Including World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca in classroom practices: Proposals from ‘Good Practices’ in teacher education

The plurality into which the English language has developed, both in terms of World Englishes (WE) and in its role of lingua franca of communication (ELF) at an international level, characterizes its complex and diversified reality today. English can no longer be considered as a ‘singular entity’, connected only to Anglophone territories and ‘owned’ by its native speakers; it has become a ‘language in the plural’, part of Global Englishes, either as one of the nativised World Englishes varieties that have developed in former colonization territories, or in its lingua franca of communication function in international contexts, from business to academia. Following to globalization processes and to the spread of English, the majority of people who use this language today are not monolingual native speakers, but bi-/plurilingual ones: for them English constitutes one of the languages in their repertoire, both in the case of WE varieties and of ELF. English as a Lingua Franca contexts in particular are linguistically and culturally complex settings, characterized by fluidity and hybridity as well as by second-order language contact. In these complex settings, ELF participants are oriented towards communicative effectiveness, and to this aim they draw on all the resources in their linguistic repertoires, rather than ‘just’ adhering to Standard ENL norms. Research into WE and, more recently, English as a Lingua Franca has raised important issues also as to the implications that this plurality brings about in English Language Teaching (ELT), both at a theoretical, Second Language Acquisition (SLA) level and for teaching/learning pedagogic practices. It has been argued on several sides, and for more than a decade now, that the modified and complex reality that characterises English in present times ought to be taken into account in ELT in order to prepare learners to communicate effectively through this language in today’s world. Teacher education has been identified as a fundamental space where to raise awareness of a WE- and ELF-informed pedagogic approach to English Language Teaching. Several proposals have been set forward in this direction, particularly over the last five years, showing how such an approach can effectively be included in teacher education syllabi, giving way to critical reflection and to an orientation in pedagogic practices that is aware and inclusive of WE and ELF. Such a reflective approach has constituted an integral part of the PAS and TFA teacher education courses offered at the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of Verona, since 2011; besides familiarising trainee teachers with the sociolinguistics of WE and ELF, and with issues related to implications for teaching and learning English, participants were encouraged to ‘translate’ their reflections into pedagogic practice through the development of WE- / ELF-aware teaching ideas and/or lesson plans. These lessons and reflections were developed collaboratively, shared in the e-learning Moodle dedicated forums, and at times also carried out in the participants’ classes, with positive results in terms of increased awareness, motivation and learning outcomes. In several cases, the teaching units trainees had to develop as part of their final report for the course focused on topics related to WE and ELF, and many of the didactic ideas devised during the course were further developed. The lesson plans that are included in this section of the volume are part of this reflective work, and are meant to exemplify some of the didactic activities that were devised by trainee teachers during the aforementioned PAS and TFA courses: they constitute examples of ‘good practices’ that may inspire other teachers to take on the challenge of a WE- and ELF-aware approach in English Language Teaching, thus fostering awareness of the current plurality of English and its lingua franca role in teaching and learning practices