Navigating linguistic diversity toward ELF-informed pedagogy: Filipino teachers’ perceptions of their accent

Abstract

ABSTRACT Teachers’ accents have become important in World Englishes (WE) and English as a lingua franca (ELF) studies. However, limited studies investigate how English teachers view their accents and how such perceptions affect their teaching practice. This study uses narrative inquiry to explore two Filipino English language teachers’ perceptions and practices of their English accents in multilingual and multicultural classrooms. The findings highlight their cultural, social, professional, and pedagogical orientations, which shaped their personal perceptions and pedagogical practices relating to their English language teaching with their English accent. While teachers recognised the cultural identity of their accents, their professional and social networks prescribed them to adopt a different accent. However, by consistently engaging with their language classroom pedagogies, they could adapt and reshape their teaching methods and their beliefs and perceptions, emphasising the importance of incorporating the need to introduce other Englishes. The findings have significant implications for policy and practice in an ELF-informed pedagogy, especially in a multicultural and multilingual classroom.