Research on English as a lingua franca(ELF)has triggered a debate on whether English teaching should consistently conform to native-speaker Standard English or it should value the pedagogical implications of ELF.This ...Research on English as a lingua franca(ELF)has triggered a debate on whether English teaching should consistently conform to native-speaker Standard English or it should value the pedagogical implications of ELF.This article provides an overview of current research on teaching English as a lingua franca.It starts with research on the rationale to introduce ELF-informed teaching and comparisons between ELF-informed teaching and native-English-based teaching.Concrete proposals of how to incorporate ELF-informed teaching into English language teaching(ELT)classrooms are presented.Then controversies in the debate are summarized.They are:A lack of ELF-informed textbooks;a lack of ELF-informed assessment;and a lack of qualified teachers.It then reviews recent publications dealing with these controversies.This is followed by a discussion about the research on ELF-informed teaching in the Chinese context.This article argues that research on the practicality of ELF-informed teaching should start with prospective English users,such as students in China’s Business English Program.It concludes with some suggestions for future research and practice on ELF-informed teaching in China.展开更多
文摘Research on English as a lingua franca(ELF)has triggered a debate on whether English teaching should consistently conform to native-speaker Standard English or it should value the pedagogical implications of ELF.This article provides an overview of current research on teaching English as a lingua franca.It starts with research on the rationale to introduce ELF-informed teaching and comparisons between ELF-informed teaching and native-English-based teaching.Concrete proposals of how to incorporate ELF-informed teaching into English language teaching(ELT)classrooms are presented.Then controversies in the debate are summarized.They are:A lack of ELF-informed textbooks;a lack of ELF-informed assessment;and a lack of qualified teachers.It then reviews recent publications dealing with these controversies.This is followed by a discussion about the research on ELF-informed teaching in the Chinese context.This article argues that research on the practicality of ELF-informed teaching should start with prospective English users,such as students in China’s Business English Program.It concludes with some suggestions for future research and practice on ELF-informed teaching in China.