ENGLISH AS A LINGUA FRANCA AND A TEACHER TRAINING EXPERIENCE IN THE FEDERAL DISTRICT
BNCC; English as a lingua franca; language as social practice; translanguaging; critical interculturality.
It is undeniable that the English language is today the main language of global communications (Agudo, 2017; Ke, 2015). Such spread has resulted in a process of deterritorialization of the English language, which implies reflecting on how speakers from different countries are appropriating this language for different communication purposes. In the Brazilian educational context, the National Common Core Base (BNCC) recognizes this current linguistic phenomenon of the English language by considering the language from the perspective of English as a lingua franca (ELF), changing the nomenclature adopted in previous educational documents, such as the National Curricular Parameters (PCN) and the Curricular Guidelines for High School (OCEM), in which English was approached from the perspective of a foreign language. The adoption of the term ILF entails several consequences for praxis, however, the conceptual fragility of BNCC (Farias; Silva, 2020), in line with the lack of teacher training on the subject, does not allow us to glimpse the implications of this term for the classroom. Thus, this research, of a qualitative nature (Minayo, 2001; Prodanov; Freitas, 2013; Zanella, 2006), inserted in the scope of Critical Applied Linguistics (Pennycook, 2001; 2021) and anchored in the principles of research-training (Barreiro, 2009; Longarei; Silva, 2013; Ribeiro; Santos, 2016; Santos, 2005; Silvestre, 2016), aims to problematize the consequences of ELF for the praxis of English language teachers. To this end, a training action organized in 10 remote meetings was offered in order to discuss topics related to ELF, such as language as a social practice, linguistic repertoires, translanguaging, pronunciation from the perspective of ELF, culture and critical interculturality. The analysis of the empirical material generated through the classes offered was carried out from an interpretative perspective (Moita Lopes, 1994), using excerpts from BNCC, questionnaires, reflective field notes and materials produced by the participants of the training action as analysis tools. This study aimed to answer two research questions, namely: a. What are the teachers’ perceptions regarding the term ELF? b. What are the signs of ongoing changes in the practice of participating teachers promoted in and through the proposed training action? It is hoped that, by reading this study, other English language teachers will be able to give new meaning to their praxis, using ELF as a term that provides opportunities for teaching English focused on the local context and on contexts previously made invisible due to the strong binary United States x England present in English classes.