Paola Vettorel

ELF in international school exchanges: stepping into the role of ELF users

Abstract The presence of English in Europe is increasingly pervasive: experiences “from above” in educational contexts combine with contacts with English “from below” in the linguistic landscape at large. In educational contexts, international school partnerships create increasingly frequent opportunities for learners at different school levels to experience language use in ELF contexts. International exchanges can thus be seen as a point of intersection between bottom-up and top-down contact with English, where learners step into the role of ELF users deploying their linguistic resources to communicate in international ELF settings. This paper explores how English is used in its role of a lingua franca in a set of written and spoken data gathered within two such international projects which took place in the Verona area, Italy, in school years 2009–2011. As part of the project primary school pupils aged 9–11 interacted with peers from European countries using English as the shared lingua franca of communication. Besides the childrens awareness of the presence of English and of the role of ELF in outside-school contexts, these interactions are characterised by several elements which are found in ELF communicative settings: for example, lexical innovations, code switching employed to signal cultural identity, and deployment of pragmatic strategies in oral communication. In this way these young ELF users appear to stretch their linguistic resources of self-expression and communication. Therefore, findings can bear significant potential implications in terms of teaching practices.

Promoting Awareness of Englishes and ELF in the English Language Classroom

Research on ELT textbooks has repeatedly shown that materials have traditionally tended to focus on ‘established’ and standard representations of language, most often presenting British — and to a certain extent American — Standard varieties as the sole valid exemplifications of the English language, failing ‘to acknowledge the increased use of English among non-native speakers of English’ (Matsuda 2012a: 171). This approach has contributed to the promotion of a simplified monolithic view of the English language; furthermore, given the diversification brought about by the spread of English at a global level, it has been argued (e.g. McKay 2002, 2003; Matsuda 2003, 2012b; Seidlhofer 2004, 2011; Dewey and Leung 2010) that such an approach does not adequately prepare learners for the dynamic variety and plurality they will meet as English users.

English as a Lingua Franca in wider networking : blogging practices

In a constantly interconnected world, communication takes place beyond territorial boundaries, in networks where English works as a lingua franca. The volume explores how ELF is employed in internationally-oriented personal blogs; findings show how bloggers deploy an array of resources to their expressive and interactional aims, combining global and local communicative practices. Implications of findings in ELF and ELT terms are also discussed.

WE- and ELF-informed classroom practices: proposals from a pre-service teacher education programme in Italy

Abstract The long-standing research in World Englishes (WE) and, more recently, in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has greatly contributed to problematizing several areas in connection to English Language Teaching, highlighting in particular the importance of teacher education as a first and fundamental step towards a more “inclusive” and “realistic” approach in ELT. A WE- and ELF-informed teacher education can indeed play a pivotal role in promoting awareness of the sociolinguistic and cultural changes brought about by the pluralization of English on the one hand, and of its function as a lingua franca on the other hand, and contribute to fostering a critical evaluation of ELT approaches, and materials, traditionally based on an Anglo-centric monolithic view of language and culture, taking account of different viewpoints in connection to the current modified reality of English. This paper will illustrate findings from an ongoing research study aimed at investigating trainee teachers’ beliefs concerning ELT pedagogic practices inclusive of the current pluralization of English. The study has been carried out with trainee teachers of English attending pre-service TFA (Tirocinio Formativo Attivo) and PAS (Percorso Abilitante Speciale) teacher education courses at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona, Italy, where part of the English Language course focused on issues related to WE, ELF and their pedagogical implications. By means of questionnaires and interviews, as well as class reflections and materials developed by the trainees as part of the course, the aim was to investigate to what extent a WE- and ELF-aware teacher education can contribute to expanding and/or modifying teachers’ awareness of the above issues in pedagogical terms. Findings related to the participants’ comments and practical proposals for the inclusion of WE- and ELF-informed activities in their teaching practices, as well as their critical reflections about problematic points, particularly in the local context and syllabi, will also be discussed.

ELF and Communication Strategies: Are They Taken into Account in ELT Materials?.

