Templer_IJIELTR - Basic English Institute

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IJIELTR
Volume 1, Number 2 pp.
ISSN: 2156-5716
© 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
CREATING A MINI RESEARCH CENTER FOR
SIMPLIFIED ENGLISH AND ITS PEDAGOGY
Bill Templer
Preslavsky University, Shumen, Bulgaria
ABSTRACT
The article proposes the creation of an empirical research unit or center for
investigating the teaching of more simplified and sustainable forms English as a Lingua
Franca (ELF), especially to ordinary non-privileged learners among the world’s Social
Majorities. Key research areas outlined for such a mini center involve investigation on
Ogden/Richards’ BASIC ENGLISH 850, VOA Special English, Grzega’s Basic Global
English, Jean-Paul Nerrière’s GLOBISH, and other alternatives to the present English
language syllabus in the schools, particularly in the Global South. Such a research center
would also look at the implication of the Plain Language movement for teaching English
as an additional language, the viability of simpler models of English for Academic
Purposes (a kind of “EAP Lite”), new approaches to text “readability” and aspects of the
“vertical translation” of standard English texts into BASIC ENGLISH 850 and other
simplified modes. The article is framed in the spirit of “discourse democracy” and a
TESOL of equity and solidarity in the 21st century, and expanded research on working
class pedagogies of ESL.
Keywords: BASIC ENGLISH 850, English as a lingua franca, plain language, simplification,
VOA Special English.
INTRODUCTION
My prime thesis here is that the TEFL profession is faced with an evident need it is not
adequately addressing. Teachers of EFL have to experiment with and research in empirical
depth new paths toward a more sustainable, “clearer, plainer” English among the world’s
Social Majorities, and non-privileged learners from working class, rural, and poverty
backgrounds everywhere. Such English should be more easily learned and retained, and easier
for teachers to master. This article proposes a mini research center to that end. Far too much
orientation in our field—and in global education more generally, shaped by the ethos of
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An earlier version of this article was published in IATEFL Global Issues Newsletter (No. 26, Spring. 2011, pp.
14-16).
“cultural elites” and their “meritocracy”—is toward teaching middle-class learners, too little
toward “educating working class children in their own interest” (Finn, 1999). Writing on the
neo-liberal transformation in education geared to the dictates of the free market, Hill (2006, p.
15) notes that class related criteria such as “aptitudes” are leading in Britain and across much
of the world to increased social class differentiation in the schools, in part structured by race,
ethnic background and gender as well. He asks: “What influence can critical librarians . . .
cultural workers, teachers, pedagogues have in working toward a democratic, egalitarian
society/economy/polity?” (p. 18). One answer is a more simplified global lingua franca.
Lamb (2011) discusses the impact in provincial Sumatra in Indonesia of a “Matthew
Effect” in which the social, economic, and cultural capital provided by home background and
early educative experiences enables some learners to benefit more from English language
education at school as well as to “exploit opportunities to learn the language outside school”
(p. 201), leading to a “massive competitive gain” in English proficiency over children from
more modest backgrounds. In turn, this can lead to a widening economic and cultural class
divide over the long term. That “Matthew effect,” advantage begetting further advantage, is
evident in many countries across the planet both in the Global South and lower
socioeconomic strata in the industrialized North (Rigney, 2010).
The upshot in our own discipline is growing inequality in the effective teaching of EFL
as a tool of international communication, and the increasing conversion of English language
proficiency into a badge of class privilege, inequity, cultural capital, and the mythology of
“upward mobility.” There is a widening chasm between small islands of privileged middleclass learners of EFL across the developing world, the EFL haves—and the masses of
working class learners and ordinary poor folks, the EFL have-nots. Not only that “money
talks,” as the old saw goes, but “money talks English,” generating vast spaces of inequity in
global discourse (Templer, 2008c). Colemen (2010, p. 16) reminds us: “any ‘entitlement’ to
English as a passport to development must be strictly available to all who desire it, otherwise
it becomes a means of barring access to the less privileged.” In the interest of “discourse
democracy” and a TESOL of equity and solidarity in the 21st century, we need strategies to
resist and counter that. Surprisingly, at no point does Coleman discuss the option of a more
simplified and readily learnable form of English for mass instruction.
Anchored in this idea, I propose the creation of a Mini Research Center for Simplified
English, needed especially in the Global South, for investigating, in empirical terms,
alternatives to the present English language syllabus in the schools, and a simpler version of
English for Academic Purposes (“EAP Lite”). One concrete aim is to test specific models of
simpler and leaner, more sustainable and significantly “less complex” English as a lingua
franca (ELF) for instruction to the Social Majorities in many developing countries, and the
working class majorities in the more industrial economies. To our knowledge, there is no such
research unit or center anywhere at present.
