Why the need for Global English Teachers Rising

Global Need for English Teachers Rising

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With the fast-paced changes brought about by globalization and technological development, TESOL professionals need to understand current socio-economic factors and their influence on English language teaching. The industrial societies of the past are giving way to a new post-industrial economic order based on globalized manufacturing and distribution.

Informationalism has given rise to economic, social, and cultural dynamics which are very different than those of the industrial area and which are shaped by an overriding contradiction between the power of global networks and the struggle for local identity Simply put, people's lives are increasingly affected by international networks operating via financial markets, transnational corporations, and the Internet which impinge on traditional seats of authority and meaning, such as family, patriarchy, and nation.

While the rise of “informationalism” is still in its infancy, it has already had an important impact on the field of TESOL. One of its consequences is the dominance of the communicative approach within the field of English language teaching (at least in theory, if not in practice). The increased global contact brought about in the new network society through international tourism, business, scientific exchange, and media places a premium on the ability for communication in [English]

The emphasis of the communicative approach on functional interaction, rather than on achieving native-like perfection, corresponds to the imperatives of the new society, in which English is shared among many groups of non-native speakers rather than dominated by the British or Americans. This trend toward multinational integration, making use of English as an additional language, has developed furthest and fastest in Europe, and thus it is not surprising that the shift toward communicative language teaching arose earliest and most prominently in Europe. As this new stage of global capitalism expands and develops, new challenges will be posed to the English language teaching profession.

 As we look toward the 21^st century, three consequences of informationalism are likely to impact English language teaching: (1) global Englishes (2) employment patterns, and (3) technology.

Global Englishes

Globalization is unfolding in a two-stage manner. In the first stage, global media and businesses extend their reach into new domains throughout the world. In a second stage, these same businesses and media are re-localized in order to best meet the economic and social imperatives of functioning in different regions of the world (see discussion in Graddol, 1997). An example of this phenomenon is seen in the global spread of the music television network MTV, which first broadcast a single version internationally but now is increasingly developing regional versions in a variety of languages and dialects. As Castells put it, "we are not living in a global village, but in customized cottages globally produced and locally distributed" (1996, p. 341).

Just as businesses and media have experienced globalization and re-localization, so has the English language. But the very growth of English has shifted the balance of forces within it, with second language speakers by some accounts now outnumbering first language speakers (Crystal, 1997). This explains in part the shift to a communicative approach in English language teaching mentioned above: it would be rather odd to insist that all learners adapt to an English or American model when second language speakers increasingly use English to speak to other second language speakers, rather than to native speakers of the language. At the same time, the imperatives of international communication demand that some level of mutual intelligibility be upheld.

Increasing numbers of people around the world turn to English as a requirement of international communication, but they emphasize their own local variety of English rather than submitting to colonial standardized norms in order to project their identity and values. This is true in many countries where English is spoken as a second language, that is, as an additional language of communication among citizens of the country, such as Singapore, Malaysia, Nigeria, or the Philippines. Perhaps most interestingly, a rejection of Anglo-American English is also emerging in what have traditionally been thought of as expanding circle countries, as these countries now become integrated into regions where English is a second language. 

First, English teachers will need to reconceptualize how they conceive of the link between language and culture. Culture remains an integral part of language learning, but our approach toward culture must become multi-faceted, taking into account the diverse cultures of the many people who speak English around the world. There is no single formula for how to handle issues of culture in teaching. Teachers will need to vary their approach depending on the particular audiences being taught and their purposes in learning English.

The growing role of different varieties of English will also necessitate a new respect for bi-dialectism and multi-dialectism, again taking into account the needs of the learners. Japanese university students hoping to pass the TOEFL will need and want to study standard American English. But primary students in Calcutta, secondary students in Hong Kong, or adult workers in Dubai may all have needs to master more than one dialect.

In summary, in the 21^st century there will be a growing basis for learners around the world to view English as their own language of additional communication, rather than as a foreign language controlled by the "Other". Teachers would do well to exploit this situation by creating opportunities for communication based on the values, cultural norms, and needs of learners, rather than on the syllabi and texts developed in England and the United States.

Employment

A second major way that “informationalism” will impact English language teaching in the 21^st century relates to trends in employment. Simply put, the jobs that existed in the industrial era are disappearing and are being replaced by new types of job and work requirements that didn�t exist before.

According to Reich (1991), the earlier categorization of blue-collar factory workers and white-collar office workers is no longer meaningful. Rather, employees in the United States and other developed countries now fall overwhelmingly into one of three categories.

 The first category is routine-production service workers. These include factory workers but also routine information workers such as data processors or payroll clerks.

 A second category is in-person service workers. These include workers such as janitors, hospital attendants, and taxi drivers.

