Some common fallacies about learning and teaching English as a Lingua Franca

Over the past decades, English language teachers have become familiar with several terms which attempt to describe the role of English as a language of international communication. Presently, the term English as a lingua franca (ELF) seems to be one of the most favoured and adopted to depict the global use of English in the 21st century. Basically, the concept of ELF im-plies cross-cultural, cross-linguistic interactions involving native and non-native speakers. Conse-quently, the ELF paradigm suggests some changes in the language classroom concerning teachers’ and students’ goals as far as native speaker norms and cultures are concerned. Based on Kachru’s (1992) fallacies, this article identifies thirteen misconceptions in ELT regarding learning and teach-ing English varieties and cultures, suggesting that an ethnocentred and linguacentred approach to English should be replaced by an ELF perspective which recognizes the diversity of communicative situations involving different native and non-native cultures and varieties of English

Benthic nematodes biodiversity patterns along the gradient of the Tagus estuary (Western Coast of Portugal): Link with abundances distribution pattern of the nonindigenous bivalve Ruditapes philippinarum

The non-indigenous bivalve Ruditapes philippinarum is native to the western Pacific Ocean and it has been one of the most widely introduced species for aquaculture purposes in Europe. In Portugal its presence is known in several estuaries for more than two decades and its populations have increased greatly along the last years1. Currently it’s one of the dominant benthic species in some areas of the Tagus estuary (264,1±470,8 ind./30s tow). Studies on the impacts of invasive bivalves on meiofaunal communities are scarce and restricted to the harvesting effect. Meiofauna of the Tagus estuary is poorly known and possible impacts of the introduction of R. philippinarum were never assessed.