English as a Lingua Franca for EFL Contexts

Nicos C. Sifakis, Natasha Tsantila, Nicos C. Sifakis, Natasha Tsantila

• Editorial: Multilingual Matters
• Año: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781788921787
• Categoría: Lingue e linguistica
• Categoría: Lingua inglese

This book explores the interfaces of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pedagogy. It presents the theoretical aspects of ELF, discusses issues and challenges that ELF raises for the EFL classroom, and demonstrates how EFL practitioners can make use of ELF theorizing for classroom instruction, teacher education, developing language learning materials, policymaking and testing and assessment. Accounts of innovative and practical pedagogical practices and researchers' insights from diverse geographical, cultural and institutional contexts will inform and inspire EFL practitioners to reconsider their practices and adopt new techniques in order to meet their learners' diverse communicative needs in international contexts.

1Introduction

Nicos Sifakis and Natasha Tsantila

In all probability, English is the only language in the history of natural languages that has been extensively studied in its use by so-called non-native users (more commonly referred to as non-native speakers, or NNSs). The very use of English by unprecedented numbers of NNSs has given rise to a series of reinterpretations of the term ‘native speaker’ and its significance (Davies, 2003; Selvi, 2014), together with a reappraisal of concepts that play a definitive role in the teaching of English as a foreign language, such as ‘standard English’ (SE) (Kohn, 2011). These attempts to understand the structures, functions and underlying communicational skills of NNS English have been significantly fueled by research in the fields of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), English as an International Language (EIL) and World Englishes (WE). Each of these domains adopt a different orientation to the study of English language communication, but they all contribute to a need to appreciate the depth and richness of context and the variability of different types of interactions involving native and non-native users of English. It is only natural that these insights inform the area of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). The book at hand is an attempt to take stock at what has been done so far in the field of ELF and what insights can be drawn for EFL.

In the past two decades, ELF has undergone a number of considerable shifts. In its simplest form, the term refers to the function of English as a contact language in communications involving primarily non-native users of English from various international, multilingual and heterogeneous settings, to which each user brings a variety of English that he or she is most familiar and comfortable with and employs various strategies in order to communicate effectively. Early ELF research (of the period spanning from the early 1990 to the early 2000s) aimed to identify the parallels between NNSs’ uses of English and the codified SE of the NSs (see the account of Jenkins, 2015). In the 2000-2010 period, the interest shifted from trying to establish ELF as a distinct variety to focusing on the knowledge, strategies and skills of successful ELF users (Seidlhofer, 2009). As the awareness of the fluidity and unboundedness of ELF interactions that ‘transcends boundaries, and that is therefore beyond description’ (Jenkins, 2015: 55) became all the more pertinent, the importance of redefining ELF within the more realistic and authentic framework of multilingualism and translanguaging (García, 2009; García & Wei, 2014) takes centre stage (see Hülmbauer & Seidlhofer, 2013; Jenkins, 2015; Kirkpatrick, 2010; Mauranen, 2012).

In its most recent orientation (Jenkins, 2015), ELF’s natural habitat is the different multilingual and multicultural interactional settings that are independent of the norms that are socio-culturally associated with SE (Cogo & Jenkins, 2010; Seidlhofer, 2010). This means that ELF is perceived as a highly malleable means of communication which adopts English as its primary vehicle but is appropriated by its users to adapt to the linguistic, pragmatic and cultural elements for each ­individual interaction (Jenkins, 2015; Mauranen, 2012; Seidlhofer, 2011).

In light of the above, the main bulk of ELF-oriented research has focused, and understandably so, on describing, analyzing and understanding the ELF ‘construct’. It is relatively recently that there has been an interest in informing the EFL domain and, in particular, EFL classroom stakeholders (most eminently, teachers, policymakers, materials designers, testers) about ELF. In this light, the volume at hand seeks to describe and investigate the applicability of ELF theory and research at a practical level. More particularly, the focus is on how ELF can be related to EFL, or expanding circle contexts, where English has no officially recognized status but enjoys wide recognition as the primary foreign language in the state and private domains (Kachru, 1996).

This book explores the interfaces of ELF and pedagogy, teacher education, language development materials, testing, policymaking, the English language learner and other relevant areas, placing emphasis on how EFL practitioners can make use of ELF theorising and ELF research into their classrooms. The descriptions of pedagogical practices from the aforementioned areas and researchers’ insights from diverse geographical, cultural and institutional contexts demonstrate a range of possible approaches to comprehensively inform practitioners to reconsider their practices and adopt new ones in order to meet their learners’ diverse communicative needs in international contexts today.

ELF and EFL: A Brief Review

Widdowson (2003: chapter 4) was probably the first to highlight the fundamental issues concerning the relationship between ELF and EFL, and these were taken up again in Widdowson (2013). The widespread interest in researching the discourse of interactions involving NNNs of English is evident from the broad variety of research publications within and beyond ELF. In fact, it is possible to distinguish these publications into two broad categories: one exclusively focusing on ELF (the ELF-specific category) and one incorporating ELF together with other similar perspectives, such as the WE or the EIL category.

