700 Reasons: Reason #176
- Reason: 176
- In international converse through the medium of English, native speakers tend to talk too much and listen too little, so that quite frequently an international free discussion turns into one among the native-speaking English participants, in which little account is taken of the demands made on the comprehension skills of the non-natives present. Monolinguals are tempted to confuse the skill with which an argument is formulated and the fluency with which it is expressed with the force and validity of the case itself, and are painfully surprised when, having had by far the best of the debate, they are outvoted or when they have contracts left unsigned because clients have felt unable to express fully their questions, doubts, and hesitations, which therefore remain unresolved
- Reference:
- Trim, J. (1999) ‘Language education policies for the twenty-first century’ in Tosi, A., Leung, C. (eds) Rethinking Language Education: From a Monolingual to a Multilingual Perspective (London: CILT)
- Related Keywords:
- Communication, Global English, Understanding
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