Language for Peace Forum
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Language & Peace Education with Johan Galtung
Renown peace studies specialist Johan Galtung speaks of language, peace education, culture and language learning in this interview with Donna J. McInnis for the Japan Association for Language Teaching. He emphasizes the connection of language learning with relationships and cultural understanding. Continue reading
Teacher Communities Affect Student Learning
In this intriguing article highlighted in the Washington Post, Esther Quintero, senior fellow at the nonprofit Albert Shanker Institute, looks at whether students learn more when their teachers work well together. Sure enough, good community among teachers in a school is just as important as within the classroom. While this is not new to many … Continue reading
Social Justice and Peace Education Perspectives
An article by Tabitha Dell’Angelo entitled Creating classrooms for social justice highlights a few key aspects of peace education. She lists connecting to learners’ lives in relevant ways, addressing real issues from diverse perspectives, nurturing caring learning communities, and using authentic forms of assessment as essential not just for integrating social justice in the classroom, … Continue reading
Website for Churches with ESL Ministries
BC ESL Ministries is a network of churches serving newcomers through English classes in British Columbia, Canada. They seek to build community and provide quality ESL education and resources for immigrants and refugees coming to the region. Check out their website at http://www.eslministries.com/
How to Pretend to be Fluent in Norwegian
Even if it’s not Norwegian you’re learning, many language learners could relate to this writer’s experience… Continue reading
Speaking to the Whole Class
This critique of whole class instruction poses some helpful questions and suggestions for language and peace educators. Continue reading
Trying Harder Can Make Learning Language More Difficult for Adults
In Kelly Dickerson’s report Why Adults Struggle to Pick up New Languages, an experiment with adults shows that trying harder can actually make it more difficult to learn a language. Adults who were distracted with colouring actually picked up more of the functional grammar than those told to study for a test. How might this … Continue reading
8 Tips for Transforming School Culture
Montie Koehn, an educator in Oklahoma public schools, writes about Transforming school culture through mutual respect. Listing eight basic principles to affirm, Koehn claims that these simple ways of showing respect can create a more sustaining and healthy educational environment. How many of these tips do you see in your place of work?
Economic Reasons for Actively Welcoming Immigrants
A recent Forbes article entitled Welcoming Immigrants: Why Empathy Is Smart Economics For Cities describes the economic benefits of creating active ways of welcoming newcomers to a city. Language support for both learning the dominant language and providing interpretation services throughout the city services would be included as one aspect of “active welcoming.” While a … Continue reading
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