Abstract
This introductory chapter provides a broad overview of the edited volume by describing the rationales, aims, theoretical underpinnings and organization of the book. The chapter first presents key changes that have had a major impact on the way English is used and learned by geographically diverse groups of people in the world today. It then outlines a set of research-based principles that could be used as a basis for critically examining our curriculum, for selecting and adapting our teaching materials to suit the local contexts, for designing our lessons for the teaching of listening, speaking, reading, writing and other language skills and for developing tasks and activities that meet the linguistic, cognitive and affective needs of our students. The last part of the chapter provides a brief synopsis of each of the 20 chapters.