AbstractThis article reviews scholarship in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics to discern how the definitions of speakership and competence have changed in the last fifty years. It is shown that the redefined concepts reflect a new understanding of language that is no longer consonant with many current teaching practices anchored in structuralism and monolingualism. Next, the article outlines five tenets of language based on Blommaert’s (2010) critical sociolinguistics of globalization and discusses the implications of these tenets for language program direction.