Pre-service teacher education: observing senior teachers through the theoretical lens of Ellis’s principles of instructed language learning

The study is based on a training project completed in Italy as part of a qualifying course for high school teachers of L2 English. The project moves around the framework that Rod Ellis proposed in 2010 on the relationship between Second Language Acquisition and Language Pedagogy and it argues the need for student teachers (STs) to take the role of classroom researchers during their learning process and carry out critical observations through a solid theoretical lens, such as the 10 principles for instructed language learning by Ellis (2005a, 2005b). Three case studies are analyzed to explore how STs observed classroom activities armed with the knowledge of the principles. Data is based on feedback they gave during seminar discussions and remarks made in written reports. Moreover, a follow-up survey of informants after five years’ in-service practice questions whether and how this experience influenced the quality and degree of their understanding of teaching and learning. Considering these results, suggestions are made for future implementations of this kind of project.