Page 26 - ELG2301 Jan Issue 483

TEACHER TRAINING .

PHOTO SHUTTERSTOCK

The changing world of

English teaching

Five ways the ELT industry is evolving, according to Beatrice Segura Harvey

f you had been asked five years ago what you What do my teachers need to empower them 1. The English language is changing.
thought the EFL industry would look like for the future? So I embarked on a research This isn’t about adding a few new words
today, would you have said: “The English project that focused on teacher development, to the Oxford English Dictionary, it’s about
Ilanguage will have changed dramatically”, particularly teacher competencies, with an how entire dialogues and conversations are
or “Mental health in the workplace will be a aim at answering a difficult question: What taking place online. The pandemic propelled
bedrock”? Or, even, “The teacher of today is constitutes an effective teacher, post-pandemic? online mediated communication into the
not the teacher of yesterday”? Probably not. The research collected data from managers, consciousness of almost everyone. How
But then, who could have guessed the world teacher educators, policymakers and industry many of us struggle with those awkward
would have gone into a lockdown (sorry to experts. The findings revealed 13 key areas Zoom moments when the flow of dialogue is
mention it!). of change. Here are just five of those insights interrupted by several people trying to get a
As a Director of Studies, I witnessed from the research that I feel we urgently need word in?
unprecedented levels of change in a few short to talk about as a community, and which might With more communication online, there
months and found myself asking: How can I help us and our institutions make decisions for is inevitably a shift in how we communicate,
support my teachers when so much is changing? a better future: not just verbally, but non-verbally too. This
26 January 2023