What was the biggest change in TEFL in the Noughties?
If you’d asked me in 1999, I probably would’ve predicted that Task Based Learning was going to take over the TEFL world, for better or worse. What a damp squib that turned out to be, with apparently even Cutting Edge no longer being described as a task based course. Despite being ubiquitous in UK state schools, Interactive Whiteboards remain the next big thing in TEFL and so don’t quite cut it as the biggest change of this decade either. Ditto with the thing that is stealing TBL’s thunder, CLIL.
Here are some things that could be candidates, and you can vote for these or add your own suggestions in comments below:
- Books based on electronic corpora, e.g. the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, The Cambridge Grammar of English and Academic Vocabulary in Use
- Teacher development videos, e.g. included with the latest edition of The Practice of English Teaching or available on YouTube
- Illegal copies of TEFL books, videos and recordings being available for Bit Torrent download
- Use of YouTube in lessons
- Most students having electronic dictionaries
- The proliferation of TEFL teaching certificates, with some of the new ones apparently overtaking Trinity and nipping at Cambridge ESOL’s heels
- Online TEFL teacher training
- The expansion of Wall Street English and other schools where the student does most of their study on computers
- TEFL job ads moving entirely online
- The Oxford Basics series and other books aimed at the minimal resources, minimal training and sometimes minimal language skills of the majority of real English classrooms around the world
- The commercialisation of the British Council
- Onestopenglish and other publishers’ sites taking over from independant sites
- ESLprintables.com and other materials sharing sites
- TEFL blogs
- The influence of Dogme ELT
- The influence of the idea of English as a Lingua Franca/ English as an International Language
- The availability of online English lessons, e.g. via Skype
- The expansion of IELTS
- University and Assistant Language Teacher posts been subcontracted out to language schools and recruitment companies
- Static or dropping ELT wages in Thailand, Japan, UK etc
- The long decline in the number of new methodology and photocopiable books
- The expansion of English into primary schools in most countries of the world
- Digital voice recorders
- The expansion of the EU
- Countries considering Indian and Filipino teachers in place of overpriced and underqualified Brits, Yanks and Aussies
- Marketing departments in publishers deciding on the next book up then commissioning it from writers, and hence the disappearance of sending in an idea for a book and getting it commissioned
- The decline in reputation of International House
- The rise and fall of Dave’s ESL Café
- The appearance and disappearance of TEFL Blacklisting sites
- The decline in influence of the Pilgrims mafia
- The reacceptance of a need for a “focus on form”
- More and more specialist ESP
- Computer based testing
December 21st, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Pretty exhaustive list! Has the British Council ever not had a commercial bent? It was happily co-publishing with Longman HK back in the early 90s…
The only one I’m not sure of is publishers taking over independent sites. (Unless you meant teacher resource sites.) It would only take one inspired publisher to buy up these great TEFL blogs and pay a small wage to the owner. Do you know any inspired publishers?
December 21st, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Great list, Alex! Can’t add anything new…except perhaps teaching and learning in online communities and a refocus on autonomous learning.
Merry X-mas, c u in the new year
Karenne
December 22nd, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Thanks for the comments and RTs. The publishers one is meant to be taking over from (i.e. taking readers away from), rather than taking over, but I might be buyable if the price was right…
Anyone want to vote on which one was most important change (which is what I should’ve written instead of “biggest change”)?
Idea stolen from here:
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/p/366249/5116754.aspx#5116754
December 24th, 2009 at 1:42 am
I think ELF will prove to be the biggest change (countries considering Indian and Filipino teachers is a part of that). All this technology offers wonderful opportunities, but I don’t think it will change good pedagogy. The implications of the ELF and globalisation are immense.
December 24th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Oh, interesting thoughts about task based learning. It hadn’t occurred to me, but looking back, I’d have laid the same bet. Heck, I even did an MA dissertation on TBL in the 90s. I wonder if its main tenants were sort of ‘common sense’ though, so they haven’t presented enough new information to create a major shift in how we work and think.
Personally speaking, I’d say the biggest catalyst for change in your list has been:
Use of youtube videos in lessons
Close runners up are more and more specialist ESP and ELF (think Darren’s right that being around for ages)
But what about the next decade, Alex? Where are we heading? I’d love to know what other folks think. When we look back in ten years time, what will have impacted the way we teach most?
December 24th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Sorry, forgot to say an addition to the list might be socioliguistics and pragmatics?
December 25th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Sadly, I think the biggest change has been in the financial rewards for teachers of EFL both in the UK and abroad. Increased competition from non-NESTs, a lowering of standards and the economic problems in various countries plus the world security situation has dramatically reduced the demand versus supply of qualified EFL teachers. Ergo, wages have dropped in real terms.
It’s still a field I’m glad and proud to be a part of, but the money is not like it was overall.
Perhaps I’m wrong. Who else has seen/felt this drop?
Japan used to be a good deal better paid. Korea too. UK wages can be ridiculously low. Wages in France nowadays seem to be subsistence level or less. The middle east can still pay well, but again, not like in 2000.
This drop in the income level of teachers means a lowering of status and makes it harder for experienced professionals to stay in teaching, many going back to schoolteaching or becoming academics. Teachers take on extra work to make ends meet and this leads to a lowering of standards in the classroom. Most teachers agree that about 20 hours a week is a fairly full teaching load, but 30+ is common.
More and more teachers are specialising in niche markets in order to remain competititve. All reasonable and perhaps inevitable.
I’m nostalgic for the days when it was possible to live abroad, have a fair standard of living, save a little and still have time and energy to experience the place you lived. People did do this, right? How many do today?
I suppose EFL is becoming a job market rather than an alternative lifestyle, and with low demand for graduates in English speaking countries, many more will turn to TEFL as a way of avoiding the dole or call centre type jobs.
I’m rambling I know, but I think this trend drawfs any other change in EFL over the last 10 years.
January 10th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
[...] Alex Case got the jump on everybody here, with his “What was the biggest change in TEFL in the Noughties?” post–getting the Noughties-nostalgia ball rolling with a laundry list of candidates for most [...]
January 10th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
You know, I just found this recently from a link on another blog. Alex Case, there is a good reason why you are the big daddy (or whatever term of respect you choose) of the blogosphere: you have all the good ideas first! Well done, and nice list. You got the jump on me once again!
Lindsay Clandfield, author of Six trends of the 00s in language teaching, a poorer version of the great post above.
January 10th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
And did you notice how I managed to resist telling you this time. Took some keeping my blogging ego under control, I can tell you…
Can I choose “The Godfather”?
January 11th, 2010 at 9:54 am
Right, that’s decided. You are (in my books) the official Godfather of the ELT blogosphere – feel free to include that in your bio. You only need the white cat purring on your lap.
Once I figure out a way of getting 1 cent for every visit to my blog my lawyers will be in touch with you to discuss compensation and royalty issues of intellectual rights. In the meantime, you will just have to settle for the industry rate (which, in ELT terms, is…)