English Language Learning

In recent years there has been a dramatic change in the scope of English language teaching worldwide and consequently, growing demands on those charged with providing an adequate response to the impact of the world-wide spread of English. Increasingly an English-proficient work force in many key sectors of the economy as well as the ability to access the educational, technical, and knowledge resources that English provides, are seen as essential features of contemporary societies. But the demand for competent English users, as well as adequately prepared English teachers, often exceeds the supply.

It is this gap between demand and supply that provides the motivation for endless cycles of curriculum review and innovation in many parts of the

The relationship between the two has often been problematic. These two strands provide what has come to be the established core curriculum of TESOL training programs, particularly at the graduate level, where course work on topics such as language analysis, discourse analysis, phonology, curriculum development, and methodology is standard. The language-based courses provided the academic content, and the methodology courses show teachers how to apply such knowledge in their teaching. An unquestioned assumption was that such knowledge informs teachers’ classroom practices. Recent research however shows that teachers in fact are often unable to apply such knowledge in their classrooms and that teachers draw on other sources of knowledge in the classroom. Despite knowing the theory and principles associated with Communicative Language Teaching for example, in their own teaching teachers are often seen to make use of more traditional activities in their classrooms. Responding to this charge, innovative teacher education programs now seek to expand the knowledge base of language teaching to include the processes of teaching and teacher-learning itself, and the beliefs, theories and teacher knowledge which

If English is taught as a practical tool, to function as one part of the learner’s overall communicative repertoire, traditional formulations of desired outcomes – targeting an advanced level of language learning that mimics the competency of the native speaker - may be unnecessary and is largely unattainable in most circumstances anyway. Rather, most learners in EFL contexts need to be equipped with a type of language proficiency that enables them to deal with both professional and real-life situations, that gives them a command of thinking and problem-solving skills in English that can be achieved with an upper-intermediate level of language proficiency. A different kind of proficiency in English is needed, one which will help employees to advance in international companies and improve their technical knowledge and skills. It also provides a foundation for what have been called “process skills” – those problem-solving and critical-thinking skills that are needed to cope with the rapidly changing environment of the workplace, one where English plays an increasingly important role. Although considerable skill in language use is required, native-speaker proficiency is neither an attainable, nor in most cases, a necessary goal, a fact that the developers of the Common European Framework, seemed to have