I have been working as a teacher of English as a foreign language (EFL) for around fifteen years, and I recognise many of the complaints that Gregory V. Diehl levels at the industry. I think that the approach to teaching English is misguided in certain sectors - notably mainstream public education, though the way I was taught French and German at school probably wasn't any better.

There are many points of departure in our attitudes to EFL, however. For one thing, I object to the term common throughout the book of the conventional EFL institution and the misguided ways in which they teach English. I work for one such institution, and I feel that we do more of the things that Diehl would like than he perhaps realises - and mine is not the only institution like that. In fact, I imagine that many readers will come to disagree quite strongly with some of Diehl's pronouncements.

About the core ideas behind teaching, again there is overlap in our beliefs, though this book should not be mistaken for a guide to teaching a la Scrivener or Thornbury, neither of whom I think are mentioned in this volume. Diehl works more to motivate his readers to reach a deeper understanding of English - in the same way that David Crystal often does - but some of his points don't quite stand up to scrutiny. The prioritisation of grammar over lexis is undone somewhat by an example that I noted for which you would need a lot of lexis to understand, but only the verb in the present simple or the infinitive form to navigate grammatically. This rather undermines the point.

All in all, would I recommend this book? Yes and no. To the novice teacher, I think not - there are some great ideas here but also many that I think are dead-end trails, and someone lacking in classroom experience could easily find themselves stuck if they were to do everything as Diehl says. But for a teacher with a year or two of experience, trying to put into words what it is that annoys them about EFL - there will be plenty here to get such readers thinking. ( )

"Our Global Lingua Franca: An Educator’s Guide to Spreading English Where EFL Doesn’t Work" est un ouvrage qui a vocation d'éclairer tout apprenant et enseignant, à la maitrise de la langue anglaise, parmis une pluralité de méthodes toutes discutables.

Gregory Diehl mets ainsi l'accent sur le fait qu'il existe autant de manières de parler cette langue, qu'il existe de pays ! Chacun s'y emploient à sa façon, peu importe de lrespect de la grammaire, et cet hilarant constat y est dénoncé copieusement. Il partage ses reflexions, aborde le problème sous l'angle systémique - l'anglais "cassé" selon lui - et critique sévèrement cet anglais si incorrect pour la langue de Shakespeare.

Je pense que la langue d'un pays est, certe, énoncée et comprise différemment selon les pays et cultures, mais surtout, qu'elle ouvre ainsi à de fantastiques champs de compréhension inhérents à chaque méthodes, et ce simple constat est absent de son réquisitoire. ( )