The complex and varied sociolinguistic reality of World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has important implications for English Language Teaching (ELT). Besides questioning the validity of the ‘native speaker model’, the complexity of Global Englishes raises several issues, both at a theoretical and at an applied level, particularly for teaching. A plurilithic rather than a monolithic (monolingual/monocultural) perspective is called for, one that can make learners aware of the different roles, contexts, linguistic and functional varieties of English, so that they can be prepared to effectively interact with speakers of different Englishes and in English as a Lingua Franca contexts. Communication strategies have been shown to have a particularly significant role in English as a Lingua Franca communication, that is characterized by negotiation and co-construction of meaning; in these encounters, where different linguacultures meet, ELF speakers employ a range of pragmatic strategies to solve, or pre-empt, (potential) non-understandings often drawing on their plurilingual repertoires, too. Communication strategies can thus be said to play a fundamental role in effective communication, particularly in contexts where English is used as an international Lingua Franca. In this light, it would seem important for ELT materials to include activities aimed at raising awareness and promoting practice of communication strategies, so that they can become an integral part of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom practices towards the development of communicative ‘capability’. This article will illustrate a study investigating whether ELT materials addressed at Italian upper secondary school students include activities and tasks related to communication strategies. The examination of textbooks published by Italian and international publishers from the 1990s to 2015 shows that, apart from a few interesting cases, consistent attention has not been given to this important area. Implications for further research on the inclusion of communication strategies in ELT will also be set forward.

Can ELF-aware ELT practices start from textbooks?, in JELF Colloquium - Nicos C. Sifakis*, Lucilla Lopriore, Martin Dewey, Yasemin Bayyurt, Paola Vettorel, Lili Cavalheiro, Domingos Sávio Pimentel Siqueira and Stefania Kordia, ELF-awareness in ELT: Bringing together theory and practice

The 10th Anniversary Conference of English as a Lingua Franca, held in Helsinki on 12–15 June 2017, had an exciting theme: “ELF and Changing English.” The general call for papers of the conference made reference to the function of ELF as “a pivotal driver of change in English” and underlined the need to “push the boundaries and explore possibilities of cross-fertilisation between different approaches to contemporary change in English.” References to change (and to the need for change) have been growing in the recent ELF literature. Research has shown that, despite prevalent attitudes that typically favour native-speakerist perspectives to teaching, learning and communication, learners begin to acknowledge the role of ELF as a valid ingredient of their language learning experience (cf. Kormos et al. 2011; Kubota and McKay 2009; Ranta 2010). The same is the case with teachers’

The plurality of English and ELF in teacher education. Raising awareness of the ‘feasibility’ of a WE- and ELF-aware approach in classroom practices

Abstract - The plurality into which English has developed, and its extended lingua franca role, have significant implications for ELT. Besides being taught as a foreign / second language, English increasingly constitutes a consistent presence in the ‘outside-school’ world, and encounters with (linguistic) otherness can be experienced daily, from the multicultural and multilingual school environments to mobility and digital communication. Raising awareness of the multifaceted sociolinguistic realities of Englishes and ELF in teacher education constitutes a first and fundamental step towards a more ‘inclusive’ and ‘realistic’ approach in ELT. If language educators are familiarised with the complex reality of English, and critical reflection on its implications in ELT is actively promoted in teacher education, teachers can not only realize the ‘feasibility’ of a WE- and ELF-aware approach in classroom practices, but also its ‘suitability’ to prepare learners to communicate through English in its current plural and lingua franca dimensions. An example comes from the pre-service TFA ( Tirocinio Formativo Attivo ) and PAS ( Percorso Abilitante Speciale ) teacher education courses held at the University of Verona, where part of the English Language Module focused on issues related to WE, ELF and their pedagogical implications. The Module aimed at fostering awareness of WE- and ELF-related issues, as well as critical reflection on beliefs deriving from traditional Anglocentric approaches. This, together with the WE- and ELF-aware material evaluation and the design of activities and lesson plans, that were also part of the Module, can be seen as a starting point to encourage and support a WE- and ELF-aware pedagogic perspective, one that sees communicative ‘capability’ (Widdowson 2003, 2012, 2015; Seidlhofer 2011, 2015) as an important aim to prepare learners to become effective and competent ELF users in today’s world.