The 16th Asia TEFL International Conference provides a forum to address the issues that ELT practitioners face in the changing glocalized world. Research into applied linguistics and ELT highlights a tension between two trends. First, the trend towards globalization emphasizes the continuing need for a global lingua franca, a role taken on by English currently. At the same time, recent research recognizes the importance of the local, with local varieties of language developing to serve the needs of multilingual local contexts. All of these developments are taking place in the context of rapid changes in digital media and communication technologies. These tensions and changes require a response that emerges both from state-of-the-art applied linguistic research in ELT and the insights of dedicated practitioners. Our aim for this conference is to bring together the ELT community in Asia so that we can work together to forge a common response to the challenges we face, a response that draws on both research and praxis.