In your opinion, what are the most three important contemporary issues in foreign language teaching at present?

1. 1. In your opinion, what are the most three important contemporary issues in foreign
language teaching at present?
Author: Kameran N. Abdullah
Cyprus International University
English Language Teaching
Spring 2020
Considering the most important issues that has currently became trend in the field of English
language teaching, one must first take a look at the research that has been conducted in this
domain during the recent decade. However, due to the large number of papers that have been
published in this time interval and various online and paper journals that cover these issues,
providing exact answer to this question through statistics is a very hard job, if possible. In this
regard I answer this critical question and express my opinion, by reviewing the most frequent
topics in the field of TEFL, and providing support using the related literature in this domain.
Considering the literature in this regard we can mention Alptekin and Tatar (2011) who reviewed
130 papers in the field of foreign language teaching from 2005 to 2009 and compared the focus
of these studies with the focus of studies in the previous decades and found that there was a shift
of interest from research on theoretical issues to practical concerns after the twenties’ century.
Similarly, Aydinli and Ortaçtepe (2018), conducted an overview of research in the domain of
English language teaching as a foreign language from 2010 to 2016 and the results of their study
revealed that compared to the previous research works in this field of study, the trends have been
changed by the shift of special focus on conceptual development to the practical concerns. They
believed that the recent studies in the realm of TEFL in their country focus on three major topics
of ELT and language teachers, English language learning and language learners, and In-service
and pre-service teacher education/professional development. On the other hand, as claimed by
Aronin and Spolsky (2010), topics including teaching students from home or visits abroad, the
specialized studies of dyslexia, English for academic purposes (EAP), and computer-assisted
instruction, are the most common issues in TEFL studies coducted from 2004 to 2009 in the
context of Israel.

2. Accordingly, to answer this question that what are the new tends in the domain of Foreign
language teaching in recent decade, I also reviewed the topics of the papers that had been
published for the period of 2009 to 2019 (up to now) through surveying the papers from four
famous journals of TESOL quarterly, ELT journal, Teaching and Teacher Education, and ELT
Worldwide as the sample of the whole papers published during this time interval, and came to
the following findings that slightly support the claims of Alptekin and Tatar (2011) and Aydinli
and Ortaçtepe (2018):
By reviewing the related paper topics and their comparison with the previous trends in this
domain, I found that since the beginning of research in the field of language teaching, and in this
case English as a foreign language, we face a transition of focus from impacts of different
instructional methods, technics and strategies on students learning to the effectiveness of eclectic
method, real life use of L2, and interesting, attractive and motivating language teaching
strategies; transition of focus from teaching to learning, from teachers to learners, from language
teaching strategies to the language learning strategies and in general and in the most cases from
instructional issues to the psychological issues.
In general, following the above explanations, in my opinion, the three most important topics that
have been addressed by the researchers in the recent decade included:
1. Learners’ self-efficacy and motivation
2. Teachers’ /learners’ beliefs or opinions
3. Language learning strategies
References:
1. Alptekin, C.,& Tatar, S. (2011). Research on foreign language teaching and learning in
Turkey (2005-2009). Language Teaching, 44(3), 328-353.
2. Aydinli,J., & Ortaçtepe, D. (2018). A Country in Focus: Selected research in applied
linguistics and English language teaching in Turkey: 2010–2016. Language and teaching,
51(2), 210–245.
3. Aronin, L., & Spolsky, B. (2010). Research in English language teaching and learning in
Israel (2004–2009). Language Teaching 43(3), 297–319.

3. 2. Which language will have been widely used as an international language by the end
of 21st
century?
Languages around the world had been created by human kind from thousands of years ago as a
means of communication to express feelings and meet the people's needs. However,
demographically speaking and based on the long distances among the different geographical
locations where the initial societies emerged, we came up with a variety of languages around
the world, the number of which are estimated to be over 7000 languages. Since until the recent
century people did not have possibility to travel from one country to another, or from one place
in the world to another place, the languages were localized and there were no need for a single
language to make communication between people of different nations. However by the creation
of transportation means, including the creation of car, train and planes, and with the advances in
technology especially the emergence of TV and social media and more recently the internet and
the extensive use of social networking, a new era of communication emerged, where the people
from different nations visited, contacted, and interacted with each other. Therefore the need for a
common language to facilitate the communication between people from different geographical
and cultural backgrounds was felt, and this need was soon met by selecting and introducing the
international language. The term ‘international language” has been simply defined as the
language being used by different people from different countries with the aim of communicating
each other (Smith, 1976). It must be asserted that all languages have equal values and they are all
precious and important, but not all of them good choices to be used as the international language.
In fact, various features have been defined for an international language. In this regard, a
desirable language that can be used globally should be easy to learn and easy to use both in case
of speaking and writing, with less complicated grammar.

4. Today, English is being used globally as the most spoken language in the world, while in past
French used to be the international language. Depending on the conditions and unpredicted
changes in the world or the political decision makings in the global level, maybe in future the
tendency to use English as the international language declines, and it gives its place to a new
language. While English has been considered as a communication tool which unites and
empowers the people from all over the world with different cultures, nationalities and from
different races (Pandarangga, 2015), this language is regarded as a threat to the language
diversity in the world by some scholars, in the sense that they believe its dominance in the world
and its extensive use by people from different countries has destroyed and in some cases has led
to death of some other languages (Tsuda, 2008; Phillipson, 2008; Florey, 2010).
In recent decades many attempts had been taken in this regard to develop a new language
independent from any specific culture and political representation. Esperanto was a language or
in fact an interlanguage which was developed in this respect with the aim of becoming the
international language and taking the place of English language. However, it was not successful
in this regard and was not really a serious rival to the English language, and therefore, it was
soon declined over time.
In fact, English language is a special and unique language among the other languages for it is
highly convenient, popular, and preferred among people around the world and it is the language
which is most frequently used in education, communication, trade, and occupation areas (Gradol
1997, Ammon, 2001; Baker, 2006) and it is the formal, main and even second official language
of many countries.
All in all according what I was mentioned above, I think although nothing is impossible in this
world, to me the probability of English language to be replaced by another language in future
(until the end of 21rst century) is very low. In fact, in my point of view, English language will
stay as the most frequently used language worldwide and as the international language in all
areas.
References:
Ammon, U. (2001). The Dominance of English as a Language of Science: Effects on Other
Languages and Language Communities. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.

5. Baker, C. (2006). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (4th). United States of
America: Archetype-IT Ltd.
Florey, Margareth. (2010). Endangered Languages of Austronesia. Retrieved from:
http://books.google.com.au/books?id=eNF4FxSd-LgC&pg
Graddol, D. (1997). The future of English. Retrieved from http://www.british
council.org/English/pdf/future.pdf
Pandarangga,S. (2015). The Transformation of English as a Global Language in the World.
Lingua, 10(2), 90-96.
Phillipson, R. A. (2008). Lingua franca or lingua frankensteinia? English in European
integration and globalisation. World Englishes, 27(2), 250 – 267. Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-
971X.2008.00555.x
Smith, L. (1976). English as an international auxiliary language. RELC Journal, 7(2), 38-42.
Tsuda,Y. (2008). English Hegemony and English Divide. China Media Research, 4(1), 47-55.