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The intelligibility principle for second language (L2) pronunciation challenges the nativeness principle that suggests that L2 speakers' goal should be nativelike pronunciation. However, in this corpus-supported review of studies based on the intelligibility principle, we show that the understanding of the principle is still underpinned by what we term ideologies of nativeness, which favor speakers of privileged first language (L1) varieties and undermine other L1 and L2 World Englishes speakers. We focus on discourses surrounding the two most prominent keywords: errors, frequently used to describe proficient L2 speech and blame it for compromised intelligibility, and comprehensibility, often uncritically used to gauge listeners’ understanding although it measures subjective perception and can be closely associated with nativeness. Such discourses can obscure a more complete understanding of communication that acknowledges variation in L1 speech and the mutual nature of communication, as well as contribute toward negative perceptions of L2 speakers. Based on our review, we suggest that teachers avoid prescribed pronunciation models, instead helping learners develop their pronunciation based on a broad perceptual repertoire. We further recommend that researchers focus on how communication difficulties are successfully repaired without relying on prescribed pronunciation norms, recognizing mutual responsibility and accountability for intelligibility by all interlocutors.

Assigned reading materials in Swedish universities are often in English. Therefore, pupils planning to pursue higher education need to develop a good receptive knowledge of English academic vocabulary. However, previous research indicates that upper secondary pupils completing obligatory English instruction may lack sufficient knowledge of English academic vocabulary. This study further explores Swedish pupils’ knowledge of receptive English academic vocabulary, focusing on how it is influenced by word frequency and word class types, two factors found to impact L2 learner vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, we examine correlations between vocabulary test scores on word frequency and word class types and self-reported extramural English activities. Ninety-three pupils at a Swedish upper secondary school completed a vocabulary test and a questionnaire about their extramural English activities. The results showed that pupils performed significantly better on high-frequency words than low-frequency words. An analysis of how high- and low-scoring pupils answered different questions revealed some different tendencies in their receptive English academic vocabulary knowledge. We also found that low scorers performed more poorly on verbs than nouns and adjectives. Moreover, engagement in extramural English activities, such as reading and social media, was positively correlated with the vocabulary test scores, most consistently with scores on verbs. Based on the findings we discuss the need for pedagogical strategies for effective teaching of English academic vocabulary, including well-planned integration of extramural English activities into the English classroom. Such pedagogic support could help Swedish upper secondary pupils develop English academic vocabulary needed for success in higher education. 

Global Englishes language teaching (GELT) promotes, among other things, positive attitudes and maximized understanding to communicate with speakers with a variety of accents. However, research on GELT-informed listening training is rare, and none has addressed both attitudes and understanding of diverse accents. We therefore implemented an intervention to foster listening skills and attitudes needed for Global Englishes communication, drawing on mediated contact and high-variability training. An intermediate-level English class (N = 27) in a Swedish upper secondary school engaged in six 20- to 30-minute activities over 3 weeks, intended to promote positive images of Global Englishes speakers from diverse backgrounds and help learners expand their perceptual repertoire. The activities significantly improved listener intelligibility (actual understanding), listener comprehensibility (ease of understanding), and language-focused accent attitudes toward two speakers whose accents were not represented in the training, compared to a control group (N = 24). However, status-related accent attitudes connected to entrenched language ideologies were unchanged. Post-intervention focus group data (N = 4) provided a more detailed understanding of the effects and limitations of our intervention. Our findings suggest that listening training for a wide range of Global Englishes accent varieties is possible with a limited number of accent samples and can be easily integrated into the English classroom.

With approximately 360 million L1 and two billion L2 English speakers, varieties of English proliferate (Jenkins 2015), but English language education overwhelmingly focuses on one or two privileged varieties (e.g. as Forsberg et al. 2019 note in Europe). As a result, learners are often ill-prepared to understand and negatively disposed towards speakers of varieties other than standardized US and UK Englishes (Jeong et al. 2021). Research-based teaching methods and tools to address this issue are limited, reflecting the longstanding monolingual bias in the study of second language acquisition (Ortega 2014). 

Therefore, six easy-to-implement in-class lessons of approximately twenty minutes each were developed and delivered over three weeks of a first-year high school intermediate-level English class in Sweden (16- and 17-year-olds). These lessons drew on contact theory (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew & Tropp 2006), especially indirect contact (White et al. 2021), and high-variability perceptual training (Baese-Berk et al. 2013) to provide both positive portrayals of Global English speakers from varied national and linguistic backgrounds and practice understanding them.  Learners also engaged in discussion of questions that related speakers’ messages to their own experience. Pre-and post-tests of the class that completed these activities (N=27) showed improved comprehension of Global Englishes speakers who were not featured in the activities and rated the accents as more pleasant and easier to understand. A same-level class that took the pre- and post-tests but completed their regular class activities (N=18) showed no such improvement.

