The Changing Global Economy and the Future of English Teaching

This article analyzes the emergence of a new stage of global capitalism, called informationalism, and its consequences for English language teaching, focusing on three critical issues. First, globalization will result in the further spread of English as an international language and a shift of authority to nonnative speakers and dialects. This change will call into question basic notions of language, culture, context, and the relationship between ESL and EFL. Second, economic and employment trends will change the way English is used. Increasingly, nonnative speakers will need to use the language daily for presentation of complex ideas, international collaboration and negotiation, and location and critical interpretation of rapidly changing information. Finally, new information technologies will transform notions of literacy, making online navigation and research, interpretation and authoring of hypermedia, and synchronous and asynchronous on-line communication critical skills for learners of English. The above changes, taken together, will render ineffective curricula based strictly on syntactic or functional elements or narrowly defined tasks. Rather, project-based learning-incorporating situated practice and critical inquiry, and based on students' own cultural frameworks-will be required if students are to master the complex English literacy and communications skills required by the emerging informational economy and society. With the fast-paced changes brought about by globalization and technological development, TESOL professionals need to understand current socioeconomic factors and their influence on English language teaching (ELT). The industrial societies of the past are giving way to a new postindustrial economic order based on globalized manufacturing and distribution; flexible, customized production; the application of science, technology, and information management as the key elements of productivity and economy growth; and increased inequality between those who control technological and media resources and those who lack technological access and know-how (Carnoy, Castells, Cohen, &

[1]  Michael C. McKenna,et al.  Handbook of Literacy and Technology : Transformations in A Post-typographic World , 1998 .

[2]  Mark Warschauer,et al.  Network-based Language Teaching: An electronic literacy approach to network-based language teaching , 2000 .

[3]  Goldie Blumenstyk,et al.  The Marketing Intensifies in Distance Learning. , 1999 .

[4]  Gunther Kress,et al.  Visual and verbal modes of representation in electronically mediated communication: the potentials of new forms of text , 1998 .

[5]  Wang Wei,et al.  Electronic literacies: language, culture, and power in online education , 2000 .

[6]  M. Castells.  The Informational Economy and the New International Division of Labor , 1993 .

[7]  Larry Cuban,et al.  Computers Meet Classroom: Classroom Wins , 1993, Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education.

[8]  Mark Warschauer,et al.  Internet for English teaching , 2000 .

[9]  Fredricka L. Stoller.  Project Work: A Means To Promote Language Content. , 2002 .

[10]  Nelson R. Kellogg,et al.  The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st-Century Capitalism by Robert B. Reich (review) , 1993, Technology and Culture.

[11]  Suzanne de Castell,et al.  Defining "Literacy" in North American Schools: Social and Historical Conditions and Consequences. , 1983 .

[12]  M. Warschauer,et al.  Service Learning and Technology in TESOL. , 1999 .

[13]  M. Castells,et al.  The New Global Economy in the Information Age: Reflections on Our Changing World , 1993 .

[14]  Mizuki Miyashita,et al.  Enhancing Language Material Availability Using Computers. , 1999 .

[15]  Sarah C. Gudschinsky.  Handbook of literacy , 1962 .

[16]  Claire Kramsch,et al.  Authenticity and Authorship in the Computer-Mediated Acquisition of L2 Literacy. , 2000 .

[17]  Robert Phillipson,et al.  English Only Worldwide or Language Ecology , 1996 .

[18]  Andrew Feenberg.  No Frills in the Virtual Classroom , 1999 .

[19]  Mark Warschauer,et al.  LEOKI: A POWERFUL VOICE OF HAWAIIAN LANGUAGE REVITALIZATION , 1997 .

[20]  M. Warschauer,et al.  Virtual Connections: Online Activities and Projects for Networking Language Learners , 1997 .

[21]  Luis Osin,et al.  Computers in education in developing countries : why and how? , 1998 .

[22]  H. Schiller.  Information inequality : the deepening social crisis in America , 1996 .

