(PDF) Beyond monolithic English
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Beyond monolithic English
Zeenat Sumra
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics
October 09, 2025
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Abstract
The Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) paradigm has recently emerged as a comprehensive approach that aims to bring together innovative pedagogical proposals. This paper argues that pop culture materials such as telecinematic representations can purposefully be integrated into innovative GELT-oriented classroom practices. The use of this material can assist teachers in the double task of (i) raising the learners’ critical awareness of sociolinguistic variation and problematizing the stereotypical image of monolithic English; (ii) shifting the focus of the ELT classroom from prescriptive grammar and standard English towards fostering the learners’ receptive and communicative skills. This is a conceptual paper that gives several broad suggestions as to how to adopt pop culture materials into innovative GELT-oriented classroom practice and mentions a select few examples of said telecinematic representations.
Key takeaways
AI
Integrating pop culture materials promotes Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) by challenging monolithic views of English.
Teachers can raise learners' awareness of sociolinguistic variation through telecinematic representations.
Pop culture is a valuable resource for fostering learners' communicative skills in diverse contexts.
GELT emphasizes exposure to World Englishes and respect for multilingualism in English Language Teaching (ELT).
The paper suggests strategies for using pop culture in ELT, advocating a shift from prescriptive grammar to communicative competence.
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Beyond monolithic English
Pop culture materials informing Global English
Language Teaching
Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia | Technische Universität
Chemnitz
The Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) paradigm has recently
emerged as a comprehensive approach that aims to bring together innova-
tive pedagogical proposals. This paper argues that pop culture materials
such as telecinematic representations can purposefully be integrated into
innovative GELT-oriented classroom practices. The use of this material can
assist teachers in the double task of (i) raising the learners’ critical aware-
ness of sociolinguistic variation and problematizing the stereotypical image
of monolithic English; (ii) shifting the focus of the ELT classroom from pre-
scriptive grammar and standard English towards fostering the learners’
receptive and communicative skills. This is a conceptual paper that gives
several broad suggestions as to how to adopt pop culture materials into
innovative GELT-oriented classroom practice and mentions a select few
examples of said telecinematic representations.
Keywords: EFL, GELT, telecinematic representations, English language
variation
1. Introduction: Pop culture for GELT
Pop culture has undoubtedly become a pervasive phenomenon in the out-of-
school life of many young English learners. English is highly salient in mainstream
pop culture, and forms of pop culture such as music lyrics, online streaming TV
and movies represent the main source of English language input for teenagers
located in the expanding circle.1 There is not one single definition of pop culture.
1. Kachru’s (1985, 1992) model for the expansion of English distinguishes three concentric
circles: inner, outer and expanding. The latter conventionally indicates the countries where
ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics : (), pp. –. ISSN - | E‑ISSN -
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Beyond monolithic English 287
The term has been employed in its broadest sense to include all the products of
a mainstream media and entertainment culture of largely commercial and glob-
alized nature that are traditionally deemed inferior to elite culture (Werner, 2018,
2021a). Pop culture tends to be viewed as lacking the aesthetic merits of the liter-
ature and fine arts, for instance. For its association with “lower” forms of culture,
the language of pop culture has gone largely neglected as an object of empirical
linguistic study (Werner, 2018). Most importantly, one salient characteristic of the
language of pop culture is that it does not necessarily adhere to norms of the for-
mal register of standard English as typically used as knowledge base and bench-
mark in ELT.
Despite some recent efforts (e.g., Arnold & Herrick, 2017; Werner & Tegge,
2021), pop culture materials such as song lyrics and TV discourse are underex-
ploited in the ELT classroom. Grau, in a study (2009) that looked at teenagers’
English learning experience in German secondary schools in the light of their
exposure to the language in their free time, suggested that teachers tend to believe
that “students will only profit from exposure to some form of Standard English”
(Grau, 2009, p. 170). Along the same lines, Werner observed that the language
of pop culture is largely stigmatized as “ungrammatical” (Werner, 2020, p. 3), too
informal and untypical in conventional language teaching.
Grammaticality, however, is a relative concept and judgments of appropri-
ateness of usage vary along at least five dimensions conventionally identified
in (socio)linguistic theory, namely diatopic, diamesic, diastratic, diaphasic and
diachronic. While it is crucial to give English learners rules, as Larsen-Freeman
suggested, “it is not helpful to think of grammar as a discrete set of meaningless,
decontextualized, static structures. Nor is it helpful to think of grammar solely as
prescriptive rules about linguistic form” (2001, p. 252). Asking teachers to rethink
the prescriptive approaches to grammar teaching and suggesting that learners
should develop the ability of choosing among a range of possible forms, Larsen-
Freeman developed the concept of “grammar of choice” (2002). Based on the con-
sideration that “[g]rammatical structures not only have (morphosyntactic) form,
[but] they are also used to express meaning (semantics) in context appropriate use
(pragmatics)” (Larsen-Freeman, 2001, p. 252), and pointing to the interconnect-
edness of the three dimensions of form/structure, meaning/semantic and use/
pragmatic, the concept of grammar of choice emphasizes that meaning can be
English is traditionally learned as a foreign language. In spite of its limitations and oversimplifi-
cation of the sociolinguistic realities of English (see, e.g., Mauranen, 2018), Kachru’s model has
become common standard in applied linguistics research as a useful shorthand for classifying
contexts of English world-wide.
288 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
conveyed by a variety of ways and different choices of grammar structures have
different pragmatic implications.
The notion of choice is relevant in that it suggests that grammar is not a
rigid set of forms to be taught solely for accuracy but rather is a way for learners
to negotiate different styles and registers of language, according to specific com-
municative settings and intentions. Larsen-Freeman’s observations thus carry the
implication that the teaching of grammar ought to be contextualized. In the spe-
cific context of classroom-based ELT teaching, where cognitively mature students
can harness their analytic abilities and metalinguistic awareness (Lightbown and
Spada, 2013; Muñoz, 2006, 2008, 2011), a focus on the linguistic forms used during
communicative interactions arguably makes teaching more effective than decon-
textualized grammar lessons.
