Introduction to the Special Issue on 'Integrating ELF in Education': The role of teacher education

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Research Papers in Language Teaching and Learning
Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2024, 7-13
ISSN: 1792-1244
Available online at http://rpltl.eap.gr
This article is issued under the Creative Commons License
Deed. Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)
Introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Integrating ELF in
Education’: The role of teacher education
Stefania Kordia
Guest editor
Referring to the role of English as a means of communication among individuals with diverse
linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Seidlhofer, 2011), English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a
relatively recent but swiftly developing area of study within applied linguistics. As part of the
broader framework of Global Englishes (Jenkins, 2015a), it emphasizes primarily that English
does not constitute a uniform mode of communication. Users constantly adapt it to suit the
requirements of their interactions, often straying from what is typically considered ‘proper’
based on native Standard English norms (Cogo and Dewey, 2012). This mainly pertains to non-
native speakers, who now significantly outnumber native speakers (Crystal, 2012) and play a
central role in the ongoing process of linguistic evolution (Schneider, 2016).
Significant interest in ELF emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with several influential
publications calling for a more systematic investigation of the language non-native speakers
use to interact with one another. Most notable among them were Jenkins’ (2000) study on
phonological dimensions of that language and Seidlhofer’s (2001) announcement of the
Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE), marking the inception of the very first
corpus of ELF. Recognising the need to examine the “most extensive contemporary use of
English worldwide” (Seidlhofer, 2001, p. 133), these pioneering works garnered international
attention and inspired others to embark upon their own research endeavours.
Since then, the field of ELF has witnessed a steadily expanding body of scholarly inquiry, with
Seidlhofer and Widdowson (2020) noting two distinct yet closely interconnected orientations
with regard to the main goals of ELF studies. The first orientation is rooted in sociolinguistics
and is evident in the majority of the research literature published so far (Jenkins et al., 2018).
Such studies focus on exploring ELF on a range of levels, like phonology (e.g., Kirkpatrick et al.,
2008; Matsumoto, 2011), lexico-grammar (e.g., Hall et al., 2017; Pitzl, 2016) and pragmatics
(e.g., Cogo and Pitzl, 2016; Kaur, 2017), as well as in relation to other relevant constructs, such
as intercultural communication (e.g., Baker, 2015), multilingualism (e.g., Cogo and House,
2018) and translanguaging (e.g., Jenkins, 2015b). What these studies have principally revealed
is that successful communication in ELF does not rely on mastery of forms and structures of a
specific native variety, such as Standard British or American English (Jenkins, 2011). Rather, it
largely depends on the appropriate and creative use, for instance, of meaning negotiation and

