ABSTRACT: This paper is about the growth of English as a lingua franca (henceforth ELF), the need for teachers to be aware of the role of ELF in international communication, and how (if at all) ELF can be usefully presented and exploited in the classroom. It then goes on to explore the related issue of how (if at all) ELF, or rather, interaction in ELF, can beassessed. In the final section it refers to an ongoing project to develop a “local” version of an international English language certification for Italian university students, which, although not a “test of ELF”, incorporates an ELF construct (non–native speaker accents), showing one way in which it is possible to make tests more “ELF aware” and, perhaps, more relevant to the way in which English is used in Europe today.

KEYWORDS: English as a lingua franca (ELF), assessment, certifications.