Learning English to speak to the world: Reflections around the teaching of English as a global lingua Franca

Abstract

This paper explores the implications of the global dimension of English as a world lingua franca in teaching the language in our educational environment. It is argued that there is a need to transcend the paradigm that looks at the native speaker as the learning and teaching model in order to move towards a model based on the competent language user. The paper also deals with the figure of the ideal teacher from this perspective, as well as the challenges in assessing language competence and in introducing intercultural competence in language teaching.