Global Issues Special Interest Group

Global Issues in an Uncertain World

Edited by Chris Sowton

ISSN number: 978-1-912588-04-6

With thanks to Multi Aid Programs (www.multiaidprograms.org), a Syrian-led NGO working in Lebanon, for the image used on the front cover. This powerful painting was created by one of the young Syrian refugees supported by this organisation.

Table of Contents

About GISIG

Introduction to ‘Global Issues in an Uncertain World’

Editor’s Notes

A Note on Editing

THEME 1: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR A SCHOOL, OR A CLASSROOM, TO BE ‘GLOBAL’?

THEME 2: HOW CAN I BE A MORE GLOBAL TEACHER?

THEME 3: WHAT ROLE CAN LANGUAGES PLAY IN GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT?

THEME 4: LEARNING INTO ACTION: WHAT IMPACT CAN A GLOBAL PEDAGOGY HAVE ON THE WORLD?

About GISIG

GISIG – the Global Issues

Special Interest Group – is one of the constituent SIGs of IATEFL, the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. More information about our work can be found at http://gisig.iatefl.org.

What are Global Issues?

Global issues are those challenges, trends, changes and pressing concerns facing humanity. Some of us are privileged enough to live in places where their negative impacts are not always obvious. The default mode of our day-to-day existence pushes them to the periphery of our consciousness. We are too busy to notice and don’t have time to think … or change. Examples of these factors, affecting millions of people on a daily basis, include: population growth; social inequality; food shortages; global warming; environmental degradation; lack of safe drinking water; the status of teachers around the world; rampant consumerism; the internet revolution; disappearing species; human rights; and climate change.

Why global issues in the ELT classroom?

We are – all of us – global citizens, students and teachers alike. Everything we do affects the rest of the world, and what happens in the rest of the world affects us. Every one of us can make a difference – and we as teachers and educators can reinforce this message by what and how we teach.

If you are interested or inspired by what we think and what we do, please contact gisig@iatefl.com and join us in trying to mitigate some of the problems of our uncertain world.

Introduction to ‘Global Issues in an Uncertain World’

by Harry Kuchah Kuchah

Vice-President, IATEFL

I went to primary school in a little village in Cameroon at a time when there was no television or internet. My English lessons were often based on ‘communicative’ dialogues by people from unfamiliar places, about topics which made little sense to me. How would a village boy, in tropical Africa, understand anything about trains being interrupted due to heavy snow? Of what relevance was the subsequent conversation between Mr. Smith and Mrs. Johnson, if not to learn the grammar point ‘it is + snowy/rainy/windy etc. and to point to pictures in the textbook which reflected these weather conditions?

The world has transformed rapidly since the dawn of this millennium and thanks to advancements in technology and social media, the current generation of students in our classrooms is far more likely to understand the impact of snow on transportation and to use the grammar structure above with greater understanding of the context. Technology now offers additional opportunities to develop English language proficiency, and to expand young people’s chances of employability as well as intra-national and international mobility.

However, these new opportunities also expose young people to a range of issues related to social diversity, which require them to navigate different cultural challenges. There is now an increasing awareness that local problems are global problems. The ongoing ‘local’ conflicts in parts of the Middle East and Africa, for example, have had a huge and lasting impact in the political, economic, social and cultural life of European countries. Climate change might manifest itself in different ways in different parts of the world, but it is a global issue which requires local initiatives and actions to salvage our planet. Our survival as a race depends not only on what happens in our back yard, but also on what happens in places on the other side of the globe. Being aware of other people’s realities helps us understand our own realities better.

No doubt, therefore, a collection like this, which explores the wide range of ideas and practices for promoting global awareness, will help our learners understand global society and build bridges of cultural understanding and tolerance at a time when the world is becoming more and more pessimistic.

Editor’s Notes

The idea for this volume arose from my teenage experience of reading Writings on the Wall: Radical and Socialist Anthology (1215-1984), a book edited by Tony Benn. I found the short, direct extracts extremely compelling, and a very effective way of covering a huge amount of information. And so, when I became the publications’ editor for IATEFL’s Global Issues Special Interest Group (GISIG) in 2017, and saw the vast array of interesting articles deep in its archives, I wondered whether we couldn’t do something similar. This is the product of that thought.

At the time the first GISIG newsletter was written, back in 1996, the world was in a very different place. Today, it feels that the world is more pessimistic, that there is a greater mistrust of globalisation. As educators who believe passionately in the value of the world in the classroom, we at GISIG feel this is a very unfortunate turn of events, and we hope that this publication can do something, however small, to arrest that slide.

The book is arranged around four key themes that are as relevant today as they ever were. And whilst some of the articles are very much ‘of their time’ (e.g. Volume 2 from 1996 makes the case ‘Why all GISIG members should use the internet’), what is interesting to see is that many of the things which have been important over the past 20 years are still important now.

Representing our wide and varied membership, this volume is both theoretical and practical. But at the centre of all that is written is an emphasis on collaboration. A document of this size arranged purely on a volunteer basis would be impossible for one person to do, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank fellow GISIG members for their help in assembling this book: Linda Ruas, Julietta Schoenmann, Bill Templer, Gergő Fekete, John Shepheard, Dennis Newson, Laci Hajba, Julie Pratten, Stella Smyth and Wolfgang Ridder.

Just as the Tony Benn anthology encouraged me to go and read many of the original sources, about the likes of the Levellers, the Chartists and the Tolpuddle Martyrs, we hope that you will visit our archive of newsletters at http://gisig.iatefl.org/gisig-newsletter-archive, where you can access the entire collection and read the articles in full. Please note this is only available to GISIG members (who will have been provided with a password). If you are not yet a member but would like to be, please contact us at gisig@iatefl.org.

Chris Sowton

March 2018

A Note on Editing

Over the 20 or so years the GISIG newsletters have been going, there have many incumbents to this post, each of whom had their own grammatical, lexical and typographical predilections. Furthermore, two decades is a long time for any publication to be going, and some of the language of the past may not be de rigeur today. As such, for this ‘best of’ publication I took the decision to standardise features such as spelling, punctuation and style. I have also redacted information which is now obsolete. The contents of this publication are just extracts to give you an idea of the key, interesting points made in the articles – the full articles are still available in their full, uncut versions online.

THEME 1: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR A SCHOOL, OR A CLASSROOM, TO BE ‘GLOBAL’?

Introduction to Theme 1 by Julietta Schoenmann

How can we as teachers help our students explore the benefits and drawbacks of an interconnected world? And if we do, what implications does this have for what we provide in terms of lesson content in our classrooms? Gone are the days when a language was studied in isolation, solely for the beauty of its grammar and lacking any meaningful context.

English is learnt now for communication, but what exactly should students communicate about? Should we restrict ourselves to the topics presented in our course books? Or can we introduce themes to our classes that relate to issues of global concern, thereby encouraging our students to critically engage with a range of topics that affect them, however indirectly? Paul Woods, for example, outlines in his article Can Global Issues be Taught to Young Learners? that teachers have a responsibility to raise their students’ awareness of global issues and concerns. If you agree with this, then the next step is to identify global issues topics that appeal to your students before developing lessons around them. In so doing, you are encouraging your students to celebrate the differences amongst people, to make global issues relevant to their local contexts and develop feelings of empathy for each other and marginalised communities worldwide. A global school or classroom inspires students to look outwards and see themselves as part of a much bigger picture – in short, to become responsible world citizens.

Can Global Issues be Taught to Young Learners?

by Paul Woods

Volume 2 (1996)

Paul Woods considers the case for teaching global issues to young learners. Are they relevant? And if so, how could global issues be incorporated into the materials and syllabus for courses? He argues that as part of the process of developing healthy, democratic, humane and caring attitudes in their pupils, teachers have a responsibility to make them aware of global issues.

This, then, is where the teaching of global issues come in. As part of the process of developing healthy, positive, democratic, humane and caring attitudes in their pupils, teachers have a responsibility to alert them to global issues and concerns. As teachers we are not only concerned with the linguistic, language content of the lesson, the textbook and the syllabus, but we must also be concerned with developing positive attitudes in our learners.

If you examine the topics dealt with in most English language textbooks for younger learners published in Britain you will find they tend on the whole to be ‘value-free’, dealing with bland uncontroversial topics and by and large avoiding global issues. This may be because teachers and authors of language syllabuses and textbooks feel that global issues are not important, or that they tend to be too ‘adult’ to be brought into the open with younger learners, that they might alienate teachers or pupils from highly conservative background, or that they are of less interest to young learners than such neutral situations and antiseptic topics as ‘On the Farm’, ‘At the Cinema’ or ‘The Football Match’.

Many of us will have learnt a foreign language by the grammar-translation method, where the emphasis is on learning grammatical paradigms and applying these in a very abstract way devoid of meaning. But for most people, language learning works best as a human experience involving genuine interpersonal communication. By using it for real communication, genuinely giving and receiving real messages, and dealing with topics which are real, genuine, vital concern to the future of humanity, even at a very basic, elementary level, we can help our learners, even very young learners, to develop positive, healthy, democratic and environmentally sound attitudes.

Making Global Issues Local

by Adrian Tennant

Volume 18 (2005)

Rather than dispensing with common topics in globally successful English language course books, Adrian Tennant shows how teachers can make topics such as ‘Endangered Animals’ and ‘Natural Resources’ relevant to students’ immediate educational concerns. He provides examples of integrated curricular activities aimed at localizing global issues with particular classes and cultures.

I have often been asked why course books always seem to include the same GI topics and why these topics are nearly always dealt with in such broad terms. What does surprise me is that writers, trainers and teachers themselves have not done more to address how these materials could be made more local in context.

I think one of the problems is in the very name ‘Global Issues’ itself. Although these issues are global one of the most important aspects about them is that they are local as well, or at least there are local consequences. If they weren’t, then their relevance and importance to students would be far less than it is. Maybe it is time for a more local focus on what is global and, to achieve this, only those people with local knowledge (usually the teacher and students) can really do much about it. Although, I have heard more than one student groan when the next topic in the course book has been Pollution or Women’s roles etc. But how relevant is ‘Smog in LA’ or ‘Tigers near extinction’ or ‘Fairtrade – what’s on your shelves’ to students studying English in Spain or Poland or Argentina or Hong Kong or many other countries in the world?

However, these topics, and the way they are dealt with in course books, often provide an excellent way into looking at more local issues. I have found that once you localise the topic and issue there is so much more you can do with it. In fact, you can almost generate an entire course simply from one topic.

Becoming a Global Teacher: 10 Steps to an International Classroom

by Kip Cates

Volume 20 (2006)

From rethinking the role of English through integrating global topics into teaching to organising extra-curricular activities, Kip Cates outlines ten steps to help teachers bring a global dimension into their classrooms. At the end of the article, he also highlights what this new approach could offer to teachers and learners all over the world.

What is a global classroom? It’s a dynamic, colourful place which stimulates international awareness and curiosity about our multicultural world. It features globes, international displays, and walls decorated with posters of world flags, current events and Nobel Peace Prize winners. A global classroom is also an environmentally-friendly classroom where teachers and students use recycled paper, save energy and use both sides of the paper for handouts and homework.

Global education aims to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by responsible world citizens. Global education can provide language teachers with ideas, techniques and resources for designing lessons on world religions, for creating units on Asia or Africa and for teaching about global issues such as AIDS, refugees and world hunger.

Checklists for Doing Cooperative Global Issues Projects

by Georg Jacobs

Volume 22 (2008)

One way to develop global classrooms is to develop cooperative learning through project work. Georg Jacobs’ article covers eight cooperative learning principles as a framework for understanding cooperation, and then presents nine checklists learners can use for doing cooperative global issues project work.

Cooperation as a Value: This principle means that rather than cooperation being only a way to learn, i.e. the how of learning, cooperation also becomes part of the content to be learned, i.e. the what of learning. The principle of Cooperation as a Value flows naturally from the most crucial cooperative learning principle, Positive Interdependence. Cooperation as a value attempts to expand the feeling of “All for one, one for all” beyond the small classroom group to encompass the whole class, the whole school, on and on, bringing in increasingly greater numbers if people and other beings into students’ circle of ones with whom to cooperate. Global issues projects offer an excellent way to do this.

The Critical Global Citizenship Educator

by Maureen Ellis

Volume 23 (2009)

Some of the articles in the GISIG newsletters are intended to lead into online discussion. This is one such ‘pre-discussion think piece’, introducing several ideas and issues that participants might like to discuss. The following article, by Maureen Ellis, summarises the discussion, which, in this case, included reference to both various theoretical ideas and practical class experience.

Global Citizenship is not ‘charity for distant places’, nor simple answers and telling people what to do. It is not too difficult for children, nor an extra subject to be crammed into the school syllabus. For those who value diverse, vernacular, ‘glocal’, yes global citizenship, and civic collaboration … the search is on for models of transformative learning, which build on a bio-spheric view of Man [sic.], on the many flows and ‘scapes – ideo, finance, techno, sacri, media – waiting to be explored, on wisdom which combines Western Euro-centric and indigenous knowledges to create global citizens empowered to participate in the affairs of their societies in keeping with Greek, Vedic, Taoist and other forms of enlightened praxis.

Implementing the Intercultural Approach in the ELT Classroom

by Ana Julia Núñez Vexina & Eugenia Sardina

Volume 27 (2011)

The authors discuss how an intercultural approach was implemented in classes of children and teenagers in Argentina. Their learners became ethnographers while learning English. They engaged with the topic of ‘Children’s Day’ from global and national perspectives, and reflected on how different cultures value different types of intelligences and knowledge.

