Primary Teacher Education: Reflections on pedagogical perspectives from Global Englishes and ELF

Research in English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and its pedagogical implications has underlined how Language Teacher Education plays a fundamental role in fostering awareness of the need to take into account in English Language Teaching the current role of lingua franca English has. This contribution aims at illustrating how awareness of Global Englishes (GE) and ELF is part of the English Language and Didactics course for prospective primary teachers at the University of Verona (Italy). In the fourth year, trainees are introduced to issues concerning the global spread of English, and a specific focus on pluricultural and plurilingual education is developed in the fifth year. The implications for teaching English in the primary classroom are explored, and students work in groups to devise activities within a GE/ELF and intercultural awareness perspective, which are then shared in the e-learning platform to act as a common repository. This approach fosters active reflection in raising awareness of GE and ELF, and trainees are encouraged to apply this awareness to the topics dealt with in the whole course, for instance in critically examining primary school ELT materials, and to creatively devise and/or expand on existing materials, with a view on their future teaching context.