Authentic Englishes.nrw

Understanding, Describing, and Teaching Varieties of English

Abstract

In this contribution, we present the project AuthenticEnglishes.nrw, which is funded by the federal government of North Rhine-Westphalia and managed by the Digitale Hochschule NRW (DH.NRW). The project produces Open Educational Resources (OER) that can be used in university education to foster the skills of understanding, describing and – for students on a teaching degree – teaching varieties of English. We provide insights into what kinds of material are produced, and on which considerations the material is based. Our contribution contextualises the project against the backdrop of the highly diverse sociolinguistic reality of Authentic Englishes which students are confronted with in the twenty-first century. We argue that current teaching material for the higher secondary school level only slowly accommodates to these dynamics and rather focuses on a ‘traditional’ canon in which the standard varieties of Britain and the US feature prominently. This makes it imperative to provide university students with adequate Authentic Englishes material which goes significantly beyond the boundaries of the traditional canon to mirror twenty-first century sociolinguistic reality more accurately.