The economist. science & technology. Feb 20th 2020

edition. Internet: (adapted).

Text 2

Here are four passages from an article on awareness of English as a lingua franca (ELF):

1) “Few will deny that research in the area of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has significantly contributed to our understanding of many different facets of communication involving non-native speakers of English. Such studies have added valuable insights to the growing research in the domain of critical applied linguistics and critical pedagogy and have prompted many scholars to problematize all aspects of English language teaching, learning, testing, curriculum designing, etc.”

2) “It is important at this stage to distinguish between the critical and the transformative perspective in ESOL teacher education. While they both share the element of reflection, they are different in a crucial way, although the former has often been seen as an umbrella term that subsumes the latter.”

3) “Critical pedagogy is invaluable in our attempt to understand the complex processes of the global spread of English and the intricate ways in which it continues to be localized and relocalized (Pennycook, 2010). It has the tools to help teachers appreciate the complications of context and the various underlying and often hidden discourses, from learner identity construction in the ESOL classroom (Norton and Toohey, 2011) to language testing (Shohamy, 2004) to the politics of pedagogy in the ‘classroom as a microcosm of the larger social and cultural world’” (Pennycook, 2001: 138).

4) “The value of an ELF-aware transformative perspective to ESOL teacher education lies in its power to help teachers define ELF for themselves and for their teaching contexts. In this way, teachers are involved in the co-construction of ELF and, in particular, in the development of one or more pedagogical frameworks for ELF. To achieve this, teachers have to have an informed awareness of the ELF construct, a critical awareness of their own deeper convictions about essential aspects of language, communication, and language teaching/learning, and the capability to bring about sustainable change in their teaching.”

From Sifakis, N. C. (2014). "ELF awareness as an opportunity for change: a transformative perspective for ESOL teacher education". Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 3/2: 317-335.

Questions 37 and 38 refer to the text below

Listening challenges for English language learners

There are many difficulties an individual may face in understanding a talk, lecture or conversation in a second language (and sometimes even in their first language). The speaker, the situation and the listener can all be the cause of these difficulties.

Contributing factors include the speaker talking quickly, background noise, a lack of visual clues (such as on the telephone), the listener’s limited vocabulary, a lack of knowledge of the topic, and an inability to distinguish individual sounds.

While the challenges posed by the speaker or the situation may be out of the listener’s hands, there are a few skills or 'strategies' that English learners can use to help them along

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English learning in Brazil

Statutory and the National Curricular Guidelines make the teaching of a ......................................... language at elementary and high school ................................... . However, teachers and experts acknowledge that English teaching - both public and private - is unable to provide students with a usable level of English. They identify similar reasons to those that cause other problems in basic education: the lack of language teaching equipment and over-filled classrooms.

There are also fundamental problems with the amount of time set aside for teaching English and it is hard to find adequately qualified teachers. In these conditions English teaching is reduced to the basic rules of grammar, reading short texts and learning to pass multiple choice exams for university admittance. Even government officials admit that English teaching in basic education has many shortcomings. The National Curricular Guidelines (which outline the curriculum for each subject) are well articulated, but cannot be applied fully in practice. Officials have pointed out that there are no language labs in schools as there is little funding available for them.

They feel that this limits oral communication, a problem that many educators have argued is exacerbated by the large number of students in the classroom. Government representatives and teachers alike have bemoaned the poor quality of language teachers working in basic language education. They argue that a bachelor degree in literature coupled with a teaching license does not prepare a language teacher for the reality of the classroom and to effectively teach the language. There is a widely held belief that these teachers are unlikely to have actually had the means to visit English speaking countries and lack the communication practice required to develop the command of a language. Experts have argued that it would be helpful to send teachers to travel to English speaking countries.

The shortcomings of language teaching in Brazil have resulted in a shortage of professionals who can speak English well. That limits contact between professionals, clients and suppliers and restricts international business opportunities. This affects the whole country - if Brazil is to function fully in the global arena it will need professionals better equipped with English.

https://www.britishcouncil.org.br