FURTHERING WORKING CLASS PEDAGOGIES OF ENGLISH AS A
LINGUA FRANCA (ELF)
My guiding thesis suggests that ideally, all individuals on this planet should have the
right to learn an efficient, compact lingua franca for intercultural communication, in effect
reclaiming the commons of discourse through pedagogies for plainer talk, as applied in the
teaching of English as an additional language (Templer, 2008a). Such a proposed mini
research center is in the fundamental interest of average people learning a simpler English to
communicate across borders and social boundaries, a globalization “from the bottom-up” for
the Multitude, not the small privileged minorities across the developing and developed world
that feature so centrally, for example, in CNN programming and its incessant ideology of the
global “meritocracy.” Most of our students live in a quite different world.
English as a lingua franca for the Social Majorities is often neglected in linguistic and
pedagogical research and practice, and in national syllabi for teaching English across the
planet. In many countries, especially in the Global South, only a relatively small minority of
learners of English achieve a mid-intermediate level proficiency in English. At present, little
more than 1% of the world’s population goes on to tertiary education, and far less to a
completed degree. The teaching of English as a lingua franca (ELF) across much rural and
working class education faces formidable challenges: a lack of qualified teachers and
materials resources, low levels of pupil motivation, and achievement among non-privileged
learners. In promoting BASIC ENGLISH decades ago, Ivor Richards pointed to the millions
of “largely wasted boy/girl hours” in conventional EFL classrooms. That is still the alarming
case. Wedell (2011) notes that reports from many countries suggest that there are relatively
few state school classrooms anywhere in which most learners are developing a useable
knowledge of English. The learners worldwide who do succeed in developing the higher level
communication skills have often attended private schools or had extra private tuition.
In SE Asia, experience in Thailand is a striking example of this low level of achievement
(Tayjasanant and Barnard, 2010, pp. 303-304). Mackenzie (2008), commenting on basic
problems in TEFL in the Thai state school system, notes: “very low English and teaching
skills proficiency levels of teachers; 60-80% of English teachers being non-English majors;
poorly resourced schools; shortfall of 50,000 English teachers nationwide.” So, the problem
begins with many low skill teachers of English in the government primary schools. They
themselves need perhaps to really master a more simplified form of English which they could
then confidently teach and gain high proficiency in.
The strong resistance by many Thai students to learning English beyond the “postbeginner” level is noteworthy, and has often been commented on. Significantly, Thailand has
a very large number of foreign English language teachers in secondary schools and at all
colleges and universities. Despite their presence, learner language proficiency remains poor,
and many such teachers leave the country, often frustrated, as letters on www.ajarn.com, the
main website for ex-pat EFL teachers in Thailand, indicate. There is little doubt in my mind,
based on several years experience in the Thai state university system and numerous
interviews with teachers, that approaches to simplified English need solid experimentation in
the highly problematic Thai context.
In Indonesia, as Coleman (2011) stresses, the present schooling system in the country is
“perpetuating social inequalities, particularly through the way in which English is offered and
taught.” Pupils who can afford private English tuition enjoy access to a heavily subsidised
state school system which gives “high priority to the use of English as a medium of
instruction. On the other hand, those who urgently need English (and other languages) for
survival while working abroad are left to fend for themselves without access to language
tuition of any kind” (p. 105). This is true for many disadvantaged working class learners in
Indonesia whether they become “labor migrants” abroad or not.
In teaching ecologies where poverty is a major factor—the bottom two billion on the
planet—we need to think more “laterally” about what teachers and most learners need as a
solid basic skill. If we strive toward “putting the brakes on complexity” (Templer, 2008c), I
suggest that we can work to forge a more sustainable TEFL pedagogy in the interest of
average working class learners pretty much everywhere. A research unit of the kind proposed
can investigate in multiple ways what kinds of more “downshifted,” simpler English for the
Multitude—including “wide reading for pleasure”–can actually work, particularly for less
motivated and more “marginalized” students (Mason and Krashen, 1997). This is not
happening; for this reason, such a research unit is necessary, based in Indonesia, Thailand, or
elsewhere.
