Bespoke Language Teaching (BLT): A proposal for a theoretical framework. The case of EFL/ELF for Italians
Bespoke Language Teaching (BLT): A proposal for a theoretical framework. The case of EFL/ELF for Italians

Summary/Abstract: This paper deals with the problems of teaching English as a foreign language(EFL) and as a lingua franca (ELF) in the Italian educational system and, in particular,with introducing language variation in the English class. After briefly illustrating how English teaching has changed in the last few decades, an outlineis drawn of what happens in the Italian school system today from childcare to university as far as English teaching is concerned. The second part ofthe contribution focuses on the increasing variability of English as a world language,both within and outside the native speakers’ domain. The second partalso deals with the issues that the complex nature of variation in English hasraised when teaching it, and underlines how such issues have recently, althoughonly partially, been acknowledged by the Italian Ministry of Education.The final section, illustrates a proposal for implementing the teaching of Englishvariation in Italian schools, based on the concepts of utility and usabilitywhich have given birth to a student-tailored approach called Bespoke LanguageTeaching.

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