An evaluation of negotiation of meaning strategies in an ELT coursebook from an ELF-aware perspective

In recent years, with the exponential growth of English as a lingua franca (ELF), the integration of ELF-related issues into English language teaching (ELT) pedagogy has been attracting an increasing amount of attention among ELF researchers. In this respect, a good number of empirical and theoretical studies have been conducted concerning teacher education and training so far. However, considered as a core of a particular program and the main medium between teachers and students, ELT materials are given little attention. More research is needed to gain a better understanding of the integration of ELF-related issues into ELT materials, and how ELT coursebooks deal with ELF-aware pedagogy. Thus, the present qualitative study aims to investigate how negotiation of meaning (NoM) strategies are dealt with in an international ELT course-book series used in the English preparatory classes of a university in Turkey with reference to ELF communication defined by existing empirical research in the field. In the first phase, the data about the perceptions and practices of the instructors obtained through an open-ended questionnaire were analyzed via thematic analysis. In the second phase, the course-book series were evaluated through checklists and analyzed via content analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the instructors are aware of the significance of teaching NoM strategies. However, they have some concerns about how to plan their lessons and to teach essential strategies based on their students' needs in the context of established native-speakerist institutional policies. Findings also revealed that the monolithic form of English and British-bound stereotypes are promoted in all levels of the Cambridge English Empower course-book series. A lack of pluricentric, dynamic, and variable use of English in audio and audio-visual materials indicates that authentic ELF interaction is to a great extent ignored. Moreover, communicative tasks and activities in the course-books are designed within Second Language Acquisition (SLA) framework which relies on native-speaker and Standard English (SE) norms. It is recommended that stakeholders should take brave actions to reconceptualize the content of ELT materials and appropriately design them by taking into account the implications of ELF-aware pedagogy. This study is expected to contribute specifically to materials development and evaluation, policy design, and planning in ELT within the framework of ELF. Keywords: ELF, ELF-aware language pedagogy, ELT course-books, NoM strategies