Communication in a Globalized World: advanced English and its assessment in the 21st Century

In a world where walls are increasingly becoming the norm English is in a very special position, which is one of being a global language, used not for integration into native speaker communities necessarily but to communicate globally using the language as a global lingua franca. This poses a whole range of questions for teachers and testers such as: what does it mean to be an advanced user of a global language? How should we redefine advanced levels if the traditional practice of respecting native speaker norms is to be overturned? How should we assess this advanced level? This paper explores these questions with reference to learner needs in the local context of the University of Verona, at the heart of Kachru’s “expanding circle” and asks how our oral test proficiency assessment criteria might be adapted to cater for those needs.