ERIC Number: EJ1026508
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Sep
Pages: 24
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: EISSN-1949-3533
EISSN: N/A
Learning English Internationally While Engaging Communities Locally: Online EFL Supporting Community Learning for Young Leaders
Bickel, Beverly; Shin, Joan Kang; Taylor, Joby; Faust, Heidi; Penniston, Tom
TESOL Journal, v4 n3 p439-462 Sep 2013
The clichés "it's a small world" and "the world is our classroom" are becoming practical realities for many educators. Increasingly accessible transnational contexts for English language teaching and learning offer new opportunities for local-global learning. This article reflects on a content-based online English course focused on community youth leadership that was offered for Brazilian teens by U.S. instructors and graduate students. The researchers used the backdrop of English learning focused on key concepts to engage students in critical self-reflection, collaborative discussion with peers, and civic engagement with their home communities. This course focused on communication skills, content knowledge, and technology practices needed for young adults to engage each other as emerging global citizens. Students wrote reflections on identity, planned and reflected on community interviews, and designed community-based service projects. The authors describe how students and instructors used a variety of formal and informal communication platforms to experiment with the language and communication strategies students needed to get beyond simple vocabulary practice and into meaningful discourse about contested concepts such as identity, community, social responsibility, social hope, leadership, and beliefs. The authors discuss how students creatively used English across multiple online platforms and geographic borders to reimagine and project themselves as agents of positive social change and emerging community leaders.
Descriptors: English (Second Language), Second Language Instruction, Second Language Learning, Teaching Methods, Reflection, Peer Groups, Foreign Countries, Discussion, Graduate Students, Interviews, Service Learning, Language Teachers, Online Courses, Secondary School Students, Social Responsibility, Citizenship Responsibility, Self Concept, Course Descriptions, Communication Strategies, Creativity, Student Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Brazil
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A