EFL Classes for Cultivating Entrepreneurial Mind-set

Entrepreneurship is not a new idea but it has never been more important than it is today in this time of financial, societal, educational crisis and massive challenges both at local and global scale. On the one hand, innovation and entrepreneurship are possible potential instruments to provide solutions for both local and the global challenges of the 21st century and onward by building sustainable development, creating jobs, generating renewed economic growth and advancing human welfare. On the other hand, education has the potential to develop the skills to generate the entrepreneurial mind-set needed to prepare future leaders in all sectors, entrepreneurs, to solve more complex, interlinked and rapidly changing social and economic problems of the world. Therefore, education systems across the world are facing profound challenges. Although there has been a significant increase in the number of courses and programmes featuring entrepreneurship in some form, I feel that more could still be done to integrate it fully into the educational curriculum, including the curriculum of language classes. The last few decades have seen the importance of the English language continuing to increase around the world, especially as the lingua franca for economic and scientific exchange. English has become dominant in a way that no language has ever been before, and the common belief is that it may never be dethroned as the ‘king of languages’. The use of English as the world’s preferred medium for international communication can be credited to globalisation, just as globalisation can be credited to the spread of the English language. The two have gone hand in hand. As a result, both studying and teaching English language consist of more than just learning a foreign language or teaching a subject matter. Therefore, having a good command of the English language became a key element in the continuity of many sectors and the success of businesses all over the world. Consequently, having an entrepreneurial mind-set together with a good command of the English language is a good prognosticator for a successful career. And it is obvious that these two qualities can both be taught in schools. Therefore, I strongly believe that English language classes are the best places to kill two birds with one stone and make this educational vision come true. This Paper aims to highlight the importance of designing and implementing EFL courses in such a way that learners can both learn the English language and develop an entrepreneurial mind-set since no other discipline and, as a result, no other subject area teacher has such a power.