Leaving behind some old paradigms, language is no longer about accurate grammar

and native-like performance. It has transcended these walls and turned into a means of

communication among people from different cultures. This “mediation” on the part of the speakers entails understanding not only the foreign culture, but also one’s own culture. Such an approach, then, aims at celebrating differences among people rather than condemning them, encouraging feelings of empathy and identification towards other cultural groups; and promoting observation as well as reflection.

The Intercultural approach is all about knowing. Different types of knowledge, namely, the five savoirs outlined by Byram (1997) are required in order to be an intercultural learner:

1. Knowledge of self and other: of how interaction occurs; of the relationship of the individual to society.

2. Knowing how to interpret and relate information.

3. Knowing how to engage with political consequences of education; being critically aware of cultural behaviours.

4. Knowing how to discover cultural information.

5. Knowing how to be: how to relativise oneself and value the attitudes and beliefs of the other.

Profit over Pedagogy: the Wall Street Institute and the Globalization of ESL

by Malik Nour

Volume 27 (2011)

In commercial language school chains such as WSI, English is consistently described as the “global” or “international” language. Malik Nour questions whether this presents a misleading image of English as the medium to spread the humanitarian goals of the global community when such schools stand for an imposed globalisation that is situated alongside the goals of profit-driven international business.

Cultural exchange is not only undervalued by the business model, it is almost entirely ignored. What passes for ‘culture’ is the occasional Social Club (an informal, hour-long class) that could focus on running a small business or how to make oneself competitive when interviewing with an American company. These classes tend to be functionally useless, however, if one considers that the teacher is unlikely to have any experience of working in business. At best, a Social Club may try to highlight a local cultural tradition. In my experience, however, these classes were poorly planned publicity events, devoid of content. Globalisation has imposed upon its ‘subjects’ an imperative of homogeneity. The transferability, so to speak, of an idea carries more importance than the intrinsic value conferred to it by its indigenous community. Whether it be a certain kind of food, a style of music, or even a language, it is usually diluted to its lowest common denominator before it is exported so that it can be easily transferred to other people.

Celebrating Diversity: Only Half the Story!

by Pliny Soocoormanee

Volume 27 (2011)

This article argues that conflicting discourses of cultural diversity and universalism run the risk of creating a moral binary if used to underpin the concept of global citizenship in HE. Instead, Pliny Soocoormanee posits that the discourse of diversity be aligned with universal principles concerning human needs and forms of empowerment.

Respecting culture is extolled as a self-evident virtue. However, this respect is based on a cultural relativist logic which proposes that all beliefs and values are equally valid and unproblematically experienced. Respect indeed may be a prerequisite for the engagement in some sort of dialogue, but a cultural relativist lens makes it increasingly difficult to question ‘cultural practices’ which pose challenges to human rights (Philips, 2007) or which take account of contestation of them. I will try to illustrate this point with a conversation that happened between two female students. They were speaking about the role of women and one of them defended the subordination of women in some societies by claiming ‘you have no right to impose your norms’. This comment may illustrate a genuine concern about the possibility of ethnocentrism. The mere thought of masquerading particularistic values as universal ones appears to be strongly repulsive and indeed the great colonial waves of ‘missions to civilise’ in the previous centuries may have left an indelible mark in the minds of many and helped to tarnish the notion of universalism as a European lie. However, it is equally problematic when one holds values which strive for a universalist concern for all humans that are seen to be merely privilege-serving and thus really particularistic. For instance, Sen (2006) argues that valuing liberty and democracy is charged by some to be ‘Western’ and in opposition with ‘Asian’ value of discipline and order. The ‘west’, writes Sen, no more invented liberty and democracy than did the ‘east’ invented discipline and order but this is another moral binary which closes debate.

Global Education, Media Literacy and EFL

by Kip Cates

Volume 28 (2012)

EFL learners need language and thinking tools to engage critically with media messages. Kip Cates discusses how media sources can be used to raise learners’ awareness of factors underlying the presentation of cultures, global and national issues. He concludes with tips for tasks that expose media bias, and explore censorship.

These two dimensions – local and global – exist in a dynamic tension. Each has a role to play in the global language classroom and can enrich our teaching in different ways. One approach is to look at these two dimensions sequentially, and cover both by choosing a point to start and a direction to move towards.

Moving from local to global entails starting with a local issue in your country, city or community, analysing its causes, effects and possible solutions, then looking outward to ask, ‘What’s the situation in other countries? What can we learn from their experiences? How can we contribute to help solve this problem?’ This might mean researching garbage or minorities in your local community, then studying these issues in other countries around the world.

Balance is important. If we spend all our time on local issues, our teaching may lead students to ignore important issues in the wider world. If we spend all our time on far-away issues, students may ignore the local issues they can do most about. We live in an interconnected world and our teaching should demonstrate how the local and global are intertwined.

Teaching Tolerance through Islam

by Azennoud Abderrahman

Volume 28 (2012)

Azennoud Abderrahman shares his experience when he faced hatred and prejudice and was called a ‘terrorist’ by two young girls on the way to a conference in Liverpool. In this article, he cites verses from the Quran that preach pluralism, and tolerance and suggests that Islam can be used in college programmes to dispel biases and stereotypes and develop open-mindedness.

In order to teach tolerance through all religions in general and Islam in particular, schools and colleges programmes should revolve around the following topics:

1. Being equipped with enough information before embarking on any kind of evaluation;

2. Open-mindedness regarding other people’s divergent views;

3. Being able to unlearn fallacies about the other;

4. Self criticism of one’s prejudices, biases, and stereotypes;

5. Believing that the other is not weak or inferior to you.

Global Education Project in Australia

by Catherine McNicol

Volume 31 (2015)

Catherine McNicol details the contents of the Global Education Project website (www.globaleducation.edu.au) and summarises the resources available under each tab. These tabs include ‘teaching and learning’, ‘global issues’ and ‘resources gallery’. There are also two Professional Learning Modules on the website to support teachers.

In an increasingly globalised world we are all becoming more aware of the interconnectedness of our lives and the impact that our actions have on the environmental, social, economic and political aspects of other people’s lives around the world.

A global perspective is based on the values of building a fair and just community with people around the world: positive attitudes towards diversity and difference, upholding the rights and dignity of all people, peace building and conflict resolutions, appreciation of and concern for the environment, and commitment to sustainable practices. It promotes students to become active global citizens.

The organising ideas consist of:

1. interdependence and globalization;

2. identity and cultural diversity;

3. social justice and human rights;

4. peace building and conflict resolution; and

5. sustainable futures.

THEME 2: HOW CAN I BE A MORE GLOBAL TEACHER?

Introduction to Theme 2 by Linda Ruas

Whether we choose to start a ‘hope club’, teach human rights to young children with simple books, use country flags to compare poverty around the world, or focus on specific areas of conflict such as Gaza, there are innumerable ways to bring global issues into class. We can use a structured system such as the DfES mindmap of eight global issues, we could make a conscious effort to ‘green’ our course or college, follow Kip Cates’ ten steps, make global issues local, or simply follow a personal passion for human rights or the environment and develop related lessons or projects from this. We simply need an impetus and a little time, as there are few ready resources from published materials, with many publishers worried about offending various sensitivities if they include material on political or contentious topics.

If we feel it is important to help our learners make sense of the world and develop critical literacy, global citizenship and awareness of the wider world, we should not protect them by excluding global issues from ELT. As you will see in this section, large organisations such as the British Council and several very experienced writers and trainers, for example Alan Maley, one of the founders of GISIG, have produced a great deal of material and ideas.

And we can, of course, try out and share ideas of our own. As Kip Cates says: ‘Global education is an experimental science’. All we need to do is open up the classroom to the world.

Getting out of the Classroom and into the Environment

by Christopher Etchells

Volume 6 (1998)

This article centres on ‘green pedagogy’ coupled with place-based education, and explores the surrounding countryside through student projects. It combines language practice with field work and actual physical encounter with aspects of the natural world. What Christopher Etchells outlines has, based on his own extensive experience, a strong emotional appeal to learners.

What pathways brought you to your present interest in global issues? For me, it was – is – love of the countryside and the natural environment. This led to an interest in wider environmental concerns and to other linked global issues. My point is that we all need something, some basis in reality, to fuel our ideological concerns and sustain our interest in global issues. For me it is the countryside, for someone else it might be a friend unjustly imprisoned, the lack of basic facilities in a village, the ill treatment of someone they teach.

There are projects on the classification of trees and leaves, on insects and other invertebrates, pond and river life, mosses and lichens, flowers and hedgerows. There are air pollution surveys, litter surveys, recycling projects, acid rain surveys, farm visits, countryside walks, scavenger hunts, sculptures and collages created from natural materials. There are good ELT pedagogical reasons for all of this. Project work provides authentic English practice and provides variety for students and teachers; it integrates the four skills in a natural way and promotes learner autonomy and cooperation; it provides practice across the curriculum … and provides a sensory-rich learning experience; learning is enhanced when students see as well as listen, they remember even more when they also touch, taste and smell.

Teaching English for World Citizenship: Key Content Areas

by Kip Cates

Volume 8 (1999)

In promoting a sense of global citizenship among learners, three key content areas are ‘geographic literacy’, ‘world themes’, and ‘global issues’. Kip Cates defines and surveys core aspects of these broader focal areas and discusses benefits, such as enhanced international understanding and discovering that foreigners are pleased to encounter students informed about their country and culture.

For ‘world writing systems’, students study the history and features of ten world alphabets and learn to identify scripts such as Russian Cyrillic, Korean Hangul and Hindi Devanagari. As homework, they try writing Arabic, Thai or Egyptian hieroglyphics and write an English report about the experience. For ‘world languages’, they study about the various language families of the world, then read basic information (the history, number of speakers, places spoken, unique features) about seven world languages: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Korean, Russian and Spanish. After hearing examples of these languages being spoken students are given a language recognition quiz to see if they can identify the language from the sound alone. They then practice basic expressions (Hello; How are you?; Fine, Thank you; My name is …; Good-bye) in all seven languages until they can greet each other in simple French or hold a short conversation in Chinese. As homework, they research a particular language or try their conversational ability in seven languages on our university foreign students and describe the experience in English.

New Wine in Old Bottles

by Wolfgang Ridder

Volume 9 (1999)

The article convincingly argues that real-world problems can be addressed with learners even at beginner levels, and suggests workable approaches, detailing several sample concrete activities at different levels. Wolfgang Ridder stresses the need for all teachers as educators to deal at all instructional levels with ‘peace, human rights, development politics and environmental issues’. A range of resources for materials are recommended.

You can teach ‘Global Issues’ at all levels of teaching, from Beginners to Very Advanced. It is just the matter of finding suitable material and adapting it for use in the classroom. The author has found that teachers are notoriously blinkered when they do not ‘like’ a subject/topic and ‘Global Issues’ is a case in point.

At beginners’ level, suitable topics might be: prejudices, representations, gender issues etc…. at the intermediate level issues will normally be presented in text format, albeit interpolated and adapted to the level of language competence. When adaptation rears its ugly head one has to be very careful not to ‘edit’ the problematic topic out of the text submitted. At the advanced level it should be obvious that only original, unadapted texts/documents are used.

An ice-breaker which could be used for many levels is to present students with an empty coat of arms, and then ask them to draw in images that represent them and their interests. Then they explain it to their fellow students and to the class as a whole.

Cultures Alive! Multicultural Education Using Folk tales and Folk Dances

by Michelle Milner

Volume 13 (2002)

Folk stories and dances demonstrate a strong sense of community and provide opportunities for group work so they are a great vehicle for learners to cooperate. They are also highly versatile and can illustrate different aspects of a culture, environment or geography. This article by Michele Milne provides teachers with a rich toolkit of activities for the classroom.

Holistic learning, which involves both the cognitive and kinaesthetic senses, can heighten conceptual awareness, increase ‘memorability’ and stimulate creative problem solving for students. Children are experiential learners and movement is one of the most important ways that they learn, using movement-based activities to physically experience the concepts and emotions associated with language study. Words and concepts take on deeper emotional resonance and become more integrated in their thought world. Expanding these kinaesthetic experiences into multicultural studies broadens the purpose of studying English into global education.

One of the best things about using folktales in your class is their versatility. If you are teaching about a particular country, a story or dance can be used to illustrate various aspects of the culture, environment or geography. A variety of details about food, dress, housing and climate are often contained in the story. Another approach is to focus on the elements of message as a complement to material you are teaching.

Developing a Multicultural Pedagogy

by Devorah Kalekin-Fishman

Volume 14 (2003)

Devorah Kalekin-Fishman looks at the idea that multiculturism implies there are different groups with their own cultures. Following the work of Paulo Freire with Brazilian farmers, Devorah seeks to emancipate learners by broadening their capacity to recognise and acknowledge different ways of surviving in varieties of group living, presenting a practical classroom approach to this issue.

I recommend building projects of group learning (through speaking and writing, listening and reading) on "my group". It is a good idea not to define the group unambiguously, certainly not in conventional terms. In this space, the student-teacher may choose to change the group she is talking about from assignment to assignment. Basing myself on the classic analytical monograph of Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952), I want to suggest a series of themes for organizing the expression of multiple voices.

Genesis: My group - How it began for me – my first acquaintance with the group.

History: What's happened to my group since then and to me in it since I became part of it?

Norms: What are the rules that we follow in our relationships, or, more broadly, what are the rules for behaving acceptably in my group?

Personality Types: How can I describe the types of people that are members of the group?

Structures: How is the group divided into sub-groups? Are some sub-groups 'worth more' than others?

Things: Materials, tools, decorations that people in my group love. (Note: It is important to leave this aspect of group living for last because it is so easy to think of culture as no more than a collection of familiar things.) In general and in detail, what shows you that you are in your group or in another?

