This is the first in a new series of articles on the topic of global issues, global education and language teaching. This first article looks at common questions teachers ask about the use of global issue themes in second and foreign language classrooms.
Global Issues, Local Questions
A small but growing number of language teachers in Japan and abroad are experimenting in their classes with ideas from the field of global education. Some are experimenting with approach, seeing how they can integrate concepts such as global awareness, international understanding and social responsibility into their teaching. Others are experimenting with content, building foreign language lessons and courses around "global issues" -- world problems such as war, prejudice, world hunger or tropical rainforest destruction. Yet others are experimenting with pedagogy, borrowing ideas for their classes from fields such as peace education, development education, human rights education and environmental education.
For these teachers, a major problem has been how to explain what they're doing to their colleagues, school directors and the public. Many of these people may have never heard of global education, have no idea how it relates to language teaching or have misconceptions about global issues. At the same time, other language teachers are interested in exploring this area but have a number of basic questions they need answered first before they can proceed further.
This article attempts to address three commonly asked questions about teaching global issues in the language classroom. The "answers" are by no means definitive, but rather an attempt to correct misconceptions and to explore aspects of global education as it concerns foreign language teaching. I hope these comments help to clarify understanding of the field of global education and stimulate language teachers to consider how they can promote global awareness, international understanding and a commitment to solving world problems through their foreign language teaching.
Question #1: Global issues are so serious and gloomy. How can I teach about them without getting my students all depressed?
While it's true that many people have negative images of issues such as world hunger, refugees or human rights, it's also true that many language students have negative images of grammar and of foreign language study in general. Most teachers accept it as given that one of our tasks as language educators is to transform students' negative attitudes towards language learning into positive motivation which will lead to sustained efforts at language study and success at language acquisition. In the same way, the global language educator's task is to transform students' apathy, misconceptions and negative images of the world's problems into a sustained commitment to acquiring the global knowledge and skills needed for working to solve these problems.
Just as there are many effective techniques and activities which can help language teachers promote enjoyable, effective language learning, global education also boasts of a wide range of techniques and activities which can help transform negative student attitudes towards global issues into curiosity and enthusiasm. These include innovative ideas such as environmental bingo games (Stempleski, 1993), discrimination experience games (Bigelow, 1985), brainstorming activities such as "Living in the Third World: What Would You Do?" (Franz, 1987), refugee role plays (Nagashima et al, 1988) and Model United Nations simulations (Zenuk-Nishide, 1991). Developing positive student motivation is part of the teacher's job. Global education can offer activities and techniques to show students how exciting global issues can be as language learning content.
Question #2: My students only care about sports, fashion and pop music. How can I get them interested in global issues?
Popular student interests such as sports, fashion and pop music are by no means antithetical to global language teaching. Indeed, good global education, like good language teaching, insists on starting with student interests, not ignoring them, and building from them to new skills and knowledge. What is necessary is to bring to student interests a global perspective and a positive learning environment which promotes knowledge of the world, builds skills for world citizenship and fosters a sense of social responsibility and action for a better world.
If students enjoy pop music, then by all means use it in the global education language classroom. But why not focus on music which embodies the commitment and social concern we are aiming for in our students -- songs such as "We Are The World" about action to end world hunger or "They Dance Alone" about human rights in South America. If students enjoy reading about actors and pop musicians, then this interest should be exploited by language teachers. But why not focus on socially-concerned actors such as Robert Redford (involved in environmental issues) or musicians such as Stevie Wonder (working for human rights) or Sting (helping to protect tropical rainforests).
The key to imparting a global perspective and awakening student interest in world affairs lies with the skill and creativity of the global education teacher. Even in the worst situation, with an unmotivated or hostile class, a good global educator can always find a way to develop in his/her students the global awareness, knowledge and skills needed for socially-responsible world citizenship. To illustrate this point, there is the story of a high school teacher faced with a class of tough teenage boys who hated school, refused to study and had only one interest in life -- motorcycles. The prospects for promoting any learning at all looked bleak, let alone doing global education. Yet the teacher was both resourceful and committed. Instead of giving up or forcing his students to study, he took the opposite approach by appealing directly to their concerns.
Since the only interest his students had in life was motorcycles, he announced that the sole topic of the course would be . . . motorcycles. Suddenly his students eyes lit up. Breaking the students into groups, he explained that he'd like each group to make a class presentation on some aspect of motorcycles. In a flash, the students came alive and began discussing what presentations they'd make. Next week, the first group gave their presentation on motorcycle engines with the full attention of the class. After the presentation, the teacher started asking questions: "Where is this engine made?" "Japan" "What about that piston ring?" "I think that's from Germany" "You think? I thought you guys were the experts!" "What's that part made from?" "Copper" "Where's it imported from?" "I don't know. I'll check and let you know next week" Suddenly, the students were looking at motorcycles in a new way, seeing how motorcycle engines, parts and fuel are linked to foreign countries, the global economy and the wider world.
After the student presentations, the teacher suggested "What do you want to do now? Hey! Why don't we plan a motorcycle tour of the world! We can arrange to ride through all five continents and each student can plan his own route." Again, the students' eyes lit up with excitement -- a tour of the world by motorcycle! Soon, groups of students were sitting down planning where they'd go in Africa or how they'd organize their overland tour of Asia. Suddenly all sorts of global information became relevant for these formerly unmotivated students -- the geography of Latin America, monsoon floods in Bangladesh, the distance from Moscow to Warsaw, civil wars in Africa, the religion and customs of Saudi Arabia. Soon, under the guise of planning a motorcycle trip of the world, these students were delving into a variety of global issues -- problems of war and hunger, deforestation and desertification, human rights and refugees. In this fashion, through skillful teaching and creative use of student interests, this particular teacher was able to transform a "hopeless" class of hostile students into a community of global learners expanding their international awareness while exploring world problems. Though an unusual case, this is one example of the creativity and commitment required of global language teachers and of what is possible among initially unmotivated students.
