In Tanzania, the national government assigns teachers to schools, which means that they are often sent to teach in faraway regions and then frequently request transfers, trying to get assignments closer to their hometowns. Ms. Njau is lucky to have been assigned to a school in the community where she grew up, and she has taught there since the start of her career.

At the end of her four years of secondary school, she scored too low on the national exams in mathematics and bookkeeping, which meant she could not study business, as she had intended. However, her results on the English test were better. A teacher encouraged her to follow her strengths and “take the subject that seems simple so you can go far,” advice that Ms. Njau now passes on to her own students. She continued her studies as an English major and passed the difficult national examinations before studying for her teaching diploma.

Internet: <americanenglish.state.gov> (adapted).

As soon as learners step outside the classroom, they act as users of English who communicate with other speakers of English from a wide variety of linguacultural backgrounds. Given the global spread of English and the fact that the majority of users do not speak English as their mother tongue, learners are likely to be involved in interactions with other non-native speakers. These situations then bear the hallmarks of English as a lingua franca (ELF), which is “any use of English among speakers of different first languages for whom English is the communicative medium of choice, and often the only option”, according to Seidlhofer.

Since ELF speakers represent various cultures and languages, ELF contexts of use are characterized by diversity and the subsequent unpredictability and variability of communication. Therefore, interactions where English functions as a lingua franca require active engagement in the meaning-making process by the participants.