This is a series of themes that can be multiplied and elaborated on over and over. Clearly, the themes are easily integrated into lessons where people practice talking and sharing,

writing and reading aloud. Students can go through all of these several times – each time identifying themselves as members of different groups. There are many ways of adapting these ideas. The evaluation of speaking and writing in terms of the diversity and the transparency of the group product that I mentioned earlier is a procedural strategy.

The real question is: do student teachers, do teachers in service learn to be multicultural? This, after all, is the focal issue. How can we know? I think we can know, but the path to assessment is certainly not laid out in a straight line.

Ms. Conceptions: Gender and Identity in EFL/ES Online Conflicts

by Nicky Hockly & Gavin Dudeney

Volume 17 (2005)

This article presents the results of a questionnaire that investigated teachers’ and trainers’ general attitude to gender and IT from all over the world. First, the five statements and the responses to these are listed, then conclusions are drawn from the 128 answers.

It would appear that although teachers and trainers feel that IT on the whole is dominated by men, this may be less true of our profession. As a gender-weighted profession, with a majority of women, perhaps we in TEFL/TESL are in a unique position to redress some of the gender inequalities in IT, as reflected in the wider world.

Certainly it is our view that EFL/ESL teachers and trainers need specific training in IT skills, at both in-service and pre-service level. We find that IT training in our profession is still added on as an afterthought in most internationally recognised pre- and in-service EFL/ESL training. Both practising teachers, teacher trainers and trainees need to have ICT training integrated and made more prominent in their professional development studies.

Teachers, both male and female, can be made aware of the some of the myths surrounding IT and gender – such as women being frightened of technology, women being inherently unsuited to ‘technical’ fields, women not being responsible for software or hardware development, women never having been active in the field of IT, and so on.

And of course, we need to ensure that wherever possible, facilities and technical back up is provided to ensure that all our teachers –whether male or female – are encouraged to explore IT in their teaching and for their own professional development.

Sceptical Inquiry, Reading Skills and Terrorism

by Gerry Abbot

Volume 18 (2005)

What does reading a text involve? Can we challenge political or religious texts? By responding to a previously written paper (Maley, 2015), Gerry Abbot discusses the answers to these questions by examining various excerpts from political and religious texts and draws conclusions with regard to his own culture.

In my own culture, intelligent reading does not stop at the mere extraction of meanings; the meanings have to be considered and judged by the reader, and then either accepted or rejected or 'put on hold'. Umberto Eco (1983) puts it succinctly when his sleuthing monk tells the novice Adso, ‘Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to enquiry’. I think teaching should be subversive in that it fosters such enquiry, but experience in various countries has left me with certain questions in my mind. When I encouraged students to disbelieve a statement by Squealer in Animal Farm, or to find fault with an author's argument, did they transfer these skills to texts within their own cultures? If they did, was I guilty of cultural imperialism? Of subversion, even? And if they didn't, what prevented them? Fear? I just wonder whether failure to evaluate reading-matter (especially religious texts) by exercising 'rational interpretative skills' and 'patient and sceptical enquiry' might lead to the adoption of fundamentalist attitudes, which in turn can find expression in terrorist activities.

What I have been stressing is the acute danger of an unthinking literalism in the process of reading, whether of sacred or secular texts. To regard any scientific text as unchallengeable is incompatible with modern thinking; to regard a religious text as unchallengeable is in my view one step on the way to fundamentalism; and fundamentalists tend to further their ends by means other than scientific debate or friendly persuasion.

Making Global Issues Local

by Adrian Tennant

Volume 18 (2005)

Rather than dispensing with common topics in globally successful English language course books, Adrian Tennant shows how teachers can make topics such as ‘Endangered Animals’ and ‘Natural Resources’ relevant to students’ immediate educational concerns. He provides examples of integrated curricular activities aimed at localising global issues with particular classes and cultures.

By making Global Issues local, a number of things seem to happen. The first is that students become far more involved in the topic, often to the extent of the theme leading to a whole series of tasks and lessons. Another interesting phenomena is that the amount of language generated seems to far exceed that originally included in the course book lesson, and the language is often of more immediate use to the students. Finally, there is a practical aspect to these lessons. Rather than simply being English lessons, and a means of improving students’ language skills, the lessons can be a means of activating students and getting them to do something constructive in terms of a Glocal Issue […] In almost every area generic course books can be localized, but when the topic is a Global Issue, failure to do so is an opportunity missed to turn awareness into action.

Exploring Global Poverty and its Solutions: Teacher’s Notes and Introductions

by David Allen

Volume 21 (2007)

David Allen presents several practical class activities that introduce and explore the issue of poverty, inspired by the book ‘The End of Poverty’ by Jeffrey Sachs and also by Peaceboat. Below is a short task about flags; other tasks involve maps, photos, dictionary definitions, collocations and project work.

1. Look at the flags. How many do you know? Check your answers with a partner, and then ask your teacher. Now, discuss with your partner. Which different levels of poverty do you think affect each country? Why do you think so?

2. Why is there such a difference in the world? What are the causes of poverty? Work in small groups and brainstorm reasons why poverty exists in the world. Using conditionals is one way to express the casual relationship, for example: If a country doesn’t have good roads, it won’t be able to send food products quickly to towns. If there aren’t any trains in the city, people will have difficulty getting to work early.

3. When you have finished, compare your answers with other groups. Then check Wikipedia for a list of causes of poverty.

4. Now think about solutions for some of the causes of poverty listed on the website. Example: ‘Infrastructure’. If the country’s government build better roads, business would get better. If the city has better trains, more foreign businesses might move there. For example, how many businesses are moving to China’s cities because they have better infrastructure.

5. Research project: Visit a website to do some further reading about the campaigns to end poverty. Write a short article summarising your findings and adding your own opinions and ideas.

Greening an Intensive English Programme

by David Royal & Kira Davies

Volume 22 (2008)

This article by David Royal and Kira Davies talks about how the Hawaii English Language Program (HELP) implemented changes in order to become more environmentally responsible. They thought they could make more changes than they actually did, for example by purchasing greener office supplies. So they decided to focus on educational activities and materials, for example these five …

Eco-Drama – Students created a play based on the book Maui, Maui by Steven Cosgrove. The story deals with over-consumption, resource use and waste. First, students read and discussed the story. They next summarised the story in their own words, decided on roles and began creating a script. A model was provided to assist them with this. After the script was written, students rehearsed their lines. In addition to learning relevant vocabulary words, students spent time working on pronunciation and intonation, taping and listening to their rehearsals. Students then made costumes and props in preparation for the performance.

Movie with a Message – Students watched and discussed the film Princess Mononoke, a Japanese animated feature that vividly portrays the struggle between humans and nature. The movie was stopped at several key points to allow for student discussion. In addition, throughout the film students kept track of the good and bad deeds of the various characters on a worksheet. Finally, after the movie was complete, students brainstormed ideas for positive environmental actions and posted their list on the school bulleting board.

Environmental Readings and Discussion – Students read articles on a variety of environmental and global issues and discussed them in small groups. The articles were divided by level, but students were encouraged to read whatever interested them. In addition to discussion activities, some of the articles had writing exercises or worksheets associated with them. Some students also chose to freewrite responses to what they read.

Hike – Students were taken on a 3-hour hike and learned about local plants and animals. Highlights included sampling strawberry guavas and spotting a Jackson’s chameleon.

Green Poetry – Students began by reading six poems with environmental or global issues themes. These poems also had structural or content elements that made them relatively clear models for student poetry. For example, God to a Hungry Child (Hughes, 2003) is written in the form of a letter from God, while Two Young Women (Barry, 2003) tells the story of two women in a series of paired lines, one from each woman’s point of view. Students chose one of the poems and discussed it in small groups using questions provided on a handout. Students then wrote their own poems either individually or in groups, using the poem they had selected as a model. Finally, volunteers read their poems aloud to the class. Students were also invited to publish poems in the school newspaper.

Critical Literacy and Global Citizenship Education

by Chris Lima

Volume 23 (2009)

Chris Lima here writes about the Critical Literacy in ELT project, which started with the Hornby Summer School Brazil 2006 and was supported by the Hornby Trust and the British Council, and was one of the winners of the 2007 British Council Awards. She provides background information here to the project, discussing the political nature of education and how global issues relate to ELT.

The critical literacy approach to global citizenship education proposes the reading of texts in the ‘context of social, historic, and power relations, not solely as the product or intention of an author’ (Cervetti, 2001). Furthermore, learners are invited to question the positions advanced by texts, the dominant representations and the interests served by such representations and reading. Teachers and learners ask themselves the perspectives voiced and silenced in texts, their own perspectives of the topic and are invited to reflect on the connections of such perspectives with their local/global context. For example, in the material about slavery and abolition (Walker, 2008) before and after reading texts in favour and against slavery, students are invited to discuss questions such as:

- What is your surname? Where are you from?

- Do you think your ancestors were slaves, or slave-owners or neither or both?

- What cultural and social aspects have been heavily influenced by the contact between European/American and African civilisations?

- How different would the societies in all the continents involved in the slavery trade be nowadays if this had not happened?

Greater Diversity and the Need for Differentiation in Classes

by Samantha Deans

Volume 24 (2009)

Samantha Deans here presents many simple ways to adapt coursebook material in order to differentiate: ways of grouping learners, different ways to organise skills development work to both challenge stronger learners with a more academic background and support weaker learners. Here are some of the ideas for adapting coursebooks.

Teachers may be finding more and more EFL learners studying alongside ‘traditional’ ESOL learners (asylum seekers, refugees and immigrations from settled UK communities) leading to greater diversity and the need for differentiation in classes. Learners with very little basic education and/or literacy in their mother tongue may share lessons with educated professionals… The following are possible failings of EFL course books and ways to overcome, or at least adapt, them.

1. Very busy pages with many activities written in different fonts. Select one activity from a page and retype it in a clearer font with fewer distractions on the page.

2. Socially or culturally inappropriate content. Take the idea of the activity (e.g. a find someone who mixer) and edit the irrelevant content, changing “Find someone who … has done a bungee jump” to something more accessible and likely.

3. Lack of diversity in course book characters and cultural information. Ideally, materials should reflect the various cultural backgrounds and ethnic groups of the learners. Provide learners with the language to discuss the similarities and differences between their different countries and their home countries and the UK.

Raising Teenagers’ Global Awareness via Extensive Reading

by David Valente

Volume 24 (2009)

When David Valente realised that many people in Thailand did not read much, he decided to encourage his class of teenagers to read by embedding key aspects of global awareness in the syllabus. This would serve two purposes: raising awareness of key global issues, and inspiring the learners to read for pleasure. Below is part of the background.

Mainstreaming ‘Global Awareness’

The remit I refer to above is closely linked to the British Council’s goal to increase the use of English as a tool for international communication and intercultural understanding, which also includes encouraging respect for human rights and democratic values. For me, this involves increasing learners’ ‘global awareness’ via three key strands: international view; global citizenship; and intercultural dialogue.

International View

This encompasses what Ellis (2004: 2) calls “universal themes”, which challenge learners to play with ideas and feelings and address important issues. These include climate change, friendship and tolerance, love, family; loneliness, personal and cultural identity, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief, and age.

Global Citizenship

According to Oxfam Education (2008: 2), the Global Citizen is someone who:

1. Is aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen;

2. Respects and values diversity;

3. Has an understanding of how the world works;

4. Is outraged by social injustice;

5. Participates in the community at a range of levels, from the local to the global;

6. Is willing to act to make the world a more equitable and sustainable place;

7. Takes responsibility for their actions.

Intercultural Dialogue

For the British Council (2008: 3), intercultural dialogue recognizes that:

The world in which we all live is a world of differences – differences within cultures as well as differences between cultures. Intercultural dialogue acknowledges that difference exist and seeks to develop mutual trust and understanding between people with diverse opinions, viewpoints and values.

Teaching Human Rights with Children

by Claudia Connelly

Volume 24 (2009)

Claudia Connelly, in this article, discusses the background to using storytelling with children to encourage empathy. She then presents a lesson plan with two activities that can help develop respect for difference and diversity, build strategies for conflict prevention and develop critical thinking.

Based on Book “We are all born free” about the UN Human Development Report.

Students stand up and make a circle. Explain to students to take it in turns to step into the circle and say what they need, recalling items they saw in the illustrations Peace and Home. Once a student has stepped into the circle, invite other students who have the same need to step into the circle too and say: I do too!

Example: I need my family. Invite all the students who have the same need to step into the circle and say: so do I!

Continue:

I need my dog! So do I!

I need my friends! So do I!

At the end of the activity explain that ‘we are all different but we all have the same needs.’

Getting it Right, the British Council and Global Issues SIG

by Xiaobing Wang

Volume 24 (2009)

This article is part of a report on an event run by the British Council and GISIG in London in 2009. There are links to video clips and reports on other sessions, by Fiona Ellis, Catherine Walter and Chris Lima, and the final session by Adrian Underhill is summarised below.

In regard to developing equal opportunity and diversity awareness (EO&D) and commitment in teachers, Adrian [Underhill] formulates three strategies. Firstly, to get conversations going among trainee teachers on what aspects of EO&D have been experienced or have personal meaning. Encourage reflection, discussion and actions. Notice what is going on in the interaction, and especially something trivial in detail. Last but not the least, develop a culture that strives to be more richly informed and empathetic regarding learner experience. Listen to the differences without immediate judgment or correctness.

Adrian proposes that in training rooms and staffrooms people should surface assumptions and recognise how they look at others, as well as give insight on how they are different from others. Adrian refines the teachers’ roles as a facilitator, challenging situations under the principles of empathy, acceptance and congruence.

