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English Language Teaching English Language Teaching (ELT) is also referred to as TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or (especially in the USA) as TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages). A distinction is often made between the teaching of English in a context where it is not the ambient language (EFL or English as a Foreign Language) and the teaching of English in a targetlanguage environment (ESL or English as a Second Language). However, the term second language (L2) is often used in a broader sense that embraces both EFL and ESL situations. In the UK, the acronym ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) is used to refer specifically to the teaching of English to immigrant populations. The use of English, and with it the need to

teach the language, has expanded enormously in the past sixty years. This is partly the result of the language’s history in areas of former British influence and partly because of the global importance of the US economy. English is now more accessible worldwide than it has ever been before, thanks to new technology, especially the Internet and podcasting. It has become a lingua franca in contexts such as business negotiation, tourism, academe, diplomacy and the media, and a quarter of the world’s population is estimated to use English. Those who acquired it as a foreign language plus those who have it as a second or official language greatly outnumber first-language speakers (Crystal 2003).