Based on data from an ethnographic fieldwork in Thailand, my presentation seeks to address how the global spread of English has impacted the way EFL teachers perceive English, what it means to teach it, and how these perceptions are translated into their local classroom practices. Prominent in the findings is the theme of tension and the broader issue of theory-practice divide, manifested as a mismatch between the teachers' awareness of Global Englishes and lack of action. I argue that underlying this mismatch are the emerging tensions as they navigate the many ideologies, both within themselves and with external realities.
The global presence of English as a lingua franca has raised concerns in the research community regarding an urgent need for a shift in English language pedagogy. Teachers working within the immense ELT enterprise are now expected to participate in an unprecedented endeavour to better equip learners with both the necessary language skills and the awareness of the ubiquity of English varieties currently used among speakers, native or non-native alike. Now, twenty years into the twenty first century, such need for a paradigm shift has continued to be voiced, but rarely heard are the very voices of the teachers and their sense-making of the pedagogical implications of the ideological rhetoric underlying English teaching at operational level.
Following educational and professional journeys of seven in-service lecturers of English in two universities in Thailand, the study aims to understand how the global spread of English has impacted the way these teachers perceive English and how these perceptions are translated in their local classroom. The study employs an in-depth examination of on-the-ground ethnographic case studies data obtained over the course of four-month fieldwork from multiple sources: semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, classroom observations, and document analysis.
Upon investigating the cognition of English held by the Thai EFL university teachers, the study has uncovered a subtle thread of tension woven into the fabric of the relationship between teachers' cognition, professional identities, and pedagogical practices. Anchored within the overarching tension between theory and practice in the field of Global Englishes, the study discusses a myriad of tensions experienced by the teachers in the social process of identity development, highlighting the ways in which the agency of individual teachers plays a key role in negotiating conflicting ideologies, both within themselves and with 'new' emergent realities. Potential factors that underlie these tensions have been identified. These include the prevalence of standard language ideology, the teachers' superficial learning of Global Englishes content in their past language education journey, and a disconnect between researchers' etic perspectives and teachers' emic points of view, especially with respect to the ways 'ideal' English language teachers are defined. Taken together, these result in teachers' lack of deep conceptual understanding of Global Englishes, and ultimately the slow uptake of the global approach in actual language classrooms. In addressing the issue based on the findings of the study, I proposed the need to reframe the discussion about teachers' professional development in terms of roles, competencies, and professional efficacy. To conclude, practical suggestions are put forth on how language teacher education can leverage the concept of language teacher identity to help the teachers navigate the multiple tensions as they rebuild their teacher praxis toward becoming a globally-informed English language teacher.
