Teaching English across cultures: What do English language teachers need to know how to teach English?

The question of how we teach who we teach can only really be answered by taking into consideration a range of contextual variables. In this paper I shall suggest the skills and attributes required by English language teachers who are teaching in multilingual Asian settings by considering specific ELT situations in Indonesia and Hong Kong. I shall first describe how an Australian-funded and led research project into the development of culturally appropriate ELT materials for Indonesian tertiary students was modified and shaped by local Indonesian teachers and writers. In particular I shall illustrate how the concept ‘culturally appropriate’ was adapted to suit the local context. I shall then describe the current ELT situation in Hong Kong, and consider the implications of Hong Kong’s trilingual language policy on what and how English teachers should teach in Hong Kong’s government schools. I shall conclude the paper by itemizing specific skills that ELT teachers in multilingual settings need.