"The spread of English as the dominant international lingua franca (ELF), like other aspects of globalization, calls for a reconsideration of conventional ways of thinking. As the language is taken over and put to effective communicative use by non-native speakers on a global scale, assumptions that its native speakers have exclusive property rights, and are the arbiters of its proper use, are no longer tenable. ELF typically departs from standard usage in a variety of ways which are consistent with the kind of variation that is evident in any natural language. [Title] argues that ELF needs to be understood as an adaptable and creative use of language in its own right and not as a deviant or erroneous version of native speaker English. It demonstrates how its 'non-conformist' formal features are functionally motivated by the dynamics of communicative interaction. In this respect, ELF is of particular relevance to the sociolinguistic study of language variation. This reconceptualization of 'English' also has important pedagogic implications, raising questions about what kind language content and what kind of communicative capability it is appropriate and realistic to teach."--Page [] 4 of cover.