Education and Action in the Classroom and Beyond

by Alan Maley

Volume 26 (2011)

In this article Alan Maley reflects on what a significant difference we could make to global issues if we wanted to and outlines some of the projects and initiatives pioneered by JALT members. He also stresses how important it to form a network of better understanding in the region and encourage teachers to read on global issues.

A Hope Club is a group of students who believe they can change the world. It was emphasised how important it was for the students to discuss and decide for themselves the issue they wanted to work with. He cited one example of students really fed up with the amount of plastic garbage in their school, and how they managed to eliminate plastic from the school completely, and how this had a knock-on effect on the local community and on other schools, until a major impact was achieved from a very small initial action. It is important for students to find something small and do-able, and to organise their project themselves, with teachers on hand to help only when needed.

Top tips for your classroom – quotations

by Margit Szesztay

Volume 27 (2012)

In this highly practical, short article, Margit Szesztay provides two ways of using quotations in class, lists some of her favourite quotes and tells us why she likes doing these tasks.

Here is why I like to work with quotations:

GOOD QUOTATIONS ....

... are short

... are a whole (like a poem, a joke), rather than a fragment (such as a sentence out of context)

... are like a ‘pearl of wisdom’

... express powerful, memorable ideas

... often contain metaphors

... create vivid images in the mind

... lead to a richness of interpretations (rather than agree-disagree polarisations)

Here are two of my favourite activities using quotations:

Quotations on the wall

a) Put up 6-8 quotations on the walls all around the classroom. Make sure they are easily legible. Ask students to walk around, read all the quotations, and choose one that speaks to them at the moment. (Or... the most interesting one, the most thought-provoking one etc.) Ask students to stand by the quotation of their choice.

b) Make small groups. E.g. if several students chose the same quote, they form a group. If there are some students on their own, ask them to take off the quotation of their choice from the wall and form a group, or join an already existing one. When the groups have formed, ask students to paraphrase the quotations and justify their choices.

c)Ask everyone to sit down and (without looking) to jointly recall the quotations one by one. It is important to draw on the memory of the group, i.e. someone might remember the idea expressed rather than the exact words, others might chip in with one or two phrases. Remind students how a particular quotation starts, if necessary. Write the quotations up on the board, or just move the slips of paper from the wall to a central place.

d) Ask students to vote on the most interesting / thought-provoking quotation and discuss it as a whole group. …

Here are two of my favourite quotations:

- “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” (Mohandas K. Gandhi)

- “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” (Native American Proverb)

Essentials of the GISIG Teacher’s Toolkit

by Maureen Ellis

Volume 28 (2012)

Maureen Ellis’ webinar considered how every academic discipline is capable of being taught for management, manipulation or emancipatory purposes. It expounded that separating global issues from values and perceptions is not only educationally inappropriate, but gives rise to power differentials, which in turn counter the development of individuals, organisations and institutions.

Maureen explained why DfES’ mindmap of eight global issues of Global Citizenship, Social Justice, Conflict Resolution, Human Rights, Sustainable Development, Diversity, Interdependence, and Values and Perceptions is a ‘simplification’ of the real tensions and contradictions of globalisation. Sustainable Development is frequently exposed as a contradiction in terms; the rich concept of bio- and cultural Diversity, reduced pragmatically to ethnic difference, tends to emphasise celebration and tolerance rather than an understanding why difference results in deference; contingent and charitable Social Justice needs to extend to political justice based on legal justification; true Interdependence is based on mutuality and can mask an assumed Eurocentric or Western perspective; and Conflict Resolution remains a sanitised, positive vision until we understand the many layers of injustice, contradictory community and commercial interests, the role and functions of trades unions, the work of diplomatic and political leaders. Philosophers like Tom Pogge show that negative Human Rights aren’t enough; we need to specify responsibility, accountability, transparency in positive terms! (Pogge in Kuper, 2005). As academics, for instance, we might begin with raising awareness of ‘Soldiers in the Laboratory’, Corporate power at Universities, the militarisation of university research; (Langley, et al 2008)

Global Education, Media Literacy and EFL

by Kip Cates

Volume 28 (2012)

EFL learners need language and thinking tools to engage critically with media messages. Kip Cates discusses how media sources can be used to raise learners’ awareness of factors underlying the presentation of cultures, global and national issues. He concludes with tips for tasks that expose media bias, and explore censorship.

In their 1985 text, World Studies 8-13, Fisher and Hicks list four pitfalls to be aware of when teaching about foreign countries, especially in the “Third World” (pg. 101). These involve exoticism, consumerism, stereotyping and paternalism. All four are relevant to media coverage of the world.

(a) The Tourist-Eye View

This view of foreign countries portrays everything as quaint and curious, with an emphasis on elephants and snake-charmers, the unusual and the exotic.

(b) The Packet of Tea Approach

In this view, people living overseas exist to grow our cotton, sugar, coffee and bananas. The role of their countries is to provide us with exciting holidays. This arrangement is portrayed as convenient for everyone with no apparent problems.

(c) The Pathological View

This shows foreign countries as desperate with everyone dying of starvation, floods, hurricanes and earthquakes. The implication is that foreign people are passive victims and our role as generous benefactors is to “rescue” them.

(d) The Pat on the Head

In this view, foreign people are portrayed as backward and childlike. They may be behind with their mud huts, goats and camels but if they follow our example, they’ll come out OK.

Take the famous list of questions known as the “5 Ws and 1 H”. These questions – who, what, when, where, how and why – are used in language classrooms worldwide to help students develop comprehension and communication skills. When applied to news events, they typically appear as What happened? When? and Where? These same questions, however, form the basis for critical media literacy.

Education for Sustainable Development in ELT

by Aleksandra Zaparucha & James Hindson

Volume 31 (2015)

The article briefly reviews how sustainable development is currently covered in some of the most popular English language textbooks with particular reference to the environment. Some do not tackle environmental issues at all while the ones that do lack in-depth discussion or a critical approach to the evidence presented. Generally, it concludes that books have superficial coverage of the issues or include out-of-date material on environmental topics.

Currently we are at the end of the UNESCO Decade of Education and Sustainable Development (ESD) and although much progress has been made towards the goal of integrating ESD throughout the curriculum, few achievements have been made in the area of teaching English compared with other subjects. This is a great pity as English language lessons offer huge opportunities for teaching ESD.

As the world is encouraged to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ more this article outlines a lesson plan that encourages students to buy fewer clothes and think in more detail about how their clothes are made and the impact that fast fashion has on the environment. The warm-up activity presents the class with pictures of teenagers wearing jeans and t-shirts with the suggestion that students make a list of all the different materials that go into producing a pair of jeans. The lesson then continues with a handout which deals with the resources needed to produce a pair of jeans. Students have to complete a graph with the information included on their handout. The lesson continues with a questionnaire for students to answer about their shopping habits and how they can be a better consumer.

Gaza in the Critical EFL Classroom: Opening Eyes, Hearts and Minds

by Bill Templer

Volume 32 (2015)

This article is written from the standpoint of a left-leaning Jewish-Israeli educator and seeks to highlight the situation in Gaza as a point of reference for discussing the on-going conflict between the Israeli state and the Palestinian population. Bill Templer presents a range of resources that teachers can draw on to generate critical consciousness amongst students and encourages them to re-examine their values and take practical action in the light of this examination.

The article is not a set of articulated lesson plans, but many such mini-plans could be developed from the aspects and sources highlighted in a kind of ‘bricolage’ of potential focal points in the primary sense of a piece quilted together from diverse sources, suggesting a potential mix of pedagogical approaches, weaving together a ‘complex collage’ of images, insights and interpretations (Steinberg, 2006). It suggests honing the social imagination on the Israel/ Palestine conflict and its nightmarish realties using the technique of ‘interior monologuing’ oriented toward configuring a ‘curriculum of social empathy.’

The article presents an ‘arsenal’ of angles and range of sources teachers can draw on in approaching this concrete hot spot to generate critical conscientiousness among learners. A kind of hands-on radical ‘critical CLIL’ within the context of Global Issues in the EFL classroom. As Pohl and Szesztay (2015) stress: ‘we need to be critical not just with what we read, hear, and see around us, but also with our internalised ways of thinking, communicating, and behaving. We need to re-examine our values in the light of our everyday lives. And if there is a mismatch, do something about it.’

Bringing Creative, Critical and Compassionate Thinking into ELT

by Uwe Pohl & Margit Szesztay

Volume 32 (2015)

This article breaks down different types of thinking into three categories: critical, creative and compassionate thinking, with an analysis of key features of each type. Pohl and Szesztay then describe practical ways of developing these ‘three Cs’ in the ELT class.

We suggest using this breakdown as a checklist to aid reflection on the educational aspect of our work in ELT. We also find the following questions helpful in relating the three thinking modes to our classrooms:

- Do the materials and activities I’m currently using lead to compassionate, creative, and critical thinking?

- Does my teaching style and the way I relate to my students encourage the 3 Cs?

- What resources are available for bringing the 3 Cs more fully into my teaching?

Putting the three Cs into practice: an example

We would now like to illustrate how video materials can be used to bring compassionate, creative and critical thinking into the ELT classroom. Of course, any kind of written, visual or listening material whose content or format serves to trigger critical, creative and or compassionate thinking can be of value. But, in our experience, video clips are a particularly promising resource for engaging today’s students and one that is still under-exploited in this regard.

E-lesson Inspirations http://gisig.iatefl.org/elesson-inspirations is a set of video-based resources for teachers who want to strengthen the educational dimension of their teaching. Each unit consists of a link to a short video clip in English which raises a real-world issue and some ideas for what to do before and after watching the clip. The activity suggestions serve as building blocks around which teachers can plan lessons suitable for their own contexts and particular group of learners. The clips were chosen and the classroom activities compiled with the 3 Cs in mind. In this way, all the units have potential for fostering thinking skills.

Politics, participation and prevent

by Linda Ruas

Volume 33 (2016)

In this article, the author reports on a conference in London where various groups presented ways to involve learners in taking action “to build better, fairer

communities”. Here is one of the practical classroom tasks.

We started with everyone, in pairs, making a banner to say ‘something they feel is so important they would shout about it in the street’. This task works really well as a warmer in an ELT class. Learners get into heated discussions about topical issues -you could:

- Display banners from recent protests on the screen;

- Encourage learners to ask for or look up the vocabulary they need to express exactly what they want to say;

- Correct their own banner with guidance or suggestions from other learners and/or the teacher;

- Decide where to mark the utterance stress;

- Practise the sounds and appropriate intonation.

If learners are chanting things that they really want to say, there’s far more point in getting them to repeat it several times.

Working with protest banners can really build confidence, especially with shy learners. In my intermediate ESOL class last year, there were some Nepali women learners who found it very difficult to speak without keeping their hand in front of their mouth.

We built up a bank of protest banners, summarising learners’ issues, summarising lessons or texts they’d read about eg. the refugee crisis, feminism, banking and GM food from the New Internationalist Easier English wiki.

And we practised chanting, with shouting dictations (2 lines of learners standing along walls of the classroom, all shouting their banner to dictate to the person opposite them) and mini-protests in class – and they became far more confident.

Teaching young and not-so-young learners English through tree-related activities

by Mojca Belak

Volume 35 (2016)

This article, based on a conference session the author gave, is about how to raise students’ interest in trees in order to engage them with the natural world around them. Mojca Belak provides seven simple tasks, the final one of which is the following.

Activity 7

If

I were a tree, I would be...

Students write a haiku (5, 7 and 5 syllables) beginning with “If I were a tree”.

Mine goes like this:

If I were a tree

You’d first think of baobab

But I’m a birch, me.

Conclusion

Trees are silent witnesses of human existence, they see generations of people come and go, and while they slowly and patiently struggle to reach for the sky, they produce oxygen, provide shade, and much more. They have a lot to give, yet they never take from other living beings. Discussing them in English could be part of cross-curricular learning, i.e. when students learn about trees or the forest at other subjects, they could also explore trees in their English lessons. Alternatively, trees could be a constant topic of a young learners’ English class just because they are so lovely to discuss and learn about. Before doing a tree activity, the teacher could make it a habit to introduce it with a short story about trees or a particular tree. Plenty of tree stories can be found online. Trees can also be introduced through books where they themselves are characters in stories or play an important part in the development of the story, or through drawings and paintings of trees.

Videoing global issues – Going Mobile

by Ana Cristina Oliveira

Volume 37 (2017)

Ana Cristina Oliveira writes about her class projects in Portugal where her learners made videos about various global issues such as poverty and pollution. She describes exactly how she organised the project and how the work helped learners work on various language areas such as pronunciation and grammar, and provides links to the finished videos.

The overuse of technology is itself a global issue, but why can we not better use it to the students' benefit? Better still, why not challenge our students to become producers instead of just being users or viewers?

Most of them found causes for the different issues and many were shocked, as, up till then, they had not been aware of how devastating and gruesome many of these problems have been. Following this, they were asked to consider what will happen if Mankind does (or not) change its attitude, and what they would do were they given the chance to be part of the powers that be. At this point, students easily began using the 1st and 2nd conditional. Some provided the classical examples, but others actually gave this serious thought and even did some digging in order to suggest sustainable solutions, or by presenting actions that had already proven efficient in other countries. Eventually, extremely interesting ideas came up in the classroom.

