Dublin Core
Title
Perceptions of Native and Non-native English Speaking Teachers of English about English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)
Abstract
The status of English as a lingua franca (ELF) has been accepted as an increasingly popular debate in Applied Linguistics and current English language teaching (ELT). A major body of research in the study of ELF has concentrated on the consequences of native speaker norms in respect to ELT. It has been suggested that native speaker norms of English have been losing relative importance in international academic fields. Despite the increasing research interest in ELF focusing on non-native speakers and their use of English, there has been little empirical investigation into the perceptions of both native and non-native English speaking teachers of English about ELF. On the other hand, the students in non-English speaking countries are learning English to be able to communicate with other native or non-native English speakers in both intra and international contexts. In other words, they need to be taught ELF. Thus, the main goal of the teachers has to prepare them to function appropriately in these contexts. This necessity reminds the role and importance of ELF in English language teacher education programs. Therefore, the present study investigated two significant aspects related to ELF. First, the perceptions of native and non-native speaking teachers of English about ELF were investigated. As a second objective, the perceptions of the same group of teachers regarding the role and importance of ELF in English language teacher education were examined. The participants consisted of 100 non-native, 30 native speaking teachers of English working at two respective universities in Istanbul. The data came from a background questionnaire, a questionnaire regarding the perceptions of English language teachers developed by the researchers and semi-structured interviews.
Keywords
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
PeerReviewed
Date
2012-05-04
Extent
769