It is essential to perceive language teachers’ beliefs and identities in 3 concentric circles proposed by Kachru (1985) because we will understand the norms using in those circle countries and could implement perspectives on these issues to construct beneficial identities for EFL university teachers as well as to enhance language learning environment in Thai context. Therefore, I am going to conduct the research proposal on implementing EFL university teachers’ beliefs and identities in the inner and outer circles into those in the expanding circle for Advanced Directed Studies course. This paper of literature review will be a part of the proposal. The purposes of the study are as follows: 1) to investigate EFL university teachers’ beliefs and identities in the inner and outer circles and 2) to examine EFL university teachers’ beliefs and identities in the expanding circle.
In addition, the following research questions are 1) what are EFL university teachers’ beliefs and identities in the inner and outer circles?, 2) what are EFL university teachers’ beliefs and identities in the expanding circle? and 3) how could those perspectives on these issues be implemented in Thai context? There are 3 primary issues discussed, including the Circles model of World Englishes, beliefs and identities, and implication.World Englishes were separated into 3 concentric circles, including the inner, outer circle, and expanding circles (Kachru, 1985). There were 3 main intentions to propose this model as a representative of 1) the types of a spread of English worldwide, 2) the patterns of acquisition, and 3) the functional domains in which English is used internationally (Bolton, 2008; Jenkins, 2015). The inner circle refers to countries where English is used as the first language such as The USA, The UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The outer circle is considered as postcolonial Anglophonic countries with a large and diverse speech community such as Bangladesh, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka and so on. In the outer circle countries, English is not the first language used in the diverse communities, so it is considered as second, official, or educational language. The expanding circle consists of those countries where English is used as an international language or English as Foreign Language (EFL).
However, Kachru (1985) suggested that ‘the Outer Circle and the Expanding Circle cannot be viewed as clearly demarcated from each other; they have several shared characteristics, and the status of English in the language policies of such countries changes from time to time. What is an ESL region at one time may become an EFL region at another time or vice versa’.