Students often feel discouraged when we talk about these subjects and more often than not claim, rather sadly, that despite the fact that they would really like to take serious action, they feel it is not worth it because they are alone in it, most people just do not care, I asked them to find someone famous who is or was involved in the issue they had taken an interest in. I strongly believe that all of us, at a certain point feel that we are fighting some lost battles, but I know that children and teens are resilient and if they have a role model they will definitely try to act alike. In fact, the students were surprised when they realized that so many actors, singers and even football players, people they admired, were committed to fighting for these issues.

Teaching global issues to teens in an engaging way

by Anastasia Khodakova

Volume 37 (2017)

This author provides several practical ways to engage students with important global issues and develop a sense of social responsibility to help them develop as global citizens.

Tip #1. Look through the calendar to surprise them. International Day for Tolerance (November 16), International Men’s Day or World Migratory Bird Day, International Thank You Day (January 11) are popular among teenagers, so such celebrations in your class can become remarkable traditions!

Tip #2. Use visuals and media. This generation is growing while posting pictures in Instagram and enjoying live broadcasts, so video, images, catchy advertising send the message right into their young minds. Videos or images can be used for warm-up or initiating a heated discussion. A few of my favourites are:

1. Ads by Pantene (Labels against women - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc3-QYduUTg)

2. Film English lessons (e.g. My shoes - http://film-english.com/2013/09/04/my-shoes, The Other pair - http://film-english.com/2016/03/30/the-other-pair/).

Tip #3. Practical experience is the key. Students learn when they do real things. Project work is the most common way to make lessons real. For example, when reading the text about trash sculptures and discussing 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) principles, we made butterflies from old magazines for decorating the classroom. When raising the issues of poverty in the developing countries (Molly’s World lesson - https://www.wfpusa.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/08/Mollys-World-Lesson-Plan-on-International-Womens-Day.pdf), our students recorded video introductions of girls in the group for Molly.

THEME 3: WHAT ROLE CAN LANGUAGES PLAY IN GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT?

Introduction to Theme 3 by Gergő Fekete

By posing a rather broad question, this section forecasts three powerful notions: language, globalisation, and development. What do we mean by language in the first place? When we talk about the relationship between languages and global development, do we mean English, Englishes, or other languages? Knowing all this, what global issues are influenced by the language(s)? Or do these issues influence the language(s)? Does it work both ways? How is development affected? To what extent?

Many authors have elaborated on the role of language instruction: we teach languages to enable students to read, write, listen, and speak in the foreign language. These roles, however, can be extended to promoting tolerance, fostering empathy, or solving pressing problems. Learning an international language might easily be a passport to experiencing other countries, other cultures, other mindsets. In this sense, language teaching goes beyond borders. Yet besides the development of tolerance and empathy, can it also stop spreading the harmful and dangerous phenomena? How much is, for instance, the English language responsible for consumerism, which, according to Alan Maley, lies at the heart of many global issues?

Developing this train of thought, we arrive back at the very first point of this section: What is the role of languages in global development? In what follows, enjoy reading some thought-provoking and enlightening articles trying to unravel these intricate relationships and show what all this means to language teachers.

Power, Communication and the Construction of Intercultural Understanding

by Ralph Ings Bannell

Volume 5 (1999)

Ralph Bannell considers how the teaching of English as a foreign language is involved in creating and sustaining relations of power. In this article he rejects the argument that the spread of English throughout the world is only in the interest of dominance and power and examines the assertion that learning a language also contributes to improved intercultural understanding and cooperation.

It would be excessively pessimistic to conclude that the spread of English throughout the world is always in the interests of the dominant groups/countries and that it can make no contribution whatsoever to intercultural communication in the direction of greater understanding, cooperation and equality. Such pessimism would lead to an immobilising posture in the face of inequality and intolerance.

If learners are to interpret and construct meaning from texts produce in another sociocultural context, their established schematic knowledge will often be insufficient. They will either not understand the text or misinterpret it in ways that could be detrimental to their own interests. But it is a far cry from acknowledging this to devaluing the students’ established schematic knowledge in the learning process. If we do, and many teaching materials and techniques do so, we are denying our students’ view of reality as well as the cognitive strictures they need to employ in the learning process. In other words, this is not just a neutral question in psychology, but a political question of empowerment and the negation of voice.

Considering Controversial Issues in the Classroom

by Dianne Smith, Lee Makela & Heidi Makela

Volume 7 (1999)

Is global citizenship education for young learners practicable? The authors argue for nurturing ‘decision-making competencies’ by confronting critical controversy-ridden topics. They provide a general framework for teaching a controversial issue and then look at the Hiroshima/Nagasaki 1945 atomic bombings as a case study, with suggested activities, stressing alternative views and varied information sources as key elements in the instructional equation.

‘Teachers in a democracy should conduct, not neglect, classroom discussion on curriculum-related controversial issues,’ suggests Dr. Thomas Kelly (Kelly, 1989) Why? Because properly conducted considerations of controversial issues provide both teachers and students with a fruitful experience in enhancing the skills needed by a democratic citizenry.

As family members, friends, neighbours and workers, we frequently confront situations that require each of us to decide what actions constitute responsible behaviour. How better to master this skill than by practising in a safe and supportive classroom environment? And what better forum for debate than those historical events which, even today, prompt controversial reactions? Developing decision-making competencies also helps ensure the citizenship responsibilities and civic capabilities state proficiency tests demand. How better to shape an understanding of the democratic values we most respect than by confronting controversy.

There is but One ELT Industry; and Inter?/Contra?-National ELT Conferences Make Straight its Way

by Thiru Kandiah

Volume 13 (2002)

This extract is from an excellent article by Thiru Kandiah that begins with an apposite quote: ‘Even slum dwellers prefer to send their children to English medium schools’ (Annamalai 1994). It discusses the huge number of comparatively underprivileged people learning English around the world and how the ELT industry and ELT conferences relate to or serve them.

Their motivation for learning the language is, presumably, to lift themselves out of the unequal situations to which they have been condemned by a socio-economic-political system that they have had no hand in fashioning and to find their place in its sun. But this aim itself is, however unclearly or even paradoxically, taken up into the larger aim of post-colonial reconstruction which the countries they belong to are desperately engaged in. Going well beyond simply ‘modernisation’ and ‘development’, the task involves the fashioning of a distinct, contemporarily viable national identity in terms of which each of these countries could meaningfully participate on a footing of equality within the socio-historically constituted global order in which they have been inextricably embedded by history. Which in turn involves the creation of a distinct national voice which would ensure the identity would be seen and recognised for what it is, and its deepest concerns heard.

Macdonald Duck Revisited: Implications for Culture, Society and Education

by Alan Maley

Volume 17 (2005)

Alan Maley’s article focuses on issues that have a great impact on our world. Firstly, these issues are discussed through a general lens, while part 2 of the article deals with the same concerns but from the point of view of education and more specifically the English language.

The effect of global English on other cultures and languages has been widely documented and critiqued (e.g. Phillipson 1992; Pennycook 1994; Canagarajah 1999). There are other, perhaps less obvious, problems for the teacher of English. As English becomes more international, it becomes less ‘English’. English no longer belongs to the English-speaking peoples when it is spoken as a second or other language by a majority of people in the world. This makes it more difficult for teachers to pronounce on issues of correctness, appropriacy, etc. and thus undermines the teachers’ omniscient authority.

The globalisation of English has also raised its status as a tool of opportunity. The dispossessed tend to see it as a passport to economic success. However, although English is in many ways a necessary condition for economic or career advancement, it is by no means a sufficient condition. What is becoming clear is that English tends to reinforce the power of the already powerful, so that we can witness the rise of what might be termed ‘the English-speaking classes’- those internationally-mobile, financially-savvy, ‘economically-enterprising’ people whose success is bolstered and extended by membership of the exclusive ‘English-speaking club’. Entry to that club depends not only on proficiency in the English language.

Where do Standard Languages Come From? Power, Print and Nations

by Graham Hall

Volume 20 (2005)

Starting with the definition of language, Graham Hall’s article provides a historical overview of language standardisation, highlights the main notions of its theory, and finally discusses its relevance to teachers of English as context and as a source of classroom content, too.

As a teacher, I might consider how ‘standard’ my own English is and does this matter in my teaching – both to myself and to the learners? The emphasis on spoken communication in much ELT makes this a particularly interesting issue.

Language and language standardisation is also a topic which opens up a whole array of political, social and cultural issues for learners to examine as a part of, and as a vehicle for, their language learning. The question of what has happened to other languages in the UK (e.g. Cornish, Manx, Welsh) has often provoked interest amongst my students, and has led to an examination of similar situations in learners’ own countries. Similarly, touching on ideas such as diglossia, and different functions for different languages/vernaculars/dialects in different countries has also raised interesting questions of why people are learning English and what they might use it for.

These are, of course, challenging issues and can lead to often uncomfortable questions which touch on the role of the English language and English language teaching in the world. Nevertheless, they can also stimulate learners (and teachers!) and produce meaningful and stimulating classroom learning.

Becoming a Global Teacher: Ten Steps to an International Classroom

by Kip Cates

Volume 20 (2006)

From rethinking the role of English through integrating global topics into teaching to organising extra-curricular activities, Kip Cates outlines ten steps to help teachers bring a global dimension into their classrooms. At the end of the article, he also highlights what this new approach could offer to teachers and learners all over the world.

The first step in becoming a global teacher is to rethink your definition of English. Definitions are important because they limit what we do. How do you define life, for example? As a party? A pilgrimage? A to-do list? A vale of tears? Each of these definitions will lead you off in a different direction. In the same way, how you define English determines what you do in your classroom. What is “English” then?

A global approach to EFL, therefore, means showing how English can be a language of world citizenship for learning about our global village, for communicating with people from other cultures and for working to solve problems facing Planet Earth.

Writing for our students to read

by Alan Maley

Volume 21 (2007)

This is a report on a small project that Alan Maley ran with teachers in Asia in 2003, designed to produce literary texts in English for use in their classes. The project proved that NNS teachers are not only capable of, but are also uniquely well placed to write literary materials for use by their own and other students in the region.

The ‘Asia Teacher-Writers Project’ is, I believe, interesting for a number of reasons. It is a grassroots / bottom-up initiative. Participation is entirely voluntary and the project is independent of institutions. It is also predicated on the principle of ‘small is beautiful’ (Schumacher, 1974). There is no ambition to effect sweeping large-scale changes such as the many failed government initiatives which litter the educational landscape. It has a local focus with no global ambitions. It works, if it works at all, through persuasion at the personal level, and through the commitment of the small number of individuals. Small phenomena can nonetheless have large effects as Chaos Theory teaches us (Gleick, 1988).

However, it is also significant because it intersects in important ways with some currents of contemporary professional concern. The role of the NNS (non-native speakers) continues to preoccupy scholars of the spread of English, as does the development of English as an International Language, no longer the sole property of the metropolitan countries (Rubdy and Saraceni, 2006). This project is intimately linked with such concerns. It promotes the notion of NNS teachers able to find their own place and their own idiom in this rapidly-changing global movement. The project also reasserts the importance of the place of affect (Arnold, 1999), of visualization, noticing (Schmidt, 1990), personalization, Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1985), motivation (Dornyei, 2001), authenticity, extensive reading (Day and Bamford, 1998), the teaching of expository writing a second language and creativity in general (Boden, 1998; Carter, 2004).

Peace Boat: Building a Culture of Peace – Global Language and Global Issues

by Karen Hallows

Volume 22 (2008)

Karen Hallows went on a global voyage for peace in 2007 on the Peace Boat. Guest educators, which included activists, journalists and artists, provided workshops on many global issues eg. climate change, conflict and human rights to prepare the participants for a series of tours on land where they call, for example around refugee camps in Jordan.

The Global English/Espanol Training (GET) programme is different to other teaching experiences I have had on land. Classrooms are converted cabins with portholes with a view out to sea. Usually the boat gently rocks, but we have to deal with more than the occasional bout of seasickness. The students spend more than three months together having classes every day on the ship, but they are also part of the wider community that is formed on board. Life on board is intense and full. Usual small talk classroom conversations about weekend activities are replaced with shared first-hand experiences in foreign countries. The growth and change that most participants undergo throughout the three months give the language students a lot to share and discuss in English.

You Are What You Speak

by Adrian Tennant

Volume 22 (2008)

Adrian Tennant presents several simple class discussions in this article, with suggestions for links and tasks to develop the ideas further. He intersperses the activities with comments on his experience of using them with different groups of learners.

Three topics that have intrigued me for the last few years are endangered languages, global English and accents. For me, these topics fit neatly into what I see as Global Issues. They are topics that are about culture, identity and link into the issue of globalisation. They are also topics that I think most students are interested in and, in my experience, have made for excellent lessons. The majority of these activities are simple discussions that can be done in pairs, in groups or as a whole class.

Activity 1

1. Why do people have accents?

2. What does an accent tell us about someone?

3. Can you tell where a person comes from by their accent?

4. How can an accent be useful?

Activity 2

5. What kind of accent have you got?

6. Do you like your accent? Why (not)?

7. Would you like to change your accent? Why (not)?

8. Is your accent part of your identity?

Activity 3

9. When do you use English? (for what?)

10. Do you like using English?

11. Would you prefer to use your own language?

12. Why don’t you use your own language in certain situations?

13. Do you think your language is endangered because of English?

Putting the Brakes on Complexity: Everything should be Made as Simple as Possible, but not Simpler (Einstein)

by Bill Templer

Volume 23 (2009)

Bill Templer argues here that we need a leaner, simpler English, with four different suggestions: ‘say it plainer’ – downsizing discourses in L1; a simpler, ‘satisficing’ English for most ELLs; Voice of America Special English, a unique neglected resource; and ‘Class Matters’. The following excerpt is from the final suggestion.

