The English language and its teachers: thoughts past, present, and future

This paper derives from a talk given last year in London at the IATEFL Silver Jubilee Seminar. John Swales was among a group of experts invited to consider developments in ELT over the last twenty-five years and predict what might be the issues of the next twenty-five years. His talk focused on the topic of the English language and its teachers, and ranged across a number of key issues: English as a world language, non-native users of English, aspects of language change, developing areas of language study, and the career concerns of the ELT profession.