Language Learning for the 21st Century: Challenges of the North American Free Trade Agreement

Abstract

On this occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Canadian Modern Language Review, I am pleased to have an opportunity to speculate about developments in second language learning and teaching for the 21st century. In the observations which follow, I first reflect upon a peculiarly American phenomenon—pervasive monolingualism, describe some of the potential implications of the recentlyinitialed North American Free Trade Agreement, and then conclude by describing five areas related to second language learning and teaching in which I foresee major development over the coming decade