Language Education In The 21st Century

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Language education in the globalised 21st century is an onerous task. There has been a paradigm shift in the learning of the language with numerous professional fields with its own set of vocabulary being established. This has entailed the inclusion of various words and grammatical forms that has brought about a transition in the language.

ESP methodology should include or take into consideration skills that can be inculcated in the students. 21st century educational institutions deliberate on including skills such as critical thinking and problem solving in the curriculum of the students. Moreover, today’s challenge in accumulating knowledge is given such importance that the seekers of knowledge presume that content no longer matters. The challenge lies in delivering the requisite knowledge of that particular field with the appropriate language and specific content.

This paper seeks to identify a set of core language needs of target learners and help facilitate learners to meet these needs.

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With the advent of international organisations there has been an increasing demand to concentrate on a language easily intelligible to the international community. The global high tech industry is characterized by extreme competitiveness, innovation and widespread use of English. In a global economy with an intensely competitive market any negative publicity about the language proficiency of a particular organisation can be detrimental to its growth. Consequently, high-tech companies require engineers who are talented both in engineering and communicative abilities. In the engineering arena, each field has its own set of jargons and Engineers face numerous communicative events which include highly frequent writing and reading...

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...o connect to their communities in person and interact with people from different cultures. This also transforms them into an independent self-starter who is responsible, persevering, self-regulating, reflective, self-evaluating and self-correcting.

To conclude by returning to a standpoint of applied linguistics and language testing, the case of global language testing can be seen as having singular significance. Not only may it suggest a model for the way in which our society feels it needs to ensure linguistic competence beyond an academic context in specific areas of activity where the accurate and reliable use of language is critical, using purposely designed assessment tools, but it is also indicative of our more developed awareness of the essential role of effective oral communication which plays at the heart of an increasingly complex and technological world.

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