KEY AREAS OF THE RESEARCH CENTER
The proposed research unit or center, attached to a state university or polytechnic, can
concentrate on several focus areas:
 BASIC ENGLISH 850: There is need to initiate an array of pilot projects to test the
efficacy of teaching a revitalized mode of Ogden and Richards’ BASIC ENGLISH,
grounded on 850 key words/word families within school systems in a spectrum of
language learning ecologies, both as a “first stage” and as a “target plateau” (i.e., “just
really master this!”). It is also far easier to train teachers who concentrate on educating
learners intensively in BASIC ENGLISH, as was done in Yunnan in China 1939-1945
(Templer, 2007, 2005, 2006, 2008c). Research is needed on using Richards and
Gibson’s textbook (1973) English through Pictures, recently reprinted in Canada and
now being used worldwide (www.englishthroughpictures.com). It utilizes a slightly
expanded version of BASIC that Richards came to call “Every Man’s English”
(Katagiri and Constable, 1993, pp. 344-355). Work is also needed on techniques of
teaching “vertical translation” from standard English into BASIC as a tool for all
learners and users of English. That was Wynburne’s (1960) vision, and involves
research on intralingual translation and “semantic leveraging” (Templer, 2012),
utilizing BASIC 850 to enhance “language awareness” among both L1 and L2 learners.
Seidlhofer (2002) discusses the need for a new look at BASIC from the perspective of
lingua franca research. Richards (1943) remains a good introduction to BASIC and its
conception, itself written largely in BASIC. A mini research center could also develop
a networked project of producing new texts in BASIC 850, and translating newspaper
articles and many other texts into BASIC 850. The Bible in BASIC is one such
paradigm: http://www.o-bible.com/bbe.html.
 BASIC GLOBAL ENGLISH: There is a need to develop pilot projects to test a model of
easier English developed by German linguist Joachim Grzega, Catholic University,
Eichstätt/Germany (www.basicglobalenglish.com). Joachim’s experimental model is
grounded on 750 high frequency words/word families, with a further 250 chosen by the
individual student. Spoken communication is emphasized from the start. BGE has had
success in trial projects in adult education and in early primary education in Germany.
Joachim introduces BGE on a video: http://youtu.be/B0iGgshLzxI . Broader empirical
research and experimentation are necessary.
 VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH: We need to significantly spur classroom and academic
research on VOA Special English (www.voaspecialenglish.com) as a second tier of
simplified clear English, at the level of 1,500 higher frequency headwords. This can be
promoted as a target plateau level, with a large corpus of materials for reading
(Templer, 2009). This can involve workshops for primary and secondary school
teachers in the use of VOA Special English as a resource for a simpler “Scientific and
Academic English Lite,” especially for supplementary comprehensible reading and
extensive listening (Templer, 2008a, 2008b). Syahro’s (2009) investigation indicated
statistically significant better scores on the IELTS reading examination among an
experimental group using VOA Special English texts for examination preparation.
 GLOBISH: Jean-Paul Nerrière’s GLOBISH, based on 1,500 word vocabulary, is now an
expanding phenomenon. Research is needed (Templer, 2007). Noble (2010) offers a
readable introduction as e-book. Pekica Pagon (2005) provides a useful interview with
its originator, J-P Nerrière. The GLOBISH websites are a useful starting point:
http://tinyurl.com/423byg in France, and a website in the U.S.: www.globish.com. A
video with Nerrière is also instructive: http://youtu.be/054zM_ON_z8. It is a growing
movement and may be in some ways more flexible for communication than VOA
Special English as a desired “plateau target level.” Like Special English, GLOBISH
tends to avoid idioms and figurative expressions. Its promoters consider GLOBISH a
highly robust and vibrant tool for communication.
 PLAIN ENGLISH: The “Plain Language” movement is burgeoning, promoted by the US
government (http://www.plainlanguage.gov/), the New Zealand government, and many
professionals (especially in law, medicine, and government administration) in a number
of countries around the world, including the Plain Language Association International
(www.plainlanguagenetwork.org/). The goal is discourse simplification (Cutts, 2009),
as exemplified in The Netherlands in the work of www.texamen.com. A good
PowerPoint introduction is DuBay (2008). Stephens (2010) is instructive for
orientation, and useful website. The U.S. Federal Plain Language Guidelines (March
2011) are highly instructive: tinyurl.com/24rjfxk, as is this Plain English Handbook
from the U.S. government: tinyurl.com/j64uo. In Australia, a useful government
handbook is online: tinyurl.com/3t9742w. DuBay (2011) also reminds us:
National surveys show that half the adult population reads below the 9th-grade level.
More than a third reads below the 6th-grade level. To reach the widest audience, you
have to accommodate those different levels of reading skill. [...] Many Websites are
written at the 16th-grade level, putting them out of reach of 95 percent of the reading
public.