The potential of using pop culture materials for introducing and discussing
grammar within the framework of a communicative approach to foreign language
education is highlighted in Werner’s (2019, 2020, 2021a) recent studies, where it
is argued that pop culture materials offer teachers an opportunity to introduce
students to different types of grammaticality and illustrate how their functional
appropriateness may vary depending on the context. Werner showed how pop
lyrics and TV discourse can be used to raise the learners’ awareness of how actual
usage of English varies in terms of register (diaphasic dimension) and across dif-
ferent regional and social varieties of English (diatopic and diastratic variation).
An evident bias towards US forms of pop culture and correspondingly,
towards North American varieties and accents of English is nevertheless widely
recognized (Werner, 2018; Werner & Tegge, 2021). However, pop culture as a glob-
alized phenomenon does not entail that the global flows of pop culture merely
correspond to a process of Americanization, at least from a strictly linguistic view-
point. Westphal and Jansen (2021) observed that pop culture is one domain that
reflects the global diversity of English and diverse anglophone cultures. In fact,
the internet-mediated channels of distribution have facilitated the spread of pop
culture that also emanates from regions of the world other than North Amer-
ica, where different norms of the English language are in use and/or where Eng-
lish is not spoken as a native language. The potential of pop music, for instance,
as a fruitful source for teaching English as an International Language (EIL) has
repeatedly been highlighted (Westphal & Jansen, 2021; Westphal, 2021). West-
phal and Jansen, observing that “Global English is what learners will encounter
and need to be prepared for by educators” (2021, p. 203), argued that pop music,
as a globalized phenomenon, offers genuine learning material that reflects the
global realities of Englishes beyond the codified British and American standards,
as opposed to the traditional textbooks used in Germany.
Beyond monolithic English 289
With the aim of further extending the discussion on the pedagogical potential
of pop culture materials, it is argued that pop culture materials can be purpose-
fully integrated into innovative research and teaching paradigms such as Global
Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) (Galloway, 2017; Galloway & Rose, 2015;
Rose & Galloway, 2019; Rose et al., 2020; Rose, McKinley & Galloway, 2021).
GELT emerged as an inclusive paradigm that aimed to integrate work from the
domains of World Englishes (WE), English as an International Language (EIL),
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and translanguaging, independent strands of
research that share a common focus on the global use of English, its sociolinguis-
tic and sociocultural diversity, and the related implications for its pedagogy. Rose,
McKinley and Galloway (2021, p. 4) summarize GELT in six proposals:
1. Increasing World Englishes and ELF exposure in language curricula
2. Emphasising respect for multilingualism in ELT
3. Raising awareness of Global Englishes in ELT
4. Raising awareness of ELF strategies in language curricula
5. Emphasising respect for diverse culture and identity in ELT
6. Changing English teacher-hiring practices in the ELT industry
The first, third and fifth proposals are relevant for the present study. It is argued
that the use of pop culture materials in ELT classrooms can expose students to the
diversity of English (1.), raise awareness of how English is used as a global lan-
guage (3.) and reconsider what an English-using culture is (5.). Together with the
proposals, the authors also identify several barriers to change. In relation to the
present paper, (i) strong adherence to standard language ideology in ELT and a
(ii) lack of materials that promote a global approach are particularly relevant.
This paper is conceptual rather than empirical in nature. It argues that the
use of pop culture materials can offer ELT professionals a wealth of readily avail-
able materials, and assist them in the double task of (i) raising the learners’ critical
awareness of sociolinguistic variation and problematizing the stereotypical image
of monolithic English; and (ii) shifting the focus of the ELT classroom from pre-
scriptive grammar towards fostering the learners’ receptive and communicative
skills. While offering a relevant and enriching source of input for ELT practices,
the use of pop culture materials could thus eventually bring educators to reflect
upon and problematize the tacit assumptions on which traditional ELT pedagogy
is premised and help initiate a shift towards innovative pedagogical practices.
The structure of this paper is as follows: Section 2 discusses the GELT frame-
work as a comprehensive approach that brings together the proposals for change
in ELT developed in the interrelated research fields of World Englishes (WE),
English as an International Language (EIL), translanguaging, and English as a
Lingua Franca (ELF). In Section 3, the rationale for moving beyond monolithic
290 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
English in ELT is stated. In Section 4, the advantages of using pop culture mate-
rials such as telecinematic representations within the GELT-oriented approach to
teaching English are discussed. Section 5 contains some examples of the afore-
mentioned telecinematic representations that illustrate the arguments developed
in Section 4. Section 6 concludes the argument that pop culture represents a valu-
able source of learning materials that supports teachers in the paradigm shift
towards GELT, makes suggestions for further research, and points out the limita-
tions of the use of pop culture materials.
2. Reflections on a paradigm shift towards GELT
There is a linguistic strand to globalization, which has resulted in gradual
processes of an English-ization of sorts, of various pivotal sectors of the societies
of the expanding circle, such as academic research, education and business
(Phillipson, 2017, 2018). Against this background, it has become an established
view in applied linguistic research that non-native English speakers (NNESs)
who use English worldwide outnumber native English speakers (NESs) (Graddol,
2003). Over the last three decades, there has been a major shift in the use of Eng-
lish, which is most often adopted as a language of wider communication between
NNES who do not share the same L1. In addition, the amount of exposure avail-
able to the NNESs located in the countries where English is traditionally learned
as a foreign language is larger than ever, thanks to constantly developing new
media technologies. In such a context of the vitality of English, the traditional
“English as a Foreign Language” (EFL) label appears outdated and possibly even
obsolete. For many EFL learners, English is nowadays hardly a completely “for-
eign” language and the changing status of English in turn, has led applied linguists
to challenge the basic tenets of prevailing ELT practices and specifically, the EFL
model.
Consensus has grown on the need to adjust the theory and practice of ELT
in the EFL countries to the new realities of the English language outside the
classroom to bring it more in tune with the perceived needs of today’s learners.
