As a resident blogger for Ellii, my annual "trends to watch" has become a bit of an end-of-year event. This is the third time I'm sitting down to write it, and in many ways, the process has become harder.
Firstly, I am not a fortune teller. I have taught the future tense for predictions countless times, and yet I still haven’t accurately guessed what ELT themes will be popular in the coming year. This was abundantly clear in 2023 when I wrote my post shortly before AI took the world by storm.
Secondly, writing these posts has helped me reflect on the differences between a trending topic and a core element of being an ELT professional. My post this year will focus more on identifying and discussing these differences.
These were my trends to watch in 2023:
💚 Green ELT
🫂 DEIB – Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
🕹️ Virtual Reality
💬🗨️ Mediation
🤹 Life Skills
🔍 Task Based Teaching, Learning & Assesssment
These were my trends to watch in 2024:
🤖 Artificial Intelligence
💞 Well-Being
🫂 DEIB – Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
💚 Green ELT
💬🌍 EFL Pron (e.g., global English and equity for "native" speaker teachers)
🧗🏿ELT Careers (e.g., Teacherpreneurship + Working Rights)
In making these predictions, I enlisted the help of my English-language-teaching peers for suggestions, plus I looked around the web for social posts, blogs, videos, and webinars for trending topics.
You’ll notice the following crossovers in 2023–2024:
🫂 DEIB – Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
💚 Green ELT
In hindsight, these aren’t necessarily trends but elements that have become central to language teaching. Learner-centered teaching means devoting time to accessible learning and inclusion. Inspiring learners with real-world topics that make the world a better place means incorporating environmental themes.
You’ll notice that the following ELT themes didn’t make it into either of my trends posts:
- Grammar
- Vocabulary
- Pronunciation
- 4-Skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening)
- Communicative Language Teaching
- Limiting teacher talking time
That is because they are simply the core elements of language teaching. These are things we learn in our initial teacher training. In many ways, trends are topics that get teachers to experiment and try new ways of working. Trends are things we probably should be doing, so we need to discuss them and share ideas.
For example, when I first attended IATEFL (probably around 2009), "Teaching with Technology" was the hot topic. Now it is just part of our daily teaching lives.
In 2020, as the pandemic pushed us all online, teaching with Zoom or Teams was the webinar session everyone wanted to deliver and attend. This is also now part of our standard practice.
So what will be the trends and new core elements to watch for in 2025?
Although I cannot look into a crystal ball, I can use my expertise, research skills, and network of skilled English-language-teaching peers to make some educated guesses as to what might be popular in teaching next year:
1. Artificial Intelligence
This is still a hot topic. As educators, we are still finding ways to use this effectively in class, ensure learners are using it responsibly, and get to know new AI tools to support learning. I believe this will continue to trend until one day soon it will become a core element.
Although we are all gaining confidence with this, it is still quite shiny and new—and perhaps a little scary. Dr. Amin Davoodi recommends that we see artificial intelligence as a "resource" and not as a "competition."
Ellii has been working hard to develop new ways to make teachers’ lives simpler with AI while maintaining the teacher's critical role and human touch in a student's language-learning journey. Ellii Bot can be used to grade student tasks and give personalised feedback. Ellii also uses AI to provide recommendations for lessons based on learners’ age, level, and goals.
2. Global Englishes & Equity for "Native" Speaker Teachers
Sadly, this hasn’t become part of our core yet, though it should have many years ago. Last week, a trainee teacher in Indonesia asked if they could chat to me as part of a university assignment. The task was to interview a "native" speaker teacher. I agreed, but said that it would be on the grounds that I was a "proficient" language user and that I felt the use of "native" was discriminatory. The perception of how well someone can speak or teach English shouldn’t be based on which country they are from.
English is global and 80% of its users are so-called "non-native" speakers. The majority of conversations that take place in English are between people whose first language isn’t English. It is a means of communication for travel, education, and business. Around the world, there are millions of confident and proficient language users. Furthermore, there are many different, unique, and beautiful Englishes used to effectively communicate across languages. English is spoken everywhere and belongs to everyone.
Yet some language schools still market themselves as having "native" speaker teachers and actively recruit accordingly. More frustratingly, some countries only give work visas to teachers from certain countries. There is a huge perception and legislation shift needed to ensure that all proficient language users have the same access to opportunities.
Until this changes, we need to keep pushing for change. I’m keeping this as a trend until our industry becomes equitable and it finally becomes a core element.
3. Visual Thinking
Visuals have long been a core part of language teaching. One picture, doodle, or diagram can aid understanding more effectively than using infinite words.
In recent months I’m noticing more blogs, posts, and videos appearing on developing visual literacy, using graphic novels, interpreting infographics, discussing photos, sketchnoting, and using simple doodles in class.
It could be that AI-generated infographics, comics, and visual tools are making this more accessible. Here’s a post on Bluesky from AI guru, Joanna Szoke.
It could also be that some teachers are looking for a more "back-to-basics" approach utilising just whiteboards and markers. For example, in this LinkedIn post by Ricardo Cezar, he shares a low-tech teaching idea using simple drawings.
Or it could just be what Ellii has always known—that using visuals in class is simply a fantastic way to teach.
Here are some Ellii lessons and resources with a visual theme:
4. Teacherpreneurship
Whenever I write these posts about trends, I’m always a little wary of things that may be trending for me but perhaps not for other ELT professionals. It could be that this topic trends on my socials because it stops me while I'm scrolling, so my algorithm knows my interests more than I do. Or perhaps it is trending on many ELTers' feeds as they aspire to more flexible work schedules and higher pay.
Either way, there are more ELT professionals setting up their own online courses, starting podcasts, building YouTube channels, and offering coaching services. Software and AI development have made digital content creation and marketing simpler.
Here are some trends to expect in ELT Marketing in 2025 from language education copywriter Lauren Martin, and from Dan Shepherd at Hubbub Labs.
You may also be interested in these posts:
Other Trends
We will, of course, continue to see mediation, life skills, well-being, social-emotional learning, sustainable development goals, teacherpreneurship, and EFL Pron feature highly in web conferences and events. They are popular for a reason and a pretty staple part of our core, after all.
You may also be interested in the following blog post on ELT Trends:
Ten Trends and Innovations in English Language Teaching in 2024 by Chia Suan Chong.
What would you predict as a trend for 2025? What do you feel is a core part of ELT? What should be?
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