Language for Peace Forum
language education
Social Justice in Language Education Resources
Looking for more resources on social justice in language teaching? Check out the Social Justice Warriors webpage and the library of resources they have on advocacy, anti-racist classrooms, multilingualism, and other topics. Leave a comment with your recommended link! Source: Social Justice Warriors.Language Educators.Stop the Deficit.
Classroom Management and Alternative to the Stoplight method
Jen Bradley’s blog beyondthestoplight.com looks at ways to do classroom management and check behavior in the classroom that do not include shaming students into good behavior. The Stoplight method is the one focused on here (the moving of a student’s name from green to yellow to red on a prominently displayed stoplight to indicate their … Continue reading
Language Teachers and Refugees
Every day the news from the refugee crisis has my stomach in knots. There are so many people in need and so many people needed to help that sometimes I feel overwhelmed emotionally and unsure of where I can best place my finances and skills in a way to do something small to give support. … Continue reading
Honesty, Rigor, Caring: the thesis of 40 years of teaching
Whether you’ve been teaching for years or are just starting out, I think that one thing that all teachers wonder is this: Am I making a difference? what exactly did my students take away from me? We all probably have ideas about what we hope our students take away from us, but what actually sticks, what … Continue reading
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
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
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
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
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