ABSTRACT
This chapter undertakes an autobiographic and critical reflection upon the mythical “native speaker” of English and its role in Brazilian higher education, to follow with a critical analysis of the concept of globalization as viewed from Brazil and its relation with the teaching and learning of English. It finally adopts a “glocal” perspective and makes some proposals based on the author’s experience in English teaching. This chapter briefly addresses how globalization has affected the status of English and EFL teaching and it discusses EFL as a way of wording English language teaching and learning, which needs to be reinterpreted in order to make sense in our times. Finally, the author comments on how a glocal perspective informs her work as an English teacher and a teacher educator and how she has been trying to cope with a world that is constantly changing. It is her belief that keeping our lens either only on the global or on the local will not help us much to think critically and creatively in complex times. Perhaps what we need is a sense of history, an awareness of what is happening here and there, locally and globally, an eye in the future, and faith in our decision-making power as teachers.
