Glocalizing “foreign” language teaching in Taiwan: Conditions and convergences

With the transformation of English as an International language, the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) industry – from researcher to publisher to teacher – is burgeoning. However, as globalization deterritorializes English from native speaking peoples and places and thus necessitates a Non-Native Speaker (NNS) English Language Teacher population greatly outnumbering the Native Speaker (NS) one, the EFL industry has entered into a foggy post-methods era in which both the standards defining English as a language to be taught, and how it should be taught, are being contested in both English and nonEnglish speaking countries alike. The deterritorialization of English and the massive population of NNS EFL teachers, however, are also the conditions that point towards a solution to the pedagogical contentions: a principled pragmatism that encourages a convergence of “foreign” and local EFL pedagogies is starting to emerge.