ELF awareness in ELT: Emerging challenges & new paradigms in teacher education

Abstract

This contribution aims at presenting the underlying construct and the research design of a study carried out by the Roma Tre University unit of a 3-year national research project (PRIN), as well as the findings about English language (EL) teachers’ attitudes towards English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) as they emerge from the study and from the in-service teacher education course designed and implemented during the project. The study investigated native and non-native teachers’ understandings, beliefs and attitudes towards ELF and the challenges brought about by the notion of ELF awareness in English Language Teaching (ELT). This investigation was carried out through the online administration of two questionnaires, one for Italian non-native teachers of English teaching in the Italian school system, and one for native English language assistants working at university level. The survey findings informed the design of a post-graduate blended EL teacher education course, with a special focus on developing English language teachers’ awareness of the emerging realities of English, while providing an ELF-aware reflective approach to revisit the EL teachers’ syllabus design, lesson planning and implementation. Course participants’ feedback is presented and pedagogical implications for EL teacher education are illustrated and discussed.