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An inexorable trend in the use of global English is that fewer interactions now involve a native speaker. Proponents of teaching English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) suggest that the way English is taught and assessed should reflect the needs and aspirations of the ever-growing number of non-native speakers who use English to communicate with other nonnatives. Understanding how non-native speakers use English among themselves has now become a serious research area.

Different priorities in teaching English pronunciation, for example, have been defined. Teaching certain pronunciation features, such as the articulation of ‘th’ as an interdental fricative, appears to be a waste of time whereas other common pronunciation problems (such as simplifying consonant clusters) contribute to problems of understanding. Such an approach is allowing researchers to identify a ‘Lingua Franca Core’ (LFC) which provides guiding principles in creating syllabuses and assessment materials.

Unlike traditional ESL (English as Second Language), ELF focuses also on pragmatic strategies required in intercultural communication. The target model of English, within the ELF framework, is not a native speaker but a fluent bilingual speaker, who retains a national identity in terms of accent, and who also has the special skills required to negotiate understanding with another non-native speaker. Research is also beginning to show how bad some native speakers are at using English for international communication. It may be that elements of an ELF syllabus could usefully be taught within a mother tongue curriculum.

(David Graddol, English Next. Adaptado)

Our first goal as language teachers is always to encourage our learners to make use of their developing language. Giving them a genuine communicative purpose and making it personal to them are two good ways of achieving this. For students beginning their journey to greater self-awareness, teachers could devise an inventory of learning skills for them to rate themselves on. This could include items such as ‘I keep my notes in order’, ‘I always make a note of homework and the date it should be done’ or whatever is appropriate to their level. Students could rate themselves privately, but then discuss with other students which ones they find most challenging, exchanging tips about how they could improve these aspects of learning. From these discussions, it will probably become clear that some students have already got good study strategies in place, even if some of them seem a little unusual. Revisiting the checklist later in the course helps learners to reflect on how they have improved and what they still need to work on. […]

Making use of materials that include a diverse range of characters is another great way of initiating discussion and raising awareness of the issues. There may be no explicit mention made in the text of this diversity, thereby sending the implicit message that this is just how the world is. Students may see characters that they can relate to more easily, and feel more included generally. Other materials, such as the ‘Adventures on Inkling Island’ comic strips, explicitly showcase the daily challenges and talents of neurodiverse people, demonstrating that being different can be a strength in some situations.

A powerful way of enabling people to understand how it might feel to be in the minority on a daily basis, whether in terms of physical abilities or cognitive function, is to set up experiential activities which challenge the participants to perform unusual tasks in conditions that make their usual way of working impossible. As well as being a fun way of introducing the topic for further discussion, these activities are usually very memorable and drive home the message that – in the vast majority of cases – lack of success in academic tasks is not due to laziness or stupidity.

Adapted from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/raising-awarenessdiversity-language-classroom

(Available at: https://www.rd.com/article/are-cats-nocturnal/ – text especially adapted for this test).