The Impacts Of ASEAN Accents On Listening Comprehension Of Interpreting-major Students From ELF Perspective

The globalization has promoted English as a Lingua Franca among speakers of different mother tongues.The establishment of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area enhances the cooperation between China and ASEAN countries,where English is the sole working language.Meanwhile,the annual China-ASEAN EXPO(CAEXPO)demands quite a few linguistically and pragmatically competent volunteers and interpreters to provide language service,especially in terms of translation and interpretation,using English as a Lingua Franca(referred to as ELF hereinafter).Despite such fact,the accents of Asian Englishes encountered in reality become an emerging burden and,sometimes,an obstacle to successful language service for dearth of related linguistic knowledge and pragmatic training.Studies have been conducted on varieties of Asian Englishes from World Englishes paradigm,focusing on description of linguistic features and nativization.However,research can also be carried out about the attitude change and understanding of ELF interaction from the perspective of interpreting-major students.This paper,thus,aims to present a report on a program of a one-term instruction focusing on the Listening Comprehension of Varieties of ASEAN Englishes for interpreting-major students,and to identify impacts on their attitude and overall interpreting performance.The analysis of the feedback from 12 clients is also included.The data are collected by various sources and methods,including unstructured interviews,questionnaires and non-participant observation.There is a great value of bringing ELF into listening instruction in order to better construct learner's readiness and confidence in providing language service in China-ASEAN context.Implications have been made in ELT:(1)in China-ASEAN context,expose students to diverse accents,especially to those phonological features that affect intelligibility and successful communication,will prepare them for NNS encounters;(2)the way of immersing ELF into courses could be a pattern of Practice First,Then ELF Theories;(3)in such multilingual setting,there is an urgent need to develop pragmatic competence and promote communicative strategies.