Language for Peace Forum
Featured Resources
The Meaning Between the Words and Peaceful Communication
I was driving to work a while ago and heard a short story on the radio about etiquette and rituals in Japanese business culture, and though I personally am not very interested in business, a part of the discussion caught my ear: “…What’s really important is understanding the different styles of communication that different cultures … Continue reading
What It Takes (And Means) To Learn English As An Adult
In listening to an old NPR news story from 2013, I got a good reminder of the difficulties that language learning presents for older learners. It’s exciting sometimes working with children, noting sometimes quite fast progression and the steady building of language knowledge. I remember the moments in my classroom after teaching a new question … Continue reading
International Day of Peace Classroom Materials
The Center for Cooperative Principals have created a useful education resource packet for the upcoming International Day of Peace on September 21, 2015. Something I found helpful for those of us who are a little newer to peace education, was the detailed discussion about creating a culture of peace and educating toward that. It is … Continue reading
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
What Teachers Need to Know about Critical Thinking Vs Creative Thinking
Both creative thinking and critical thinking are important in education. Peace education and language acquisition literature refers frequently to each. But what exactly are these ways of thinking and how do they contribute to learning language and peace? 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
Restorative Approaches to Conflict in Schools
Check out the volume Restorative Approaches to Conflict in Schools: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Whole School Approaches to Managing Relationships for helpful articles on restorative justice in educational settings. This is a collection of educators from around the world writing about their experiences and knowledge gained from implementing restorative justice in their contexts. The book looks specifically at … 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
10 Ways Language Learning and Peace Education Mix
For many language learners and peace educators, the crossover between the fields of language acquisition and peacebuilding are clear. Here are 10 of the ways the two lenses complement each other. 1. Communication is key Language is all about communicating with other people and a peace lens asks how healthy are our patterns of speaking … Continue reading
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