Question of Teaching New Englishes

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, grade: 1,3 (A), Dresden Technical University, course: "e;New Englishes"e;, language: English, abstract: In countries like India, Nigeria or the Philippines[1] English is playing a more and more important role, not only for international, but also for intranational communicative purposes. The governments start to set a high value on the teaching of English as it was already done in Europe during the 19th century. Especially, in regard to the upcoming generation, who has grown up with a more westernised and therefore, a more "e;English"e; world than their parents, it is tried to prepare them for the global market, as well as for local problems. Together with these aims one question arises: What kind of English should be taught in school? Not only the people have changed, but also the language itself. So today, we have Indian English, as well as, Nigerian or Philippinean English, which on the one hand, are seen as individual languages and on the other hand are just defined as varieties of English. After a short definition of these New Englishes, the main emphasis of this essay shall lay on the question of teaching English in countries where new Englishes are being established and on the problems that may occur. For a better understanding of these problems the teaching situation in Tanzania shall be compared to that of India.