ABSTRACT
Correctness and appropriateness of English language teaching, testing, and materials tend to be driven largely by the standards of native speaking communities, despite the restricted relevance of such standards to vast numbers of people. This chapter presents aspects of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and language teaching which may be useful as teachers and administrators consider implications of ELF in their contexts. It also presents aspects of English as lingua franca which the author have found helpful for teachers to be aware of. Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in the English-speaking West, hereafter referred to as “Western TESOL”, has embedded within it practices which are incompatible with ELF contexts. Culturally embedded values inhibit curricular change in response to ELF whether ELF-aware change is being sought or not. When literacy is treated as social practice the interconnected nature of language, literacy and power relations becomes more visible than when literacy is conceived of as having merely technical dimensions.
