This paper presents an original blended-learning Continuous Professional Development Course developed and implemented in the framework of the ENRICH EU-funded Project. The Course focuses on empowering EFL teachers to integrate the role of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in multilingual classrooms through critical reflection, constructive dialogue and action research.
Over the past 25 years, the role of English as a lingua franca (ELF), namely, as a means of communication among speakers of different linguacultural backgrounds, has been at the centre of an increasingly lively debate among linguists, researchers, teacher educators and teachers themselves. That debate has yielded many insights, including the idiosyncrasies of ELF, the various competences necessary in ELF interactions and the urgent need to rethink the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) so as to incorporate ELF. In this regard, the notion of “ELF awareness” (e.g. Sifakis, 2019) has been recently developed, focusing on how teachers can be empowered, through critical reflection and action research, to question, reconsider and enrich their current practices by appropriately integrating ELF in their classrooms. This paper presents an original Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Course for EFL teachers with an overt ELF-aware orientation. The Course has been developed in the framework of ENRICH, an EU-funded project (Erasmus+/2018-2021), by a network of teacher educators from Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal and Turkey. It adopts a blended-learning methodology (face-to-face/online) and includes two main phases. Phase 1 involves awareness-raising through specially-designed CPD materials and activities on using, teaching and learning English in ELF environments (e.g. regarding translanguaging), while, in Phase 2, the participants engage in action research, by developing, implementing and evaluating context-sensitive ELF-aware lessons. The establishment of mentoring partnerships and transnational teacher communities is highlighted in both phases, aiming at promoting critical reflection on one’s views, attitudes and practices, encouraging constructive dialogue and providing, when appropriate, intellectual challenge and emotional support. In this paper, emphasis is placed on the challenges and opportunities encountered throughout the Course development and implementation, as well as on the implications for teacher development. Sifakis, N.C. (2019). ‘ELF awareness in English Language Teaching: Principles and processes.’ Applied Linguistics, 40/2:288-306.
