English has increasingly become a lingua franca, and some argue teaching should be based on communication between non-natives instead of native-speaker standards. Students’ learning styles differ; and they need not to aspire to attain native-like competence. That might take some pressure off teachers as they do not need to be models of standard English, but they are left with the responsibility of catering to students’ varying individual needs.

That walks hand in hand with child-centered approaches, as they view children as powerful individuals able to construct their own knowledge. As more and more schools are inspired by such approaches, we are gradually moving further away from the old-fashioned teacher-centered style. Thus, a teacher becomes more of a guide and facilitator; and interactions play a large role in classroom settings.

Nativist view: Humans have an innate ability to learn language; and regardless of its quality, external input per se is insufficient to account for language acquisition. Its role is to set in motion internal mechanisms. As a consequence, studies informed by this view focused on the output of L2 learners, and overlooked input. 

Interactionist view: The external environment is a source of input, and L2 learning is a process involving interactions between the external linguistic environment and learners’ internal mechanisms. Thus, for learning to take place, learners and interlocutors have to engage in collaborative efforts.