Elf-awareness in pre-service english language teacher education: A case study from turkey

Abstract

The ‘English as a lingua franca’ paradigm holds significant implications for language teaching and teacher education. The role of language teacher education programs is pivotal to equip future English language teachers with the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical implications of ELF. This descriptive multiple case study presents the impact and implementation of an ELF-aware teacher education course developed to apply the first phase of a two-phase ELF-aware teacher education model combining an intensive theoretical course with real classroom practices. The aim is to investigate how the ELF-aware teacher education model originally developed and applied in the in-service teacher education context has been adapted and implemented in pre-service teacher education programs and its impact on pre-service teachers. The ultimate goal of this model is to intensively train pre-service language teachers, studying as senior undergraduates in the ELT Department of a state university in Turkey, on theoretical aspects of ELF while raising their critical awareness of ELF-related pedagogical practices. Participants reported that the theoretical course allowed them to critically reflect on the ELF paradigm by providing them the platform to question their existing assumptions mostly associated with the dominance of Standard English and native norms in ELT.