A plethora of publications has accumulated over the last decade, exploring new
pathways that can take ELT in the expanding circle beyond the established models
and strategies and can serve to align the curricula and teaching practices to the
linguistic and cultural diversities of global English usage (Dewey, 2021; Galloway
& Rose, 2015; Jenkins, 2015). Proposals for the teaching of English as an Inter-
national Language (EIL) (see, e.g., Alsagoff et al., 2012; Canagarajah, Kafle &
Matsumoto, 2012; Mckay, 2018; McKay & Brown, 2016; Marlina, 2014; Marlina &
Giri, 2014; Matsuda, 2012, 2017; Rubdy & Saraceni, 2006; Zacharias & Manara,
Beyond monolithic English 291
2013) call for a plurilingual model that transcends the teaching of monolithic Eng-
lish, emphasizing the need to develop learners’ awareness of variation and their
ability to negotiate the diverse varieties they will encounter in their everyday life,
in international and intercultural contexts.
In addition, the rise of ELF as an independent research field brought to the
fore the need to decenter the native-speaker norm as the target of English learn-
ing. ELF-oriented approaches to ELT emphasize the need to foster the learners’
communicative competence regardless of native-like proficiency, which is deemed
an irrelevant (and often unattainable) target for future users of ELF. Jenkins
(2006); Seidlhofer (2011) and Dewey (2012) were among the first to put forth
proposals in this direction. Over the last decade, a wealth of publications has
discussed the pedagogical implications of ELF, with a view of enhancing the pro-
fessionalism of English teachers and bringing the teaching of English more in
tune with today’s learners’ needs as future users of ELF users (see, e.g., Bayyurt &
Akcan, 2015; Bowles & Cogo, 2015; Pitzl & Osimk-Teasdale, 2016; Saraceni, 2015;
Sifakis, 2019; Sifakis & Tsantila, 2018; Tsantila, Mandalios & Ilkos, 2016).
Drawing on research in translanguaging (Canagarajah, 2013; García & Wei,
2014) and its emphasis on the processual character of the learners’ performance
in the target language, irrespective of any reference to target norms, ELF has
been recently repositioned within a multilingual and multicultural framework
(Mauranen, 2018). Common to all the proposals for an ELF-informed approach
to ELT is an underlying view of English as a neutral tool for intercultural com-
munication, which disembeds language from its cultural ties to a specific national
community of native speakers (Baker, 2012, 2015, 2016) and upholds a notion of
cultural identity that is in tune with the poststructuralist conceptualization of cul-
ture as fluid, contingent, constructed and negotiated in interaction. This under-
standing of culture is clearly at odds with the concept of national cultural tradition
on which traditional ELT is premised. In this perspective, alongside the concern
for effectiveness in lingua franca communication, ELF-oriented approaches to
ELT have also suggested the importance of fostering learners’ intercultural aware-
ness and sensitivity (see, e.g., Grazzi & Lopriore, 2016).
In response to the call for a paradigm shift in ELT, the GELT framework (see
Section 1) was developed as a comprehensive pedagogical approach that aims to
bring together existing innovative proposals: it takes on board both the pluri-
centric perspective of WE and EIL, with their focus on multiple varieties, and
the deterritorialized and de-nativized character of ELF with its post-structuralist
understanding of culture as constructed in interactions. It was pointed out in
Section 1 that GELT emphasizes the need to expose learners to the diversity of
English and raise their awareness of how English is used as a global language.
Rather than achieving competence in an idealized abstract target, GELT aims to
292 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
teach communicative strategies that enable learners to deal with the pluricen-
tric and fluid realities of English in today’s world. One goal of GELT is thus to
enable learners to understand linguistic variation and recognize the legitimacy
of non-standard varieties, rather than active proficiency in one or more specific
varieties. In addition, GELT problematizes the notion of English-using culture.
It follows from these basic principles that a GELT-informed curriculum should
include teaching materials from diverse sociolinguistic contexts that allow English
learners to be exposed to multiple varieties of the target language and multiple
English-using cultures.
Although an interest for the pedagogical implications of the current realities
of English has been steadily growing among academic applied linguists, calls for a
shift of perspective in the teaching of EFL have made little headway into the ELT
profession. In the perspective of bridging the gap between theory and practice
and with the specific aim of understanding the effects of Global Englishes (GE)
innovations, Rose, McKinley and Galloway (2021) systematically reviewed sev-
eral empirical studies that over the last decade have put forward and implemented
innovations in teacher education and language classrooms. Their comprehensive
review included eleven studies that point out the potential for using technology
to raise awareness of GE issues. Although none of those studies aimed to explore
the direct implications of the use of technology for GE innovation, each of them
highlighted the advantages of using technology such as online platforms to cre-
ate a space for authentic written and spoken ELF communication that connects
non-native learners of different L1s in different geographic locations. Identifying
the use of online communication in classroom activities as the prominent feature
of the use of technology in GE research, the authors concluded that “[w]hile con-
necting ELF learners in different geographic locations is a valuable use of inter-
net technology, it appears that the research is limited to this use” and “it seems
that much more could be done on the use of technology in different forms” (Rose,
McKinley & Galloway, 2021, p. 29). Pointing to a lack of materials as a major bar-
rier to introducing Global Englishes in classrooms, they emphasized the advan-
tages of using technology also to expose learners to speakers of global varieties of
English.
However, in making recommendations for a future agenda, Rose, McKinley
and Galloway made no mention of pop culture materials as an easily accessible
option that teachers can use to make up for the lack of materials that can support a
GELT approach in the English classroom. More generally, the advantages of using
pop culture materials within the context of curriculum innovation so far have
not received much attention. One notable exception is a study by Lopriore and
Vettorel (2015), in which the authors offered suggestions and recommendations for
teachers, teacher educators and publishers to facilitate a paradigm shift towards
Beyond monolithic English 293
ELF-oriented pedagogy. Acknowledging the key role of out-of-school exposure to
English for establishing the learners’ own identity as users of the English language,
they emphasized that learners should be encouraged to play an active role and
retrieve movie clips, videos and songs from the Internet that showcase different
varieties and samples of WE or ELF. This is where the present study ties in, and
we argue that integrating pop culture materials into the ELT classroom can assist
teachers in bringing about the shift from traditional models of pedagogy to the
GELT paradigm, thus uniting the forces of two larger emerging trends.
