Less is more: Pathways to a simpler, plainer people's English as an equitable lingua franca

• Main Author: Templer, B.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2008
• Subjects: LB Theory and practice of education
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/9382/1/Less_is_more_pathways_to_a_simpler%2C_plainer_people%27s_English_as_an_equitable_lingua_franca.pdf; http://eprints.um.edu.my/9382/
• Institution: Universiti Malaya

Sustainable educational innovation needs to address a major problem: the great gap in the learning of English as a lingua franca (ELF) between the privileged and less privileged ('non-dominant') across the planet. Ordinary learners in Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and other corners of the world, especially the Global South, need a more 'downshifted' form of English for basic communication and broader reading and listening - instead of climbing the 'Everest' of trying to master a standard English based on native English-speaker posh proficiency models. The paper, organized in ten theses, introduces some perspectives for English as a 'downsized' and effective power tool for the greater masses of learners (and teachers). It look briefly at three options in simpler discourse: (1) the PLAIN LANGUAGE community of research & practice (hhttp://plainlanguagenetwork.org;http://www.impact-information.com/), focused on communicating clearly; (2) Charles Ogden & Ivor Richard's BASIC ENGLISH 850, an older model of highly simplified English, a "leveraging" tool usable for expressing almost any idea, and science in a leaner 'ESP-Lite' mode (http://www.basic-english.org); (3) VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH, a downshifted form of English developed by the Voice of America, and now available online as well as on shortwave radio. It can be used for communicating about many topics (http://www.voaspecialenglish.com), at the level of pre-intermediate readability (1,500 word families), and has a hugeonline archive of over 5,000 feature articles. Texamen in Holland contends it is possible to say and write virtually anything at a level of 7th grade readability, which is where most citizens in the U.S. & many countries feel comfortable reading their native language at (http://www.texamen.com/index.php?id=1). The overall aim is toward a more equitable planetary ELF for the Multitude and more 'empowering' constructivist pedagogies, especially for working-class learners and in rural environments.