The fact that many native speakers in the U.S., Australia, and Great Britain have reading
skills roughly at the level of instruction for 14-year-olds needs to be taken into account in
thinking about what our aims are in teaching English as a lingua franca skill. What
implications does a concern with “reading ease” and its effect on comprehension have for
teaching ELF for the Social Majorities? More research on readability formulas such as
Flesch-Kincaid applied to simplified texts for ESL learners is also needed (DuBay, 2004).
Schriver and Gordon (2010) explore some of the needs for research on plain language more
globally.
IMPLEMENTING KEY FOCUS AREAS OF THE RESEARCH CENTER
An array of projects is possible, and most would be low cost.
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At a university or polytechnic, VOA Special English for Extensive Reading and
Listening can be investigated with control and experimental groups. We need to establish
whether using Special English increases student motivation, listening proficiency, and
interest in reading independently. Can it be used for preparing for high stakes
“gatekeeping” tests such as IELTS and TOEFL? Syahro’s (2009) work in Malaysia
suggests that this kind of research is badly needed.
Is VOA Special English a reasonable “target level” for many learners? Longer term
research can explore this. One thesis that jibes with Krashen’s (1997, pp. 39-51) views of
second language pedagogy is that a solid grounding in VOA Special English is sufficient
for school based instruction. Learners who wish can go on to “higher” proficiency levels
through self study on their own. Others can read and listen to Special English to deepen
their mastery of that form of “downshifted” English, enough for any needs they have.
Research is needed on whether VOA Special English can be used successfully as an
“English Lite” foundation for what Krashen calls “narrow academic reading” (1997, pp.
36-37), concentrating on a specific subject area but using Special English and its 14 topic
categories.
Another project would be to try to get a number of English teachers in the secondary
schools to start using VOA Special English materials from the Internet as a supplement at
low- to mid-intermediate level. The proposed research unit could hold focused workshops
on this in a number of schools in an outreach program. Follow-up research could be
devised, including action research by teachers using VOA Special English. Most have no
knowledge of this rich and cost free resource, online, and available as regular shortwave
broadcast.
Such a center could also hold workshops for U.S. Peace Corps volunteers in Thailand,
Indonesia (tinyurl.com/3bog6c9) and elsewhere in the ASEAN region, for example. Such
PCVs often do not know anything about VOA Special English even though it is
developed and financed by the same government department that supports the Peace
Corps. This is a fact the author has substantiated through interviews. Discussion has been
initiated with Lexitronics based in Turkish Cyprus on developing a corpus of VOA
Special English, and the Special English office in Washington, D.C. would welcome such
a project (see below).
Research on GLOBISH can be included as a comparative model. A project using it and
VOA Special English for comparison can be designed. Many other questions deserve
investigation. How do learners respond to it? How rapidly is it mastered? What can be
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read in it at this point? What needs of learners globally is it responding to? (Nerrière and
Hon, 2009; Templer, 2007). Can it be utilized for teaching potential migrant workers
from low income backgrounds in adult ELF instruction (Coleman, 2011)?
BASIC ENGLISH 850 or Richards expanded version “Every Man’s English” is best for
students who know very little, or have fossilized at a kind of “false beginner” or “postbeginner” level over many years; that is common, for example, in Thailand, and perhaps
in rural China, village Indonesia, and other teaching ecologies of the developing world.
Experimentation with BASIC 850 in a number of schools with results compared over a
two-year period would be one such project. This was done in Israel in the early 1960s, in
agricultural collective farms, with surprisingly positive results (Katagiri and Constable,
1993, pp. 359-367). The Ministry of Education in Indonesia, Thailand, or Cambodia, for
example, could embark on such an experimental project. We would recommend use of
Richards and Gibson’s (1973) textbook English through Pictures. Kesevan (2010) is an
example of a M.Ed. thesis that explores using Basic English with weaker international
students at a government college in Perak state, Malaysia. She found definite
improvement in vocabulary control in her limited, 6-week study.
BASIC ENGLISH 850 or Ivor Richard’s expanded version “Every Man’s English,” could
be taught in experimental groups of learners from high poverty backgrounds. This has
been discussed as a potential project working with Romany (Gypsy) children and adults
in Bulgaria, most of whom have no knowledge of English, and often drop out of school at
an early age. Many Romanies from the Balkans now go the route of “labor migrants” to
Western Europe where language barriers are difficult.
Research on BASIC ENGLISH 850 can indeed be especially relevant for potential “labor
migrants,” who migrate elsewhere simply to earn a living, and often have only skills in
L1. As Coleman (2011) notes: “Indonesia’s migrant workers constitute a neglected
constituency, they are calculated to generate IDR108 trillion in foreign exchange but are
given minimal – if any – language training or other pre-departure preparation” (p. 104).
