Decay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crowley, Tony (2003) Standard English and the Politics of Language. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gadet, Françoise (1995) Norme, variation, évaluation. In Mazière (ed.) La genèse de la norme. Colloque de la SHESL, janvier 1994. Archives et documents de la Société d'histoire et d'épistémologie des sciences du langage, second series, 11: 18–22.
Lippi-Green, Rosina (2012) (2nd ed.) English with an Accent: Language, Ideology, and Discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge.
Milroy, James (2007) The ideology of the standard language. In Llamas, Mullany & Stockwell (eds.) The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics. London: Routledge. 133–139.
Muni Toke, Valelia (2013) Le locuteur natif et son idéalisation : un demi-siècle de critiques. Histoire Épistémologie Langage 35(2): 5–15.
Preston, Dennis (2002) Language with an Attitude. In Chambers, Trudgill & Schilling-Estes (eds.) The Handbook of Language Variation and Change. Malden/Oxford: Blackwell. 40–66.