A third category is what Reich called symbolic analysts, because they spend much of their time analyzing symbol-based (numerical and textual) information. These include software engineers, management consultants, strategic planners, lawyers, real estate developers, and research scientists. Reich offered no opinion as to where teachers fall in this hierarchy, but he did suggest that university professors are symbolic analysts. As will be discussed below in the section on distance education, I believe that educators, including those at the university level, face the threat of having their work "de-skilled" and shifted into the service categories.

Thus new work skills of symbolic analysis are emerging as crucial for success in the 21^st century. These include skills of critical analysis, evaluation, experimentation, collaboration, communication, abstraction, system thinking, and persuasion (Reich, 1991). And, due to globalization, these skills are increasingly applied in English language contexts.

Not only American and British firms, but many other transnational firms based in Europe and Asia use English for international communication and even for national communication. Thus Swedes working for the high-tech Swedish firm Ericsson communicate with other Swedes using EnglishWhat does this mean then for English language teaching? First, as already mentioned, it underscores the role of English as an international language for global communication.

Secondly, it signals a change in the types of communication required in English. A large and increasing number of people, even if they never set foot in an "English-speaking country," will be required to use English in highly sophisticated communication and collaboration with people around the world. They will need to be able to write persuasively, critically interpret and analyze information in English, and carry out complex negotiations and collaboration in English.

Apparently, the need for highly advanced communication skills in English is also shaping adult education in the United States. Recently, ESL surpassed Spanish as the main language taught at Berlitz (Rosen, 1999). The expensive Berlitz courses are not taken by immigrant workers, who are the main clientele of adult government-funded ESL programs in the US. Rather, the enrollees are foreign executives, managers, and scientists working in the US, who can communicate on a functional basis without problem, but now find that they need more sophisticated communication skills to carry out their work. Instead, new project-based approaches will have to be found that give students the opportunity to learn and practice the kinds of analytic problem-solving and argumentation that they will need in English if they are to compete for the better jobs in society.

Technology

While the U.S. has been a world leader in Internet use, other industrialized countries are catching up. And the fastest growth on the Internet is occurring in emerging economies of Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.

Simply put, information technology is rapidly posing itself as the medium of a new, and fourth, revolution in human communication and cognition, matched in significance only by the prior three revolutions of language, writing, and print (Harnad, 1991). Information technology will impact how people interact, access information, and share information as greatly as the Gutenberg revolution 500 years ago. And what�s more, this impact will occur much more quickly.

The following are some of the new language and literacy skills that are required by the extensive use of information technology, divided into the broad categories of reading/research and writing/authoring.

Reading/research

• Finding the information to read in the first place (through Internet searches, etc.)
• Rapidly evaluating the source, credibility, and timeliness of information once it has been located
• Rapidly making navigational decisions as to whether to read the current page of information, pursue links internal or external to the page, or revert back to further searching
• Making on-the-spot decisions about ways to save or catalogue part of the information on the page or the complete page
• Organizing and keeping track of electronic information that has been saved

These may seem like esoteric skills for a class of beginning English learners who are still trying to figure out how to decode simple words. But as English expands in the 21^st century as a language of international communication, the number of learners who master basic English skills will grow.

 

Writing/Authoring

(Integrating texts, graphics, and audio-visual material into a multimedia presentation)

• Writing effectively in hypertext genres
• Using internal and external links to communicate a message well
• Writing for a particular audience when the audience is unknown readers on the World Wide Web
• Using effective pragmatic strategies in various circumstances of computer-mediated communication (including one-to-one e-mail, e-mail discussion lists, and various forms of synchronous real-time communication).

The Digital Divide

Educators teaching in schools and communities lacking computer access will need to resist two false prophets: techno-infatuation and techno-cynicism. Those infatuated with technology would have us believe that every educational problem can be solved by throwing in computers and Internet connections, and that any delay in doing so will cause communities to fall desperately behind. Unfortunately, the rush to computer-based instruction in poor communities and countries is often ill planned  drawing resources away from more urgent educational needs with limited results.

Techno-cynics make the opposite mistake, claiming that the computer is just a tool, and an expensive one at that, and should yield to other pressing concerns. But computers are more than a benign optional tool for language learning. The ability to communicate and conduct research in English using computers can have an important impact on a student's life opportunities. And it is precisely those with limited economic resources who will have less opportunity to use computers and the Internet in home environments. Thus use of computers in schools might provide these students the only access to socially-valuable literacy practices that wealthier students get at home.

Conclusion

The trends mentioned in this paper will intensify in the 21st century. According to demographic projections, the relative number of English native speakers will decrease compared to the population of the world (or compared to native speakers of other fast growing languages such as Spanish, Hindi, or Arabic, see Graddol, 1997), while the number of speakers of English as an additional language will rapidly increase.

In summary, if the central contradiction of the 21st century is between global networks and local identities, English is a tool of both. It connects people around the world and provides a means to struggle to give meaning to those connections. If English is imposing the world on our students, we can enable them, through English, to impose their voices on the world.

(TOP 10 Reasons Why Education Will Shift on a Global Scale)