World Englishes and Intelligibility in English-Medium Classrooms

Abstract

Nowadays, academia is impacted by globalisation and the internationalization movement; which are carried out by the use of English. English has widely become the dominant language of instruction in higher education. Among the vast aims and objectives of such a widespread movement are apparently these goals: to create a unified scientific community and to pave the communication channels in order to access or be accessible for knowledge and science advancements. This well-promoted situation should consequently welcome various English speakers, native and non-native. That is, various varieties of English—or Englishes as defined by sociolinguists—can be brought together into a single milieu, since what matters in such a context is the subject matter knowledge delivered in English rather than the language itself or a specific English or variety of it. However, if the delivery of the content knowledge undertaken by teachers is confusing to students, there would be a possibility for content loss. Thus, intelligibility of the available Englishes should be viewed as a key element in the process of content knowledge acquisition. Acknowledging the importance of speech intelligibility, the current study quantitatively examines which Englishes are considered intelligible to medical and health-allied students and professionals from an Arab expanding-circle country, namely Saudi Arabia. The involved Englishes are determined by the context. The study shows that both native and non-native Englishes can be intelligible, yet non-native English should belong to the expanding-circle countries—Arab in particular—if they are to be classified as such.