Ideology and the ELT practitioner

This article addresses the relationship between linguistic imperialism and culture‐speci?c educational standards for ELT in mainland Europe. Aspects of ideological literacy and ideological transfer are discussed, as well as the value systems associated with AmE and BrE, which are less expedient, it is argued, compared to English as an international language (EIL)when the goal of the instruction is to emphasize the role of English as a lingua franca. It is shown that students who aspire to learn the tongue because it is useful as a global cross‐cultural communicative tool are better served by the conceptualization of EIL. One reason for this is that the cultural integrity of the learner is not negatively impacted upon to the same extent when an EIL perspective is the basis of ELT. Moreover, the ideologies which underpin globalization and the vision of cultural pluralism are more in tune with a lingua franca perspective as opposed to ELT platforms based on culture‐speci?c varieties of English.