ELF in the English Classroom: Great Ideas and Burning Open Questions

Abstract

Abstract – Research in the field of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has been inherently connected to studies in the broad areas of Applied Linguistics and English language teaching (ELT) ever since the unresolved academic controversy on the nature of English as a global language started, in the early eighties. So far, several research projects have been carried out to enhance ELF-informed pedagogy and incorporate the use of ELF into the English syllabus through innovative teaching/learning practices (Author 2013; Bowles and Cogo 2015; Gagliardi and Maley 2010; Vettorel 2015). However, even though a shift in perspective has been advocated in order to reconceptualise the traditional approach to ELT (Lopriore 2010), this transition poses challenging open questions for discussion, including: Should any native-speaker language model be provided in language education? How are ʽerrors’ going to be distinguished from creative forms of ELF? How are teachers supposed to behave when deviations from the adopted language model take place? How should teachers assess the use of ELF in the English classroom? The aim of this paper is to focus on these queries and stimulate a discussion to provide tentative answers.