1. Isabela Villas Boas
Casa Thomas Jefferson

2. A few disclaimers:
- This is not a talk that I
removed from my “shelf of
talks”;
-This is not the definitive guide
to 21st Century learning and
teaching;
- I am not an expert who will
fill your “empty heads” with
my encyclopedic knowledge;
- There are many, many ways
to discuss this topic; mine is
just one way, my way...

3. English in Learning Teaching
the 21st in the 21st in the 21st
Century Century Century

5. More people use
English today than
have used any
other language in
the history of the
world.
(David Crystal, 1997)
Crystal, D. (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

6. Kachru’s three circles (1986)
Expanding circle
Outer circle
Inner
circle
Kachru, B.B. (1986). The alchemy of English: The spread, functions and models of non-native English.
Oxford: Pergamon.

8. McKay, S. (2002). Teaching English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

9. Linguistic and cultural forms
expressed through ELF are
likely to be hybrid, dynamic
and continuously adapting to
local needs, global influences,
and the demands of
communicating across
cultures.
Baker, Will. The cultures of English as a lingua franca. TESOL
Quarterly, 43 (4), December 2009 , 567-592(26).

10. – Can non-native varieties by accepted as
“standard”?
– How much grammatical variation is possible?
– Can non-native but intelligible pronunciation be
accepted as standard?
– What about pragmatic and discourse variation?
– Is a “common core” possible?
– Has the pluricentricity of English been reflected in
ELT materials and international tests?
– Shouldn’t native speakers also learn how to use
EIL?
Clyne and Sharifian (2008). English as an Internatinal Language:
Challenges and Possibilities. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics.
28.1-28.16. DOI: 10.2104/aral/0828.

11. Of course, in one sense the problem goes away if
you re-construe the goals of instruction as being
those that are defined by the learner and driven by
the learner’s needs, rather than being
predetermined by the curriculum designer or the
coursebook writer. If you take an ESP approach, for
example, and, start off by identifying the kinds of
contexts the learner is going to operate in, with
whom and for what purposes, using what kinds of
texts and registers, at what degree of intelligibility,
in combination with what other languages, and
employing what kinds of skills and strategies, you
don’t have to label the goals as EFL, ESL, ESP, ELF or
EIL – or anything! Leave the labelling to the
sociolinguists.
Thornbury, Scott (2011). E is for ELF. An A-Z of ELT. Web. April 3, 2011.

12. ELF as a Function
Every classroom activity, every material already has the potential
to become part of an ELF pedagogy. What teachers need to do is
look at those elements critically, asking important questions such
as,
“What variation might there be to this form/utterance/interaction/habit?”
“How can I better present such variation to my students?”
“If we change the context of this particular interaction, what else will need to
change?”
“Who are the participants in this interaction? What do we know about them?
How does this kind of information help us make decisions about what and how
to say what we have to say?”
“How do I as a teacher and person respond to difference and variation? How
do my views of the above impact my teaching?”
“What is the context in which my students are likely to use language? Can I
emphasize those while also introducing other scenarios/varieties of
language/vocabulary items/cultural orientations?”
Friedrich, 2011 - http://nnest.blog.com/author/isabela.villasboas/

14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni75vIE4vdk&feature=relmfu

15. Students
nowadays do
not need to
wait for a
curriculum to
teach them
what they want
to learn.

18. NO! They need teachers to teach them the content
and skills they will need in the future!
- problem-solving
- critical thinking
- working collaboratively
- thinking creatively

19. Human society has experienced
three profound social, economic,
and cultural transformations—
the agrarian revolution, the
Industrial Revolution, and now
the electronic revolution.
Cookson Jr., Peter W. What would Socrates Say?
Educational Leadership, 67 (1), pp 8-14.

20. We need to be on the right
Technology
side of history if we are to solves all the
survive and thrive. If we problems
harness them correctly, we
can blend the best of our
traditional intellectual linear
culture—Socrates' wisdom
of the 5th century BCE—
with the current digital
culture, creating a new
Technology makes
people dumber learning and intellectual
environment consistent
with the cognitive and
Peter W. expressive demands of the
Cookson Jr. 21st century.

