Learning and Teaching English: Insight From Research, Editors: Luciana Pedrazzini, Andrea Nava, Publisher: Polimetrica, 2012, ISBN: 978-88-7699-231-5, Pages: 354

Book Revie

The plurality of English and ELF in teacher education. Raising awareness of the \u2018feasibility\u2019 of a WE- and ELF-aware approach in classroom practices

The plurality into which English has developed, and its extended lingua franca role, have significant implications for ELT. Besides being taught as a foreign / second language, English increasingly constitutes a consistent presence in the \u2018outside-school\u2019 world, and encounters with (linguistic) otherness can be experienced daily, from the multicultural and multilingual school environments to mobility and digital communication. Raising awareness of the multifaceted sociolinguistic realities of Englishes and ELF in teacher education constitutes a first and fundamental step towards a more \u2018inclusive\u2019 and \u2018realistic\u2019 approach in ELT. If language educators are familiarised with the complex reality of English, and critical reflection on its implications in ELT is actively promoted in teacher education, teachers can not only realize the \u2018feasibility\u2019 of a WE- and ELF-aware approach in classroom practices, but also its \u2018suitability\u2019 to prepare learners to communicate through English in its current plural and lingua franca dimensions. An example comes from the pre-service TFA (Tirocinio Formativo Attivo) and PAS (Percorso Abilitante Speciale) teacher education courses held at the University of Verona, where part of the English Language Module focused on issues related to WE, ELF and their pedagogical implications. The Module aimed at fostering awareness of WE- and ELF-related issues, as well as critical reflection on beliefs deriving from traditional Anglocentric approaches. This, together with the WE- and ELF-aware material evaluation and the design of activities and lesson plans, that were also part of the Module, can be seen as a starting point to encourage and support a WE- and ELF-aware pedagogic perspective, one that sees communicative \u2018capability\u2019 (Widdowson 2003, 2012, 2015; Seidlhofer 2011, 2015) as an important aim to prepare learners to become effective and competent ELF users in today\u2019s world

Review of English as a lingua franca: Perspectives and prospects. Contributions in honour of Barbara Seidlhofer; Editors: Marie-Luise Pitzl, Ruth Osimk-Teasdale; Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter, 2016; ISBN: 9781501511226; Pages: 294

Book revie

Communication Strategies, ELF and ELT materials

This paper discusses how Communication Strategies are dealt with in a set of ELT course-books addressed at Italian secondary school students, published by local and international publishers between 1990 and 2015. After presenting CSs as a field of research, their relevance in English as a Lingua Franca communication is illustrated with reference to existing research in the field. The research design and findings from the study are then presented, and examples from the data are provided. It is shown how, apart from a few cases, CSs are not dealt with consistently in the ELT course-books under examination, and the current lingua franca role English increasingly retains not represented. Recommendations for future research and implications for pedagogic practices are also set forward

ELF Users\u2019 Perceptions of Their \u2018non-nativeness\u2019 in Digital Communication Through English: Falling Short of the Target?

