Developing empathy should be a natural fit for language teaching. Shouldn’t it? But how do we actually encourage students to move from being mere spectators and tourists to seeing life from another person’s point of view and to stand alongside them?
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"But I don't care about where you can buy cheap designer jeans!"
In my son's Year 9 Italian textbook, fashion and shopping were predictably the context for teaching vocabulary about clothing. For the exercise under protest, he was required to compose an email responding with advice to an imaginary friend's bargain hunting request. Whether intentionally or not, the unit assumed and sought to appeal to the stereotypical superficiality and consumer mentality of young people, while choosing to ignore their possible broader concerns about global clothing waste. Its underlying message: appearance is everything. Thankfully, this boy wasn't buying it! It was the last day of term. My Kindy students were putting the final glittery touches on their Christmas Nativity wall hangings, Italian Christmas songs on repeat in the background. Buon Natale! È nato Gesù! (Happy Christmas, Jesus is born!) We were celebrating the birth of Jesus and the end of Kindy’s first year learning a language together.
A day later, the classrooms were strangely quiet, emptied of their chatter, endless energy and laughter. It was time to reflect. Had I used the time wisely? Had I taught them well? What foundational understandings and attitudes of hospitality would these Kindy graduates bring to their next language class? How would I grow as a teacher from this year’s experiences? What might I do differently next time? “Our rich multicultural nation maintains a frustratingly monolingual mindset”, begins a recent scholarly article. It is a reality with which teachers of mandatory high school language courses are all too familiar.
Rachel Moore, my guest blogger, is a Year 7 French language teacher at Nepean Christian School. In this post she shares her approach to unlocking the hearts and minds of her students to understand the value of language learning. Is it possible to teach even young children to be a blessing as tourists?
For the students in the Stage 1 Italian classes I was teaching, overseas family holidays seemed to be almost the norm. I was aware their contact with local people would usually be limited to hotel and restaurant staff and those manning tourist attractions. Their ability to communicate in the host language would at best consist of a few stilted phrases. Even with these ‘limitations’ I was keen to explore ways of preparing my students to love their neighbour, even as strangers in a foreign land. “What does it mean to have a mind that is open? A heart that is giving?”
The Year 7 Mandarin class I was visiting at St Andrews Cathedral School had been asked to consider these questions and discuss. In the middle of the tables were tantalising “party bags” full of pictures and realia, waiting to be emptied and explored. It was an introductory lesson to the topic Celebrations, to be taught across the three languages offered at the school. First, however, their teacher Dominique Haynes was guiding her students to explore the underlying learning attitudes that she would be encouraging them to bring to this inquiry unit. |
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