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accommodation strategies to preempt or resolve communication problems (e.g., Björkman,
2014; Vettorel, 2019). As noted above, that often includes the use of non-standard forms (e.g.,
structures not belonging to the linguistic system, for example, of British English) that do not
obstruct the success of an interaction and, at times, may even facilitate it (Ranta, 2018).
The second orientation of ELF studies, which has gained increasing prominence over the past
decade, refers to pedagogy. Seeking to examine and effectively address the implications of
ELF sociolinguistic research for teaching and learning, such studies have concentrated on the
extent to which learners of English, especially in contexts where English is taught and learned
as a so-called ‘foreign’ language (Sifakis and Tsantila, 2019), are sufficiently prepared to take
part in real-life interactions in ELF. They have thus dealt with a range of areas, from curriculum
and syllabus design (e.g., Guerra, 2020; Rose and Galloway, 2019) to instructional materials
development (e.g., Siqueira and Matos, 2019; Vettorel, 2018), teaching methodology (e.g.,
Hüttner, 2018; Kordia, 2020) and language testing and assessment (e.g., Jenkins and Leung,
2019; Shohamy, 2019), highlighting, above all, that there is a significant “mismatch between
what is taught in classrooms and how English functions outside of the classroom” (Rose et al.,
2021, pp. 158-159). While, that is, ELF is extensively employed even by learners themselves,
including young ones (e.g., Lopriore, 2021), English language teaching and learning practices
remain deeply native-speaker-oriented (Guerra and Bayyurt, 2019; Sifakis et al., 2018).
Against this background, the role of teacher education in reducing the mismatch between ELF
and language teaching has been underscored. It is only by actively participating in appropriate
teacher education courses, as is widely argued in the field (e.g., Cogo et al., 2021; Dewey and
Patsko, 2018; Sifakis and Bayyurt, 2018), that teachers may be empowered to go beyond
traditional perspectives espoused, for instance, by their curriculum or standardized language
proficiency exams, and perceive themselves as “agents of change [who] introduce and trial
innovations” (Rose et al., 2021, p. 161) in their local settings. Such an endeavour, however, is
anything but straightforward. It requires rethinking our perceptions and current practices
(Dewey, 2012) which, in turn, entails identifying why the ways in which English is typically
taught and learned are problematic and how our own deeply held assumptions have been
influencing not only us (e.g., concerning our professional identity; Dewey, 2012), but also our
learners as users (e.g., in terms of the extent to which we foster their communicative
capability; Seidlhofer and Widdowson, 2019) and as individuals (e.g., as regards their self-
image as non-native speakers; Sifakis and Kordia, 2023). Then, of course, it requires
experimenting with ELF in the classroom, for example, through action research (Sifakis and
Bayyurt, 2018), to see how exactly insights from ELF sociolinguistic research can be integrated
in our teaching (e.g., by enriching our courseware, as Lopriore and Vettorel, 2019, suggest, or
by helping our learners create their own version of English, according to Kohn’s, 2018, MY
English approach). That complex process is fundamentally transformative and, in essence,
refers to what Sifakis (2014, 2019, 2023) has termed as ELF awareness.
Following the second research trajectory briefly described above, this Special Issue of the
RPLTL concentrates precisely on how teachers may act as ‘agents of change’ and integrate ELF
in their educational contexts in a way that is relevant to them and their learners. To provide a
more comprehensive picture, the Special Issue is divided into two parts. The present Part I
focuses on ELF teacher education, seeking to shed light on several aspects of paramount
importance, including the key role of reflection in revising stereotypical assumptions and
native-speakerist teaching practices. It includes ten articles, each one of which contributes
diverse insights on the design and implementation of teacher education courses, so that the

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above-mentioned discrepancy between how English is used around the world and how it is
taught at school can eventually be minimized.
Barbara Seidlhofer and Henry Widdowson set the conceptual basis for the development of
educational strategies geared towards fulfilling the needs of learners as ELF users. The authors
call for a reconsideration of the current conceptualisation of English, as a subject, and stress
that teachers need to be urged to revise their overall relationship with learners, from training
them to conform to native-speaker standards to educating them to unlock their full potential
in a language already inherent in their linguistic repertoire.
Paola Vettorel describes a course implemented at the University of Verona in Italy, aiming at
promoting primary student teachers’ awareness of the role of ELF and the ways in which it
could be integrated in the classroom. The author presents the theoretical background of the
course and the various reflective activities the participants were involved in, and also provides
indicative examples of their proposals, for instance, while examining and creatively adapting
primary school instructional materials for their future teaching situations.
The following three articles focus on the ENRICH Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
Course (Sifakis and Kordia, 2021; Sifakis et al., 2022), developed in the framework of the
Erasmus+ Project ‘English as a lingua franca practices for inclusive multilingual classrooms’.
Lili Cavalheiro, Luís Guerra and Ricardo Pereira present the content and tasks included in a
range of modules of the ENRICH CPD Course, illustrating how the participants’ ELF awareness
was raised. On this basis, the authors discuss indicative responses Portuguese participants
provided during the course concerning a number of ELF-related topics, such as the ownership
of English and the typical distinction between standard and non-standard English, as well as
their evaluative feedback at the end about their ENRICH ELF-aware journey.
Lucilla Lopriore offers a detailed account of the need to integrate ELF in education in relation
to the current increasingly changing linguistic landscape. She draws links with the Common
European Framework of Reference for Modern Languages and the Content and Language
Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach and, then, she discusses how relevant principles were
integrated in the ENRICH CPD Course, as well as two CLIL courses in Italy. The author provides
examples of participants’ responses, showing how they opened up to new perspectives.
Lynell Chvala and Mona Evelyn Flognfeldt discuss the relevance of the ELF awareness process
to teacher professionalism and instructional ecology and present a module of the ENRICH CPD
Course that intended to guide teachers in generating a truly localised understanding of the
integration of ELF in their individual contexts. The authors present authentic data coming from
participants from various countries, showcasing the spaces those participants identified for
ELF-aware teaching and their movement towards greater agency.
Moving on, Yasemin Bayyurt and Derya Altınmakas examine a research area that is crucial in
ELF teacher education, namely academic writing. The authors review the published literature
on academic writing in ELF contexts, including Higher Education Institutions, and suggest that
their findings indicate the necessity for changing stakeholders’ attitudes towards the writing
practices of non-native speakers, such as university students and researchers. Practical ideas
are also offered, with a view to facilitating writers in today’s globalised world.
Areti-Maria Sougari and Athina Malea highlight the significance of taking into consideration
teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs in ELF teacher education. The authors present the findings of a