3. Moving beyond monolithic English
It was observed in the previous section that the realities of English in today’s glob-
alized world have come to question the methods and target models of traditional
ELT in the expanding circle. It must be remarked that thanks largely to the Inter-
net, for a vast part of learners in industrialized countries, foreign language input is
nowadays just one touch (or click) away and given the speed with which the world
is connected, English learners can easily get access to real-life language usage. The
seamless fabric of the Internet allows learners to access the global diversity of Eng-
lishes, and therefore, to be exposed to a wide variety of accents, sociolects and
dialects, of both native and non-native English varieties, all of which are nowa-
days readily available.
Although ELT instructional settings cannot recreate the conditions that are
found in naturalistic settings, the increasing vitality of English in the expanding
circle calls for more attention in the English classroom to how English is used in
the real world. Given the relatively small amount of input that classroom-based
instruction can offer learners, the quality of language input is key, and, in this
sense, the English classroom should expose learners to genuine language usage.
While the advantage of classroom-based foreign language instruction is that input
language is planned, sequenced and organized, authenticity and spontaneity are
also important (Mishan, 2005). The challenge of the English teacher is thus to
make sequenced language appear as “real” and spontaneous as possible.
However, in the specific contexts of Italy and Germany, where the authors of
this contribution are based, a learner’s performance is still often unquestionably
measured against the yardstick of a formal written register of standard British
English, and its pronunciation, RP (see Forsberg, Mohr & Jansen, 2019; Grazzi
& Lopriore, 2019; Mohr, Jansen & Forsberg, 2019). The focus of ELT, in terms
of grammar, pronunciation and spelling norms, thus tends to rest solely on this
codified norm – popularly described variously as “Oxford” or the “Queen’s Eng-
lish”, and often viewed as “pure” or “original” versions in folk-linguistic percep-
294 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
tions. Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Italy and Germany
tend to uncritically assume that a codified standard norm of British English is the
only acceptable target model (Forsberg, Mohr & Jansen, 2019; Grazzi & Lopriore,
2019; Mohr, Jansen & Forsberg, 2019). Perhaps for its geographical proximity, and
because of the influence that the British-based ELT industry has in Europe, Amer-
ican English, the other internationally recognized codified norm has, in turn,
been sidelined in many EFL classrooms; let alone the other varieties of English
and the realities of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in intercultural communica-
tion, which tend to be completely ignored (Lopriore & Vettorel, 2015; Vettorel &
Lopriore, 2013).
The British standard English of the EFL classroom, though, as an idealized
abstract target, is never fully realized in real-life spoken as well as written usage
(Milroy, 2007, pp. 133–134). It goes without saying that many are the varieties
of English spoken around the globe, and much of everyday language usage is
marked by colloquial vocabulary, non-standard grammar and slang. While lin-
guists agree that the standard variety is an idealization, folk-linguistic research has
shown that non-linguists tend to believe in the reality of the “agreed-on abstrac-
tion” (Niedzielski & Preston, 2003, p. 20). The belief in the (supposed) existence
of a uniform standard variety, in turn, is at the root of “powerful ideological
positions” (Milroy, 2007, p. 133) that breed biased attitudes towards standard and
non-standard varieties of a language (see also Lippi-Green, 2012). Such posi-
tions, which are commonly referred to as “standard language ideology”, have been
shown to exert a powerful influence on teachers and learners in ELT contexts too
(Galloway & Rose, 2015, pp. 186–186).
Under the influence of the standard language ideology, both teachers and
learners tend to hold on to deeply ingrained beliefs about legitimate (and ille-
gitimate) varieties of English. They are liable to form stereotypical notions of
English speech varieties other than the codified British standard. American Eng-
lish varieties, with which today’s learners have contact through different forms
of media, for instance, are often represented as being “slangy” and “ungrammati-
cal” English. Other localized varieties, for instance the Englishes used by students
of Nigerian or Ghanaian origins, tend to be delegitimized as “broken English”
(Bagni, 2020; Meer, Hartmann & Rumlich, 2021). Most importantly, the teachers
are led to sanction all features of the language that deviate from standard English,
regardless of their actual presence in the language varieties with which the learn-
ers have contact in the out-of-school and, for instance in pop-culture contexts,
and of their communicative effectiveness.
Furthermore, research that examined ELT textbooks from an ELF perspective
revealed that in classroom materials adopted in Italy and Germany, the tendency
to over-rely on British models of English is coupled with static depictions of the
Beyond monolithic English 295
language users and the target culture (Syrbe, 2018; Syrbe & Rose, 2016; Vettorel,
2018a, 2018b; Vettorel & Lopriore, 2013). ELT textbooks thus contribute to pro-
moting a monolithic and arguably stereotyped view of the English language and
its culture, which fails to prepare learners for the variability they are likely to
encounter in the real world.
In keeping with the GELT proposals of exposing students to the diversity
of English, raising their awareness of how it is used as a global language, and
introducing them to multiple English-using cultures, this paper argues for the
need to move beyond monolithic English in ELT. The point of departure of this
conceptual contribution is that strict adherence in traditional ELT practices to
a monoregistral (i.e., oriented to formal writing) and monolithic standard usage
of the language, represents too narrow a focus of English language instruction
which, perhaps most crucially, is not in tune with the perceived needs of learn-
ers. From the GELT perspective, standard English is not the goal but rather a
starting point of the learning process. As future language users, today’s learners
arguably expect to acquire the communicative competence to interact successfully
in a variety of contexts, where comprehensibility and flexibility are key, rather
than strict adherence to a single prestigious codified standard. Furthermore, fail-
ure to expose English learners to multiple varieties also limits the opportunities
to raise learners’ critical awareness of the contemporary sociolinguistic realities
of English and contributes to fostering negative attitudes towards non-standard
and non-native English usages. To that point, it is argued that using pop culture
materials offers teachers a welcome opportunity to introduce learners to diverse
varieties of English that do not necessarily adhere to the conventions of formal
registers of codified standards.
