Vol. 3 No. Special Issue (2025): ELF and ELT: Facing the Challenges Ahead
Ever since the process of globalisation has turned English into the primary international
language, research into the impact of English as a lingua franca (ELF) on English language
teaching (ELT) has gained momentum. To date, a steadily growing number of academic
publications, applied projects, seminars and international conferences has been focussed on
the controversial role of ELF in second language development, showing that this thriving area
of study is likely to yield interesting results.
Therefore, the main aim of this special issue is to engage in the current scientific debate
on second language teacher education (SLTE) to stimulate an improved understanding of some
of the most relevant, and to some extent unresolved, aspects to take into consideration, like a)
the emergent nature of ELF in the English classroom; b) the transcultural and multilingual
dimension of ELF in web-mediated learning projects; c) ELF deviations from standard norms,
errors, and the assessment of learners’ competencies; d) profiling the ELF-informed teacher of
English.
Our distinguished international authors are here to bring their expertise and share the
achievements of their recent work. This should provide the reader with more theoretical insight
into the role of ELF in ELT, and welcome constructive criticism to face a challenging future. As
Johnson and Golombek (2011: 2) suggest: “The responsibility of SLTE then is to present relevant
scientific concepts to teachers but to do so in ways that bring these concepts to bear on
concrete practical activity, connecting them to their everyday knowledge and the goal-directed activity of teaching".
(Johnson, Karen E. e Golombek, Paula R. Eds. (2011). Research on Second Language Teacher Education. Nova York e Londres: Routledge).
