This paper will address the need to shift the goals of ELT from language development to language awareness development. Goals of language teaching can be divided broadly into external goals, or language developments, and internal goals, or attitudinal developments (Cook, 2007). In the language classroom, the external goals―becoming able to use L2―are largely emphasized, while the internal goals―expanding capacity to interact with diverse others―tend to be regarded as by-products of the process of the achievement of the former goals. As it is the "language" classroom, this may be a matter of course. However, what ELF research has revealed is that L2 users' ability in English and importance as English users can be dismissed by not only other people but also themselves because of a monolithic and monolingual view of English focusing on unrealistic objectives of achieving 'native-like' proficiency, which is often advocated in ELT. For example, my study on Japanese university students' language awareness development through study abroad (Suzuki 2021, 2022) has found that even direct experiences of ELF communication would not necessarily contribute to their positive attitudes to L2 users of English.
This finding of ELF research indicates the need of shifting the main focus of ELT from external goals to internal goals. This change is parallel to Seidlhofer's (2004) suggestion to change English language classes into language awareness ones about two decades ago. As ELF communication inherently involves other languages, multilinguality of it, or EMF (English as a Multilingua Franca, Jenkins 2015), has to be well acknowledged in ELT. Unless making learners see their own multilinguality in a positive light, they would continue to judge their own use of English as well as other L2 users' against native speakers' ones, and the gap between them and native speakers would fail them to envision a successful bi/multilingual English-speaking self. The shift to language awareness in ELT consequently may address the issue of ELT's moral responsibilities because advocating monolingual NESs as a model for learners is largely questionable. I will discuss these points referring to my study on study abroad introduced above.
Cook, V. 2007. The goals of ELT. In J. Cummins & C. Davison (Eds.) International handbook of English language teaching (pp. 237-248). Springer.
Jenkins, J. 2015. Repositioning English and multilingualism in English as a Lingua Franca. Englishes in Practice, 2(3), 49-85. https://doi.org/10.1515/eip-2015-0003
Seidlhofer, Barbara. 2004. Research perspectives on teaching English as a Lingua Franca. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 24, 209-239. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190504000145
Suzuki, A. 2021. Changing views of English through study abroad as teacher training. ELT Journal, 75(4), 397–406. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccab038
Suzuki, A. 2022. University students' global citizenship development through long-term study abroad. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 11(1), 77-88. https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf-2022-2070
