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English Language Teaching (ELT) in Latin America and elsewhere in public schools and higher education and parts of the private sector has long been failing badly. The coronavirus pandemic should focus minds on changing that situation. Going back to Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) business as usual should not be an option. In this article areas where radical change is needed are discussed and ideas for change proposed.

English as a foreign/second language teaching (ELT) is notably successful in some national public educational systems and unsuccessful in others. Holland, Singapore and Sweden are outstanding examples of great success in the strategic management of ELT in their public educational systems. General failures abound, particularly in countries that rank well below Holland, Singapore and Sweden socio-economically. The focus of this article is on the English language situation in Mexico, one of those countries, and representative of most of Latin America and other parts of the developing world. After providing evidence that the results of ELT in the Mexican public educational system are indeed generally extremely poor, the article addresses two main questions: Why is that so? How could that general failure be shifted to significant success? Two alternative responses to the general failure of ELT in the Mexican public educational system are suggested. They might be worth considering for some other countries' public educational system ELT also. (Contains 3 figures and 5 notes.)

English as a foreign/second language teaching (ELT) is notably successful in some national public educational systems and unsuccessful in others. Holland, Singapore and Sweden are outstanding examples of great success in the strategic management of ELT in their public educational systems. General failures abound, particularly in countries that rank well below Holland, Singapore and Sweden socio-economically. The focus of this article is on the English language situation in Mexico, one of those countries, and representative of most of Latin America and other parts of the developing world. After providing evidence that the results of ELT in the Mexican public educational system are indeed generally extremely poor, the article addresses two main questions: Why is that so? How could that general failure be shifted to significant success? Two alternative responses to the general failure of ELT in the Mexican public educational system are suggested. They might be worth considering for some other countries' public educational system ELT also. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]