21. We must overhaul and redesign the current school system.
(…) Mass education belongs in the era of massive armies,
massive industrial complexes, and massive attempts at social
control. (…)
If we stop thinking of schools as buildings and start thinking
of learning as occurring in many different places, we will free
ourselves from the conventional education model that still
dominates our thinking.

22. Technical fixes to our outdated educational system are
likely to be inadequate. We need to adapt to a rapidly
changing world.
The 21st century mind will need to successfully
manage the complexity and diversity of our world by
becoming more fluid, more flexible, more focused on
reality, and radically more innovative. Four elements of
the 21st century mind could be the basis of a new
approach to education.
- Critical reflection
- Empirical reasoning
- Collective intelligence
- Metacognition

23. Five minds for the
future:
-Disciplined
-Synthesizing
- Creative
- Respectful
- Ethical
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/teaching/TC106-607.html

24. • The two brains work together.
• Learning is the formation of new
synapses and new dendrite
branches.
• Learning is effortful; we have to
strengthen the neural network
for retention.
• 83% of sensory communication is
seen, not heard
• Learning another language gives
you a better brain.
Janet Zadina, 2011. • The brain does not separate
emotion from cognition.

26. http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/09/09/five-characteristics-of-an-effective-21st-century-
educator/2/?

27. Anticipates the future
• Ensures that the
preparation of today’s
children is always focused
on preparing them for
the world(s) in which
they will live and work—
not the current world in
which the teachers have
to navigate and dwell

28. • Fosters peer relationships:
- Students may have 500 Facebook
friends, but do they know how to
be a friend?
- Technology can foster isolation;
therefore interpersonal relationship
skills must be taught in our
classrooms so that our students can
go on to be effective in the
workplace and fulfilled in their lives

29. • Can teach and assess all levels of learners:
– 21st-century educators must be ‘Situational Leaders.’ They
must assess where each and every student they teach is at
relative to ‘Learning Ability’ and ‘Commitment to
Learning.’ They must work to bring all students up to a level
where pedagogical learning is replaced by andragogy or an
adult learning style, where students have a say in their own
learning.

31. • Is able to assess effective vs. non-effective
technology:
– The effective 21st-century teacher will need to be adept in
judging the educative and non-educative use of
technologies made available to them and to their students
at school and at home. The potential downside of
technologies is their potential for non-productive use—
wasting time and resources. The upside though, is
significant if used properly.”

32. What Tech Tools Should Be
Required Knowledge for
Teachers?
By Mary Beth Hertz
8/3/11
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/technology-skills-required-knowledge-mary-beth-hertz

33. It’s not about the tools. Tools come and go, but being
able to see the forest for the trees is a life-long skill.

34. There are a few essential things that teachers should know:
• compose and check email and know how to attach files to an
email
• know that there are more choices than Google for searching the
Internet
• be able to locate resources on the Internet and be able to
evaluate sites for accuracy and relevance
• know how to navigate, find, save and open files and applications
on a computer of any OS.

35. if you want to be part of an extended
learning network or community, you have
to be findable. And you have to participate
in some way. The people I learn from on a
day-to-day basis are Googleable. They’re
findable, they have a presence, they’re
participating, they’re transparent. That’s
what makes them a part of my learning
network. If you’re not out there—if you’re
not transparent or findable in that way—I
can’t learn with you. (Richardson, 2010)
http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?intc=bs&sms_ss=
delicious&at_xt=4cb70612312f6b0e,0

36. • Is a lifelong learner:
– Flexible, willing to accept and embrace change,
willing to make mistakes;
– Willing to learn from colleagues and students;
– Able to pose open-ended questions to students
without having to know one exact answer;

37. • Is a lifelong learner: (my additions)
– Curious about subject-matter – in our case, English;
– Interested in students’world: what they listen to,
watch, wear, talk about, use, etc;
– Connected;
– Engaged in various types of professional development
opportunities;
– Able to reflect on how he/she teaches.

38. “It’s not the
doing that
matters; it’s the
thinking about
the doing.”