Winds of Change and Clouds of Ideas: What is the Future of ELT?

Abstract

Teaching is challenging at a time when changes are rapidly taking place in education along with the interface of technology.Positions of language teaching institutions and teachers are changing and so are perceptions of what constitutes learning. There is a need to take these changes into consideration while designing teaching for the future. This paper is premised on two contexts – FP courses at the Centre for Preparatory Studies, Sultan Qaboos University and FP courses at the Sohar University, Oman. This paper examines teaching and learning in the digital era. Then,a discussion of the 21st century students, society and the global demands, which arealso influenced by technology will be investigated. Finally, the expected challenges of teachers’ preparedness in using technology, along with adoptingpotential approaches for teaching will be discussed.
 Keywords: changing perceptions, 21st century needs, General Foundation Programs, future of English language teaching