Peers to Peers: Developing a Student-Coordinated Conversation Partner Program

The lack of meaningful interaction between domestic and international students is a persistent concern in international higher education. Conversation partner programs are a promising measure to promote the rich and repeated contact necessary for the development of intercultural relationships and communication skills. This article describes the process of launching and managing a successful student-coordinated conversation partner program with no or minimal funding. The five core team members (two faculty advisors and three student leaders) explain why they created or joined the program, their responsibilities, what worked, what was challenging, and what they recommend should other institutions want to start a similar program

The Novel as Textbook

The use of authentic literature, especially novels, has proven electrifying for teachers as well as students: a development mirrored in the success of related methodologies and the increasing availability of materials accompanying literature. The benefits of using novels as textbooks are numerous. Research consistently shows the benefits of extended reading; novels are motivating and authentic; and they can support any curriculum and be used in a variety of programs. Issues discussed in the article include a rationale for using novels as textbooks, selection criteria, ways of teaching discrete and integrated skills, and reflections on the pros and cons of using literature to teach English

Beyond Entertainment: Novels and Film Adaptations in the ESL/EFL Classroom

This article explores techniques for use with longer works of literature and their film versions. Activities include discussions and writing assignments exploring the content of the selected novel or play, whole language exercises combining skill practice with social interactions, a video project allowing students to assume the roles of actors and crew members in their own production of the novel or play, and language learning tasks accompanying the viewing of the novel's or play's movie adaptation

What was Love? : On the Dialectic of Mediation

Love has traditionally been understood either as an objective, transcendentforce, or a subjective ability. Through a number of steps,the article argues that both these options have lost their credibility due to changes in the media through which love is performed. First, the article demonstrates how the attempts,in the life sciences, to explain love biologically or physically reproduce a traditional romantic ideology. Then, the implications of the inflation of explicit love declarations, and the consequences of internet dating, are discussed. What these examples amount to is the fact that the medium is brought to the fore. A consequence of this is that the romantic ideology is strengthened, while the premises of romantic love – the autonomous subject and the transcendent objectivity – are weakened or even dissolved