We live in a rapidly changing world, one that is increasingly interconnected, and our next generation of English learners needs to learn skills that enable them to successfully communicate and collaborate across borders and cultures. When teaching how to use English as an international language, it is important to integrate specific 21st century skills to help them succeed in this technology-driven and global century. This presentation answer the questions: What are 21st century skills and how can we build 21st century educational systems? It give educators an opportunity to reflect on their own application of 21st century skills institutionally and consider what is needed to improve their preparation of students with both English language skills and the skills needed for success in this century.

In Japan nowadays, everyone talks about the need to prepare our young people to become global citizens. In this talk, I revisit the economic and demographic background that urges us to change the way we educate our students, followed by concrete examples of how we can educate them so that they can set agendas and take risks to make positive changes in diverse settings. I also talk about my personal journey – how I took ownership in making myself a global citizen, and how I came to start up the project I am currently spearheading.

Communication is all about bringing down barriers, whether language barriers or cultural barriers. Global cooperation is impossible without cross-cultural communication. Learning to speak the language and learning the culture of another community fosters opportunities for cooperation and partnership in the world. When we take a global approach to education and focus on learning these cross cultural skills and learning languages that will enable communication with other global citizens, we open the way for changing ourselves and changing the world.

My experience working in different parts of the world, from my native Palestine to the Caribbean and recently in Syrian refugee camps, comprises both business and humanitarian aims. In both these spheres, I have learned the importance of storytelling and communication; telling my story has given me the opportunity to build networks and get people to care about the work I'm doing. Whether you're a businessman trying to sell a product or a humanitarian trying to reach others who share your goals, communication skills and the ability to speak a language like English are absolutely essential. And even when you speak the same language as others around you, it's still important to learn the words that the other person understands; speaking English might give you the opportunity to talk to half the world, but what matters is the ability to communicate with the person in front of you.

The connection (or lack of it) between how teachers teach and what their students learn is arguably the central puzzle in education. At its core, it is a problem of results. Why do some students learn, while others don't? Why do some classes 'click', while others struggle to make progress? Why are some teachers effective, while others are not? These questions (and others like them) are central to improving education. They are about getting better results.

In language teaching, we live with a unique version of this puzzle about the lack of results. We work in the shadow of the counter-example: that people can-- and often do-- learn new languages outside of classrooms or schools, without teachers. So how do we get better results in language teaching?

This talk re-examines the basic ‘results’ puzzle in the context of English language teaching, arguing that the problem may lie more in how we think about it than in what we typically do to address it. I outline three concepts, which may help to rethink the results puzzle. The first focuses on teachers’ professional confidence as the central driver in improving classroom teaching. The other two concepts redefine what teachers need— control over classroom English—and how they learn it—through familiarity or building on what they know and do. The talk brings together basic lessons from research with new ideas about how to improve classroom practice.

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