Integrativeness: untenable for world Englishes learners?

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Kachru (1988) and Sridhar and Sridhar (1992) argue that the spread of English as a world language increases the types of context in which English is learnt today. The sociolinguistic realities of world Englishes learners today challenge the validity of some second‐language acquisition theories. One of the theoretical limitations of existing second‐language acquisition theories is the dependence upon the notion of integrativeness to explain success in second‐language acquisition. In this paper, the notion of integrativeness is problematized from an empirical and theoretical perspective. The main findings are: (1) second‐language acquisition theories that rely on any assumption of integrativeness should not be applied uncritically to sociolinguistic contexts where learners are acquiring a variety of world English today; (2) it seems that the concentric circle description of the sociolinguistic realities of world Englishes speakers needs to be adjusted.

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