ABSTRACT

Since the 1970s, massive conceptual changes have taken place in our views of language and language pedagogy. These have been accompanied by an explosion in research, and prescriptions for pedagogical action. The emergence of English as a global language has thrust that language to the forefront in trade, politics, diplomacy, education, the media and entertainment. Despite this, we know comparatively little about the impact of this emergence on policies and practices in different parts of the world. In this chapter, I report on the results of a large-scale investigation into such an impact in the Asia-Pacific region. Although more than ten years have passed since the study was carried out, the outcomes and conclusions remain pertinent today.