Meeting the Demand for TESL/TEFL Teachers: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Increasing Program Accessibility and Effectiveness‪.‬

1. Introduction The expansion of English as a world language combined with globalization and immigration trends have resulted in a need for new and innovative ways to deal with the increasing demand for trained professionals to work with English language learners across a variety of contexts. Teacher training programs need to focus on not only training novice teachers, but giving tools to practicing teachers to deal with the variety of issues presented in modern classrooms around the worlds (1). English as a world language has resulted in the formal linguistic and sociolinguistic study and classification of different varieties of English, known as World Englishes. Classification of varieties of English worldwide has resulted in first-, second and third-circle countries (2). In Europe and North America, comprised mainly of first- and second-circle countries, cultural and linguistic diversity has become the norm in urban schools, as illustrated by the following statistics: from 1994 to 2004, enrollment of English Language Learners (ELLS) in US K-12 schools increased 60.8% vs. 2.7% growth for non-ELL students (3); currently, over 10% of K-12 students in the US are ELLS; 25% of the school population in California are ELLs (4); 40% of the school population in Amsterdam were born outside of the Netherlands; 50% of the school population in Toronto and Vancouver are ELLS; and 85% of secondary school students in the European Union study English (5). While diversity is increasing in circle one English-speaking countries (6), so is the role of English as a world language of communication in circle 2 and 3 countries. With this expanded global role for English comes an increased global demand for English as a Second or Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) teachers. Particularly in second- and third-circle countries, considered peripheral social contexts, there is a lack of TESL/TEFL teacher training programs.