4. Introducing English language variation through telecinematic
representations
It has been argued that the use of pop culture as teaching material in formal
instructional settings can represent a valuable factor in the students’ motivation
to learn English (see Liu & Lin, 2017; Peacock et al., 2018; Werner & Tegge, 2021).
In fact, given the relevance of pop culture in students’ lives, pop culture materials
are arguably more significant to learners than often-decontextualized ELT class-
room materials, and therefore they are more likely to receive the learners’ atten-
tion. In today’s world of digital literacy, forms of pop culture, such as movies and
TV shows are ubiquitous. The unprecedented ease of access to pop culture materi-
als created through digital technologies, in turn, also allows for an extension of the
learning context outside and beyond the formal classroom setting. In this sense,
296 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
pop culture can promote an approach that views learners as active agents, hence
fostering their engagement in the learning process.
However, Grau’s (2009) empirical study carried out in German secondary
schools found that “despite a student’s extensive language contact outside school,
that contact does not influence the way they learn English in the classroom”
(p. 171). The author concluded that while in the minds of teachers and students
classroom English and the students’ out-of-class exposure appear as two separate
spheres, “a majority of the students and some of the teachers also indicate their
wish for closer links between these contexts” (Grau, 2009, p. 171). This paper
argues that the integration into formal instruction of pop culture as a major source
of contact with English in the students’ free time can represent a way of bridg-
ing the gap between classroom and out-of-classroom English. Given the massive
amounts of exposure to multiple English varieties that are available with a sin-
gle click, young learners of English are even more likely to perceive that they are
not getting the “real thing”, that is, genuine language input, in formal instruction.
Therefore, instructors who adhere to the age-old tenets of ELT are faced with a
contradiction between the language they teach and the actual language their stu-
dents encounter in their daily (online) life. It is in this sense that the use of pop
culture also aids in bridging the perceived gap between textbook and “real” Eng-
lish.
It was stated in Section 1 that as a globalized phenomenon that reflects the
diversity of Englishes, pop culture represents a wealth of resources for a GELT-
informed approach readily available for English teachers. It was also pointed out
that pop culture is an umbrella term, and while accepting this broad conceptu-
alization, for illustrative purposes, in this paper the focus is primarily on movies
and TV shows. Scores of English language movies and TV shows have been
made available to a global audience, in recent years, also due to the increasing
reach of popular online video streaming services. Like pop music (Westphal, 2021;
Westphal & Jansen, 2021), these telecinematic representations are not an entirely
homogeneous linguistic space, hence they can be used as teaching material with a
view to expose students to the diversity of English.
A first rationale is grounded in the fact that while the lion’s share of these
artifacts is produced in the USA, American telecinematic representations often
include a wide range of English varieties. Marking a break with the linguistic
homogenization that traditionally characterized Hollywood productions, there
has been a recent trend in movies and especially in TV towards increasing the
degree of realism by showing characters who speak languages in the way they are
spoken in the “real world.” Movies and TV shows thus have contributed to lift
the stigma from non-standard usages and to render the representation of such
forms mainstream. There are many productions, for instance, that feature African
Beyond monolithic English 297
American characters who speak in genuine African American Vernacular English
(AAVE) (Green, 2002). The AAVE variety spoken in the critically acclaimed TV
show The Wire, for instance, received the attention of Trotta and Blyahher (2011),
who illustrated how the shows “presents a high fidelity, albeit densely packaged,
reflection of African-American Vernacular English, with strong regard to both
grammar and vocabulary” (p. 38).
Second, TV shows have nowadays become a global phenomenon, and along-
side the global marketing of US productions, recent years have also witnessed a
trend to globalize local linguistic (and cultural) content. Several productions are
now available for a global audience on streaming platforms that put on display a
wide range of Englishes, including local dialects. The popular streaming platform
Netflix, for instance, has been increasingly funding (and feeding to its 200 million
paid members) original productions, including TV shows and movies that feature
characters speaking varieties of English other than British and American Eng-
lish (as well as non-English-language originals). Online streaming has certainly
contributed to the global success of Bollywood (a popular term for the Indian
film industry) movies; another case in point here is the Nollywood (i.e. Nigerian)
movie industry, which, thanks to Netflix, has also recently gone global (Agina,
2021). Therefore, despite an evident bias in pop culture towards American vari-
eties of English, by adopting movies and TV shows in the English classrooms it
is nevertheless possible to widen the scope of linguistic variation and English-
speaking cultures to which learners of English can be introduced also beyond also
beyond the inner circle2 countries.
The potential of movies for exposing learners to non-standard varieties of
English, local vernaculars, as well as diverse ENL and ESL cultures, which are
traditionally missing from ELT textbooks, has long been recognized (see, e.g.,
King, 2002; Martinez Flor & Fernandez Guerra, 2002; Tuncay, 2014). With the
aim of problematizing grammar prescriptivism, applied linguistic research has
also explored opportunities for developing pedagogical strategies, activities and
teaching materials that introduce learners as well as teachers and practitioners to
the sociolinguistic notion of language variation, raising awareness of the social
evaluation of language (see, e.g., Devereaux & Palmer, 2019). Relevant works
have highlighted the dynamic nature of language use and questioned the perti-
nence of assessing proficiency against the yardstick of static NES-defined norms
(Mahboob, 2018). In addition, the pedagogical benefits of both understanding sys-
tematic variation on a theoretical level and being exposed to various local norms
and on a descriptive, applied level have been highlighted (Wolfram, 2014).