An easier acquisition target for average learners of ELF is particularly relevant in a world where only a small percentage of kids and adults have the socioeconomic privilege to acquire a higher proficiency level in ELF, and gaps grow ever wider between the haves and have-nots across a shrinking globe. Money talks. Money talks English. Class matters in classrooms across the planet. Dave Hill (2003) notes: ‘Those who can afford to buy clean water don’t die of thirst or diarrhoea. In schooling, those with the cultural and economic capital to secure positional advantage in a local school quasi-market do so. Those who can’t, suffer the consequences.’

In a class-sensitive pedagogy for TESL/TEFL, we try to assess what the impact of these socioeconomic and cultural disparities may be among our own students, and why they may be uninterested in books, resistant to over-disciplined instruction, unmotivated to learn much L2, and from social backgrounds where a ‘highly interiorized literacy’ (Ong, 1982) and culture of reading are not part of the life worlds of ordinary working families. In what ways does our own ‘highly interiorized’ literacy distort how we perceive the literacy of Others, in particular working-class learners from the social majorities in the Global South? Often they control and love a rich oral culture, while they are ‘less influenced than mainstream middle-class groups by essay-text literacy and the school systems that perpetuate it’ (Gee, 2008). Educational equity means respecting the authentic realness of their experience and life worlds (Reyes & Vallone, 2008), their basic dignity.

Language and Development

by Hywel Coleman

Volume 26 (2011)

In this article Hywel Coleman highlights some of his perspectives and work involved in English and development, including the Language and Development Conferences which have provided opportunities for specialists and practitioners in development, education and language to exchange experiences and ideas.

One way in which the dreadful maternal mortality rate in the least developed countries could be reduced would be by providing far more practical training for nurses, midwives and traditional childbirth helpers in language which they can understand and in language which they themselves can then use with mothers (Wariyar 2010). This will almost always mean using a local language, quite possibly a language which has never been written down, a language which has no official standing.

The study of Language and Development has a history going back less than twenty years. During that time considerable progress has been made.

1. There has been a clear movement away from simple descriptions of English language teaching projects in development contexts (which tended to characterise some of the early L&D conferences) towards a more critical perspective.

2. There is now a greater understanding that English is not the only language that plays a role in the development process.

3. There is increased awareness that ‘development’ does not necessarily mean just economic development at a national level. Development has a much broader meaning.

4. There is increased willingness to question some of the claims that have been made for English as a means to development.

But we still need to learn much more about how development economists, human rights lawyers, educationists, other than language teachers and other development specialists, look at language as well as working with language. We need to venture out from the cosy and comfortable world of ELT and ask ourselves some really challenging questions about the value of what we are doing.

Developing a Research Unit for Simplified English

by Bill Templer

Volume 26 (2011)

Is English language proficiency being converted into a badge of class privilege, inequity and ‘cultural capital.’? Do we need to look at new paths toward a more sustainable ‘clearer’ and ‘simpler’ English for all? In this article Bill Templer proposes a new orientation of English as a Lingua Franca, aiming at the social majority across the globe.

We have to experiment with and research in empirical depth and new paths toward a more sustainable and more easily learned and retained ‘clearer, plainer’ English among the world’s social majorities, and non-privileged learners from working-class, rural and poor backgrounds everywhere. Too much orientation in our field (and in global education more generally, shaped by the ethos of ‘cultural elites’ and their ‘meritocracy’) is toward teaching middle-class learners.

The upshot of this is growing inequality in the effective teaching of EFL as a tool of international communication, and the increasing conversion of English language proficiency into a badge of class privilege, inequity and ‘cultural capital.’ There is a widening chasm between small islands of so-called privileged middle-class learners of EFL across the developing world, the EFL haves, and the masses of working-class learners and ordinary poor folks, the EFL have-nots. ‘Money talks English’, generating vast topographies of inequity in global discourse (Templer, 2008). In the interest of ‘discourse democracy’ and a TESOL of equity and solidarity in the 21st century, we need strategies to resist and counter that.

Profit over Pedagogy: the Wall Street Institute and the Globalization of ESL

by Malik Nour

Volume 27 (2012)

In commercial language school chains such as WSI, English is consistently described as the “global” or “international” language. Malik Nour questions whether this presents a misleading image of English as the medium to spread the humanitarian goals of the global community when such schools stand for imposed Globalisation that comes with the goals of profit-driven international business.

As the primary language of the industrialized world, English is the means of transmitting globalisation’s foundational principles: social interconnectivity, liberalized capital, and universalized human rights. If we are to engage in a collective, critical discussion about issues of political, economic, and cultural globalization, the role of English as the de facto global language must also be interrogated. English is not sold, so to speak, as one way by which a student can participate in the greater phenomenon of globalization. Rather, it is self-sanctified as the only way by which those unlucky enough to be born in places such as Marrakech, Lima, or Bangkok can integrate themselves into the rapidly advancing modern world.

Book Review – Globish

by Rakesh Bhanot

Volume 28 (2012)

In this review of ‘Globish’ by R. McCrum, Rakesh Bhanot is far from convinced that Globish, a language that comprises 1500 words and uses a subset of English grammar, is more than an entertaining concept. He believes the vast majority of potential learners would prefer to learn English (in one of its many varieties) rather than a diluted form of English.

Globish might, with some stretch of the imagination, provide a means of communication between speakers from different countries but it is not something that a person, who has the ways and means to learn English, would aspire to since it would not provide her/him access to all that is there in Cyberspace. The English that has value and is accepted by educational institutions (for research and publications) is still a sort of elite English close to native/expert speaker level. Those who master Globish only are likely to be disadvantaged. Thus, instead of promoting ‘equality’, Globish may widen the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. Indeed, English is part of the problem (and, perhaps, also the solution) that has increased global inequality.

Team-teaching in São Tomé and Príncipe

by Linda Ruas

Volume 32 (2015)

This article describes Linda Ruas’ experiences of teaching English in a makeshift classroom in a small village on a mountain in the ex-Portuguese colony of Sao Tome and Principe. She explains in detail the challenges involved such as working without any resources, apart from an old blackboard and some broken chalk, but finding innovative ways to overcome these challenges through the production of low-cost materials such as flashcards and techniques that included TPR (Total Physical Response) and CLL (Community Language Learning) to encourage students to be more independent as learners and generate content for their own learning rather than rely on a syllabus imposed on them by others.

English was definitely needed, if only to dispel the myth that their particular strain of malaria was too virulent for tourists. We wanted to motivate the group to learn more English alone. We wanted to give them some techniques and ideas to use with the children in summer school to help them learn too. We wanted at least some of the teaching to be learner-generated, not imposed on them. So the lessons were a mixture of the following:

1. Paulo Freire-style “important words” – using the flashcards we’d prepared, we taught the words, played matching games with the words and pictures, mimed them to re-elicit in pairs, ranked them in groups for importance to the country and the village. Then we discussed the words in Portuguese and what they meant to them and their community.

2. TPR (Total Physical Response) to get them actively involved, and extend the “stand up, turn, give, take, point at etc” verbs with nouns i.e. the “important local words” we’d drawn on flashcards.

3. CLL (Community Language Learning) to get them, in small groups, to plan questions they wanted to ask us. We used quite a lot of Portuguese to set this up, looked at basic question forms together, with cut-up verbs and question words to order, models to the blackboard and our support in three small groups.

Grammar for Peacebuilding

by Lone Bendixen

Goulani

Volume 32 (2015)

Lone Bendixen Goulani shares some ideas about how to incorporate peacebuilding into English grammar teaching. She has designed a syllabus for pre-sessional EAP students at level B1 in Kurdistan to develop their grammar and writing skills.

Lesson 1

Aim: Understand your cultural identity and review sentence structure

When I start the grammar for peacebuilding course, I make the students focus on their own individual beliefs and values. If the student understands the relationship between his values and actions, there is a better chance he will understand why other people perhaps behave differently. What we see on the outside such as language, clothes, celebrations and food are based on, for example, ethnicity, culture, or religion. To illustrate this point, I could say: Many people in Kurdistan do not eat pork (behaviour) because most of them are Muslims (religious belief). You can draw an iceberg on the board, and explain that we cannot see what is under the sea level, but we know that the tip of the iceberg means that there is something

underneath. Similarly, our actions and general behaviour are rooted in a certain mindset. On the tip of the iceberg, you can write language, food, clothes and other identifiable features.

Lesson 2

Aim: Understand your cultural identity by reviewing the history of Iraq and verb tenses.

Because of what has been going on in the past, people have certain emotions in the present, so history is important to understand present conflicts. To let my students reflect on their history, I found a lot of photos from Kurdistan and Iraq and put them into a short Pechu Kucha presentation and talked about events in the past and present and asked the students what they thought about the future of Iraq. I use a verb tense timeline and focus on when the actions happened and whether they are completed or not. The students use the inspiration in the presentation to brainstorm and then write about the past, present and future of Iraq and Kurdistan.

Raising students’ awareness and sensitivity of gender and diversity issues

by Katharina Groeblinger

Volume 36 (2017)

How can we bring gender and diversity into class in a university context in a stimulating, engaging task that learners will enjoy? This author experimented with using fairy tales to get learners discussing stereotypes and prejudices and includes their re-writes of some of the stories in her article.

What does a typical lesson on gender and diversity issues look like? As preparation, the students are asked to find a one-page summary of their favourite fairy tale. In general, there are between 15 and 20 students in this class and since some grew up bi-culturally, I encourage them to bring fairy tales from different cultures. In the actual lesson, I first clarify the meaning of all relevant terminology such as “What is a cliché, a stereotype or a prejudice?” The students are motivated to discuss examples and personal experiences. Afterwards, groups of approximately four to five students each are formed. By re-reading their fairy tales, each group tries to identify as many clichés, stereotypes and prejudices as possible. Examples would be the damsel in distress who needs to be saved by prince charming, women who are either displayed as victims or villains, the lack of homosexual relationships, the obligatory wedding at the end of the fairy tale, the good versus bad motive. The findings of all groups are then discussed in class, which usually results in very interesting, and sometimes heated discussions. As the final step, the students rewrite their fairy tales by avoiding all clichés, stereotypes and prejudices. Depending on the group size and the time available, each group typically picks one or two fairy tales to rewrite.

Critical thinking and Global Issues

by Dragana Stegic

Volume 36 (2017)

In this article, Dragana Stegic tells how she started introducing critical thinking into her ELT classes and giving talks and workshops about it. Here she describes how she brought the topic of the refugee crisis into class.

Last year saw the refugee crisis shake up Europe and it was definitely a topic which was brought up in the classrooms throughout Slovenia. Instead of preaching about how horrible the entire situation was (which I know would result in some eye rolling in class) or simply ignoring it because it had nothing to do with where I live, I opted for doing the “a day in the life of…” activity with my students. This is a great way of helping students put themselves in someone else’s position. In this case, I used shoes as a metaphor (what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes). For the first lesson we started off with famous names from history, such as ‘Nelson Mandela’. Students wrote about what his daily routine must have been like, the days he spent in prison, travelling the world as well as some other struggles he might have had. Lesson after lesson, we moved further away from famous to anonymous faces, such as a Syrian child en route to Europe in a small rubber boat. This step-by-step approach helped students visualize, reflect and shift their perspective. They asked questions and discussed why some people welcome refugees, while others protest against them. In the end, they were able to see the situation much more clearly.

THEME 4: LEARNING INTO ACTION: WHAT IMPACT CAN A GLOBAL PEDAGOGY HAVE ON THE WORLD?

Introduction to Theme 4 by Dennis Newson

We live in deeply worrying times. War is raging still in Syria and Afghanistan. The leaders of at least three countries give grave cause for concern. Thousands of people from Syria and parts of Africa continue to flee from their homes risking their lives in an attempt to reach the safety of Western Europe. The machinery of government in Great Britain is clogged by the mess of Brexit. As I write these sentences in February 2018 yet another ex-pupil has run amok in a school in the USA and shot dead a number of pupils. The words of Yeats are frequently quoted: ‘Things fall apart/The centre will not hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.’ And so is the sentence from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets: ‘Mankind cannot bear too much reality.’ Reflective teachers worldwide can be forgiven for wondering if the work they do, even at its best has any point in such a world. But despair is not a viable creed. We should rather take inspiration from Martin Luther: ‘If the world were to end tomorrow, I would plant my apple tree today.’ And the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin’s criticism, of T.S. Eliot’s quotation is compelling. In the Lathe of Heaven (1971) she wrote: ‘There is a bird in a poem by T. S. Eliot who says that mankind cannot bear very much reality; but the bird is mistaken. A man can endure the entire weight of the universe for eighty years. It is unreality that he cannot bear.’ Teachers are in key positions. It is a truism to say that children and young people are the future. But truisms can be true. Teachers (and even teachers of EFL remain educators) implementing a global pedagogy are strategically placed to enlighten the young, positively shape their thinking, thus keeping a sane future on the agenda.

Gay Identity in University EFL Courses

by Jane Joritz-Nakagawa

Volume 10 (2000)

In a personal narrative style, Jane Joritz-Nakagawa describes how she has approached the topic of ‘non-heterosexuality’ and being ‘gay’ hands-on in classes, detailing practical experienced aspects of such an issue focus and how students responded. Among examples noted, she describes presenting a letter by a ‘gay’ student who had suffered discrimination, and reflects on what she has learned about approaching this highly sensitive issue in a Japanese teaching context, including colleague attitudes.

‘What is a Family’ talks about non-traditional families, including single parent families and homosexual couples as parents. Students reported liking this chapter and this book as a whole; many said the book overall helped ‘broaden their worlds’. One female student from that course asked me to help her find information about lesbians in library, and of course I assisted her.