Could BASIC ENGLISH be one option the government in Indonesia might explore in
state funded ELF instruction for Indonesian migrant workers? Experimentation and
investigation are needed.
Grzega’s model of BASIC GLOBAL ENGLISH could also be experimented with along
similar lines. His research indicates it is a highly useful “downshifted” form of English
introduced as a kind of “mini English” model in selected German schools and in adult
education. He believes it is a more “viable” form of BASIC ENGLISH 850, and oriented
to communicative pedagogy. A control and experimental group could be set up working
with BASIC 850 and Grzega’s model, and the results compared. His model is also of
interest in language education for migrant workers.
The research unit can encourage postgraduate students at several universities in the
country or region where such a research center is established to do MA theses on aspects
of several focus areas, including Plain English. Plain Language and writing skills in
English as a lingua franca is an area in which there is virtually no research. Can ELF
learners improve their writing by using guidelines that make it more transparent and
understandable to other readers (DuBay, 2008)?
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The new Journal of English as a Lingua Franca launched in 2011 by Barbara Seidlhofer
(Austria) and Jennifer Jenkins (UK) is a potential scholarly platform for research on
simplified modes of English as a lingua franca. There may be a tendency for ELF
research in the Euro-Atlantic context to concentrate on more elite learners in the
corporate, governmental, and university spheres. That needs to be offset.
As it develops, the proposed research unit or center will seek to forge links to individuals
and research institutions with analogous interests elsewhere, in particular:
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Basic English Institute (www.basic-english.org ). The principal online resource center for
BASIC ENGLISH of Ogden/Richards, now revitalized for the 21st century.
Centre for Information Design Research, University of Reading, UK
(www.reading.ac.uk/simplification/). A unique initiative in the UK, the Centre's work
focuses on how to make overly complex information clearer, through a program of
research, training and consultancy. It builds on the work of the UR Simplification Centre:
www.simplificationcentre.org.uk.
Lexitronics (http://lexitronics.edublogs.org/). The proposed research mini center hopes to
develop a corpus project with Lexitronics on VOA Special English.
Center for Plain Language based in Maryland. Its motto: “Plain language is a civil right”
(centerforplainlanguage.org). The work of CPL is highly relevant to the research agenda
of the proposed research center.
The work of Bill DuBay, as exemplified in his impact-information.com site and
newsletter, and his work on readability (DuBay, 2004; 2008; 2011). See also
http://tinyurl.com/3syxgne . He stresses the need there to “establish the reading level of the
audience,” and then to “create documents to match that reading level.” Plain language is
language “that everyone in your audience can easily understand.”
The research at CLAD (Clear Language and Design) in Toronto/Canada likewise with an
informative newsletter: http://tinyurl.com/3gwsrv9.
The research paradigms at bureautaal (http://www.bureautaal.nl/) and Texamen
(http://www.texamen.com) in The Netherlands. They are doing exemplary work on both
“eenvoudig Nederlands” and English at a clearer, more simplified level. “Simple Dutch”
is at the level of B1 in the Common European Framework (http://tinyurl.com/5r5pegl),
roughly about the “threshold” level of VOA Special English and GLOBISH.
CONCLUSION
A mini research unit or center can spur comparative research in the field with simpler
models for ELF pedagogy, conduct workshops for teachers, and begin to reshape more
sustainable, “lower energy” curricula. For working class kids and adults, this can be cast in a
broader framework moving from “domesticating education” to “liberating education” in
Finn’s (1999, pp. 129-135) sense of “literacy with an attitude.” Now is the time. The cost of
establishing the center can be very modest, its potential impact exponential. Important is a
formal attachment to a university somewhere in Europe or the Global South. It could be
somewhat along the lines of a Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) in the sense common at
German universities. The core aim is to further teaching of English as a “people’s lingua
franca” (Templer, 2005) and a “TESOL for social justice” – forging what might be called
“counter hegemonic” strategies for teaching ELF in the context of grassroots “globalization
from below,” and to ground this on solid empirical investigation in the world’s ordinary
classrooms. Wedell (2011) underscores the lack of success worldwide in many teaching
ecologies in getting most ordinary learners to develop a useful degree of English proficiency,
noting the need to “seriously question the extent to which the investment in English for
Everyone makes a genuine contribution to ‘global development’. This debate is just
beginning” (p. 288). Although Wedell does not explore the question of a simplified model of
English as part of “English for Everyone,” this should, I would suggest, become more central
to that debate.
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