Abstract:

As we find ourselves in a postmodern era, it is no mystery that globalization sets the stage for a world that is in constant change, and one in which language barriers are becoming more flexible and blurred (Byrd Clark, 2010; Davis, 2014; Garcia, Zakharia, & Octu, 2012). Therefore, there is a need to revisit the language education ideologies and methodologies being employed in the teaching of world languages and second languages. The present descriptive comparative study describes and analyzes the differences and similarities between how second and third world languages are taught in North America, specifically in the United States (US), and in countries that form part of the European Union. Using George Bereday’s (1964) model for comparative inquiry, the study analyses the most common frameworks used for teaching English as a second language and world languages in the US and the European Union. Dominant frameworks of language acquisition in the US, which form part of the study, include the World-class Instruction Design and Assessment (WIDA), which is used in 31 out of 50 states in the US, and that of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), which is a common framework that focuses on the teaching of world languages and is employed in the US and in some parts of Canada. Furthermore, in reference to the European Union, the guidelines outlined in the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR) are examined. The study also analyzes the underlying philosophical assumptions that motivate the policies, practices, and language acquisition theories that generate these assumptions in both the US and the European Union. Finally, conclusions are drawn from the comparison of the teaching methodologies and ideologies defining language instruction in the US and the European Union and suggestions are made in order to reflect the changing global settings of today in which migration is inevitable and a collapse of language barriers is leading to notions of translanguaging and multilingual education in many areas of the globe.

Keywords:

Language education, language-teaching ideologies, language-teaching methodologies, world language education, second language education.