Teacher Education for Global Englishes Language Teaching

May 2025 – Volume 29, Number 1

https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.29113r5

Teacher Education for Global Englishes Language Teaching
Author:	Denchai Prabjandee (2025)
Publisher:	Bloomsbury
Pages	e-ISBN	Price
pp. xiv + 248	9781350414778	£64.80 (PDF)

In the era of globalization, English has transformed into a dominant lingua franca in various academic, professional, and social fields (Rubdy & Saraceni, 2006), demanding a new approach in English teacher education that no longer focuses on native speaker standards, but is more inclusive of the diversity of users and contexts of English use around the world (Schreiber & Jansz, 2025). This urgently requires an educational model responsive to today’s global reality. Denchai Prabjandee’s book “Teacher Education for Global Englishes Language Teaching” is an important contribution to language teacher education, offering a critical perspective on English language learning models more relevant to today’s global reality. Through a qualitative approach that focuses on research and the author’s experience in the context of teacher education in Thailand, the book introduces a transformative, empowering, and critical language teacher education to prepare English teachers to implement Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT). The Global Englishes paradigm encourages a shift from monolingual instruction to a more inclusive, plurilingual pedagogy that reflects the sociolinguistic realities of English as a global lingua franca (Boonsuk, 2024). This book explores basic theory of teacher education design for Global Englishes, the knowledge needed to prepare teachers, and teacher education programs. Through this book, readers can understand that the primary focus of GELT is not on grammatical accuracy and pronunciation, but rather on creating effective and comprehensible two-way communication between speakers and listeners. This approach emphasizes the importance of communication over traditional norms of ‘native’ English standards (Rajprasit, 2022).

This book covers various subthemes and is divided into five sections, each addressing core aspects of Global Englishes and Teacher Education. The first part (Chapters 1-2) introduces the background and context of this book and explains Global Englishes and their impact on teacher education. Prabjandee explains the relationship between their professional and personal background to describe how the concepts of GELT are applied to teacher education programs and their practice. It emphasizes the need for a change of perspective and approach in teaching English in an increasingly connected world by inviting teachers to adapt their teaching practices to global sociolinguistic realities. The second section (Chapter 3) focuses on teacher education, taking a critical, transformative, and empowering approach to help teachers assess assumptions about English and adapt their teaching practices according to the GELT framework to prepare students to use English with linguistically and socioculturally diverse interlocutors.

The third section (Chapter 4) addresses the knowledge base for teacher education in implementing GELT. Prabjandee argues that the Global Englishes knowledge base is context-dependent and frees teachers to experiment, adapt, and refine their knowledge and practices in implementing the Global Englishes paradigm. The fourth section (Chapter 5) focuses on practical examples and implementation. Prabjandee presents examples of how teacher education can be applied in learning, revealing that training teachers of Global Englishes is not just about classroom learning but also relates to broader policies and curricula. The fifth section (Chapter 6-7) discusses future critical research areas. The chapter calls for support for English teachers in implementing the Global English paradigm.

The book Teacher Education for Global Englishes Language Teaching is a significant contribution to English language learning. The author’s long experience in teaching and research make the contents of this book a practical and applicable solution to the implementation of GELT. Its systematic presentation makes this book easy for readers to learn and understand gradually, starting from basic concepts to the practical stage. Prabjandee uses      clear and straightforward language that will help readers adapt teaching methods to the local and multilingual context of students so that learning may become more relevant and no longer tied to the standard native speaker English model. The book includes useful additional resources, such as practical examples, reflective questions, and a list of further reading related to the topics at the end of each chapter.

Despite its strengths, this book has some shortcomings that need attention. For one, the book explicitly criticizes traditional evaluation systems that refer to native-speaker norms. However, the authors do not provide sufficient practical examples of how to resolve the underlying issues. For example, the “multicompetent users”-based assessment that focuses on assessing communicative competence (p. 25) is only explained theoretically. Readers are not given a real representation of how assessment rubrics are designed, the criteria used, and how the results are measured. This could make it difficult for teachers to implement this concept in the classroom. In the education context, a clear and measurable evaluation system plays an important role in ensuring the achievement of learning objectives. Additionally, the implementation of GELT in this book refers to Thailand’s national policy that requires Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) as an approach in the Basic Core Curriculum for English language teaching. This may make its application in other contexts or regions with different curricula difficult.

Overall, the book provides an introduction and exploration of the concept of Global English and its implications for language education in a global context. It emphasizes the need for educators to adapt their teaching practices to reflect the diverse language and cultural realities of English speakers around the world. Although the focus of research and experience is only in the context of teacher education for GELT in Thailand, the content is applicable and relevant to countries with similar cultural characteristics and education policies. This book is a valuable reference for educators who want to understand and apply the principles of Global Englishes and GELT in their teaching. Through a research-based approach and first-hand experience in teacher education programs, this book will be very useful for academics, prospective teachers, and policymakers who want to adapt curricula to the increasingly complex needs of global communication.

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful for the support offered by Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan (LPDP) and Beasiswa Indonesia Bangkit for this publication.

About the Reviewers

Herlianisyah Lubis is an English Language Education Lecturer at STAIN Sultan Abdurrahman Kepulauan Riau, Indonesia. His research interests include Teaching English as a Foreign Language and Teaching English as a Second Language. ORCID ID: 0009-0000-5203-6249. <herlianisyahlubis680gmail.com>

Fachrurrazi is a Lecturer at STAI Darul Hikmah Aceh, Indonesia. His research interests include Arabic language education, foreign and second language education, and teacher education. ORCID ID: 0009-0007-6815-8372. <razistaidarulhikmah.ac.id>

Fina Aunul Kafi is Lecturer at a Universitas Al-Falah As-Sunniyah Jember, Indonesia. His research interests include foreign language education, second language education, and educational technology. ORCID ID: 0000-0003-0392-6530. <dewakusiwagmail.com>

To Cite this Review

Lubis, H., Fachrurraza, Kafi, F. A. (2025). [Review of the book. (2025), Teacher education for global Englishes language teaching, by Denchai Prabjandee]. Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal (TESL-EJ), 29 (1). https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.29113r5

References

Boonsuk, Y. (2024). “Teacher, I don’t know how to describe ‘Tom Yum Kung’ in English, but I know ‘hamburger’ and ‘pizza’:” Will Global Englishes language teaching be a beacon of hope or a recipe for disaster in Thai ELT? International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12667

Rajprasit, K. (2022). Design and development of an English as a global language MOOC to increase Global Englishes awareness: Evaluation in a Thai university. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature, 28(1), 121–138. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2022-2801-09

Rubdy, R., & Saraceni, M. (2006). English in the World: Global Rules, Global Roles. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Schreiber, B. R., & Jansz, M. (2025). Global Englishes-oriented teacher education: Lasting shifts. ELT Journal, 79(1), 35–43 https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccae027

© Copyright rests with authors. Please cite TESL-EJ appropriately. Editor’s Note: The HTML version contains no page numbers. Please use the PDF version of this article for citations.