At another school, a student in a conversation course ‘came out’ in a group discussion as a bisexual. The week just prior to the discussion, in class students were looking at magazines that I had brought. One had an article about gay marriage. The student who later ‘came out’ asked me as I neared his group: ‘Do you support gay marriage?” ‘Of course’ I answered dismissively, as if someone had asked me if the earth was in fact round. I thought I noticed a satisfied smile on his face.

There was also a particular group of boys who I suspected were gay, who followed me around campus and frequently showed up in my office for no obvious reason. I think they were expressing their ‘admiration’ for me silently because talking about gayness was/is still quite taboo in Japan. I think I was a kind of role model because I was one of very few teachers (if not the only one) who would openly discuss homosexuality, bisexuality and/or gay rights in class. And knowing that such discussion so rarely happens, I felt, and feel, I must do it. Why? I feel someone needs to affirm the identities of my other than heterosexual students.

September 11 and the Politics of University Teaching

by Robert Jensen

Volume 13 (2002)

This article is part of a wider discussion on how ‘political’ English language teaching can, or should, be. The author considers how we come to hold political opinions and how the events of September 11 made raising political questions in class even more important.

At various times in my teaching career – more than ever since September 11 – I have been advised by faculty colleagues that I should avoid being ‘too political’ in the classroom. To the degree that the advice is simply pragmatic – avoid being political to avoid being criticised – I can understand it. But I find the suggestion hard to reconcile with my conception of what higher education should be in a pluralist democracy. Embedded in that advice are several key reasons for this culture’s intellectual and political crisis, and in particular the failure of the contemporary university.

I teach in a journalism department, where I have a role in training people who allegedly will provide the information citizens need to participate in a democratic system of governance that is based on the idea that those citizens are the sovereign power. Most journalists practise that trade in large corporate institutions that are themselves at the heart of the system of power in the society. Is there a way to imagine teaching journalism in a manner that isn’t intensely political?

Neutrality is simply another way of supporting the existing distribution of power. To challenge power is political. To support power is political. To avoid the question is political.

Swords into Ploughshares: Peacekeeping English Reduces Conflict around the World

by Paul Woods, Silvija Simane & Mark Crossey

Volume 13 (2002)

In this article, the authors report on the PEP (Peacekeeping English Project) in 24 countries from Estonia to Kazakhstan, run by the British Foreign Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, with the aims of encouraging regional cooperation, training teachers, and teaching English for Military Purposes among others.

Changing mind-sets involves talking about expectations; discussing problems and suggesting solutions; reflecting on lessons; building on strengths; becoming involved in decision-making processes; working co-operatively in teams and pairs and giving positive and constructive feedback. All of these have a spin-off into the wider world outside the classroom and encourage a more reflective and less top-down approach. We strongly believe that this approach will lead to further democratisation of the society and the Armed Forces in particular.

It is our conviction that teachers of English can make a difference in the lives of the students. It is a pleasure to see your students greeting people when passing by, and what is more, smiling at people, showing an interest in people and not being afraid of initiating and maintaining a conversation. What is more, our students as citizens who are self-confident, open-minded, tolerant, and sensitive to intercultural issues will contribute to peace in the world.

Global Literacy for a Peaceful World through EIL Education in Japan

by Koji Nakamura

Volume 14 (2003)

Koji Nakamura looks at the need to teach English as an International Language without the shackles of American or European values, culture, or economics and as means to promoting cross-cultural understanding.

English as an International Language (EIL) for Global Communication

We have already seen the end of linguistic imperialism symbolizing American English and British English since the arrival of our post-modern orientation and globalization. There are benefits to learning English as a second language instead of English language intellectual imperialism and enslavement. Non-native English speakers can relativize their own language and appreciate each language on its own terms (Harumi, 2000). Goethe said one who does not know a foreign language does not know her/his own language. People can respect their own language by learning other foreign languages. If English were the only language left to be learnt for future generations, it would be the greatest intellectual disaster that the planet has ever known (Crystal, 2001). As long as a rich multilingual and multicultural context is guaranteed, English will serve the world community as a tool for global communication.

Influenced by globalization we see a variety of englishes in today's world. We have entered the age of englishes within the framework of English as an international language or global/world language. A well-known model is that of the concentric circles in David Crystal's Encyclopedia of the English Languages. Here, the inner circle is occupied by speakers of English as a native language, the outer circle by speakers of English as a second language and, beyond that, the expanding circle by speakers/learners of English as a foreign language (Crystal, 1997; Watkins & Hughes, 2001). To this we can add speakers/learners of English as an international or global language in expanding circles.

Smith (1976) defines English as an International Language (EIL) as one used by people of different nations to communicate with one another. He predicts the future of English as a means of communicating one’s identity, culture, politics, and way of life. One doesn’t need to become more Western or change one’s morals to use English well in international situations. English can and should be international. (Smith,1981)

English Language Teaching (ELT) has already gone beyond language within the framework of global education. Consequently, EFL teachers involved in EIL can be multicultural citizenship educators for global symbiosis in this cross-cultural century. Ultimately, English as an International Language belongs to no single culture, but, rather, provides the basis for promoting cross-cultural understanding in an increasingly global village (McKay, 2001). The very fact that English is an international language means that no nation can have custody over it (Widdowson, 1994). Learners of an international language do not need to internalize the cultural norms of native speakers of that language, and the ownership of an international language becomes de-nationalised (McKay, 2001).

Teaching Vocabulary for Peace Education

by Francisco Gomes de Matos

Volume 14 (2003)

In this article Francisco Gomes de Matos provides a number of techniques to help learners to humanize the way they use their English. By this he means the ability to use and self-monitor vocabulary that can contribute to building, enhancing, and sustaining peace among persons, groups, communities and nations.

Here is Technique number 1:

Technique 1: THRIL. The label for this technique, THRIL, stands for the "threefold repetition of an initial letter". This is a probing of the well-known device of "alliteration," which involves a sequence of words beginning with the same sound or letter for achieving some communicative effect. A classic example is Caesar's "veni, vidi, vici" which he said to the Roman Senate, upon his quick victory over King Pharnaces in Pontus. Given the mnemonic nature of this technique (mnemonics is still underexplored and under-researched in ESL vocabulary acquisition and use), many examples are provided so that ESL teachers and students can challenge themselves to create "peaceful reminders" in brainstorming sessions, thus contributing to what could more broadly be called ESL peace literacy.

The very first word in each statement or “Guideline for Peace” should be a verb form. Criteria such as the humanising depth of vocabulary used, its level of formality, the naturalness and appropriateness of the resulting sentence and its frequency of use can also be considered during the assessment phase of such vocabulary activation. To enhance visual recall in this presentation of the technique, the threefold repetition of the same “word-initial letter” precedes each example. Fuller contexts for each illustrative example are to be provided by learners and teachers in shared humanising vocabulary practices. Challenge your students to produce both memorisable and memorable sayings that can lead to face-to-face discussion in class or through online communication.

Examples of the THRIL Technique:

AAA—Avoid aggressive assertions. Accept divergence as an anticipation of agreement. Advise and advocate, rather than admonish. Act in accordance with altruism.

BBB—Be a peaceful bridge between persons, groups and cultures.

CCC—Consider (verbal) conflicts constructively. Convince through cooperation, rather than competition or coercion. Contribute to a culture of compassion. Cooperate cordially with classmates or colleagues. Consider controversies

DDD—Defend democratic ideals with determination. Dignify your daily dialogues with other persons. Do your daily deed for human dignity. Disagree with someone through dignified discourse.

EEE—Express empathy and encouragement.

FFF—Foster freedom and friendliness.

GGG—Generate goodness and generosity.

HHH—Honour humanism and humanitarianism. Harbour humaneness and humanity. Halt verbal harm and humiliation.

III—Integrate apparently incompatible ideas.

JJJ—Join the family of justice joyfully.

KKK—Keep kindling your kindness to others.

LLL—Let all live in peace in all lands.

MMM—Maximize mediation and meditation for peace. Monitor your messages for their moral value.

NNN—Nourish and nurture peaceful negotiations. Negotiate new ways of promoting nonviolence.

OOO—Organize your vocabulary for optimism and other-centeredness.

PPP—Perceive persons as peace partners. Promote a passion for peace in all places. Prepare yourself as a peace patriot.

Teaching Global Unity through Proverbs, Metaphors and Storytelling

by Vivian Chu

Volume 16 (2004)

Vivian Chu suggests that we can move towards a vision of global unity in the classroom through exploration of three paths: Proverbs, Metaphors, and Storytelling. Learners can then explore universal themes and common values across cultures and Increase consciousness of the universality of human experience. Here are some activities using proverbs:

Mixer activity:

Give out pairs of international proverbs that contain similar meaning – one proverb per learner. Each learner will interpret the meaning of their own proverb, walk around the classroom and share the meaning of their proverb with others, and find the person who has a proverb with similar meaning to their own. This activity may also be used to pair learners for subsequent activities.

Some pairs of international proverbs:

In multitude there is strength. (Nigeria)

United we stand, divided we fall. (U.S.)

There is great force hidden in a sweet command. (England)

Gentle words open iron gates. (Bulgaria)

A stitch in time saves nine. (Holland)

Unless you fill up the crack, you will have to build a new wall. (Ewe, W. Africa)

Tell not all you know, nor judge all you see, if you would live in peace. (Spanish)

To live in peace, one must be blind, deaf, and mute. (Turkish)

Draw attention to how proverbs from different countries contain similar messages and values. Ask students to discuss the values expressed, and share some proverbs from their own cultures that express similar values.

Interactive theme-based tasks:

Proverbs may be used as catalysts for diving into content-based lessons on various topics or thematic units. Choose proverbs that reflect the topics or themes of your lesson. On the theme of global issues, the following proverbs may be used to introduce a number of topics, followed by extension activities.

Some proverbs on global issues:

Peace: Convert great quarrels into small ones, and small ones into nothing. (China)

War: He that preaches war is the devil’s chaplain. (England)

Racism: Woe to him who gives a preference to one neighbour over another. (Ireland)

Poverty: The poorest man in the world is he who has nothing but money. (Sanskrit)

Justice: If a man steals gold, he is put in prison. If he steals land, he is made king. (Japan)

Good Muslims Speak English

by Sohail Karmani

Volume 18 (2005)

In this article, the author first recalls the London bombings of July 7th and sets out to show that Muslim languages have often been seen as a basis of Muslim “extremism” while the English language as Krashen’s affective filter in that it can weed out extremism and radicalisation

In short, looming over this dangerous sort of nonsense, is the embarrassingly crass idea that it’s always the good guys who speak English, and it’s mostly the bad guys (at least for the time being) who speak Arabic, Urdu, Punjabi or any one of a host of other “radical” languages. It seems obvious to me that such views are able to take on a deeply troubling currency, particularly in times of a national or cultural crisis. Alarmingly, they are easily evoked and instantly employable as part of an effort to pacify (and indeed vilify) a perceived ‘enemy within’, especially in a time of ‘war’, and not least when it’s necessary to obfuscate the shocking realities of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. And more specifically because of the long history in the West, of demonising the world of Islam, its cultures, its diverse peoples, and its dozens of languages. Such absurdities about Muslim ‘realities’ are able to find an easy readymade Islamophobic framework in which to thrive and to whip up tensions, without ever being challenged. Which is why I feel as English language teachers, or let’s say intercultural mediators, we need to be extremely vigilant about the emotive force of such ideas and forever cautious that we never, wittingly or unwittingly, reproduce or perpetuate them in our classrooms, much less in these very difficult and testing times.

ELT in a Globalized World

by Ricardo Sampedro

Volume 19 (2006)

Among the many questions, Ricardo Sampedro’s article focuses on the HOW? of working with global issues in the ELT classroom. The author provides a list of resources teachers can turn to if they would like to expand the scope of their profession.

Nearly 40 years after ‘humankind’ first landed on the moon, one child dies every three seconds from poverty-related causes for which cures exist. So, are we serious when we so very often mention a number of global issues in national curricula? Should the teaching of global issues be limited to providing students with technical data and anonymous statistics or should we use these, which affect everyone on the planet, as content for the development of key life skills, such as social awareness and critical thinking?

‘But, hold on. Aren’t we talking about ELT? Wasn’t the aim of our profession to provide students with the necessary language skills so that they can use English to communicate with others? The assumptions above are in no way related to my job, I am just a teacher of English.’

‘Not just so’, your conscience might whisper.

Becoming a Global Teacher: 10 Steps to an International Classroom

by Kip Cates

Volume 20 (2006)

From rethinking the role of English through integrating global topics into teaching to organising extra-curricular activities, Kip Cates outlines ten steps to help teachers bring a global dimension into their classrooms. At the end of the article, he also highlights what this new approach could offer to teachers and learners all over the world.

How we define ourselves is just as important as how we define our field. A key question which teachers can ask themselves is “Who am I?” How you answer this determines what you do in class. Do you define yourself as “just an English teacher?” Or do you see yourself as an “educator” in the wider sense? I prefer to define myself as a global educator who teaches English as a foreign language. This means that I’m dedicated to good English teaching but that I’m also committed to helping my students become responsible global citizens who will work for a better world.

Endangered Species

by Yasmeen Lunpe Farid & Zakia Sarwar

Volume 23 (2009)

This article presents a full lesson plan about Bald Eagles as an example of many species that are in danger of extinction due to human actions. The lesson plan can be adapted for all levels and for many areas of teaching eg. history, geography or science, and includes tasks related to a text, including sequencing of actions and extends into suggestions for project work.