The presentation will begin by reviewing research demonstrating the need for such training, followed by an explanation of contact theory and high-variability perceptual training and how they can be used. We will then provide the actual training materials, the results of the study, and discussion of how additional materials can be developed, for example to address comprehension and attitudes relating to varied US Englishes.

Research has suggested that Swedish higher education institutions’ (HEIs’) language policies may exclude some academic staff from work-related activities due to (dual) monolingual ideologies requiring one language at a time. This study, based on the analysis of twenty-one language policy texts, investigates HEIs’ policies using a lens of inclusion at workplaces with linguistic diversity, drawing on concepts from diversity management and language policy for democracy of inclusion. All documents examined began with statements of HEIs’ values relevant to the policies. Inclusion was seldom explicitly emphasized, although policies suggested ways to facilitate it. We argue that some of the approaches – namely, taking a top-down monolinguistic approach to language choice, requiring staff to be highly proficient in both Swedish and English, and offering unspecified language support – reinforce language-based in-groups and out-groups, likely compromising rather than facilitating inclusion. Another approach, emphasizing individuals’ rights to choose what language they use, facilitates inclusion only if support is provided for everyone’s understanding. Providing immediate language support and encouraging bottom-up, flexible language choice were less common approaches but seem particularly likely to facilitate inclusion. Our analysis suggests that policies prioritizing successful communication, not specific languages, facilitate inclusion and help employees develop job-related language and intercultural communicative competence.

Forskning har visat att språkpolicyer vid svenska lärosäten kan exkludera viss akademisk personal från arbetsrelaterad verksamhet på grund av (dubbelt) enspråkiga ideologier, som förespråkar användning av ett språk i taget. Denna studie, som undersöker språkpolicy-texter hos tjugoen svenska lärosäten, analyserar språkpolicyer på flerspråkiga arbetsplatser utifrån ett inkluderingsperspektiv. Studien bygger på begrepp från mångfaldshantering och inkluderingsdemokrati. Alla granskade dokument började med uttalanden om de värderingar vid lärosätena, som är relevanta för policyerna. Inkludering betonades sällan uttryckligen även om policyer föreslog hur inkludering kunde underlättas. Vi hävdar att några av tillvägagångssätten – nämligen enspråkigt ”top-down” förhållningssätt till språkval, höga krav på mycket goda kunskaper i både svenska och engelska, och ospecificerat språkstöd – förstärker språkbaserade in- och utgrupper, och bidrar troligen till att inkludering försvåras snarare än underlättas. Ett annat tillvägagångssätt, som betonar individers rätt att välja vilket språk de ska använda, underlättar inkludering, men endast om stöd ges för allas förståelse. Att ge omedelbart språkstöd i en arbetsrelaterad situation och uppmuntra ett flexibelt, ”bottom-up” språkval, var mindre vanligt även om det verkar underlätta inkludering. Vår analys tyder på att policyer som prioriterar framgångsrik kommunikation, inte specifika språk, underlättar inkludering och hjälper medarbetare att utveckla jobbrelaterad språklig och interkulturell kommunikativ kompetens.

The Swedish national syllabus for English recommends that upper secondary English education promote competence in international communication (Skolverket, 2022). As pronunciation differences may be the major cause of misunderstandings in international communication (Deterding 2013), listening skills and positive attitudes related to diverse accents need to be part of English education (Forsberg et al. 2019; Jeong et al. 2021). However, there is a lack of research-based teaching methods and tools, reflecting the longstanding monolingual bias in the study of second language acquisition (Ortega 2014). We therefore investigate the effects of an intervention conducted over three weeks in an upper-secondary class (N=32) and using six listening activities designed based on contact theory (Allport 1954; Pettigrew & Tropp 2006) and the principles of high-variability perceptual training (Lindemann et al. 2016). Pre- and post-tests measuring the intervention’s effect on listening comprehension and attitudes towards unfamiliar accents will be compared with a similar class as a control (N=32). In addition, a focus group of pupils from the intervention group will share their experience of the activities and potentially demonstrate effects not measured by the quantitative data. The findings will provide evidence regarding the effectiveness of this contact- and perceptual-training approach with English learners, informing the development of global Englishes teaching and challenging the monolingual bias in research on second language acquisition.

