What's in the Syllabus? Deconstructing Global Englishes Course Syllabi

Abstract

Despite the recent proliferation of Global Englishes courses both quantitatively (in terms of the number of programs offered worldwide) and qualitatively (in various sizes, forms, modes, and modalities), large-scale systematic investigations across various contexts are conspicuously underrepresented within the existing body of literature. Departing from this foundational premise, the current study seeks to address this gap through an exploratory content analysis of Global Englishes course syllabi (n = 104) offered within English, TESOL, or applied linguistics programs situated in diverse geographical settings. Positioning course syllabi as a primary data source and deconstructing them with a critical interpretative lens offer powerful insights into teacher educators' positionality of Global Englishes and the pedagogical parameters that shape their instructional decisions. Research results indicated that the courses within the dataset predominantly positioned Global Englishes in terms of its globalinguistic status, geospatial variation, and the heterogeneity characterizing its uses and users. Furthermore, the pedagogical goals of these courses primarily gravitated toward the cultivation of lower-order thinking skills mainly through scholarship emanating from the Global North and were assessed by written assignments, examinations, and oral presentations. The apparent gap in pedagogical content, practices, and experiences needed to cultivate a robust professional knowledge base centered on Global Englishes suggests that these courses, as currently structured, run the risk of being perceived merely as “politically correct”, tokenistic and trivialized additions “about” and not “for” Global Englishes.