What is it about?

The global spread of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has implications for practice in English Language Teaching (ELT) classrooms. This paper presents a study on attitudes toward ELF which is crucial to its incorporation because attitudes influence the learning output in ELT. It uses a mixed method approach through a questionnaire survey on attitudes toward ELF, which contains a modified Verbal Guise Technique (VGT), complemented with semi-structured interviews. Seventy university students and 4 lecturers from three English departments in Japan (Waseda University and Sophia University) and Indonesia (Universitas Negeri Jakarta) were involved in filling out the questionnaire and semi structured interview sessions. The results highlight positive attitudes towards ELF and its incorporation into ELT (Japan: 3.71, and Indonesia: 3.51). In addition, factors which influence these attitudes (aspects related to language learning experience) were proven significant. The interview sessions also suggest ways to incorporate an ELF perspective into the ELT classrooms. Further, it addresses the issue of the gap between theory and practice in research on Global Englishes in Language Teaching (GELT) where a “conceptual gap” is often found. The study is of value to those interested in ELT curriculum evaluation and design to meet the needs of both ELT and ELF community in countries like Japan and Indonesia.

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Why is it important?

It is important to include an ELF perspective in the process of redesigning certain elements of ELT, such as curricula and materials. Such changes in the system of ELT with respect to ELF would help raise awareness of the importance of acknowledging the changes, differences, and varieties of English used in today’s world on the international level. Along with a revision of curricula and materials, there is a need to perform a proper needs analysis for students in expanding circle countries. This could provide clues for teachers when making educational decisions and designing their specific daily materials for teaching English. The materials should be relevant to the real use of English today and geared toward helping students to be able to communicate in English as they wish.

Perspectives

The struggle exists in environments where there is a strong belief in the superiority of “standard” English due to the dilemma of whether to focus on communicative functions or language forms. In relation to such phenomena, the current study was conducted to investigate students’ attitudes toward ELF and the factors influencing such attitudes. Besides, the study also explored both students’ and lecturers’ perspectives on incorporating an ELF perspective into ELT classrooms. It is important to start from the concept of attitudes as there is a strong relationship between attitudes in learning and the output of learning itself.

Salam Mairi
Universitas Negeri Padang

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This page is a summary of: An English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) Perspective in Asian English Language Teaching, Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, January 2016, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/cjal-2016-0026.
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