EFL vs. ELF

Abstract

The study explores whether or not the Swedish syllabus of English would allow the teaching of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). Furthermore, the study investigates the attitudes towards the teaching of ELF among Swedish teachers of English.

A questionnaire of ten questions was answered by fifteen respondents, all teachers in Swedish compulsory schools in the Gothenburg area. The questionnaire was divided into three parts, where the first part was designed to obtain information about the teachers (gender, number of years of teaching experience) as well as information about their attitudes regarding their own English. The purpose of the second and third parts of the questionnaire was to find out the teachers’ towards their students’ receptive and productive skills in terms of the variety of English they would find acceptable. The final part involved interpreting quotes from the syllabus.

The study shows that while the syllabus would allow for the teaching of ELF, the teachers’ attitudes towards ELF are ambiguous. Native English still appears to have a prominent compared to non--‐native varieties of English. However, the concept `native English´ has widened, and instead of only including British and American English, it seems to include all native Englishes. The final chapter discusses some of the implications for teaching English in Sweden, based on the results of the study.