The Role of English Literature in Teaching Englishes: Moving Towards Educating Transcultural Communicators

Abstract

With the globalization of English, multilingual speakers of other languages have started to influence it linguistically and culturally, potentially challenging its established norms and standards. This paper first addresses terminological issues related to the area of Global Englishes and English as a lingua franca, then upon reviewing curricular documents relevant to the Czech educational context it summarizes findings from a pilot study conducted at local academically oriented high schools, which reveal that the English teachers still seem to associate “English” literature with inner circle creative production. Intending to bridge the gap between theory and practice, we designed and piloted several lesson plans taking heed of a broader conception of the anglophone literary canon inclusive of works from across all Kachruvian circles. We postulate that extended exposure to such literary creativity may help raise a generation of transcultural communicators, i.e., language users who thrive in dynamic language interactions across cultures.