Rethinking the Assessment Model for English as a Lingua Franca

Abstract

This paper gives a description of the emergence of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), its debates and how its pervasive nature has started to shift the concept of competent speakers from gaining the native speakers’ proficiency into becoming the resourceful speakers who are able to communicate in diverse communities. This paper provides the overview of the current existing language assessment models and how they contrast to ELF communication model which emphasises more intelligibility than the accuracy of the native speakers’ norm. By providing the conversation excerpts from the students’ works, this paper proves how fossilised norms fail to assess the intelligibility and the achieved goal of the communication thus suggest the implication for the language educators. The suggestions include raising the awareness of the language educators to be more flexible when assessing the students’ oral production of ELF, to focus on how the students make the negotiation and meaning making, deal with phonological differences, and use ELF pragmatics. Finally, how the goal is achieved through the fluidity is what inevitably needed to be