Learning How to Change

In the spirit of cultural sensitivity, I thought I would share an article from the Economist published on Apr 9th 2016. I have made no edits to this article, but  I have bolded some phrases below for you to consider and concluded this post with some comments. The advantages of working in your own language are obvious. Those of working in a foreign one are subtle. More and more of the world is working in English. Multinational companies (even those based in places such as Switzerland or Japan) are making it their corporate language. And international bodies like the European Union and the United Nations are doing an ever-greater share of business in the world’s new default language. At the office, it’s English’s world, and every other language is just living in it. Is this to the English-speaker’s advantage? Working in a foreign language is certainly hard. It is easier to argue fluently or to make a point subtly when not trying to call up rarely used vocabulary or const...

I have been working on some new Professional Development Lessons for teachers these past few weeks, which I hope to base some future workshops on. I thought I would share the infographic I have created based on the Government of Alberta's ATESL Adult ESL Curriculum Framework. This infographic highlights 5 essential elements for building communicative competence, which include discourse,strategic, functional, linguistic, and sociocultural competencies. The infographic represents this taxonomy and shows how these elements are interconnected and how each helps build communicative knowledge and skills when integrated into curriculum and practice in intentional ways. The full curriculum guide can be found here:  ATESL Documents

Let's take a look at the future of education shall we - focusing on BC in particular. An article published by CBC  claims that "the International Education Strategy aims to double the number of international students and researchers — to 450,000 — in Canada by 2022 in an effort to create jobs and stimulate the domestic economy." I believe this is a good thing. Sure, there are going to be skeptics, and people who believe they will have to compete for seats in classes, but I say let's get creative. How many different ways can we use the space we already have, and how many more teachers can we hire, if our enrollments are increasing. I digress. The numbers will tell you that diverse classrooms are the reality most teachers in BC are facing. Here are the stats for UBC, SFU, BCIT, and Langara. International students make up 10% to 20% of total enrollments. This is helpful in keeping programs open and teachers employed I am sure.  Teachers face an issue of their s...

In a forum I have been participating in this week, a point came up that peaked my interest. The topic is building positive learning environments, and one of my discussion mates stated that to build a positive learning environment, classrooms should be inclusive. I thought about this and have taken it a step further.  In language teaching, creating a positive, inclusive and  culturally aware  environment is critical for building an atmosphere that is conducive to learning. To do this effectively, classroom behaviours and expectations need to be set clearly on the first day of class. An article on Tomorrow’s Professor mentioned an important point supporting the construction of positive learning environments through inclusion and cultural competence, which is: Do not talk down to students. Teachers can do this by: Avoiding judging behaviors, which cause students to feel inadequate.  Avoiding stereotyping. Do not target examples and questions towar...