English is nowadays largely used as a shared code of communication among users of different first languages in a broad range of international contexts. English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) studies have become a flourishing field of research, particularly over the last couple of decades, investigating how English is employed in its lingua franca role across several domains, from academia to international mobility, business and other areas. More recently, interest in how ELF is used in written and, particularly, digital settings has been growing, given the significant surge in computer and Web-mediated communication, and the participatory characteristics of Web 2.0 environments. Despite the internet being a multilingual environment (e.g. Danet and Herring 2007; Crystal 2006), English continues to represent one of the major languages of communication, above all in its lingua franca function, allowing people of different linguacultures to connect and communicate across linguistic, cultural and spatial boundaries. Although research into ELF as employed in digital media is still a developing field (cf. the WrELFA 1 corpus, Carey 2013; Mauranen 2013; Franceschi 2014; Vettorel 2014; Vettorel and Franceschi 2016) it can be foreseen that, with more than 3.5 billion users of the Internet (Internet World Stats2) as of today, academic interest in how ELF is employed in digital environments will further expand. Recently, some ELF-related studies have explored metalinguistic comments pertaining to ELF users\u2019 self-perceptions of their competence in English, both in face-to-face (Jenkins 20073; Motschenbacher 2013; Hynninen 2013; Cogo and Jenkins 2010; Kalocsai 2009, 2014) and in online digital environments (Franceschi 2014; Jenks 2013; Vettorel 2014). The main aim of this paper is to explore ELF users' perceptions of their \u2018non-native\u2019 use of the language in web-related environments, either as a pre-emptive move, or when producing non-normative forms, in the EnTenTen corpus. Such perceptions will be investigated through a mainly qualitative approach, aiming at shedding light on how they are expressed and the purpose they fulfill in digital environments, mainly in connection to the conceptualization of the non-native speaker as a permanent learner, always falling short of the unattainable target of native-like proficiency

Fostering awareness of the pedagogical implications of World Englishes and ELF in teacher education in Italy.

Teacher education represents an essential step to raise awareness of the sociolinguistic changes brought about by the current pluralization of English and by its lingua franca role. Within the pre-service teacher education programs run at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona, Italy, part of the English language course focused on issues related to World Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF), aiming at fostering awareness of and active reflection upon their pedagogical implications. After taking into consideration recent developments in WE- and ELF-aware teacher education, we will report on findings from a research study involving trainee teachers attending the aforementioned courses for English in academic years 2012-13 to 2014-15. The main aim of the study has been to investigate whether, how and to what extent trainee teachers' pedagogical knowledge and reasoning about a WE and ELF-informed perspective in teaching practices may undergo a change after attending these courses. Drawing upon different sets of data (questionnaires, reflections in e-learning discussion forums, interviews and final reports), the trainees' increased awareness of and readiness to include a WE- and ELF-informed didactic approach after attending the course will be discussed, together with implications for foreign language teacher education

The topological glass in ring polymers

We study the dynamics of concentrated, long, semi-flexible, unknotted and unlinked ring polymers embedded in a gel by Monte Carlo simulation of a coarse-grained model. This involves the ansatz that the rings compactify into a duplex structure where they can be modelled as linear polymers. The classical polymer glass transition involves a rapid loss of microscopic freedom within the polymer molecule as the temperature is reduced toward Tg. Here we are interested in temperatures well above Tg where the polymers retain high microscopic mobility. We analyse the slowing of stress relaxation originating from inter-ring penetrations (threadings). For long polymers an extended network of quasi-topological penetrations forms. The longest relaxation time appears to depend exponentially on the ring polymer contour length, reminiscent of the usual exponential slowing (e.g., with temperature) in classical glasses. Finally, we discuss how this represents a universality class for glassy dynamics

Fostering awareness of the pedagogical implications of World Englishes and ELF in teacher education in Italy.

Teacher education represents an essential step to raise awareness of the sociolinguistic changes brought about by the current pluralization of English and by its lingua franca role. Within the pre-service teacher education programs run at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona, Italy, part of the English language course focused on issues related to World Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF), aiming at fostering awareness of and active reflection upon their pedagogical implications. After taking into consideration recent developments in WE- and ELF-aware teacher education, we will report on findings from a research study involving trainee teachers attending the aforementioned courses for English in academic years 2012-13 to 2014-15. The main aim of the study has been to investigate whether, how and to what extent trainee teachers\u2019 pedagogical knowledge and reasoning about a WE and ELF-informed perspective in teaching practices may undergo a change after attending these courses. Drawing upon different sets of data (questionnaires, reflections in e-learning discussion forums, interviews and final reports), the trainees\u2019 increased awareness of and readiness to include a WE- and ELF-informed didactic approach after attending the course will be discussed, together with implications for foreign language teacher education