English as a lingua franca in an increasingly post-EFL era: The case of English in the Greek state education curriculum

In this paper, we explore the ways in which the debate about multilingualism and multiculturalism that arises in the ELF discourse is reflected in the English language teaching curriculum implemented in the Greek compulsory education system. The Greek state education curriculum has been firmly rooted in the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) paradigm, but, in recent years, curriculum innovations such as the Cross-Thematic Curriculum Framework have introduced some additional elements reflecting the beginnings perhaps of a post-EFL understanding of English language teaching. We begin by delineating several different teaching paradigms for foreign language education that are applicable in the Greek context and draw distinctions in terms of the differing objectives of these paradigms. We then consider the current ELT curriculum of Greek state schools and explore the extent to which the curriculum discourses provide space for the above paradigms. In particular, we investigate the ways in which the current curriculum discourses portray an awareness of the pedagogical implications of both the increasingly complex global English language phenomenon (and its international / intercultural orientation) and the increasing cultural diversity of the Greek societal context as now evident in many state schools (its intranational / multicultural orientation).