ELT Journal Advance Access originally published online on November 10, 2008
ELT Journal 2009 63(3):230-237; doi:10.1093/elt/ccn057
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.
Challenges in teaching ELF in the periphery: the Greek context
Nicos C. Sifakis is a lecturer at the Hellenic Open University in Greece, where he has taught and written study guides for the MEd in TESOL since 1998. He holds a BA in computational linguistics and a PhD in language and linguistics from the University of Essex, UK. His teaching and research interests include teacher and adult education, English as an international lingua franca, intercultural communication and pedagogy, English for specific purposes, and distance education
Email: sifakis{at}eap.gr
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Abstract |
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The paper presents a notional account of the challenges facing the introduction of English as an international lingua franca (ELF) curriculum in the state schools of the expanding circle, taking Greece as a case in point. It broadly delineates an ELF curriculum as one focusing on the skills necessary for carrying out successful communication involving non-native speakers and then highlights a set of challenges linked to both teaching context and teachers’ perceptions of professional identity. It focuses on challenges related to three facets of the professional identity of academically trained Greek state school EFL teachers, namely, their roles as users, specialists, and, ultimately, custodians of English for their learners and wider community. These facets are discussed with reference to a description of the country's current sociolinguistic and educational profile. The paper concludes with an overview of the strengths of an ELF curriculum for Greek state schools and discusses implications for ELF teacher education.