English as a Lingua Franca: An Examination of Two Perspectives (original) (raw)

ELF is described as English communication occurring between non-native English speakers who have different first languages (Kirkpatrick, 2011; Maley, 2009; Seidlhofer, 2005). Furthermore, Seidlhofer also argues that the notion of ELF can refer to English as an international language (2005). It is also stated elsewhere that the notion of ELF is proposed to recognize its distinctions from English as a native language (ENL)(Sewell, 2013). The claims that English functions as a global lingua franca cannot be denied regardless the support and disagreement over this theory (Seidlhofer, 2005). In this paper I elaborate the issues pertaining to ELF from the perspectives of learners and teachers.