earticle

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The past six decades have seen tremendous scholarship on the unprecedented spread and diversification of English across the globe. This has led to the strong view that today, English belongs to the world, with numerous centers of ownership, many of which have their own set of rules and norms of use. At the pedagogical level, this scholarship has called for the decolonization of English curricula, encompassing both the study of diverse varieties of English in language classes as well as the study of English literatures from Outer and Expanding Circle countries. This paper seeks to investigate whether these calls remain more theoretical than practiced, specifically in an EFL context – the Sultanate of Oman. This was considered of special importance given both the lack of empirical research into the application of WE pedagogical models in Oman and anecdotal evidence suggesting generally widespread instructor and learner resistance to these. Specifically, we investigate what: a) language teaching professionals’ attitudes are toward WE pedagogical models; and b) what students’ attitudes are toward WE pedagogical models and the inclusion of diverse English literatures in their curricula. The results of this study show that both teaching professionals and students are, with some exceptions, generally opposed to WE pedagogical models, and remain strong in their belief in the power of traditional Inner Circle English standards. With regard to the inclusion of diverse literatures, while students and faculty were in favor of the idea of greater inclusivity, they strongly felt that English literature was still defined as traditional British and American literature. The authors conclude that the legitimacy WE scholars take as a given remains far from a pedagogical reality.