TEACHER EDUCATORS’ VIEW ABOUT TEACHING ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA

Abstract

Although there has been a large number of studies on the new status of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), these discussions have not been effectively integrated into the English language teaching (ELT) in pre-service teacher education. Once we believe that teacher trainers are driving forces for possible changes in the curricula of the courses, this research aims to verify how teacher educators of a Letters/English course at the State University of Bahia (UNEB), Campus VI, in Caetité/BA, understand ILF and how they visualize this perspective in current teaching context. The theoretical basis consists mainly of contributions from Seidlhofer (2011), Jenkins (2007), Jenkins, Cogo and Dewey (2011), Widdowson (2012), El Kadri and Gimenez (2013), Graddol (2006), among others. Data was processed from the application of a questionnaire and analyzed under the perspective of qualitative research. The results showed that, besides recognizing the ELF paradigm as a legitimate one, the teacher trainers also see it positively, considering it as a necessary and relevant incentive to the English teaching and learning process today. However, the informants still do not consider themselves fully ready to disengage from the imposition of the norms attached to the native speaker model, and finally to address the diversity of the English language in the classroom.