Communication requires cooperative strategies by all interlocutors. Nevertheless, US undergraduate students’ complaints about multilingual international teaching assistants (ITAs) have typically led to training and assessment for ITAs, although the undergraduates may also benefit from training in global communication. The few previous undergraduate-training attempts have generally been too intensive to offer widely and did not investigate data from international undergraduates. The current study reports on a one-hour, completely online training at a US university addressing domestic and international undergraduates’ attitudes, comprehension, and strategies relevant to global communication; it analyzes participant responses to the strategies portion. According to their own ratings, participants in the treatment group (N = 534) were more likely than a control group (N = 528) to intend to use collaborative strategies with an international instructor. Positive correlations between international or multilingual background and willingness to use collaborative strategies were low, suggesting that international students may also benefit from training. Communicative strategies proposed by the students in response to open-ended questions differed for one-on-one vs. in-class communication and suggested ways of improving training to model collaborative behaviors.

Language policies in higher education institutions (HEI) in Sweden, as well in other Nordic countries, centrally involve ‘parallel language use’ of the principal national language and English (Gregersen et al., 2018). This approach attempts to resolve the conflict between two goals that HEIs have as governmental authorities: protecting and developing Swedish in compliance with the Language Act; and internationalization (SOU [Swedish government reports], 2018:3 & 2018:78), uncritically linked to English and economic goals (Hult & Källkvist, 2016). These policies likely inherit from the Language Act its impracticality and the possibility of compromising democracy (Landqvist & Spetz, 2020). Requirements to use Swedish in administrative meetings as prescribed by these policies, for example, could limit international faculty participation while overburdening Swedish faculty (Karlsson & Karlsson, 2020).  Drawing on theories of language management by different agencies from national to individual (e.g., Spolsky, 2019) and language ideology (e.g., Woolard & Schieffelin, 1994), our study critically examines how Swedish HEIs’ language policies may compromise or facilitate effective, democratic communication and participation, focusing on the application of the parallel language use approach to faculty activities including administration. We compiled nineteen language policy documents from HEIs who posted them publicly or responded to our request. These policies were coded for language choice, requirements, and support. Preliminary findings suggest that language requirements are often unrealistic (e.g. learning Swedish sufficient to participate in decision-making meetings within a year of full-time employment), with support to help faculty meet requirements underspecified. These policies, like the Language Act, exemplify top-down language management, often with inadequate regard to potential participants. The limited participant choice focuses on speakers’ preferred language, without considering negotiation of meaning to ensure mutual understanding. More generally, the policies exhibit a purist ideology that treats languages as separate entities to choose between, rather than as resources for negotiating successful communication.

English phonetics and phonology often focus on improving learners’ pronunciation. However, phonological processing is ‘a two-way street’ involving both speaker and listener. Thus, pronunciation instruction in this globalized time needs to be complemented with ways to help listeners understand a wide range of accents, thereby challenging the native speakerism and standard language ideology of more traditional English teaching. In this paper, we share our experiences of promoting listener abilities in university courses in Sweden and the US, two very different teaching contexts. In Sweden, Jeong takes a truly phonetic approach, starting from students’ own pronunciations rather than a ‘standard’ model, and focuses on ability to comprehend diverse accents. In the US, Lindemann uses native-speaking students’ complaints about supposedly incomprehensible instructors, not as justification for further training of instructors who are already proficient English users, but as an opportunity to offer listener training to the students. Put together, these experiences provide a basis for Forsberg’s reflection on the teaching of L2 phonetics and pronunciation in other languages such as Swedish, and the benefits of shifting some of the focus from speaker to listener in order to begin to overcome native speakerism and standard language ideology.

English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a well-known concept for Englishused as an international contact language among people fromdiverse linguacultural backgrounds. Using a questionnaire, weexplored the attitudes of Spanish and Swedish pre-service primaryschool teachers towards English and its users after their collabora-tion on a virtual platform, during which they were ELF users. Thefindings showed that the ELF user attitudes of the two Europeanstudent cohorts tended to be ambivalent, mixed, and self-contradictory. After discussing factors for participants’ attitudinaltendencies, we conclude that the ambivalence in their overallattitudes seems to mirror the ambivalence of the ‘double’ defini-tions of English in educational policy documents, which may affectthe goals of teaching English in the classroom. We suggest thatuniversity teaching help pre-service teachers develop critical per-spectives towards English and English users, as well as reflecting onwhy they teach English to their future pupils.