A Diachronic Perspective on the Changing Roles of English as a Medium of Instruction

What are the implications for the unassailable position of the English language in social, professional and academic contexts in the world today? In this paper we briefly outline some of the watershed changes in the way we have viewed the teaching/learning of English and how we have evolved our notions as to what kind of English needs to be taught/learned. We argue that we are again at a watershed moment and intend to briefly analyse this and ask where we should be heading in the future.