Global Englishes and ELF research have made it essential for language teachers and teacher educators to reflect much more critically on resources and practices than they have had to do in the past. The role of English as a global lingua franca undoubtedly constitutes a substantial challenge to what we conventionally think about language, communication and education.
This symposium paper will explore the value of engaging in critical thinking with regard to existing conceptualizations of language awareness, language proficiency and professional (pedagogic) content knowledge among ELT practitioners and stakeholders. From an ELF perspective we have seen time and again how conventional principles and practices in language pedagogy continue to be underpinned by language ideologies that predate the globalizing realities of English and may thus continue to hinder the development of an ELF informed orientation to language, language learning and language teaching. To date a substantial volume of research has aimed to promote better understanding of ELF from a classroom perspective, with studies exploring learners' and (more often than not) teachers' awareness and attitudes towards ELF, with a view to incorporating opportunities for an ELF-informed approach to language resources, pedagogic materials and classroom methods and practices. There has also been considerable discussion of the relevance and potential impact of ELF in Teacher Education, but relatively little examination of teacher educators' professional beliefs and practices.
The objectives of my paper are to address the symposium questions, engaging in debate with colleagues researching a diverse array of contexts for further exploration regarding the development of alternative future approaches to language, materials and practices in programmes of language teacher education. My goal will be to build on previous work that has investigated language pedagogy from an ELF perspective and extend this by further elaborating on the impact of ELF research for practising teacher educators. Where to date the focus has been principally on ELF-aware/ELF-informed language teaching, with some discussion of associated implications for teacher education, my concern will be more specifically focused on developing ELF-informed teacher educators and ELF-informed professional development.
