EPILOGUE

Teaching English in Global Contexts: Language, Learners, and Learning is an appropriate title for this book because of its expansive nature—recognizable by anyone who has read even just a few chapters. More than 60 authors from nine countries contributed 55 chapters to this book. Arranged in nine parts, these chapters cover a vast range of topics that are valuable to all educators teaching English regardless of their setting. 

An Epilogue typically summarizes the main points of a given book. However, because the Prologue provides such a summary, this Epilogue instead focuses on how readers can best use this book. Likewise, because the Prologue emphasizes how instructors can employ the contents from this book in their teacher preparation courses, this Epilogue focuses on how all readers can benefit, including those who are reading these chapters as assigned coursework.

Given the expansiveness of this volume, it may be difficult for you to reflect on all of it at once. Instead, start by asking yourself this simple question: How can the things I learned in this book affect my teaching? You could ask this question after reading a selected chapter, all chapters in one of the book’s nine parts, or the entire book. However, even if you have already graduated with your degree or have taught for several years, it is never too late to reflect on how this book can enhance your teaching. In the future, you might even consider re-reading this book or going back to your favorite chapters. If you revisit this book, ask yourself how its chapters can continue to support your lifelong learning, perhaps as ongoing professional development or within future studies or research endeavors. 

To maximize what you can learn from this book, think about why it was written. As explained in the Prologue, it was originally planned as a textbook for pre-service English teachers during their teacher preparation program in Paraguay. However, when this plan became reality, the actual book had doubled its anticipated size and expanded its scope. It had become a volume that could also serve as a major resource for experienced teachers who wanted to fill possible gaps in their knowledge and skills. These gaps could be aspects that had not been included in these teachers’ pre-service teacher preparation programs such as developments that emerged after having graduated. Later, these teachers might discover gaps in their own knowledge such as the importance of social emotional learning, the benefits of translanguaging, and the use of technology for teaching and learning. 

The Prologue provides several suggestions on how this book can be used for fulfilling its original purpose, that of preparing pre-service teachers. Here in the Epilogue, I provide suggestions on how this book can be used for fulfilling another purpose, that of providing professional development for experienced teachers. With that goal in mind, I encourage all readers, including those who contributed chapters to this book, to look through the book’s table of contents and identify book parts and chapter titles that might offer new information, new strategies, or new ways to think about teaching and learning.

If you are reading this volume primarily as a textbook, you have probably read chapters assigned by your course instructors. Nevertheless, you can also benefit from other chapters listed in the See Also section of each chapter. By reading these related chapters, you will gain an even broader understanding of the topics in the assigned chapter. By doing so, you might even be previewing some chapters before they become assigned readings in one or more of your future courses.

For those who are embarking on a thesis or dissertation, this book can be invaluable. First, think about whether you want to focus your research on language, learners, or learning. Next, examine the titles of the nine parts listed in this book’s table of contents and think about the variety of topics represented by each of these parts. Then, carefully examine the chapter titles within each part and think about topics that might be represented by these chapter titles. Based on this, identify a part with chapters that seem to fit well with your projected interest. After identifying this part (e.g., Part VIII Assessment), read the abstracts for the chapters in that part and narrow the scope of a potential topic. From within this part, choose one or more chapters that could support this topic. Finally, carefully read one of your chosen chapters as well as related chapters listed in this chapter’s See Also section, recommended websites in its Expanding Further section, and cited sources in its References section—especially via online links such as the digital object identifier known as DOI. Use the information gathered from these multiple sources to guide you in making decisions about your research questions, theoretical stance, and research methodology. Because this book contains contributions from around the globe, it can provide a global perspective of your chosen topic as well as a sense for the variety of perspectives held by diverse scholars.

Indeed, the large number of contributions from around the world that represent the thinking of multiple scholars in the 2020s is one of the many reasons that makes this book so special. Originally envisioned as a textbook for a specific audience (pre-service Paraguayan teachers), this book expanded its scope to the extent that it became a volume offering an amalgamation of concepts important to all language teaching professionals. Furthermore, as stated in the Prologue, because this volume is an online open resource publication, it offers equal access to all English teachers worldwide. As such, the impact of this volume cannot be overstated.

For this Teaching English in Global Contexts: Language, Learners, and Learning book, we owe our thanks to the editors, Valentina Canese and Susan Spezzini. When they began this project, it was envisioned simply as an e-textbook for teacher preparation in the Paraguayan context. With limited time to undertake such a project, Valentina encouraged Susan, her longtime colleague, to collaborate while in Paraguay as a Fulbright Scholar. When Valentina and Susan realized the broad scope of their ambition, they emailed a call for chapters to colleagues near and far, and these colleagues then forwarded this call for chapters to an even wider pool of potential authors. The result of this global collaboration is the volume that you have just read. To the editors, to the authors, and especially to Julia Austin for her careful editing, we are extremely grateful.

In closing, this Epilogue acknowledges the contribution made to this book by the government of the United States of America through its Fulbright grant program (https://fulbrightscholars.org/). In truth, this book was only possible because of the Fulbright scholarship received by Susan so that she could collaborate with Valentina, herself a two-time Fulbrighter. As also a recipient of two Fulbright awards, I am intimately aware of the deep lifelong connections that international scholarships foster as well as the global impact of these associations. As such, I am excited to share this volume with my own colleagues around the world. 

Leslie Barratt

Indiana State University, USA

Leslie.Barratt@indstate.edu


Montevideo, Uruguay