Integrating an ELF perspective to English education in Japan : Motivational challenges and opportunities

The primary role of English in the world today is as a lingua franca, yet this reality is largely ignored by current educational practice in Japan. This paper considers two ostensibly diverse areas of research-the use of English as a global lingua franca and language leaning motivation-and hypothesises that a lingua franca approach to English education is both consistent with the realities of language use in the twenty-first century and current understandings of how languages are learned. The paper concludes by proposing several concrete steps for educators and researchers that may facilitate the integration of an English as a lingua franca perspective into English education in Japan