Preparing English language teachers to design learner-centred instruction requires a defensible connection between knowledge of learners and the decisions embodied in a lesson plan. This conceptual study develops a framework for teaching that connection in preservice education. A purposive theoretical synthesis integrates constructive alignment, learner agency, accessible task design, language education descriptors and formative assessment. The analysis examines which planning decisions each perspective supports and where additional decision rules are needed. Its principal result is a five-component framework linking learner evidence, integrated educational purposes, learning activity, assessment evidence and conditional revision. A design matrix and an illustrative English lesson show how a common communicative objective can coexist with differentiated support and explicit opportunities for respectful participation. The framework locates professional competence in the quality of justified design decisions rather than the completeness of a lesson-plan template. Its contribution is an operational account of how responsiveness to individual learners can be made visible and reviewable before classroom implementation. The proposed relationships are theoretical and require empirical evaluation; no intervention effects or learner gains are reported. Implications concern teacher education assignments, mentor questioning and assessment of instructional design portfolios.