Language for Peace Forum
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Book Suggestion: “Words and Actions: Teaching Languages Through the Lens of Social Justice”
I’ve added another book to my reading list, and perhaps you should too! Published early this year, “Words and Actions: Teaching Languages Through the Lens of Social Justice” is a short, (less than 200 pages) e-book produced by authors Cassandra Glynn, Pamela Wesely, and Beth Wassell through the The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages … Continue reading
“Why I’m Learning chiNhungue”: Language learning for bridge building
Why is it important to learn languages, especially non-dominant ones? We explore that question quite a bit here on the blog, and there are a myriad of answers to it, but perhaps the best way to answer questions like these are through real-life stories. That is why I think you should give Grace’s blog post … Continue reading
Book review: Voices of Harmony and Dissent
This past June, the Canadian School of Peacebuilding came out with a new book, Voices of Harmony and Dissent, a collection of essays from real peace practitioners in the field. Some of the essays were focused simply on story telling, while others helped illuminate theoretical concepts pertinent to peacebuilding through real-life examples from their experiences. Continue reading
Personal reflections from the Language4Peace workshop
The Language4Peace focused workshop was held during Mennonite World Conference this past Wednesday, July 22. There, Kate Wentland and myself met with group of around 15 or so Anabaptists with experience and/or interest in teaching Language, Peace, and Mission. We began by introducing ourselves and our language identities, answering questions like “What is your native … Continue reading
Language and Exclusion
At the Symposium for Language and Exclusion hosted at the United Nations Plaza in New York City on May 7 of this year, Fernand de Varennes delivered the keynote address, poignantly titled “Unfinished and Challenging Business: Language, Exclusion and Human Rights at the United Nations.” Varennes discussed in the address the sometime problematic nature of official … Continue reading
Approaching Fluency: Stories from English Language Learners
I’m on the hunt for stories from language learners. What is the experience like? what grabs hold of a learner to motivate them? What are the struggles they encounter? How can we as teachers make it an experiences that enriches and empowers? So, though it is an old recording, I was glad to come across … Continue reading
Northeast Asia Youth Peace Camp
In 2009, MCC sponsored the very first Northeast Asia Youth Peace Camp, a gathering where teens from China, South Korea and Japan spent a week together, hearing each other’s stories and breaking down walls of previously held prejudices and dislike. The pilot Peace Camp was held in Nanchong, in Sichuan province in China, and since … Continue reading
Mennonite World Conference Workshop: Language for Peace Forum: a Peace Network for Anabaptist Educators
Mennonite World Conference is coming July 21-26, and some of the daily activities are workshops on topics pertinent to the church and to Anabaptists particularly. As you might have guessed, we’re facilitating one of the workshops! If you are attending the conference, consider coming out to the workshop led by me and Kate Wentland on … Continue reading
Foreign Language Teaching Methods: Online Professional Development
Some of us who are interested in language teaching and peace are specifically educated in those fields and have received adequate training and done much study of those topics. But some of us, like myself, are just taking first steps into teaching and may or may have not studied language teaching extensively. As teachers that … Continue reading
Children’s Literature for Teaching Peace
I’ll admit it; I’m a book nerd. I studied English literature in college and grew up being read to and reading hundreds of books. Because of this, I know that I have been shaped by what I have read. It occurred to me recently that cultural stories and values are perpetuated in literature. This is … Continue reading
Language for Peace Forum 