During a featured presentation at the 2014 Asia TEFL conference, it was implied that “standard” language and “standard” content, being specified by the respective infra genres of particular writing tasks, should be adhered to by learners as they prepare for authentic academic and professional writing tasks in “the real world.” It was assumed that English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a variety of English, and it was implied that ELF threatens academic standards. The presenters will outline some alternative views. ELF is not considered to be a variety of English among ELF researchers, and is not proffered by them as an alternative model or a version which all teachers should use. Instead, the focus in ELF research is on effective use of English, and teachers may decide for themselves about the significance of ELF in their teaching contexts.
