Principles of the ‘Lingua Franca Approach’ in the Iranian context

Principles of the ‘Lingua Franca Approach’ in the Iranian context

The last thirtyfive years have created a challenging situation for Iran and its people: on the one hand, the discriminatory British and American policies towards our country have given rise to considerable bitterness; on the other hand, we continue to teach both British and American English. If Iranian people wish to play a more active role internationally, it is time to review our English language teaching policy, practices and pedagogy. There are many different approaches such as EIL (English as an International Language), WE (World Englishes) and ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), which have challenged the superiority of such notions as ‘the Queen’s English’, ‘Received pronunciation’ or ‘General American’. By adopting any one of the three approaches, we can align both our teachers and our English language teaching system with the new trends in thinking and teaching. The focus of the present paper is ELF. It is a relatively new trend, which originated in Finland in 2008 and has spread to many European and Asian countries. Increasingly, the younger generation, irrespective of country, is interested in developing social and cultural relations with other parts of the world. ELF thus deserves a more prominent position in the Iranian educational system. My presentation addresses six important principles of ELF. These are based on Kirkpatrik (The Pedagogy of English as an International Language, 2014). I discuss their relevance and potential in relation to the present cultural and teaching situation in Iran, focusing on the position of the native speaker and the importance of mutual intelligibility, intercultural competence, the importance of training local multilinguals, the value of lingua franca contexts as learning environments, the difference between spoken and written English, and the adaptation to the Iranian context of assessment procedures.

The last thirtyfive years have created a challenging situation for Iran and its people: on the one hand, the discriminatory British and American policies towards our country have given rise to considerable bitterness; on the other hand, we continue to teach both British and American English. If Iranian people wish to play a more active role internationally, it is time to review our English language teaching policy, practices and pedagogy. There are many different approaches such as EIL (English as an International Language), WE (World Englishes) and ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), which have challenged the superiority of such notions as ‘the Queen’s English’, ‘Received pronunciation’ or ‘General American’. By adopting any one of the three approaches, we can align both our teachers and our English language teaching system with the new trends in thinking and teaching. The focus of the present paper is ELF. It is a relatively new trend, which originated in Finland in 2008 and has spread to many European and Asian countries. Increasingly, the younger generation, irrespective of country, is interested in developing social and cultural relations with other parts of the world. ELF thus deserves a more prominent position in the Iranian educational system. My presentation addresses six important principles of ELF. These are based on Kirkpatrik (The Pedagogy of English as an International Language, 2014). I discuss their relevance and potential in relation to the present cultural and teaching situation in Iran, focusing on the position of the native speaker and the importance of mutual intelligibility, intercultural competence, the importance of training local multilinguals, the value of lingua franca contexts as learning environments, the difference between spoken and written English, and the adaptation to the Iranian context of assessment procedures.