The representation of EFL teachers views on the role of English as a Lingua Franca

Abstract

The increasing number of non-native speakers of English in the world is at the base of recent claims for the need to emphasize the role of English as a lingua franca in the EFL classrooms. This paper investigates Catalan English teachers views on this matter by means of a questionnaire that focused on aspects like preference of native or non-native language teachers, cultural knowledge of EFL teachers, and target variety of English. Results indicate that teachers are still strongly influenced by the supremacy of the native-speaker and the vision of English as a language which is mostly restricted to native-speaking communities, with some significant differences found among different groups of teachers.