Promoting Inter-Asian Understanding through English: Cross-border Exchanges through an Asian Youth Forum

This paper discusses the importance of going beyond the classroom to provide EFL learners with out-of-class opportunities to use their language skills in real-world situations with same-age peers. It introduces the Asian Youth Forum (AYF), a unique series of international youth conferences designed by English language educators in Asia that aims at promoting cross-cultural awareness, communication skills, leadership and international understanding through the medium of English-as-a-global-language. The Asian Youth Forum is an annual 1-week event that brings together college-aged EFL students from across the Asian region. Participants typically comprise 30 - 80 young people from 10 - 15 countries such as Japan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines. During this all-English event, students take part in a rich program of academic seminars, presentations and social events built around the themes of language, culture, global issues, and leadership. This paper outlines the aims and history of the Asian Youth Forum, describes its design and special features and reports on the program's outcomes in terms of student attitudes, language development, learner identity and international understanding. The author concludes by calling for further EFL youth exchanges of this type in other regions of the world

Global Education in Second Language Teaching

This article paints an optimistic picture of the role we second language teachers can play not only in improving our students' language proficiency but also in infusing global education into our classes as we join with our students to address global concerns, such as peace, prosperity, environmental protection, and human rights. The article is divided into four parts. The first part describes global education and identifies organizations of second language educators participating in global education. The second part of the article focuses on two key areas of global education: peace education and environmental education. Next, we address questions that second language teachers frequently ask about including global education in their teaching. Lastly, we supply lists of print and electronic resources on peace education and environmental education

GLOBAL EDUCATION IN SECOND LANGUAGE TEACHING

This article paints an optimistic picture of the role we second language teachers can play not only in improving our students' language proficiency but also in infusing global education into our classes as we join with our students to address global concerns, such as peace, prosperity, environmental protection, and human rights. The article is divided into four parts. The first part describes global education and identifies organizations of second language educators participating in global education. The second part of the article focuses on two key areas of global education: peace education and environmental education. Next, we address questions that second language teachers frequently ask about including global education in their teaching. Lastly, we supply lists of print and electronic resources on peace education and environmental education

Personal Growth Foreign Language Homework : An Experiential Task in the Local Community

This paper discusses the design of foreign language homework involving student interaction with the local community It attempts to show this can lead to both effective language learning and personal growth. The paper begins with a short description of the humanistic education movement and its influence on foreign language teaching The concepts of personal growth (Moskowitz 1978), interactive language teaching(Rivers 1987) and experiential language learning(Jerald and Clark 1983)are then discussed To show how these concepts can be integrated into educational tasks, a classroom activity framework known as the S I- S-F model(Timmerman and Ballard 1975) is introduced. To illustrate this model, an English language homework task called 'Conversation with a Stranger' is described. For this task, university students had to go into the local community, talk to a stranger in English or Japanese, and then write an English report about their experience. After an analysis of the task using excerpts from student reports, features and criticisms of the approach are discussed. It is concluded that interactive, experiential foreign language homework can promote linguistic and social skills, stimulate student initiative, motivation and enjoyment, and foster good interpersonal and international attitudes

GLOBAL ISSUES IN LANGUAGE TEACHING

I have previously defined a global education approach to language teaching as one which aims at　enabling students to effectively acquire and use a foreign language while at the same time empowering them with the knowledge, skills and commitment required by world citizens for the solution of global problems (Cates 1990). While many language instructors are interested in global education and in integrating social responsibility and a global perspective into their language classes, they Often express difficulty in teaching about world problems such as war and peace, human rights, world hunger or tropical rainforest destruction because these global issues seem remote from the reality of the classroom and the daily lives Of their students. This paper attempts to show that seemingly-distant world problems are inextricably bound up with the language learning/teaching process and explores the ways in which language teachers, students and classes are connected to such issues as war, poverty, prejudice, social injustice and environmental destruction. lt is hoped that this paper will promote greater awareness of our links to world problems and will stimulate discussion about how global education can contribute to greater social responsibility in language teachin