Innovation in Language Learning

The paper is based on the postulate that no educational process occurs in a vacuum. Social and political context is a vital component in all institutional learning, and language learning is no exception. If students are not merely users of language but social agents, and we recognise the desire for effectance, then this context becomes all the more important.

The so-called Anglosphere represents a significant level of context: claims that English was a world language, the language of science and economics, or the language of popular culture rendered it automatically relevant. We teachers enjoyed linguistic privilege in which our subject was both the medium and arbiter of change.

Recent technological developments have transformed the globe, and increased opportunities for learning and teaching, offering hugely diversified means of experiencing language and practising it. Channels are different and often multi-modal, information is excessive, lexis and grammar are open to hyper-experimentation and the interconnected complexity of human actions present new tasks (and responsibilities) for language, as consensus breaks down and facts lack authenticity.

This paper suggests that language teachers have a unique responsibility to equip learners to navigate this environment, and this implies a significant reset in our assumptions – as to the role of English and as to the actual language we share with our students. The Anglosphere is changing fast – modes of communication, the political and social consensus, the reach of English, and this, coupled with technological change, could render Ostler’s prediction of the last lingua franca reality. The paper closes with a series of suggestions as to the kinds of activities and learning experiences we should use and encourage (e.g. to reduce cognitive biases and develop discernment skills) when the privileges of the Anglosphere are perhaps becoming a thing of the past.