TEXT 05
What is English as a Lingua Franca
What students need most from their
language classes affects how we teach. But
to what extent do we consider students'
needs when it comes to pronunciation? How
often do we stop to consider the needs of
students who are learning English to mainly
communicate with other non-native
speakers? In this situation, English is used
as a Lingua Franca ( henceforth ELF) - a
common language between people who do
not share the same native language. So their
needs are quite different to students who go
to the UK, for example, and want to integrate
within that culture and so may want to sound
as much like a native speaker as possible.
The priority for students using ELF, on the
other hand, is to be as intelligible as possible
to the people they are communicating with.
This does not necessarily mean sounding
like a native speaker.
Source: adapted from
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voicesmagazine/how-teach-english-lingua-franca-elf.
Access: March 24th , 2016.