ELF-specific research focuses on predominantly applied linguistics (discourse analysis, pragmatics) accounts of the ELF construct. For example, the DELF (Developments in ELF) series, published by Mouton deGruyter, has so far published titles on the socio-pragmatics of ELF (Deterding, 2013; Kalocsai, 2013), ELF discourse (Björkman, 2013; Vettorel, 2014) and language-regulatory practices (Hynninen, 2016). The volume edited by Gimenez et al. (2017) focuses on ELF-focused teacher education issues in Brazil. Other recently published books with an ELF-specific focus discuss the ELF construct and, to some extent, include implications for teaching. For example, Mackenzie (2014) discusses grammar, lexis and variation; it also discusses issues such as identity and accent; there is less emphasis on implications for the foreign language classroom (which is raised in the final chapter). The volume edited by Taviano (2013) focuses on implications of ELF for interpreters and translators. Jenkins (2013) and the special issue of the Journal of Pragmatics edited by Björkman (2011) focus on policy concerns for ELF in academia. The volumes edited by Archibald et al. (2011), Bayyurt and Akcan (2015) and Lopriore and Grazzi (2016), and the monographs by Cogo and Dewey (2012) and Mauranen (2012) present overviews of the ELF construct with a marked focus on discourse and pragmatics and a rather minimal concern for implications of ELF for teaching.

The EIL list includes books that also discuss pragmatics and discourse and there are some titles that have a more teaching-oriented perspective. An interesting example is the volume edited by Marlina and Giri (2014), which presents perspectives and case studies of integrating EIL in Asian contexts (Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia). Another similar example is Matsuda (2012), which presents a comprehensive account of teaching practices and processes in different parts of the world, viewed from an EIL perspective. Also, Matsuda (2016) showcases current teacher education models and ideas that are informed by EIL. Two more examples of EIL volumes focusing on teaching are Kirkpatrick and Sussex (2012), which includes chapters that are more theoretical and discuss implications for teaching in different Asian countries, and Phan (2008), which focuses exclusively on teacher identity. Another book that merges EIL and ELF concerns for teaching contexts is that edited by Gagliardi and Maley (2011).

From the above it can be surmised that there is a growing concern for more classroom-focused applications of the ELF construct. While there have been book-length publications that link the broader EIL framework with the foreign language classroom (pre-2010 publications that do that include McKay, 2002), those publications: (a) have had a predominantly prescriptive rather than descriptive character and (b) have tended to focus more on ESL teaching contexts, i.e. contexts that are found in inner circle settings (where English is openly or tacitly recognized as the official language), in which case a WE approach would be more useful. On the other hand, the ELF perspective has always taken a clearer interest in expanding circle contexts, i.e. contexts where non-native users’ contact with the English language has traditionally been exercised through foreign language education (EFL). This book focuses exclusively on EFL settings and the chapters herein discuss different aspects of the impact that ELF research can have on those classrooms. These aspects range from language instruction and materials development and evaluation to assessment, testing and policy.

Such a clear focus of the ELF impact on EFL settings has yet to be the subject of a book-length publication so far, the reason being, as we have shown above, that, since the early 2000’s, ELF research has been almost exclusively concerned with delineating the ELF construct. In fact, in the mid-2000’s, leading ELF scholars had argued against attempts to apply ELF in the classroom before academic research had more fully delineated the ELF construct (Seidlhofer, 2004). That said, in the more recent international ELF conferences, there have been an increasing number of papers by scholars and teachers applying ELF in EFL settings and this interest reflects in the literature (e.g. Bowles & Cogo, 2015; Seidlhofer, 2011; Sifakis et al., 2018; Vettorel, 2015; Walker, 2010). The aim of this book is to showcase a theoretically informed and practice-based account of ELF applications in EFL settings and to do it in a way that is teacher-friendly (through extensive questions, with indicative answers, that spread throughout the chapters).

Preliminary Implications of ELF Research for EFL Practice

In the chapters that follow, ELF is acknowledged as a ‘force to be reckoned with’ within EFL. Therefore, a common thread is that ELF research should inform EFL practice. However, when addressing the ways in which ELF can be linked with EFL, it is possible to distinguish, admittedly rather crudely, between two perspectives: an ‘either/or’ approach and a ‘with/within’ approach. The former posits that the ELF perspective is more appropriate and more realistic than EFL and should therefore replace the EFL mindset. In the words of Seidlhofer and Widdowson (this volume), EFL is ‘a pedagogy of failure’ inasmuch as it is grounded in NNS learners abiding by the rules (and failing the test of) conformity, as they are expressed by NS norms. The point that Seidlhofer and Widdowson make is that, as NNSs follow their own learning paths, what is taught in the EFL classroom (namely, NS norms) is not identical with what is learned. As the aim of teaching should be learning, and as ‘[t]he E of [EFL learning] […] bears a close resemblance to the E of ELF’, it follows that ELF should inform EFL teaching by empowering learners to avoid turning into ‘teachees’ (i.e. passive recipients of what is taught) and grow into active participants in the learning process. EFL learners and teachers are requested to enter a transformative journey that will change their mindsets concerning what really works both in in-class sessions and in interactions outside the class.

The ‘with/within’ approach to linking ELF with EFL takes up a rather less radical perspective. While it appreciates the relevance of ELF for realistic and authentic interactions involving NNSs, it also acknowledges the very extensive research carried out under the EFL label and the corresponding tradition that this research has engendered in terms of pedagogy, course design and assessment. It therefore prioritises learners’ needs and has the teacher integrate as much ELF as their learners, agendas and teaching contexts will allow. This is, essentially, the meaning of the concept of ‘speaker satisfaction’ that Kohn int...