Job Discussion Forums

[Professional TEFLer]

The future of TEFLing is bright! Why? English IS the universal language for business.

[nomad soul]

Predictions from nearly 10 years ago...

English teaching industry set for boom
By theguardian.com | 9 December 2004
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/dec/09/tefl

English learning is set to rocket with half the world's population speaking the language by 2015, new research revealed today. Two billion people will start learning English within the next 10 years and three billion will speak it, a study for the British Council estimated.

But by 2050 the boom will be over and the English language teaching industry will have become a victim of its own success, David Graddol's report The Future of English said. Mr Graddol's research, based on a new computer model, is revealed today at the council's Going Global conference on international education in Edinburgh.

The lecturer, who has worked in education and language studies at the Open University for the last 25 years, developed the model to estimate demand for English language teaching. It charted likely student numbers in classrooms through to 2050 by looking at Unesco estimates on education provision, demographic projections, government education policies and international student mobility figures. The impact of educational innovations and other developments affecting the world population were also factored in.

Based on its findings, Mr Graddol has predicted that the world is about to be hit by a tidal wave of English. Two billion people could be learning it by 2010/2015, making a total of three billion English speakers worldwide, he said.

But demand for teaching is sure to drop as children already study it when they learn to read and write and more universities across the world choose to teach in the language. Mr Graddol predicts that the wave will soon smooth out and that the boom will be over by 2050, leaving the £11bn English teaching industry high and dry.

English language students will be down from two billion to 500 million by 2050, the researcher said. The fact that more people can speak English is also not necessarily good news for native speakers who cannot speak other languages as well.

It is only one of the languages people are learning and the world, far from being dominated by English, is to become more multilingual. Chinese, Arabic and Spanish are all popular and likely to be key languages in the future, Mr Graddol said. German is also apparently being used more as a foreign language, particularly in parts of Asia. French as an international language could be a major casualty of this wave of "linguistic globalisation", he said.

(End of article)

[Professional TEFLer]

[Phil 999]

[LongShiKong]

[Professional TEFLer]

[Phil 999]

Yes I'd say the innovative push through Science and Technology is part, one big part, of the equation and will keep the red bills floating our way...

However, and perhaps I'm slightly old fashioned with my preference for what I see significant for our future profession, I see intellectual procedures gained/inherited as an issue far removed from issues of imperialistic or economic/political nature and more involved with appreciation, respect and unification of pyschological abilities from a wide variety of cultures. There are many so called linguists and I'm sure politicians with hidden political agendas who have halted and still haunt the progression of a humane and effective education.

Of course greed and ignorance will always fight against this but quite obviously keeps us the more stagnant in our endeavours to educate to levels that English require.

[Solar Strength]

[nomad soul]

[jpvanderwerf2001]

It is my opinion that those who think the TEFL industry is "dying" are those who lament the higher qualifying standards being imposed by more and more countries on teachers. It's simply not as easy to throw on the backpack, show up at some other country, and get a decent-paying gig simply become one is a native speaker.
That being said, for those who are qualified, it's my estimation that the industry (along with the ESL industry in English-speaking countries) is quite strong.

[nomad soul]

[mortilap]

Here's a thought:

What about the future of technology and language translation? Who says students even need to LEARN English when it can just be translated for them? Ex: Google Glass just came out, and I wouldn't be the least surprised if they incorporated some sort of language translation into it- just so that a person DOESN'T have to learn English. Instead, a person could put on Google Glass, go to Spain, and understand everything perfectly as the words of Spanish speaking people are converted to English via Google Glass.

Plus, as technology gets cheaper and cheaper, and more and more efficient- what's to stop some sort of high quality translation software from making it's way to the masses? That would pretty much eliminate the need for anyone to learn English- they could just have it translated to their native language.

[Sashadroogie]

It is not really a technology issue. Few if any computer programmes can cope with what can loosely be described as 'language in context' - certainly nowhere near as efficiently as a human brain can, even by speakers with only a modicum of foreign language. Just look at the rubbish Google Translate spews out : )

[coledavis]

[coledavis]