ELF-aware pre-service teacher education: practices and perspectives

English as a lingua franca (ELF) is a recent paradigm in ELT which acknowledges non-native varieties in their own right and NNSs as having their own unique characteristics rather than assessing them against an NS benchmark. Despite the changing needs of today's English language learners, there is little research on how to integrate ELF into pre-service teacher education programmes and English language teaching practice since there is a theory-practice gap due to lack of clear pedagogical descriptions and concrete classroom-driven data. This study presents an intensive educational model for pre-service teachers aiming to raise their awareness of the pedagogy of ELF, synthesizing theory with practice. It investigates how prospective teachers exposed to the ELF-aware teacher education model integrated ELF into their teaching and their viewpoints about the process. The entire process has been reported to contribute significantly to the participants' professional development as well as presenting several challenges.