Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Across the world, it is estimated that close to a billion people speak English. Additionally, one in four of us has some competency with the language and previous research has indicated that non-native speakers outnumber native speakers by three to one. This very moment a further one billion people are learning English; in schools, universities, at home and on the Internet. English as a global lingua franca is reaching more people than ever before. Since the middle of the twentieth century, the rigidly programmed view of language learning has been vigorously challenged. This has been mostly due to the fact that the traditional learning methods ignores the individualization, needs, abilities, and learning processes of the individual learner, and also suppresses creativity and spontaneity of the teacher in responding to the learning situation. The search for alternative approaches in the twenty-first century has included renewed calls for individualisation, and attempts to radically restructure (or even destructure) the TEFL curriculum. Yet, how is the twenty-first century meeting the challenges of teaching a truly global language? Many systems have been developed in order to bridge the gap between native and non-native speakers of English, yet none have sufficiently closed this distance. Using the power of the information revolution to bring authentic English learning to every corner of the globe, English teaching applications are tackling these challenges head on. This sheds new light on these challenges and practices through an examination of various English teaching applications.