ABSTRACT
The chapter lays the theoretical foundation of the book by giving an overview of ELF research and its implications for ELT. The first issue addressed is related to the terminology adopted to describe various aspects of the worldwide use of English in the applied linguistic literature. The chapter then outlines the conceptualisations and some misconceptions of ELF, attributes of ELF including multilingualism, the linguistic and pragmatic aspects of ELF as well as a critical appraisal of ELF research. It also explores teachers’ attitudes towards English as a pluricentric language functioning as a global lingua franca, and the effect that the changed circumstances of the use of English has on their teaching practice. The chapter identifies and discusses two types of ELF-related approaches to teacher education, one of which has been developed lately, while the other has regained its relevance with the ascendancy of ELF. In the ELT context, the more recent ELF-aware approach is complemented with the ELF-informed one, which draws on an earlier, non-mainstream version of CLT. Both approaches, in their different ways, enable teachers to incorporate ELF in their language classrooms.
