Global Englishes-oriented teacher education: lasting shifts

Abstract

Despite a growing body of research demonstrating the pluralistic nature of English today, ELT globally still tends to uphold traditional ‘native-speaker’ norms. A Global Englishes language teaching (GELT) approach to teacher education is one way of breaking down that gap, yet it is not well known how the effects of this approach might hold up over time. This article reports on a study of three Sri Lankan teachers who participated in a GELT-oriented pedagogic innovation in 2017 communicating with a diverse group of speakers in the United States. Using interview data, this article discusses how, three years later, their experiences may have affected their pedagogic beliefs and practices. The teachers reported changes such as greater tolerance for informal language, a desire to bring ‘real world’ communication into language classrooms, and an openness to diversity in pronunciation as a means of reducing student anxiety about speaking. These small, meaningful shifts support the value of small-scale GELT teacher education innovations in the long term.