That globalization has decreased borders and increased access to information and events worldwide is undisputable. Every day tragedies are broadcast and citizens around the world are bombarded with news and media of social injustices. Economies are linked, internationally, and diasporas straddle the globe. What happens in one corner of the world affects another.
Topics such as global and local challenges can, and should, be brought into the language classroom. One example is the European migrant crisis. Because of the Syrian Civil War and the ongoing violence in Afghanistan and Iraq, thousands of families have left their home countries and have sought asylum in Europe. However, European Union member states with external borders, such as Italy, Greece, and Hungary, were not prepared to accommodate[1] the increasing number of refugees entering through their countries’ external borders.
English language teacher Graham Dixon of BusyTeacher.org used precisely this topic in his ESL class (for online lesson, see Dixon, n.d. ). Dixon was motivated to explore this topic as a “teaching professional… [but also as] a concerned, engaged citizen who has worries about the future” (The Migrant Crisis was not just a Great Opportunity to Practice Language section, para. 1). With students from the Middle East and north Africa, as well as France and the Balkans, Dixon used this sensitive topic to encourage students to practice life skills such as empathy, tolerance, compassion, forgiveness and “plain, old-fashioned love.” Just as Dixon believed that “tiny acts of encouragement” have the potential to change how students think (Dixon), when L2 teachers bring local and global challenges into their classrooms, they can help learners “become active in bringing about social change” (Zeichner, 2011, p. 12).
[1] The Dublin regulation determines the first European Union member state that an asylum seeker enters and in which they are fingerprinted to be responsible for the asylum seeker.
References:
Dixon, G. (n.d. ). Safe havens: Studying the European migrant crisis with an ESL class. Retrieved from https://busyteacher.org/24690-studying-european-migrant-crisis.html
Zeichner, K. (2011). Teacher education for social jJustice. In M. Hawkins (Ed.), Bilingual education and bilingualism: Social justice language teacher education (pp. 7-22). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
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