2. According to Kachru’s (1985, 1992) model for the expansion of English, the inner circle indi-
cates countries where English is the first language of the majority of the speakers.
298 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
We present the argument that telecinematic representations offer readily
available teaching material that includes samples of sociolinguistic motivated
variation (see also Werner, 2020). Movies and TV shows where different varieties
of English are showcased certainly are easily accessible and can easily be exploited
in innovative GELT pedagogical practices for the purpose of introducing language
variation in a contextualized manner. However, it must also be mentioned that
despite being contextualized, the language of pop culture is clearly distinct from
everyday face-to-face language use. Like all “performed speech” (Coupland, 2007,
p. 171) it is intentionally produced for an audience, hence it is planned, fictitious
and often stylized. Telecinematic language in particular is based on a previously
written script and adapted to resemble naturally occurring conversations. In this
sense, it is neither genuine nor spontaneous. It has also been argued that, as fic-
tional scripted material, the performed language that is represented in telecine-
matic artifacts has its own specific inherent properties which prevent approaching
its analysis in terms of the conventional spoken-written registers dichotomy (see
Werner, 2021b).
Nevertheless, although staged and performed, telecinematic language still
resembles an authentic rendition of real-life language use. For this reason, it
can show learners how English is used as a communicative tool within a real-
world context, unlike the sequenced and organized input language presented in
textbooks for the purpose of developing the learners’ analytic knowledge of the
structures of the target language. Movies and TV shows thus provide a valuable
opportunity to expose English learners to realistic models of spoken communica-
tion in a variety of target language environments. Furthermore, movies and TV
shows display a much wider range of both formal and informal registers, than,
for instance, pop music lyrics, whose potential for the GELT classrooms has been
highlighted (Westphal, 2021). Pop singers also use more lyrical freedom and vari-
ous techniques of prose such as rhyming, all of which makes lyrics more open to
interpretation by the listener. Telecinematic dialogues in contrast are less abstract.
By giving more attention to how English is used in realistic settings beyond the
ELT classroom and widening the scope of situational contexts of language use,
we also argue that the integration of pop movies and TV shows in the English
classroom would represent an effective way of fostering the learners’ receptive and
communicative competence.
The stereotyping of certain varieties and speech styles through their repre-
sentation is a salient characteristic of the language of pop culture. For instance,
it has been noted that linguistic variation can be highlighted through pop music
lyrics because of their high indexical loading (Westphal, 2021; Westphal & Jansen,
2021). Similarly, by drawing attention to the stereotyping of telecinematic char-
acters and their respective speech styles, teachers can guide students to critical
Beyond monolithic English 299
examinations of the ideologies surrounding standard and non-standard varieties
of English, shedding light on the power relations that such ideologies uphold and
that are reflected and created through language.
Analysis of accent treatment in telecinematic artifacts as well as in online
video clips (Boberg, 2021; Lippi-Green, 2012; Schneider, 2016) have pointed to
the social connotations that are attached to different sociolect and dialectal vari-
eties. It is suggested here that by developing activities aimed at engaging learners
with different English varieties in movies and TV shows, teachers of English
would further raise the learners’ awareness of variation and bring them to ques-
tion the stereotypical representations of the speakers of those varieties. In doing
so, teachers would also bring the students to reflect on their potentially prejudiced
attitudes towards non-standard and non-native English varieties, and perhaps
eventually contribute to boosting self-confidence in their own non-native speech.
The use of movies as teaching materials would thus also bring the teachers them-
selves to adopt a more critical approach to ELT, shifting their focus from notions
of correctness towards real-world language usage, as in line with GELT principles
(see Section 2). It must be also observed that local cultures, too, are often stereo-
typed in pop telecinematic representations. In fact, the dominant trend seems to
be one of showing local content in a way that it can have global appeal. Teachers
should thus invite learners to engage critically with such representations.
In summary, we argue that by exposing learners to English that is not stan-
dard textbook English and highlighting variation as a systematic property of the
language and importantly a highly functional one, the image of monolithic Eng-
lish is challenged and so are the prescriptive concepts of “correct” pronunciation
and grammaticality. The task of the English teacher is to show learners that certain
accents, forms, and expressions are perfectly acceptable and appropriate for cer-
tain registers, and/or in certain social or regional contexts of language use. Fur-
thermore, by questioning the ideology of teaching a monolithic native standard
variety of English, the provision of materials that showcase diversified bases of
target language varieties contributes to shifting the focus towards communicative
competence as the overarching goal of the ELT class. As opposed to decontextual-
ized knowledge of the lexicogrammar and phonology of the language, the notion
of communicative competence includes the sociocultural and pragmatic aspects
of language use (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, & Thurrell, 1995), and thus points to the
ability to master different registers in different settings for different purposes.
With the aim of contributing to compensating for the lack of materials that
can promote a GELT-oriented pedagogical approach (see Rose, McKinley &
Galloway, 2021), the next section provides concrete examples of telecinematic rep-
resentations that can be used in the GELT class for the purpose of introducing
learners to different varieties of English and anglophone cultural settings. For the
300 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
sake of conciseness, this section will only include selected examples of movies and
TV shows that illustrate the broader points developed in the previous passages.
5. Telecinematic representations for GELT
It was observed in Section 3 that non-standard varieties of English such as local
vernaculars have found legitimization in the global pop mediascape. AAVE was
mentioned as a particular variety that features prominently in mainstream US
movies and TV shows. Hollywood productions are replete with samples of AAVE,
and by adopting them in the ELT classrooms, learners can be made to reflect on
the phonological, syntactic, semantic, and lexical patterns that set AAVE apart
from Standard American English. However, it must be observed that African
American characters in movies and TV shows representations are often largely
based on stereotypes, and speech is a main characteristic of that stereotype.
Teachers should therefore invite learners to critically reflect on telecinematic rep-
resentations that may perpetuate such stereotypes and typecast certain racial
identities.
