Enhancing Global Englishes in Secondary Education: Addressing Student Needs Through Teacher Education and Curriculum Innovation

As English continues to evolve as a global lingua franca, integrating Global Englishes into language education has become increasingly vital to address the diverse communicative needs of learners. However, research on the implementation of Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) framework in high school contexts, particularly for teacher education and curriculum innovation, remains limited. This qualitative study explored the needs of Macau high school students for GELT curriculum innovation and their perspectives on in-service GELT professional development. Through thematic analysis of the data collected from semi-structured interviews, the findings revealed students’ strong demand for changes across multiple dimensions of GELT, highlighting a gap between the current ELT curriculum and GELT, while also identifying opportunities for a greater alignment to GELT. Students considered multifaceted in-service GELT professional development crucial for empowering teachers to implement and localise GELT practices effectively. Rather than viewing GELT as an abstract concept, students recognised its practical value in motivating their English learning and preparing them to function as future English as a lingua franca (ELF) speakers. The study offers significant implications for the contextualisation of GELT in high school settings in Macau and beyond, shedding light on language policy change, teacher education reform, and curriculum innovation.