We need to talk about the futureS of language learning – yes, with the plural -s

If you are in language education, I don’t think I need to tell you that things are changing, and rapidly so.

Once more, educators are ‘playing’ catch up with developments that we didn’t ask for and that are often (but not always) of technological nature.

Let’s mention the latest culprit ‘AI’. AI isn’t in itself the biggest problem for us; it’s more what it has brought to the surface, things we have known but haven’t tackled. So, now they are out in the bright light and can’t be hidden away anymore.

We need to ask lots of questions, for example, how do we assess learning, why do we assess in the first place, what is the role of teachers, or why do people even learn languages, and a lot more. We might hope it (replace ‘it’ with whatever is hyped next) will go away. But we might also use this opportunity to take stock and to prepare for a better future.

But what IS a better future? Here is where the plural is important. The future hasn’t happened yet, so we have agency. However, we are often sold A future that is someone else’s. Ziauddin Sardar calls this a ‘colonised future’. Yes, besides a colonised past and present, you can have a colonised future. If you don’t want this, you have to first become aware that there are multiple futures, that you can come up with your own futures and then decide which one you actually prefer and want to work towards.

This is where futures literacy comes in, a skills that is becoming indispensable in the current volatile times with fast-paced changes and increasing uncertainty.

‘Being futures-literate empowers the imagination. It enhances our ability to prepare, recover and invent in the face of change.’ —UNESCO

This website is entirely devoted to exploring, imagining, and nurturing language learning futures in which learners and teachers can flourish.