With English becoming the world's foremost lingua franca, the pressure to improve English language education (ELE) has been steadily increasing. Consequently, the nature of ELE has changed drastically in the last decade. This has not only brought about a number of changes in the way English is taught and learnt, but it has also led to various innovative practices around the world. As a result, this edited book aims to shed light on the new theoretical and methodological developments in the field of ELE as well as the major issues and difficulties faced by practitioners in different parts of the globe. One very important variable that the book takes into account is the role that English already plays in a particular society since this may affect the views that teachers and students hold of the language. This in turn can significantly influence the way English is taught and learnt in given political, economic and socio-cultural settings. The purpose of this book is therefore to provide a comprehensive overview of the pedagogical methods, policies and problems that underlie English language education in ten different regions across the world, including: the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Japan, China and Hong Kong. In doing so, the different chapters in the book emphasize the importance of responding to linguistic and other forms of diversity in order to develop English language education in a globalized world. This book will be useful for teachers and students of English language, for English language curriculum and materials developers, and for those involved in educational policy-making and language acquisition research. Written by experts in the field, the range of content covered in the book's chapters will also help policy-makers, researchers and practitioners develop effective English language education practices and policies, and propose solutions to emerging issues in English language teaching and learning in different environments around the world. The newly-developed arguments and concerns pertaining to English language education will serve as future reference for professionals interested in this area of expertise.

English, as a global language, plays a vital role in every one’s life. Students think that English language opens the door of the world for their future life. But as an alien language, the learners find it very difficult to understand the language. Not only to understand but to read, write and speak. A social language may be learnt quickly as there are many chances to encounter with public people who speak this as their mother tongue or a community language. But English is not a social language so all learners face difficulty. This difficulty may be eased out by adopting different methodology for learning English language. This could be possible only for educational institutions. In India and non English speaking countries, English could be learnt only in schools, colleges and Universities. So it is very important that methodology for English teaching should be often checked and updated. Earlier chalk and talk method was adopted. In due course, it underwent many changes and it, now has become student centric and the teacher has become a facilitator for the students in teaching learning process. The classroom, once a four wall room with a single board and small chalk piece, has now become a smart classroom with white smart board and an electronic pen stick. Even an LKG classroom is connected to the world and with one click the whole world comes into the classroom through internet services and displayed on the white board. If Shakespeare is taught, his manuscript of the text is displayed and his life is shown as a video film. If the Universe is taught to the students, the video of the Universe is shown and the real scientists are explaining the doubts of the students and they chat with the learners. As we are living in such a modern and advanced period, teaching methodology for English teaching should be updated to meet the challenges of today’s world. Education is the only way for the humanity to live happily and peacefully. Education connects the whole world for the benefit of the human race which is not possible for animal beings and other creatures also. In this process, English language plays a crucial role and an edition of book chapters may benefit the student and teaching community to update the teaching methodology of English language. So, this edition is brought to fulfill the need of the current society.

New Directions in English Language Teaching: Issues,Practices, Challenges attempts to create a comprehensive vision of critical and culturally relevant English teaching methodologies at the cusp of the 21st century. The present book is multi-voiced. It includes perspectives from classroom teachers, teacher educators and researchers in language and literacy, positioned to respond to recent changes in national conversations about literacy, learning and assessment. These vividly situated authors also recognise the rapidly changing demographics in colleges, the changing nature of teaching English in the digital age, and increasing demands for teaching pedagogies. This book is critically placed at the juncture of numerous directions in novel techniques. At all times, education is a political act, and colleges are embedded with a socio-culture reality that benefits some at the expense of others. Therefore the approach advocated through many of the chapters is one of critical literacy where English students gain reading and writing skills and proficiency with digital technologies that allow them to become more able, discerning, and empowered consumers and producers of texts.

This book focuses where assessment has greatest relevance—the classroom. A great deal of research related to assessment is focused on ‘the testing industry’, high-stakes language proficiency testing, and related analytical and statistical reports that are far removed from teachers’ and students’ experiences in the classroom. Recently, more attention has been paid to assessment in language classrooms and the many challenges that teachers face in both measuring and promoting student learning. This book contributes to the body of knowledge related to teacher assessment competence, and how it is manifested in the decisions they make about assessment procedures and instruments in their classes. Focused on specific challenges related to classroom assessment, each chapter reports on particular assessment issues faced by teachers, their choices regarding such issues, and the consequences (actual or anticipated) of their decision-making. This book will interest the thousands of teachers globally dealing with the numerous challenges associated with effective classroom assessment in language learning. This collection of teacher voices, stories, and investigations provides possible solutions to such challenges, and will serve to promote assessment literacy in the language teaching profession.

Despite being highly debated in applied linguistics and L2 teaching literature, the controversial issue of (non)nativeness still remains unresolved. Contemporary critical research has questioned the theoretical foundations of the nativeness paradigm, which still exerts a strong influence in the language teaching profession. Written by well-known researchers and teacher educators from all over the world, both NSs and NNSs, the selected contributions of this volume cover a great variety of aspects related to the professional role and status of both NS and NNS teachers in terms of both perceived differences and professional concerns and challenges. The strongest aspects of this volume are the global perspectives and the implications for future research and teacher education. It is precisely this international perspective which makes this volume illustrative of different realities with a similar objective in mind: the improvement of second language teaching and teacher education. In today's world, being a NS or NNS should not really matter but rather teachers' professional competences. This publication thus provides a forum of reflection and discussion for all L2 educators who need to be aware of how much they might offer to their future students.

This text goes back to basics by investigating fundamental assumptions about the way English should be defined and taught as a foreign language. It looks at different attitudes to English teaching, and critically examines proposals for course content.

Current Issues in Second/Foreign Language Teaching and Teacher Development: Research and Practice represents a collection of selected papers from the 17th World Congress of the International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA), which was held in August 2014 in Brisbane, Australia. The volume comprises 18 chapters presenting current research projects and discussing issues related to second language acquisition, teaching and teacher education in a variety of contexts from around the world. This collection of research papers will be of use to both new and seasoned researchers in the field of applied linguistics. Teacher educators, language teachers and language policy makers will find this volume equally useful as the papers address current issues in language education.

This edited volume presents an inter- and multidisciplinary approach towards language teacher education, confronting the issues that have continued to pervade the field for the last two decades. Featuring contributions from researchers and teacher educators located within a truly international spread of countries – Mexico, Palestine, Tunisia, Cyprus, and Kuwait to name a few – chapters adopt an ecologically glocalised approach to understand how English language teaching is theorised and practised in different educational contexts across the world. Research gathered from interviews, meta-analysis, and international case studies is showcased as chapters consider both pedagogical and online issues within, as well as critical approaches to, language teacher education. Professional development and evaluation programmes across different educational contexts are discussed in-depth along with guidance and insights for the future of the field. The book will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students working in the fields of English language teacher education, TESOL, applied linguistics, continuing professional development.