TESOL initial teacher training and TESOL curriculum goals: making the connection

Abstract

APEC countries represent , in TESOL terms, two very different groups. Firstly there are the English L1 countries (US, Canada, Australia, NZ) where the English proficiency of the majority can be taken for granted and where English needs to be taught only as a second language or additional language to people arriving in the countries from overseas. In the second group, the majority of APEC countries, English is a foreign language, and if a government feels it to be an important aspect of the wider curriculum, systems need to be established to provide English teaching to all pupils in all schools. These are very different TESOL environments and what is appropriate and helpful in one, is not necessarily of relevance to the other. The paper that follows focuses on the EFL context typical of the majority of APEC members, although at times it draws from literature deriving from the English native speaker members also