It is said that over 60 million years ago, the dinosaurs wallowed in great, green swamps and prowled through hot, damp forests. But suddenly they were completely wiped off the face of the earth. Why? What happened? It is still a mystery. Some scientists say that perhaps a meteorite hit them. After that, humankind inhabited the earth and since then, strangely, many animals and plants have vanished from our planet. With each passing day, humans seem to be needing more and more space to live; they are grabbing more and more lands in the name of survival – is it really their need or greed that they are clearing away the hedges, streams, marshes and trees for their own selfish gain, callously making the creatures and plants living there homeless? What is worse, those creatures that stay are often destroyed either by hunting, poisonous spray or by polluted air or water. As a result, there is a whole range of animals, birds and plants that have become extinct or are categorised under “endangered species”. Although efforts are going on to save them, we still need to do more. Now our greatest hope lies with our children and youth.

Learning to live our global language: Human Rights Education in the language classroom

by Hilary Hunt & Margot Brown

Volume 23 (2009)

In 2008, on the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Hilary Hunt and Margot Brown explained what the UDHR is and what the benefits are of integrating human rights education into language classes are. They include several quotes from teachers working with human rights and discuss some of the difficult aspects, before concluding:

Human rights teaching provides a common language to enrich that interaction. Students affirm their right to education in the language classroom. The language of rights aspires to a decent and peaceful world for us all – the language classroom can use it as a means to that end.

We advocate beginning with UDHR Article 26.2 as a valuable statement of principle: ‘Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations …’

A good practice checklist starts with these 5 points:

1. Use the UDHR in the classroom, in student-friendly and original language, to develop English, human rights and intercultural competence

2. Recognise the value of subject knowledge

3. Integrate language and human rights content using real-life examples

4. Integrate rights-respectful pedagogy and classroom practice

5. Be prepared to take the plunge

Education for World Citizens

by Charles Mercieca

Volume 23 (2009)

Charles Mercieca, President and Founder of the International Association of Educators for World Peace takes us back to the early first century AD and the Roman philosopher Seneca’s educational philosophy: ‘a true and meaningful education is one that would prove to be beneficial to everyone across every continent’. Mercieca discusses our priorities in education today and how we need to take our responsibilities seriously.

The Seneca approach to education on a global scale is still feasible, even though we would have to do plenty of homework to this end. As we already know, all the mess we have in this world originates mostly from a handful of people we have in the government who proceed to abuse their power with no remorse whatsoever. All we need to do is to prepare a future generation that is properly equipped to replace hatred with love and war with peace. Besides, we need to instil in our future generation the idea that the best gift we could give on earth is to enable people to live in peace with themselves and with others.

We also need to imbue the young generation especially with virtues such as prudence, meekness, patience, perseverance, kindness and detachment from the material things of this world. We need also to equip them with a philosophy that would view the spiritual and physical strength of people as a top priority. Like St. Catherin of Siena used to say: ‘Anima sana in corpora sano – A healthy mind is found in a healthy body’. When the mind is healthy, it will be able to put priorities where they belong, especially in relation to all human beings.

Since the concept of education for world citizens is vital to the survival of the human race as we know it today, we should not hesitate any longer to start implementing it in our classrooms. No permission or approval is ever required in life from anyone when it comes to doing something that is good and fully beneficial to all human beings around the world.

Re-igniting, Re-tooling and Re-tiring in English Language Teaching

by Neil McBeath

Volume 24 (2009)

Neil McBeath provides a historical perspective of both ELT as an industry and various training routes, including the RSA qualifications, the emergence of SIGs and the development of conferences. He questions how much EFL teaching has progressed from being a ‘job’ to being a ‘career’.

Could it be that EFL is in the position described by McCourt (2005) where those who actually teach, the practitioners who interact with students on a daily basis, are left behind? These people are the backbone of the profession, but the rewards go to those who leave the classroom, and move into administration. Tenant (2008) points out that there is something seriously flawed about a system that allows beginners to be taught by inexperienced learners. I would suggest that there is something equally flawed that promotes good teachers out of the classroom, and into managerial positions for which they may have shown no aptitude.

Why, moreover, is it possible for Tajama (2007: 6; 2008: 159) to report that in Vietnam, language schools are still hiring ‘backpacker teachers who visit … and teach English to cover their air fare and travel around Vietnam or “expat wives”.’ This situation should have changed years ago. In a country as politically regulated as Vietnam, there is no excuse for allowing language school proprietors to increase their profit margins by employing cheap, unqualified labour.

These so-called ‘teachers’ perpetuate the myth that any speaker of a language can also teach it. They also short change their students, offering simplistic views of language, and ‘rules’ of doubtful validity, frequently based on prescriptive attitudes to language which are not supported by any data. Most importantly, however, they depress salaries for ALL teachers, and in particular for those non-native speakers who have trained and qualified only to find that their efforts go unrewarded.

Language Learning after 2010:

Making the Collective Unconscious Conscious

by Andrea Assenti del Rio

Volume 26 (2011)

How can we develop intercultural communicative competence alongside communicative competence in our classrooms so that two people from different backgrounds can communicate effectively in real life? In this article Andrea Assenti del Rio shares her innovative ideas for improving learners’ intercultural communication skills.

Can we hope for a better world? Can the world be changed? Can education contribute to that change? We certainly believe it can. Perhaps the world as such cannot be changed, but our little worlds can. The intercultural approach cannot be divorced from analyses, discussions and work on global and local issues of importance to people. Our work has therefore involved:

1. Working with newspapers in a way that is sufficiently critical and informed, in order to discuss topics of current relevance to us as people who live in this world.

2. Promoting the discussion of global and local issues in a way that is meaningful, but avoids falling into the trap of considering topics as fashions or things that must be discussed just because everybody does.

3. Discussing global issues locally and globally (online) in a way that is truly intercultural, and which takes into account the five savoirs, respectful of the fact that perhaps more needs to be known about specific problems which are sensitive for those people.

4. Truly caring about the local within the global. Our teaching includes instruction and immersion, by teaching languages through living them. We invite people to leave the classroom and enjoy dances, food and customs available in the different communities inhabiting our country. Besides, we also invite them to explore what they take with them when they go to a new country, what they have left behind and how their worlds have been changed (Jack & Phipps, 2005). People are encouraged to ask questions, to interview others, to go out, to observe, to take ‘field notes’ and share them in class.

Be Big

by Nicoleta Nechita

Volume 30 (2013)

Nicoleta Nechita provides details on a project that she initiated with her students called Be Big! which was part of a large regional festival called BIG FEST in Romania. She encouraged her students, aged 11 to 19 years old, to explore issues around social inclusion and discrimination. Students were given the freedom to decide on their content and present the information in any way they chose to their audience.

In a rapidly changing world, the teacher’s role is to prepare students in accordance with 21st century standards. Non-formal activities like festivals and projects provide students with the opportunity to produce a piece of work based on their own input and ideas, while at the same time consolidating and expanding on the language they have learnt. This method contributes to students’ general educational development by fostering creativity, learner independence and cooperation with other students.

Through project-based learning students not only have the opportunity to use language in real life settings, engage in collaborative work and improve their teamwork skills, but also to think critically and creatively. In addition to the above mentioned benefits, it also enables students to become acquainted with information technology and multimedia tools. In order to achieve these, it is important the activity be interesting, challenging, and integrative. The project should not only give the students a chance to do research and acquire 21st century skills, but also leave room for their creativity. What is more it also helps the teachers to be updated with the new trends, experiencing together with their students’ new challenges.

Grammar for Peacebuilding

by Lone Bendixen Goulani

Volume 32 (2015)

In this article Lone Goudlani explains why she chose to teach grammar within a framework of peacebuilding. Given the fact that she has lived in Iraqi Kurdistan for more than ten years she is in a good position to understand and examine the conflicts and problems that exist within society, even though Kurdistan is doing its best to promote itself as a tolerant place.

As Borg (2006) states, teachers often have a complex personal approach to teaching grammar, so my choice to teach grammar in a framework of peacebuilding in Iraq has its reasons. Personally I find grammar instruction important for my students’ language development, and I have also lived in the Kurdistan region of Iraq for more than a decade and witnessed many conflicts at various levels. Before I started to work as an English teacher, I was working for different NGOs for about 5 years. One of my positions was as a programme coordinator on an Iraqi peacebuilding programme for youth, which gave me a good insight into the conflicts and problems that exist within the region seen from a youth perspective. Despite the fact that the Kurdistan region promotes itself as a multi-ethnic and tolerant region, it is still obvious that we face serious, ethnic, religious and political conflicts with our surrounding neighbours as well as internally. Hence the need to work on building peace in all areas of society, and therefore also in the English language learning classroom.

Meditation, Brainwave Coherence, Quiet Times in Schools and Global Peace

by John Shepheard

Volume 33 (2016)

Evidence suggests that transcendental meditation (TM) can improve brain activity and enable people to perform analytical tasks with a greater ratio of activation, which obviously has enormous implications for classroom practice and helping students enhance their mental capabilities. This article presents evidence as well as concrete examples of the benefits which TM can bring.

Within a year the two teachers had taught TM to 100 people of the 10,000 in the village. The target of 1% of the population meditating had been reached. At that point there was an abrupt cessation of attacks on the village … This outbreak of peace was unique for the region and lasted for the rest of the war (the study period was 1978 – 84) and was in complete contrast to both the village's previous recent history and the experience of nearby villages … Interestingly, after the 1% effect had been reached, Baskinta also experienced improvements in crop yields, increased social and sporting activities, and accelerated municipal development.

Empowering learners through democratic language instruction

by Shira Packer & Beata Piechocinski

Volume 35 (2016)

In this article, the authors describe DLI, what it is, the benefits, and how to implement it in the classroom, and they talk about their experience using it with learners in Canada.

Democratic Language Instruction (or DLI) is a method of instruction in which power is equally distributed between all educational stakeholders in the English language classroom. With DLI, the learners’ voices are equally significant to that of the instructor and program administrators.

DLI is therefore characterized by promoting inclusivity, as the learners are involved in decision-making processes. First, DLI encourages learners to participate and discuss varying individual beliefs, critical social thoughts, and world views, giving equal importance to varying opinions and standpoints. It also empowers learners to actively participate in the community through volunteering or other active community roles. In addition, DLI treats each learner as a unique individual with unique learning styles and preferences, and it aims at fostering learner curiosity with a high level of respect for human rights.

What is the NO Project?

by Judy Boyle

Volume 35 (2016)

Judy Boyle introduces The NO Project with information about the campaign, background statistics and facts about modern slavery and trafficking, suitable language to talk about this, tasks and videos to raise awareness of consumer power, and ideas about how to involve learners in the topic with links to many more materials.

The NO Project is an award-winning, global, anti-slavery educational campaign that specifically targets youth awareness of the crime through music, art, dance, film, theatre, animation, journalism, creative writing, sport, education and social media …The NO Project values the power and skills of young people to influence attitudes and change behaviour. Their ability and willingness to confront those who sustain the demand for modern slavery and human trafficking lies at the heart of this campaign. To reach and educate the next generation, we need the support of educators and academics. We work on the principle that education includes: global citizenship, ethical decision-making and protection. And it is the courage, integrity and willingness of School Directors, Academic Departments and wonderful classroom teachers that has enabled this campaign to reach thousands upon thousands of young people in so many different countries.

EAP, Critical thinking and Climate Change

by Kathryn Aston

Volume 36 (2017)

This article is about the lack of engagement with climate change in both public discourse and on university courses in the UK. To help students understand the issue and how it might affect their futures better and how they could contribute to meeting humanity’s greatest challenge, the author brings the topic into EAP classes together with critical thinking.

The theory that we each have “two brains”, the “rational brain” and the “emotional brain” (Marshall, 2014) has been used to explain how people can accept on an intellectual level the evidence that climate change is a grave threat, and yet fail to feel it as such, or to act on their concerns. Cottrell (2011, p.1) argues that “personal, emotional or affective reasons can create barriers” to critical thinking; so students should be aware of when their rational thought processes are being influenced by their emotions. Climate change might be used to highlight how it is possible to hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time, i.e. that it is simultaneously a serious threat and nothing to worry about. Students could examine how emotional responses, such as denial, hopelessness or fear, might contribute to this irrational position. In class, we might give them some examples of common excuses for not engaging with climate change, such as that the scientists disagree, that is not caused by human activity or that it is the fault of some other group. Teachers might ask them to consider why people might hold these views and how they might be contested. This could be extended into an argument building exercise where students practise some of Cottrell’s critical thinking skills (2011) outlined above.

‘English in an Unstable World’

by Eliza Winnert & Rachel Tew

Volume 36 (2017)

This report summarises the sessions at the GISIG IATEFL Pre-conference event in Glasgow. Eliza and Rachael comment on the sessions from their perspective of working in a refugee camp in Greece. Among talks about working with refugees in Lebanon and online distance teaching to schools in Palestine were the following:

Susan Barduhn … spoke about the origins and current work of World Learning, a non-profit enterprise with a 50-strong think tank concerned with ‘creating the change required for a more equal, prosperous, and peaceful world.’ … Kieran Donaghy argues that interesting and pertinent topics, such as raising a transgender teenager, are often hard to find in coursebooks, but that short films – with their complete narratives that often address one meaningful topic at a time - can be an effective, non-offensive and non-intrusive way to tackle topics that could otherwise be challenging for students. … Margit Szesztay’s short but thought-provoking talk on Global Citizenship for Peace used a warmer activity as a simple demonstration of how the concept of global citizenship can be introduced gently into the classroom; first, by reflecting on how each of us as individuals have not one but many things that define us as a human being. Margit described being a global citizen as ‘Someone sharing the planet and its resources with 7 billion other human beings and with many animals and nature.’