Abstract
AbstractAs with any proposal for a change in pedagogy, the starting point for implementation is teacher education. Suggestions have been put forward for an approach to English language teaching (ELT) which takes into account the lingua franca function language can fulfill. Frameworks for how teachers might adopt a pedagogy of English as a lingua franca (ELF), however, are inconsistent with current policy guidelines for student teacher learning. This concerns most notably those directives provided in theEuropean Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages(EPOSTL), which is used in a growing number of teacher formation programs. This paper examines the ‘can-do’ statements which the EPOSTL proposes should represent the required methodological competences of language teachers. Using discourse analytic methods, the article explores what the EPOSTL portrays that prospective teachers need to know about language and how to teach it. It is argued that the language education policy represented by the EPOSTL is based on a conceptual perspective that can only impede the development of a genuinely reflective approach to the education of English language teachers and the implementation of an ELF pedagogy.
Highlights
Teachers teach language to facilitate language learning
The program is represented by the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL), a language education policy (LEP) resource targeting prospective language teachers with ‘can-do’ statements that itemize features of pedagogic competence
How are teachers supposed to draw on such theories and findings so that they guide their teaching? Secondly, which theories of language, learning, culture, etc., and relevant research findings does the EPOSTL assume to be relevant and appropriate for student teachers to reflect on? Since studies of English as a lingua franca communication have provided theoretical concepts which claim to provide relevant and appropriate guidance for contemporary English language teaching (ELT), the question arises as to how far the EPOSTL recognizes the need to reflect on insights gained from research on ELF interactions and proposed for pedagogic implementation
Summary
Since studies of English as a lingua franca communication have provided theoretical concepts which claim to provide relevant and appropriate guidance for contemporary English language teaching (ELT), the question arises as to how far the EPOSTL recognizes the need to reflect on insights gained from research on ELF interactions and proposed for pedagogic implementation. It considers issues about language teacher formation, especially English language teacher formation, and the way these are dealt with in what has become a influential program promoted by the Council of Europe
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