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study on the perceptions of 951 Greek teachers of English, demonstrating that higher-level
self-efficacy beliefs related to classroom management, student engagement, and instructional
strategies are tightly linked to teachers’ eagerness to adopt ELF-aware teaching. Reflecting on
such beliefs, the authors conclude, is crucial in developing ELF awareness.
Jacyara Nô dos Santos, Polyanna Castro Rocha Alves and Sávio Siqueira discuss two empirical
studies in tertiary teacher education settings in Brazil. In order to provide a detailed picture
of the ways in which student teachers’ ELF awareness was raised in these settings, the authors
present data of the micro-teaching sessions the participants were involved in, as well as of the
teaching activities they developed. Those data illustrate signs of an evolving understanding of
ELF and a critical reorientation of the participants’ beliefs about using and teaching English.
Daniel Vasconcelos Brasileiro Oliveira and Lucielen Porfirio also concentrate on the Brazilian
context. Drawing parallels between ELF awareness and Freire’s concept of conscientização,
they discuss how the BraCES ELF corpus was employed within a pre-service English teaching
programme to foster reflection and critical thinking. The authors provide the lesson plan that
was employed to that end and present indicative responses showcasing the participants’
revised perspectives, for instance, about their self-image as users and teachers of English.
Finally, Shu-wen Lin presents an action research study in a university in Taiwan, where student
teachers were prompted to identify and challenge stereotypical perceptions about English and
English language teaching dominant in the country. She presents the course entitled ‘Learning
Englishes and Cultures Through Movies’ that adopted an inherent Global Englishes approach,
as well as data derived from the participants’ reflections throughout the course. As the author
argues, such teacher education innovations are crucial in the traditional Taiwanese context.
The forthcoming Part II of this Special Issue (June 2024) takes stock of insights provided in the
present volume and intends to extend the discussion to practical aspects related to teaching
and learning in the English classroom. The articles included in it focus, therefore, on ELF-aware
pedagogy, depicting what ‘good practice’ may involve in this regard. When viewed together
with the good teacher education practices discussed here, a more comprehensive picture can
indeed be obtained of how ELF can be integrated in education.
This Special Issue would not have been possible without the significant help of approximately
fifteen anonymous reviewers, all of whom have considerable experience in ELF pedagogical
research. Their insightful feedback has ensured the quality of the Issue, illustrating, in practice,
that effective and efficient research is, above all, a collaborative endeavour.
Thomai Alexiou, the RPLTL Editor-in-Chief, deserves heartfelt thanks for her valuable support
and constructive feedback throughout the development of the Special Issue. Her guidance has
been instrumental in shaping the content and ensuring the excellence of the submissions.
A special acknowledgment goes to Athanasios Karasimos who served as copy editor for this
volume as well as Ioannis Asproloupos for the technical support. Their meticulous work and
attention to detail have significantly enhanced the clarity and coherence of the articles
included in the Special Issue.
As Alexiou notes in her Editorial, this Special Issue is dedicated to Nicos Sifakis, as a testament
to the profound impact of his scholarship and as a token of appreciation for his dedication to
advancing our understanding of ELF and the ways in which it can be integrated in education.

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His insights have influenced not only my own work, but also other researchers’ contributions
around the world, and we sincerely wish him continued success and inspiration in his future
endeavours in reshaping the landscape of ELF research.
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