The spread of English as the world’s primary lingua franca (ELF) is an epiphenomenon of globalisation that has enhanced the importance of intercultural contact between speakers of different mother tongues. Inevitably, this will have a far-reaching impact on English language teaching (ELT), for the reality of ELF challenges the primacy of standard English and the traditional native-speaker model in foreign language education.
In particular, the topics under discussion focus on:
This book is designed to provide language educators, teachers of English, and researchers with a vision for the future of ELT based on a plurilithic notion of English and intercultural understanding. This, the author believes, is all the more necessary in the present age, characterised by the socio-political challenges posed by globalisation.
Due to a clerical error, the following footnote was omitted on p. 48: “The questionnaire for this survey refers in part to questionnaires drawn up by a PRIN group that includes the author (Local Unit of Roma Tre University) for a 2017 survey into English teaching in Italian secondary school and universities.”