Professionalising English language education: Teaching English in Nigeria in an interdisciplinary seminar

Gut, Ulrike; Matz, Frauke

Abstract

The worldwide spread of English, the development of distinct varieties of English and its use as an international language around the world require novel approaches to English language teacher education. This chapter reports on the Master of Education seminar ‘Teaching Nigeria’, which was taught by an interdisciplinary team of didactics and linguistics lecturers and which aimed at equipping future English language teachers with the knowledge, competences, skills and attitudes necessary for future-oriented English language education. Specifically, the seminar aimed at fostering students’ knowledge and metalinguistic awareness of the range of linguistic variation across forms of English spoken around the world, the development of informed attitudes towards varieties and speakers of English, the acquisition of cultural competences, and the emergence of a general understanding of the benefits of interdisciplinarity. We will show that a seminar of this type can support future English language teachers’professionalisation in terms of linguistic, didactic and cultural competences.