Testing, the final frontier? Teacher attitudes and implications for assessing ELF

Widdowson (2015) refers to the assessment of ELF as the "last frontier" because "only when that is crossed, or bypassed in some way, can there be any real advance in English teaching informed by an understanding of ELF". This chapter examines the conflict between allegiance to a standard, and awareness of ELF, which emerges in a comprehensive study of both native and non-native speaking teachers in Italy, at secondary and tertiary levels. After drawing attention to the problems associated with ‘assessing ELF’, and the relatively small amount of research which has been carried out in this direction, it highlights the close relationship of teaching with testing, as it emerges in the survey, and teachers' awareness of the need to engage with the phenomenon. The chapter concludes with a call for teachers who are confronting the realities of ELF on a daily basis in their classrooms to experiment with 'ELF aware' assessment, and for international testing organizations to rethink constructs which currently inform the contents of English language certification.