Recently, a friend of mine attended the TESOL Conference in Denver, Colorado. She told me how globalization was an important issue and that it was changing the face of TESOL. She mentioned that people were talking about getting away from the “native English teacher” mold, and instead of teaching English as a second or foreign language, it should be teaching English as an international language. Since there are far more non-native English speakers, the teaching of English should step away the native English teacher mold, both culturally and linguistically.

TESOL Convention 2009

Currently, the client companies that NewPath works with require “native English speaking teachers.” For Japan and South Korea, it seems that there is still a ways to go before non-native English teachers are accepted equally. There have been some signs that things are changing, however. I have noticed that public schools have begun to hire English teachers from countries such as the Philippines and India. I think that as globalization and the demand for English education continues to grow, learning English will have a stronger emphasis on effective communication and not so much on being able to speak with a native accent. What do you think?