First I will tackle the first question above: Should teaching be used to achieve communicative competence or for more detailed accuracy?
It would depend on my classroom and the goals of the students I am teaching. For example, if I were to consider my students right now, who are roughly ages 9-11 and mostly speak languages other than English at home and at school, I would focus on teaching for communicative competence. Their goal right now (for most of them at least) is to try and use English to communicate and be understood. To practice listening and understanding, learning new vocabulary they can use in their daily lives, and practicing skills to read, write, speak, and listen understandably. Though, I do have students with other goals in mind. For example, I have “native” speakers of English in my classroom alongside students who are hearing it for the first time. Those students, I might challenge more for detailed accuracy since they are already at a more fluent or advanced level of communication. Though, the main goal of my current classes is for communicative competence. However, if I were teaching at an adult education center for students wanting to learn specifics when it comes to a certain topic (scientific, business, education, etc.), I think more detailed accuracy might be necessary for them to achieve their goals. They might be wanting to focus on certain clauses or idioms or needing different vocabulary to write or present specific information that might not be used in their usual lives.
I think this goes to say that I think some level of ELF teaching would not only be acceptable but beneficial for a lot of students. This can build off of Barbara Seidlhofer and Jennifer Jenkins’ idea of bringing ELF into the classroom and viewing it as a means of communication, especially in Europe. It is also mentioned in that article that “it is crucial for English language teaching in Europe to focus on contexts of use that are relevant to European speakers of English,” which shows how important it is to meet the students where they are and think of the language goals they themselves have in mind (Guardian News and Media, 2001).
Now to touch on the second question: Will English one day die out and not be the Lingua Franca of the world?
This is a possibility. Just like Latin has declined, English could die out like the other Lingua Francas have. It is not known when this could occur, however. As the students interviewed in this podcast have said, they claim they want to go to UK and US universities and therefore need to study and perfect their English. As Professor David Cristal said, the Lingua Franca is dependent on the power of the people who are speaking it (BBC 2020). It could be possible that if the dominant countries of the UK and US die down politically, economically, culturally, or technologically, it could give way to a new Lingua Franca. What that new Lingua Franca could be, I am not sure. We will have to wait and see how languages develop globally over the coming years. One student said that Chinese is too difficult to learn, so this could potentially keep it from becoming a Lingua Franca in the future (BBC 2020). Something for future researchers to consider!
The final question to consider: Will and should this change how we teach English to non English speakers?
If English could potentially die out as the Lingua Franca should we be changing how we teach English, specifically to non English speakers? Thinking back to the question mentioned in the lecture of “Could the existence of ELF have an effect on TEFL?” I think the answer is yes, and that it should. We should focus our teaching more on communicating and being understood than focusing on every little grammar point and grammatical error that students make. From “Bringing Europe’s Lingua Franca Into the Classroom,” Seidlhofer and Jenkins have a “first and most important point to emphasize is, in our view, the need to encourage both teachers and students to adjust their attitudes towards ELF” (Guardian News and Media, 2001). In “Translanguaging pedagogies and English as a Lingua Franca,” Jenkins also “considers that ELF is a multilingual practice and that multilingualism should be the ‘overarching framework,’” (Cenoz 2017: 73). These ideas strongly support the idea that this not only would but should change how English is taught in schools, as well as how teachers and students view their language learning. However, if English in the future wouldn’t be used so globally, there maybe wouldn’t be a need to only know English for communicative purposes. That could change how and for what purpose English is taught. Is it for grammatical accuracy or for communicative competence? It might shift if the Lingua Franca of the world changes.
References:
BBC. (2020, March 26). The battle for English. BBC Sounds. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000gkv4
Cenoz, J. (2017, September 5). Translanguaging pedagogies and English as a Lingua Franca. Cambridge University Press.
Guardian News and Media. (2001, April 19). Bringing Europe’s lingua franca into the classroom. The Guardian. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2001/apr/19/languages.highereducation1