ABSTRACT

As a teacher of the UK and international undergraduate and postgraduate students who use English as their medium of communication, I am reminded daily of how the spread of English around the world presents both opportunities and threats for all of its speakers. This chapter explores the construction of (in)competence in classroom talk where English is used as a lingua franca between the UK and international students. I begin with a review of two misguided but, frequently occurring, ways of thinking about English as a language, followed by a look at how this thinking may be playing out in three examples from recordings of my students’ classroom talk. Finally, I attempt to consider how new ways of listening and acting/talking may benefit British students who are using English in international situations.