Nevertheless, African American original movies such as Denzel Washington’s
Fences (2016), the adaptation of the homonymous Pulitzer Prize-winning play by
August Wilson, for instance, unlike other movies where AAVE is reduced from a
fully-fledged variety to a selection of stereotyped features, provide telling exam-
ples of AAVE that more faithfully reflect real-life usage of the language. In addi-
tion, Fences portrays a realistic image of the African American experience at a
pivotal time in history, making reference to race relations in the 1950s US. Hence,
the movie can also offer teachers valuable content to bring learners to problema-
tize the stereotypical image of American culture reproduced and exported world-
wide through consumerist norms and models.
Several movies by the famous African American director Spike Lee are also
potentially relevant. For both its linguistic and cultural content, BlacKkKlansman
(2018) arguably provides a good example. Throughout the movie, the dialogues
seamlessly alternate between what is termed in the film as “jive” (an informal term
for AAVE), and standard English, which is referred to as the “Queens’ English” in
the movie. Without getting into too many details on the plot at this stage, it is sug-
gested that selected scenes from the movie can be chosen to illustrate the differ-
ences between the two varieties of English, and how the titular character of Ron
Stallworth effortlessly moves between the two, depending on which persona he is
in that particular scene.
Beyond monolithic English 301
In addition, for the purpose of introducing learners to the sociolinguistic real-
ities of the outer circle3 and showing learners how English is used alongside other
languages in such multilingual contexts, teachers can also turn to popular Bolly-
wood movies and TV shows where characters code-switch from indigenous lan-
guages such as Hindi to English (e.g., Sacred Games). Furthermore, marking a
turn towards a more global appeal, original Bollywood productions have started
to appear in recent years that are (also) available entirely in the local variety of
English (e.g., Delhi Crime, She, Bard of Blood, Mismatched, Made in Heaven, to
name a few).
A top grossing Indian movie, aptly titled English Vinglish (EV ) seems par-
ticularly fit for the purpose of guiding students to critical examinations of the
ideologies surrounding standard and non-standard varieties of English and illus-
trate how power relations are reflected and created through language. This movie
shows the realities of English as a second language in an outer circle context,
and while it problematizes the notion of “global” language by pointing to the
unequal social distribution of proficiency in English, it also sheds light on the lan-
guage ideologies that surround standard and non-standard varieties of English
and the power relations that such ideologies uphold. Using the method of critical
discourse analysis, Schneider (2021) illustrated how of the dialogues of English
Vinglish encode ideological positions, particularly showing how in the culture of
upper-class Indians proficiency in (standard) English is regarded as a status sym-
bol, a “prerequisite to gaining respect and happiness, and lack of it is perceived as
a huge social problem” (p. 136). In addition, the author’s linguistic analysis of the
artistic recreation of “grassroots English” (Meierkord & Schneider, 2021) revealed
how this feature parallels other non-standard ESL varieties, as well as to the early
stages of second language acquisition.
One more example to illustrate the points made so far is the Indian TV show
titled Made in Heaven (2019), which features a wedding planning agency set in
New Delhi. Like many similar TV shows in India, it features characters living
largely upscale lifestyles and therefore, using English comparatively more than
those from less affluent parts of society. This reiterates Schneider’s (2021) point
made above, namely that speaking English is a sign of prestige and social status
among upper-class Indians. The premise of the show is, naturally, Indian wed-
dings, which are by and large public events, with plenty of pomp and festivities.
This show would also be a good example as it shows modern adaptations of tradi-
tional Indian culture.
3. The outer circle of Kachru’s (1985, 1992) model indicates the countries and places where
English was first introduced as a colonial language and subsequently developed into non-native
varieties within the communities of non-native speakers.
302 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
Netflix also features several Nollywood productions, where alongside Niger-
ian Pidgin, a distinct language in its own right, characters speak the indigenized
variety of English, Nigerian English (Taiwo, 2013). For both its linguistic and the-
matic content, we mention Citation (2020) as a particularly interesting example of
a Nollywood movie. Allegedly based on true events, this movie represents a mis-
sive against the issue of sexual assault on college campuses from a West African
perspective. Most importantly, it is suggested here that watching and commenting
on scenes taken from Citation as an example of Nollywood in the English class-
room would represent a way of legitimizing another non-native variety, and hence
it would also be a move towards bringing the learners to reflect on both the soci-
ety’s and their own attitudes towards non-native Englishes.
As a final remark, it must also be noted that the opportunity of exposing EFL
learners to Indian and Nigerian English becomes ever more relevant in the con-
text of contemporary Europe, where due to migration, cultural diversity is the
reality and the multicultural society, in turn, is reproduced in the schools all over
Europe (see, e.g., Dockrell et al., 2021). This also seems to meet the need to respect
cultural differences and reconsider the notion of English-using culture, as sug-
gested in the GELT proposals (see Section 2).
The movies and TV shows referred to in this section can be used as a point
of reference for students, and there can be several assignments and/or classwork
based on them, pertaining to non-standard English use and cultural aspects.
Although we have touched on them briefly, it is important that teachers develop
specific activities that examine the linguistic aspects of single excerpts from
telecinematic artifacts such as those that we have suggested. As much as they can
raise the learners’ awareness of English language variation, by focusing on the lan-
guage reproduced in the dialogues of these telecinematic representations teachers
can also problematize the concept of grammaticality and highlight how judge-
ments of appropriateness of a given linguistic structure depend on the intended
meaning in each context. Hence, by adopting an inclusive approach that extends
the boundaries of grammaticality to legitimize non-standard forms of English that
are used in the real world, teachers can arguably encourage learners to focus more
on the development of receptive and communicative skills than on reproducing
standard English. By being exposed to language that may have been deemed as
“incorrect” in traditional ELT, learners nevertheless realize that strict adherence
to the norms of the NE standard is not necessary to achieve successful communi-
cation in appropriate contexts.
