ABSTRACT
Although the 21st century is exciting and fast-paced, with daily technological advancements and innovation, it is also challenging to keep up with the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful and productive. Education systems worldwide need to address issues related to economics, politics, health, and the environment as well as integrate skills such as the four C’s, i.e., communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity. This chapter will explain 21st-century skills based on two internationally recognized and widely used frameworks: Partnership for 21st Century Learning (Battelle for Kids, 2019) and International Society for Technology in Education (2020). It will also show the relationship of English emerging as the world’s lingua franca and what this means for English language teachers preparing their students to communicate in a multilingual, multicultural, and multimodal world. This chapter will serve as an introduction to the book by connecting 21st-century educational frameworks to the emerging pedagogical approaches for teaching English as an additional language that are grounded in postmethod, translingual, multimodal, and critical pedagogies.
