Developing a capacity to make "English for Everyone" worthwhile: Reconsidering outcomes and how to start achieving them

Past decades have seen a growing assumption worldwide that national governments should provide ‘English for Everyone’ (EFE) as a core component of their school curricula. Personal and national benefits expected from such English provision are generally expressed in terms of developing learners’ abilities to communicate in English. Despite enormous financial and human investment, actual outcomes are often disappointing. One reason for this, in many contexts, is policy makers’ wholesale appropriation of ‘native speakerist’ (Holliday, A., 2005. The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language. Oxford University Press, Oxford). EFE curriculum rhetoric and teaching-learning outcomes, without adequate consideration of the demands made on English teachers’ existing professional understandings and practices.

A new phase of international activity is urgently required in which national EFE curriculum outcomes are readjusted to more closely ‘fit’ existing contextual realities and priorities, and teacher educator capacity is developed in a manner that will enable most classroom teachers to help most learners feel that their language-learning efforts are worthwhile.