Preparing to teach English in the age of English as a global lingua franca: Insights from Austria and Hungary

Abstract

English Language Teaching (ELT) and English language teacher education should nowadays reflect the global role of English while also taking local realities into account. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate the use of English in everyday life and the views on teaching English of student teachers in two central European countries, Austria and Hungary, by means of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that the attitudes and views of student teachers of English are similar in the two countries. The one pronounced difference between the groups concerns the ideal of the native speaker (NS) teacher. The study shows promising avenues for future research and highlights the potential benefits of international cooperation in teacher education.