TESOL at forty, what are the issues?

Canagarajah's TESOL at forty: what are the issues? is an excellent introduction to the achievement and progress that TESOL has made over the past decades. He started to explain how we arrive at the status quo of TESOL and what the researchers have gone through throughout the history. What have changed and what have been abolished were also discussed in this article, such as researchers were brainstorming about the new and effective methods, but now we study the controversies and weakness over those methods. As he indicated in this article: We are rightly concerned about their neutrality, instrumentality, and their very constitution(PP. 12). And I completely agree with him, I believe there’s no one-quick-solution that fixes all problems and fits all students' needs and contexts.

In the focus on the learner part, I am very happy to see that we are living in a more globalized world; we are more connected to each one across the globe than ever, thus, the distinction between ESL and EFL context is becoming more blurry. We have developed a new interpretation of the leaner’s motivation. The article of Bonny Norton Peirce was indeed impressive for me. I started to define the learner’s motivation from a completely different perspective, their investment and motivation should be paid attention to as well.

Also, we have witnessed the fast progress of Critical Practice (CP), exploring empowerment from diverse orientations, doubting if we provide marginalized students access to dominant discourses or help them develop voice in order to resist them? Do we critique the machinations of power “outside” in history or “inside” in human subjectivity?(PP.16) It is true that most of the L2 learners are new immigrants or international student in ESL context, they have difficulty adapting themselves to the new environment. No one cares if their s have been heard or their concerns have been taken care of. This is not just about the ESL students in America, but more about a human right issue that should pertain to the interest of whole humanity.