ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book addresses issues of larger social and cultural importance: international conflict and the need to exercise increased caution when communicating across borders. It also addresses the increasing social and cultural diversity of industrialized societies; the growing economic disparities between those who can afford to travel abroad and those who can not. The book assesses the multilingual composition of the student body in foreign language classes; the increased need for economic accountability and the growth of the testing industry. It explores the relentless pressure to develop a communicative competence of the global kind found in the virtual environments of social media. These pressures clash with the institutional structures inherited from the nineteenth century. English as a Second Language (ESL) or English as a Foreign Language (EFL) still perceived as a remedial endeavour on academic campuses.
