ELF-awareness in teacher training :|perspectives of pre-service language teachers in an EFL context

Abstract

As being one of latest discussion topics in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) has a direct influence on ELT teachers’ perceptions on language and teaching around the world. Although many ELF studies were conducted with in-service language teachers, fewer studies were found based on pre-service ELT teachers’ perceptions on ELF as a modern world concept and how they raise awareness by developing these perspectives in their teacher training programs at university. After inspecting the literature on the issue, the current study aims to find out pre-service language teachers’ perceptions on ELF, ELF-aware pedagogy and ELF-aware teacher training within the scope of an elective undergraduate course named ELF-Aware Teacher Education that four volunteer participants took in their last semester at university. The data were collected through personal and group interviews, in-class and online discussions, online portal entries and course assignments. After thematic, content and document analyses were carried out on data, repeated themes and patterns were organized under the Findings section to demonstrate the pre-service teachers’ final perceptions on ELF, integration of ELF in teaching, the reflections of these perceptions on lesson designs; and their real-life ELF experiences through practicum in Turkish context where English is learned and taught as a foreign language as being one of the expanding circle countries, along with their remarks on ELF-aware pedagogy and the ELF-aware teacher education course at the end of the one-semester theoretical training on ELF-awareness.