[23]  Marian Cox,et al.  Critical Pedagogy in ELT: Images of Brazilian Teachers of English , 1999 .

[24]  Patricia Friedrich,et al.  (Re)experiencing hegemony: the linguistic imperialism of Robert Phillipson , 1998 .

[25]  Andrew Feenberg.  Distance Learning: Promise or Threat? , 1999 .

[26]  J. Gee.  Social Linguistics and Literacies , 1990 .

[27]  B. Morgan.  Promoting and Assessing Critical Language Awareness. , 1996 .

[28]  S. Michaels,et al.  A pedagogy of Multiliteracies Designing Social Futures , 1996 .

[29]  L. Jones,et al.  Functions of American English: Communication Activities for the Classroom, Student's Book , 1983 .

[30]  Thomas L. Friedman,et al.  The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization , 1999 .

[31]  Ronald A. Phipps,et al.  Quality on the Line: Benchmarks for Success in Internet-Based Distance Education. , 2000 .

[32]  Lester Faigley.  Literacy After the Revolution , 1997 .

[33]  Braj B. Kachru.  The Alchemy of English: The Spread, Functions, and Models of Non-native Englishes , 1990 .

[34]  Stevan Harnad,et al.  Post-Gutenberg Galaxy: The Fourth Revolution in the Means of Production of Knowledge , 1991 .

[35]  David Crystal,et al.  The future of Englishes , 1999, English Today.

[36]  Amar Almasude,et al.  The New Mass Media and the Shaping of Amazigh Identity. , 1999 .

[37]  Patricia Friedrich,et al.  Hegemonic discourse revisited , 1999 .

[38]  D. Graddol.  The Future of English , 2018, The Emergence and Development of English.

[39]  Jay David Bolter,et al.  : Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology , 1993 .

[40]  Harold H. Wenglinsky.  Does It Compute? The Relationship between Educational Technology and Student Achievement in Mathematics. , 1998 .

[41]  David F. Noble,et al.  Digital Diploma Mills , 1998 .

[42]  William Wresch.  Disconnected: Haves and Have-Nots in the Information Age , 1996 .

[43]  Makalapua Ka'awa,et al.  Incorporating Technology into a Hawaiian Language Curriculum. , 1997 .

[44]  M. Castells.  The rise of the network society , 1996 .

[45]  A. Holliday.  Tissue Rejection and Informal Orders in ELT Projects: Collecting the Right Information , 1992 .

[46]  David F. Noble,et al.  Digital Diploma Mills, Part 1: The Automation of Higher Education , 1998 .

[47]  N. Fairclough.  Global Capitalism and Critical Awareness of Language , 1999 .

[48]  Harold Wenglinsky.  Does it compute , 1998 .

[49]  Anne Pakir,et al.  Connecting with English in the Context of Internationalisation. , 1999 .

[50]  B. Peirce,et al.  Toward a Pedagogy of Possibility in the Teaching of English Internationally: People's English in South Africa , 1989 .

[51]  Marilyn Deegan,et al.  Writing space: The computer, hypertext, and the history of writing , 1993 .

[52]  Claire J. Kramsch,et al.  Out of the Woods: Emerging Traditions in the Teaching of Writing , 1991 .

[53]  J. Tollefson.  Functional Competencies in the U.S. Refugee Program: Theoretical and Practical Problems , 1986 .

[54]  James W. Tollefson,et al.  Power and Inequality in Language Education , 1995 .

[55]  Brian Morgan,et al.  The ESL Classroom: Teaching, Critical Practice, and Community Development , 1998 .

[56]  D. Noble.  Digital Diploma Mills, Part II: The Coming Battle over Online Instruction , 1998 .

[57]  Donna L. Hoffman,et al.  Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Use. , 1998 .

[58]  R. Phillipson.  Review article. Voice in global English: unheard chords in crystal loud and clear. David Crystal , 1999 .