Question #3: Global issues are controversial. As language teachers, shouldn't we avoid controversy and just stick to language teaching?
The dream of controversy-free teaching is attractive, and yet is just that -- a dream. Like it or not, controversy pervades all aspects of life, from disagreements about international trade to disputes on where to site the local garbage dump.
Education is no different. As Stradling, Noctor, and Baines (1984) point out:
Virtually all subjects and disciplines have their controversies and unresolved questions. Historians disagree over interpretations of events. Economists dispute the causes of inflation. Novels and plays continue to be a matter of controversy among scholars and critics. The natural sciences have their fundamental disputes and controversies: the origins of the universe, evolution. . . . To teach these subjects as if there were no controversies or open questions about matters of fact and interpretation would be to mislead students. (p. 1)
Language teaching has its own share of controversy. Differing models of the nature of language, passionate views on teaching methodology, contrasting opinions on what language variety to teach or which textbook to adopt -- all these are controversies which language teachers deal with as an inherent part of their profession. Language teachers, then, are no strangers to controversy. Yet, all too often, they choose to omit important social issues from the language class solely because these are controversial.
While this omission may seem harmless, some educators are concerned about the message this sends to students. Eisner (cited in Totten, 1986), for example, argues:
It is my thesis that what schools do not teach may be as important as what they do teach. I argue this position because ignorance is not simply a void; it has important effects on the kinds of options one is able to consider; the alternatives one can examine, and the perspectives with which one can view a situation or problem. (p. 8)
Omitting important but controversial issues from our language teaching means that, instead of empowering our language students with an understanding of complex world problems and what can be done to solve them, we are subtly teaching them that language study is irrelevant to the world and the controversial problems facing it.
Perhaps one of the most common misconceptions in global education concerns the confusion between teaching for controversy and teaching about controversy. For many people, teaching controversial issues conjures up images of language teachers opening a Pandora's box of violent emotions, heated arguments and clashing values among parents, colleagues and students. For global education, however, the aim in teaching about controversial issues is not to produce controversy but to understand controversy.
In taking up abortion or the Arab-Israeli problem, for example, the aim of a global education lesson would not be to inflame passions or to put forth one view of the issue, but rather to seek to understand the problem, the roots of the conflict, the history of the issue, the views of the various parties, the possibilities for resolving the problem, and the actions we as language teachers and students can take to help bring about a just and peaceful resolution.
The aim of global education is thus to come to an honest understanding of complex world problems which will lead to principled action aimed at achieving a just solution. In this light, controversial issues present not a Pandora's box of problems but a chance to better understand the world; not a source of outraged emotion but an occasion to develop important skills of research, critical thinking and conflict resolution through the study of critical world problems in a language learning context. For language teachers, global education is thus an invitation to understanding and action, an idea echoed by the educator Alfred North Whitehead -- "a clash of doctrines is not a disaster -- it is an opportunity".
A final argument for dealing with controversial topics comes from language educators who argue that controversy is vital in getting students to communicate in the foreign language. Black (1970), for example, argues that a key factor in successful discussion classes is the choice of serious topics relevant to student interests. He comments "no one is likely to make the effort of expressing himself in a foreign language on a subject he would not deign to discuss in his own language" (p. iv).
Language educator L. G. Alexander likewise asserts that controversial social issues are an excellent stimulus for oral communication practice, even in secondary school language classes. His popular oral skills textbook series for teenagers and young adults (Alexander, 1975; 1976) covers such global issues as sexism, the arms race, wealth and poverty, waste and overconsumption, the Vietnam My Lai massacre, terrorism, world hunger, recycling, pollution, and animal rights. In the teacher's notes to the series (Alexander, 1976), he stresses that the educational aim of the books:
. . . over and above the basic linguistic objective, is concerned with moral education and social values. Most of the topics deal with serious issues. They have been selected for their relevance to modern living. The exercises are designed to encourage and train the pupils to think for themselves . . . (and to) ask the right questions. (p. iv)
A global education approach to language teaching similarly stresses that controversy in itself need not be inimical to language learning, but that controversial issues can provide an opportunity for both the acquisition of language and the acquisition of knowledge, thinking and action skills which can help young people better understand and cope with the important social issues which face our world.
References
- Alexander, L. G. (1975). Make your point. London: Longman.
- Alexander, L. G. (1976). I think you think. London: Longman.
- Bigelow, W. (1985). Strangers in their own country. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press.
- Black, C. (1970). A handbook of free conversation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Franz, D. (1987). Exploring the third world. New York: American Forum.
- Nagashima, M. et al. (1988, November). English for unselfish purposes: Compassion, awareness and global responsibility. Paper presented at the JALT 1988 International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning, Kobe, Japan.
- Stempleski, S. (1993). Linking the classroom to the world: The environment and EFL. English teaching Forum, 31 (4), 2-11.
- Stradling, R., Noctor, M., & Baines, B. (1984). Teaching controversial issues. London: Edward Arnold.
- Totten, S. (Ed.). (1986). Teaching social issues in the English classroom. Arizona, USA: Arizona English Bulletin.
- Zenuk-Nishide, L. (1991, November).Taking action on global issues in high schools. Paper presented at the JALT 1991 International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning, Kobe, Japan.