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Dominic Walters

Do you speak Brazlish?

In 1985, Braj Kachru published a book called ‘Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle’. In it, he placed the world’s Englishes into one of three concentric circles: the inner circle, which is composed of those countries where English is the first, or dominant, language; the outer circle, represented by those nations...Read More

Testing Times

I feel for test designers. They have an impossible task. To design a test of language proficiency that is considered valid and reliable by the various stakeholders involved in the testing process. This is particularly true of the test takers themselves. And it was in relation to these people that two stories recently caught my...Read More

´Americanization´ or ´Americanisation´?

‘Trousers’ or ‘pants’? ‘Lift’ or ‘elevator’? ‘Colour’ or ‘color’? ‘Theatre’ or ‘theater’? Which lexical item do you use? Which form of spelling do you opt for? Do you teach ‘American’ or ‘British’ English? Or both? How do you decide what to teach? Does it matter? Well, according to some recent research, it does matter, and...Read More

The future is now

First we had industrialization. Then this was followed by electrification, which in turn preceded the age of digitalization. And now, apparently, we are accelerating at what seems like breakneck speed towards what the International Bar Association calls the ‘Industrial Revolution 4.0’. This fourth industrial revolution is being, and will be, marked by dramatic changes in...Read More

Cultural Matters

Recently, I was fortunate enough to spend a couple of weeks in London, visiting family and friends. I also took the opportunity to assess a CELTA course over there. In one of the pre-intermediate lessons I was observing there were a good many Japanese and Brazilian learners. These students seemed to be playing their stereotypical...Read More
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