A study of teachers’ awareness of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and an analysis of ELF features of primary school students’ writings at an international school in Bangkok

Abstract

This study conducted interviews with three English teachers from an international school in Bangkok in order to examine their awareness of English as Lingua Franca (ELF). The writings of 33 primary international students of the same school from grade 2 to grade 6 were also analysed in order to identify the dominant features of spoken English as a Lingua Franca (as demonstrated in the study of Kirkpatrick, 2010) finding its way into written forms.

The results demonstrated that despite the teachers’ awareness of the ELF, the subject teachers evidently expressed confusion over how the written language produced by international students ought to be evaluated. The subject teachers took a traditional approach to English language teaching based on the so-called Standard English, disregarding the existing varieties of English (Singaporean English, Chinese English, etc.).

Additionally, the analysis of the students’ writings indicated three dominant ELF features: redundancy and misplacement of articles, using verbs in different tenses than their contextual requirements, and non-marking of third person singular with –s along with redundancy and the misuse of prepositions.