Статья:Teaching communication via Global Issues in the ELT classroom

Teaching communication via Global Issues in the ELT classroom.

Gulruh Asadova

Teacher of school #

Bukhara city, Uzbekistan

Abstract. This article deals with the problem of teaching English through global issues, the role of globalization of our lessons and if we can teach global issues to young learners, benefits and drawbacks of this issue. It is also discussed how to localize global topics in order to do more sufficient for students or pupils.

Key words: communication, global issue, localize, ELT classroom, young learners, neutral situations, antiseptic topics.

We are – all of us – global citizens, students and teachers alike. Everything we do affects the rest of the world, and what happens in the rest of the world affects us. Every one of us can make a difference – and we as teachers and educators can reinforce this message by what and how we teach. How can we as teachers help our students explore the benefits and drawbacks of an interconnected world? And if we do, what implications does this have for what we provide in terms of lesson content in our classrooms? Gone are the days when a language was studied in isolation, solely for the beauty of its grammar and lacking any meaningful context. English is learnt now for communication, but what exactly should students communicate about? Should we restrict ourselves to the topics presented in our course books? Or can we introduce themes to our classes that relate to issues of global concern, thereby encouraging our students to critically engage with a range of topics that affect them, however indirectly? Paul Woods, for example, outlines in his article Can Global Issues be Taught to Young Learners? that teachers have a responsibility to raise their students’ awareness of global issues and concerns. If you agree with this, then the next step is to identify global issues topics that appeal to your students before developing lessons around them. In so doing, you are encouraging your students to celebrate the differences amongst people, to make global issues relevant to their local contexts and develop feelings of empathy for each other and marginalized communities worldwide. A global school or classroom inspires students to look outwards and see themselves as part of a much bigger picture – in short, to become responsible world citizens.

Can Global Issues be Taught to Young Learners? Here we consider the case for teaching global issues to young learners. Are they relevant? And if so, how could global issues be incorporated into the materials and syllabus for courses? There are arguments that as part of the process of developing healthy, democratic, humane and caring attitudes in their pupils, teachers have a responsibility to make them aware of global issues. This, then, is where the teaching of global issues come in. As part of the process of developing healthy, positive, democratic, humane and caring attitudes in their pupils, teachers have a responsibility to alert them to global issues and concerns. As teachers we are not only concerned with the linguistic, language content of the lesson, the text-book and the syllabus, but we must also be concerned with developing positive attitudes in our learners. If you examine the topics dealt with in most English language text-books for younger learners published in English countries you will find they tend on the whole to be ‘value-free’, dealing with bland uncontroversial topics and by and large avoiding global issues. This may be because teachers and authors of language syllabuses and textbooks feel that global issues are not important, or that they tend to be too ‘adult’ to be brought into the open with younger learners, that they might alienate teachers or pupils from highly conservative background, or that they are of less interest to young learners than such neutral situations and antiseptic topics as ‘On the Farm’, ‘At the Cinema’ or ‘The Football Match’. Many of us will have learnt a foreign language by the grammar-translation method, where the emphasis is on learning grammatical paradigms and applying these in a very abstract way devoid of meaning. But for most people, language learning works best as a human experience involving genuine interpersonal communication. By using it for real communication, genuinely giving and receiving real messages, and dealing with topics which are real, genuine, vital concern to the future of humanity, even at a very basic, elementary level, we can help our learners, even very young learners, to develop positive, healthy, democratic and environmentally sound attitudes.

Making Global Issues Local. Rather than dispensing with common topics in globally successful English language course books, you are shown how teachers can make topics such as ‘Endangered Animals’ and ‘Natural Resources’ relevant to students’ immediate educational concerns. The text-books provide examples of integrated curricular activities aimed at localizing global issues with particular classes and cultures. I have often been asked why course books always seem to include the same Global Issues topics and why these topics are nearly always dealt with in such broad terms. What does surprise me is that writers, trainers and teachers themselves have not done more to address how these materials could be made more local in context. I think one of the problems is in the very name ‘Global Issues’ itself. Although these issues are global one of the most important aspects about them is that they are local as well, or at least there are local consequences. If they weren’t, then their relevance and importance to students would be far less than it is. Maybe it is time for a more local focus on what is global and, to achieve this, only those people with local knowledge (usually the teacher and students) can really do much about it. Although, I have heard more than one student groan when the next topic in the course book has been Pollution or Women’s roles etc. But how relevant is ‘Smog in LA’ or ‘Tigers near extinction’ or ‘Fairtrade – what’s on your shelves’ to students studying English in Asia, Spain or Poland or Argentina or Hong Kong or many other countries in the world?

However, these topics, and the way they are dealt with in course books, often provide an excellent way into looking at more local issues. I have found that once you localize the topic and issue there is so much more you can do with it. In fact, you can almost generate an entire course simply from one topic. Global education aims to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed by responsible world citizens. Global education can provide language teachers with ideas, techniques and resources for designing lessons on world religions, for creating units on Asia or Africa and for teaching about global issues such as AIDS, refugees and world hunger. In one word we can say a global classroom is also an environmentally-friendly classroom where teachers and students use recycled paper, save energy and use both sides of the paper for handouts and homework.

References:

1. Allen, V. (2002). Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

2. ‘English in an Unstable World’ by Eliza Winnert & Rachel Tew Volume 36 (2017).

3. Empowering learners through democratic language instruction by Shira Packer & Beata Piechocinski Volume 35 (2016).

4. Thornbury, S. (2000). How to Teach Vocabulary. Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited.

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