By Aya Matsuda, associate professor of English

With the support of the Faculty International Development Grant, I attended the International Association for World Englishes conference in Nagoya, Japan, from Oct.7 through 9. This annual international conference is dedicated to the study of World Englishes, which focuses on the world-wide spread of English and its linguistic, cultural, political, economical, and pedagogical implications, and attracts participants from all over the world.

This is one conference I try to attend every year as it directly relates to my scholarly focus (teaching English as an international language) as well as my teaching responsibilities at UNH.

The primary reason for attending the conference this year was to present a paper titled "The Internationalization of Technical Communication Textbooks" with Professor Paul Kei Matsuda, also from UNH. This project was an extension of my earlier works on teaching English as an international language in that it explored how native English speakers are being prepared for using English for international communication. (Please see Professor Paul Matsuda’s report for details of this project and presentation.)

The session was well attended and we received some insightful comments and questions from both writing teachers who are interested in incorporating an international perspective and World Englishes specialists who advise English teachers.

I also attended several sessions focusing on theoretical and pedagogical issues related to the use and teaching of English as an international language, which currently is my primary research focus. One session I particularly found insightful was that of Professor Nobuyuki Hino from Osaka University. Professor Hino presented one of his English courses in which students are exposed to world varieties of English, gain cross-cultural awareness, and develop critical thinking skills.

Specific pedagogical ideas he shared with us are adaptable to other instructional contexts, and I look forward to sharing them with my students in TESL (teaching English as a second language) courses (ENGL 715/815 and 716/816).

The conference covered a wide range of topics, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the field. However, I did notice that the field is gradually moving beyond the simple description of different varieties of English (e.g., Indian English, Singapore English) and more scholars now critically looks at the theoretical and practical implications of having multiple varieties of English.

A number of presentations, for instance, examined how such concepts as “standard language” “good English” and “race” have been complicated by the complex sociolinguistic landscape of the English language today. I was encouraged by this trend especially as an instructor of the course on World Englishes at UNH (ENGL/LING 717/817) because one of my goals in the course is to engage students in critical thinking and to encourage them to question taken-for-granted ideas related to English. It is challenging when students do not have much exposure to different varieties of English beyond the New England area, but listening to the presentations at this conference gave me some new ideas about how to help UNH students engage in critical inquiry about the English language.