Exploring Grammar in ELT: the Challenge of Prescriptivism vs Descriptivism / Standard vs Non-standard Englishes in a Multicultural World
Exploring Grammar in ELT: the Challenge of Prescriptivism vs Descriptivism / Standard vs Non-standard Englishes in a Multicultural World

Summary/Abstract: The paper is concerned primarily, as suggested by its title, with the opposition between Standard and Non-standard varieties of English (henceforth SE and NSE). It looks in more detail at grammar rather than vocabulary and at the spoken variation rather than the written, in a multicultural world experiencing an increasing and pervasive globalisation which inevitably involves such a widespread language as English. That, as we will see, has a particular relevance to the topic of this work. The author briefly traces the controversial role played by grammar teaching in the education curriculum, focusing on the notion of SE vs NSE from its roots pointing and out positions of „purists” and „anti-purists” – reflected in the way the publishing industry and the ELT community at large – favour certain types of grammars and language courses on responding to the globalisation of English and to the various „standards” of the language which have derived from it. The author notices that the growing number of teachers and students – especially in the peripheral areas of former British colonies are trying to adapt English to their needs, cultures and ideals, thus resisting what is considered the linguistic imperialism in ELT, seen as a global enterprise.

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