Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

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Box 10.12 Features of ELF grammar (based on 
Seidlhofer, 2004)
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Dropping’ the third person ‘-s’.
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Confusing the relative pronouns ‘who’ and ‘which’.
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Omitting definite ‘a/an’ and indefinite ‘the’ articles where they are obliga-
tory in native speech, and inserting them where they do not occur in native
speech.
●
Failing to use ‘correct’ forms in tag questions; for example, using ‘isn’t it?’
or ‘no?’ instead of ‘shouldn’t they?’
●
Inserting redundant prepositions, as in ‘We have to study about. . .’
●
Overusing certain verbs of high semantic generality, such as ‘do’, ‘have’,
‘make’, ‘put’, ‘take’.
●
Replacing infinitive ‘to’ constructions with that-clauses, as in ‘I want that. . .’
●
Being over-explicit (e.g. ‘black colour’ rather than just ‘black’).

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invariable forms of tag questions such as ‘isn’t it?’ and ‘are you?’, and so on. Many
of these have been regarded as persistent mistakes by teachers; how often have I
added or deleted ‘the’ and ‘a’ from students’ work? If, however, this variation sim-
ply reflects characteristics of the variety of English that the students are modelling
and does not hinder their communication, there is no need to try to change it
towards the native form; my urge to correct it is based on my own native speaker
usage, not on the ELF variety suitable for the students. If the argument is that
these forms are non-native, it is always possible to retort ‘Which native?’ The
invariable tag ‘innit?’, the omission of third person ‘-s’, and the common spoken
overuse of ‘do’ or ‘got’ are all found in colloquial British English, only not from
the type of native speaker that has been considered appropriate for students.
If L2 users can understand each other despite these differences from native
speaker English, there is little point in making them conform to native speech for
its own sake. It has often been reported to me that the problem at international
meetings where English is used is not so much the L2 users understanding each
other as the L2 users understanding the native speakers, who make no conces-
sions to the ELF that is being used. Indeed, it has sometimes been suggested that
native speakers themselves should be taught these ELF forms.
Further reading 193