The Development of ELF-aware Classroom Materials

Proceedings of ‏The 3rd International Conference on Advanced Research in Education

Year: 2021

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/3rd.educationconf.2021.03.225

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The Development of ELF-aware Classroom Materials

Natalia Rzońca

ABSTRACT: 

Because of the growing number of interactions in English between people from different linguacultures, English as a lingua franca (ELF) has become a widely investigated research area. Its heterogenous, multilingual and multicultural nature demands for a shift in EFL classroom practices. Although there has been an increase in researching ELF pedagogical implications, its practical applicability in classroom instruction, materials development, teacher education, assessment and testing is still largely unexplored, underdiscovered and unclear. The present paper focuses on the impact of ELF on English language pedagogy with special attention paid to classroom materials evaluation and design.  The author discusses some vital theoretical issues concerning ELF and their implications for teaching English in relation to changes in pedagogical goals and approaches. Drawing on the notion of ELF-awareness, the author presents the criteria for didactic materials evaluation that take account of ELF-aware perspective. The main part of the paper constitutes the examination of a list of guidelines for the development of ELF-aware classroom activities. Finally, and most importantly, some examples of ELF-aware activities designed by the author are presented and discussed. The paper is intended for those EFL practitioners who wish to explore how to make use of ELF research findings in practice. It may be also of interest to materials writers and teacher educators.

Keywords: English as a lingua franca; English as a foreign language; classroom materials; ELF-aware pedagogy; English language teaching.