Abstract:

Mastering foreign languages in general and English as a second (or foreign) language in particular is one of the primary goals of any professional in the 21st century due to increasing importance of international and intercultural collaboration. While some authors claim that we will witness “a technologically – enabled return to a state of Babel” (N. Ostler) and, therefore, will be able to understand each other with the help of instant computer translation, others stress the importance of making a personal effort to learn foreign languages. There is enough scholarly evidence that learning foreign languages, does not only help acquire an ability to collaborate with international colleagues and entities, but also boosts cognitive development of a person and even helps combat neurodegenerative diseases.

It seems to be hard to believe that language learning used to be a long and complicated process and, therefore, reserved for a privileged few. In the middle of 20th century with growing international cooperation, it became widespread and since then the demand for learning foreign languages has been growing steadily and now it is higher than ever before. It was not until the middle of 20th century or even later, however, when academic community came to realization that it is not enough to teach grammar and vocabulary and recognized the importance of cultural proficiency. Moreover, the Common European Framework Reference developed by the Council of Europe altered the attitude to learning languages and made the outcomes of the learning process more measurable.

The main objective of this research is to investigate the evolution of ESL teaching methods, the reasons for predominance of this or that method in different periods of time, the advantages and disadvantages of currently popular foreign language methods for adults.

Keywords:

ESL, adult education, teaching foreign languages, cultural proficiency, 21st century skills, bilingualism.