ELF is a globalized communication practice that brings various cultures and language backgrounds

together. As English is seen as a must in many of the world's cultures, a significant number of people all
around the globe actively engage in trying to understand the English language while dealing with
sociocultural differences and unique characteristics of the languages that are from different linguistic
families, which makes it a more complicated and challenging process. ELF can be considered as a facility
that comprises all these aspects in it, making intercommunication between people from different
cultures possible.

It is a long and tedious process to make use of English and integrate it into one's daily life. Just as perfect
English performance can not be expected from native speakers, it also cannot be expected from a non-
native speaker of English like myself. When I think of times that I speak English in my daily life, I
sometimes find myself valuing speed over accuracy, which I struggle in accomplishing quite often. For
instance, when an English speaker starts a conversation with me and asks me a question, I try to
respond to him as much as possible in order to sound fluent, which results in non-accuracy, grammar,
and pronunciation errors. However, this doesn't lead to misunderstanding for the people I frequently
speak to as they are also non-native speakers like me. Generally, these so-called people I am
communicating with do not speak better English than me; there are many deviations from the Standard
English used in their speech. Mispronouncing words and using Turkish accent is the most common, and
making grammar, and vocabulary mistakes follow as the most distinctive features that differentiate non-
native speakers from the native ones. In more detail, many speakers from my country have difficulties in
'th' sound, which doesn't exist in our language as it totally belongs to a dissimilar linguistic family when
compared to the English language. Also, we, as Turkish speakers of English, forget to conjugate the verbs
because of the reason that our language is an agglutinative one, while English is an inflected languge,
which you have to change the verb instead of just adding some suffixes. Even if I make these so-called
mistakes unconsciously, especially when I am feeling too excited to speak or trying to be quick, I find
myself regretting from the errors time to time since I have been trying to learn and use English for many
years, which sometimes make me feel as if I have no right to make this kind of 'basic' mistakes.
However, at the end of the day, I try to derive lessons from my mistakes and bear them in my mind so as
not to fall into the same errors again. I also remind myself of the fact that mistakes are inevitable, and
we learn by them - being always correct is impossible and unnecessary because the errors are what
make us become aware. That is to say, we should not feel obliged to speak like a native speaker.
Actually, most of us probably will not be able to do it as we are all from different cultures, backgrounds,
language families, or maybe skills. Can you expect an English to speak Turkish as fluent as yourself? - If
your answer is 'no,' please don't strain to talk like a native. We, of course, should try to improve our
abilities and skills in the English language to realize our full potential and work on it.

I began to learn English when I enrolled in an English course in second grade, which one of the best
decisions my family has made. My teacher here always associated the language items with everyday
living, so it was better to learn a second language as a child who did not have much idea about her own
language at all. When I go further to my high-school years, there are some fond memories in my mind
when our teachers make us listen to people from different accents and try to understand what they say.
The thing was such a challenge to me these days. However, I now acknowledge my teachers to be right -
I would not imagine that I will learn about the importance of the ELF perspective in pedagogy. If those
idealist teachers had not scaffolded us in differentiating between non-native and native speakers, I
probably would have had difficulties in grasping the idea of the significance of ELF now. Also, in
university, several teachers try to integrate sections of sounds or videos of non-native speakers, which
opens a road for us to enhance our abilities in understanding and also respecting the non-native
speakers.

On the other hand, one of my teachers had us speak like a native speaker only once last year. Yet, I think
it was because she wanted to make us accustomed to the speaking of English or American people in
order not to have difficulties in the future. Maybe it was some experience that also integrates ELF into
the lesson, as the non-native speakers were the majority in the classroom, and she might have
attempted to include the ELF perspective in her class in this way. Also, our teachers choose not to
interrupt us why we are talking; I think that's why most of them don't feel compelled to correct our
mistakes arising from trying to speak rapidly almost always. However, our speaking teachers, of course,
strictly correct our errors even if they are tiny and can not be noticed by many people; they are entitled
to assist us in enhancing our abilities in speaking, so it is nothing to feel offended from it.

Overall, ELF is an essential, indispensable, and irreplaceable part of the curriculum. It is crucial to
incorporate it into relevant classes, where it can meet its objectives adequately.

Çağla Göksel Kasnak

2297711