Gibson Ferguson Language Planning and Education Edinburgh ...

New Englishes and teaching models 165
use worldwide, it is no longer appropriate in every circumstance to seek ‘to instil
(British) L1 pronunciation norms into learners who are rarely likely to communicate
with a L1 (especially a RP) speaker of English’ (Jenkins 2000: 11). Instead, teachers
of English as an international language should take mutual intelligibility between
speakers of different L1s as their goal, a stance that implies the adoption of
pronunciation norms distinct from those of RP-accented British English, which is in
any case, Jenkins (2000: 15) argues – concurring with Smith and Rafiqzad (1979) –
by no means the most intelligible accent internationally, or even perhaps in Britain
itself.
6.4.2.2 Lingua franca phonological core
Unlike some commentators who might urge the case for a change in pedagogical
models and thereafter depart the scene, Jenkins takes matters a stage further,
identifying a core of phonological features which are essential for international
intelligibility but which are not necessarily identical with any one L1 or L2 variety
of English. Excluded, therefore, from the core because they are non-essential for
international intelligibility between L2 users, are the following features of British
RP-accented English:
1. The consonant sounds /θ/ and /ð/ and the allophone dark ‘l’;
2. Weak forms (i.e. ‘the use of schwa instead of full vowel sounds in, say, ‘to’,
‘from’, ‘was’);
3. Other features of connected speech such as assimilation;
4. Pitch direction, signalling attitude or grammatical meaning;
5. Word stress placement;
5. Stress-timed rhythm.
(Jenkins 2002; 2003: 127)
Included, on the other hand, because they are essential for international intelligibility
and constitute therefore the central elements of a new pronunciation syllabus for
learners of English as an international language, are the following features of what
Jenkins (2000: 124) calls the ‘Lingua Franca Core’ (LFC):
1. The consonant inventory (except for the dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, and
allophonic variation within phonemes that does not overlap onto other
phonemes);
2. Additional phonetic requirements: aspiration following word-initial voiceless
stops /p/, /t/ and /k/; shortening of vowel sounds before fortis consonants and
maintenance of length before lenis consonants;
3. Consonant clusters (i.e. no omission of sounds in word-initial clusters (e.g.
‘strap’), and omission of sounds in word-final clusters only according to L1
rules of English syllable structure;
4. Vowel sounds: maintenance of the contrast between long and short vowels (e.g.
the vowels in words like ‘live’ and ‘leave’);