It has been observed that pop culture materials promote learner-centered
teaching (Ratti, 2019; Werner, 2021a). It is further argued that by adopting pop
culture artifacts as teaching materials within a GELT perspective, English teachers
would also be brought to question their own attitudes towards non-standard and
Beyond monolithic English 303
non-native English and develop a more critical stance towards the implicit or
explicit prescriptivism that informs traditional ELT classroom practice. Hence,
pop culture materials, such as the telecinematic representations cited above, can
also be used in teacher training programs with the aim of fostering awareness of
and favorable attitudes towards the GELT approach.
6. Conclusion
Overall, this paper argued that given the dearth of materials that can support
teachers in the paradigm shift from EFL to GELT, pop culture potentially has valu-
able resources to offer. It emphasized that pop culture materials such as telecine-
matic representations offer genuine samples of target language that teachers can
use in the English classroom to achieve a balance between the notion of language
as a grammar system and as a communicative tool within a real-world context. In
particular, the language of pop movies and TV shows was shown to be useful to
raise the awareness of variation, and thus to bring learners to reflect on prejudicial
attitudes towards non-standard English varieties.
As a conceptual piece, this paper only made broad suggestions as to how to
adopt pop culture materials such as telecinematic representations in innovative
GELT-oriented classroom practice. Selected examples were mentioned
(Section 5) to support the claim that the integration of movies and TV shows in
the English class has the potential to bring learners (and teachers as well) to con-
front and change a whole range of long-held and deeply rooted viewpoints con-
cerning the dominance of standard English, as well as concerning the imposition
of a strictly Anglo-centric perspective on curriculum design and teaching prac-
tices. While we hope to have highlighted the inherent potential of using pop cul-
ture artifacts such as telecinematic representations within the GELT approach,
more evidence-based empirical studies are needed that investigate how such and
other pop culture materials can effectively be integrated into classroom and
teacher-education practice.
A systematic analysis of what is made available on the Internet, for instance,
would make it possible to base the selection of pop culture materials on well-
defined criteria such as the language variety and the cultural setting that are show-
cased. Classroom activities and assignments that are based on movies and TV
shows must be tailored to the specific student population and instructional setting
where the use of pop culture materials is implemented. It is pointed out here that
the use of movies and TV shows, as well as any other pop culture material, can-
not be understood as universally valid across the entire spectrum of educational
304 Marco Bagni and Zeenat Sumra
domains, and so its implementation in the ELT curriculum must be preceded by
an analysis of the context.
Most importantly, taking heed to Rose, McKinley, and Galloway’s (2021) sug-
gestions for further research, classroom-based intervention studies are needed
that look at how students actually engage with movies and TV shows as classroom
material. Studies that collect pre- and post-intervention data would allow us
to measure the actual change in both linguistic performance and attitude, for
instance. Quasi-experimental research designs that compare test and control
groups would yield more credible results and allow to draw more solid conclu-
sions as to the effectiveness of the use of innovative materials such as pop culture.
Furthermore, potential disadvantages of using pop culture materials are also
conceivable. Although perceived as “real” English, the use of non-standard, non-
textbook English may still meet with criticism and hostility, on part of both
teachers and learners. One reason for this may be that assessment testing has
a washback effect on the whole curriculum and the learning objectives (Aiello,
2016; Cameron & Galloway, 2019; Galloway & Numajiri, 2020), and the idea of
reorienting the EFL classroom towards the new approaches that applied linguis-
tic scholarship has recently advocated necessarily requires a redefinition of assess-
ment practices, too. Without such a revision, learners may lament that they are
not getting the English they need to pass their exams.
In addition, it is assumed in this paper thus far that pop culture materials are
a motivation booster. Werner and Tegge’s (2021) mention, “it has been claimed
that working with pop culture materials serves to specifically foster the language
learners’ intrinsic motivation” (p. 5), in particular by the specific use of learning
material which “has been found to potentially reduce stress levels and levels of
language learning anxiety” (Dolean, 2016, as cited in Werner & Tegge, 2021, p. 7).
The point needs to be added however, that learners’ interests may vary a lot and
thus it is important not to assume that all students’ tastes are mainstream, so to
speak. In other words, it must be borne in mind that not all pop culture material
may meet the students’ approval in all circumstances. Therefore, it is important
that learners should be allowed to play an active role when it comes to choosing
learning materials.
Despite these limitations, this paper concludes by stating that integrating pop
culture materials into GELT has a vast potential for creating synergies that merit
scrutiny in the future, both on part of applied linguists and language educators
already applying or intending to apply GELT principles.
Beyond monolithic English 305
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Address for correspondence
Marco Bagni
Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Culturali
Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Largo S. Eufemia, 19
41121 Modena
Italy
[email protected]
[email protected]
Co-author information
Zeenat Sumra
Department of English Language and
Linguistics
Technische Universität Chemnitz
[email protected]
Publication history
Date received: 7 May 2021
Date accepted: 7 April 2022
Published online: 11 May 2022
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What are the implications of using pop culture in English language teaching?
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The paper argues that incorporating pop culture can raise learners' awareness of English variation and challenge conventional norms in ELT, ultimately fostering communicative competence.
How does the Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) framework inform pedagogy?
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GELT promotes exposure to diverse varieties of English and encourages respect for multilingualism, which aligns with current global linguistic realities.
What barriers impede the integration of pop culture materials in ELT?
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The study identifies a strong adherence to standard language ideology and a lack of supportive materials as significant barriers to incorporating pop culture in ELT.
How does exposure to pop culture impact English learners' communicative competence?
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The integration of pop culture materials enhances learners’ engagement and contextual understanding, enabling them to navigate varied registers in real-world interactions.
What examples illustrate the pedagogical potential of telecinematic representations?
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Examples like 'Fences' and 'Made in Heaven' showcase diverse English varities, raising critical awareness of stereotypes and the sociolinguistic realities of English usage.
Zeenat Sumra
TU Chemnitz, Graduate Student
PhD doctoral candidate in English Linguistics at TU Chemnitz, Germany. My research areas are sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, digital literacy, language acquisition and multilingualism. My thesis is on English linguistic variation among Indians settled in Tanzania.. I teach ESL to adult learners.
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