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Global Perspectives
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With English rapidly becoming the
world's lingua franca, educators around the globe are challenged
to meet the increasing demand for English language instruction. Toby Brody
shares her perspective from Panama, where she has conducted teacher training
for the past several months. Two English instructors from Asia offer their
views on the increasing hegemony of English and its impact on educational
institutions.
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Letter
from Panama: On Wearing My Panama Hat
/
 During
the past semester Editor-in-Chief Toby Brody was on leave from her position
as Director of ESL at NC State University, having received a Fulbright
Scholar Award to conduct teacher training at the Technological University
of Panama. In this letter she shares her impressions of the country's culture,
lifestyle and economic development and offers an in-depth look at bilingual
education programs in Panama.
Read letter |
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English
Language Teaching in Asia
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Farzana
Hafsa
Asian University
of Bangladesh
Farzana Hafsa is currently on leave
from her position as Senior Lecturer in English at the Asian University
of Bangladesh.
Read interview |
|
Seema
Kaushal,
Panjab
University, India
Seema Kaushal teaches English at
Panjab University in Chandigarh,
India, where
she is currently on leave.
Read interview |
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On the National Scene
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Interview
with Susan Goodkin: NCLB is making the best students flee public schools
/
 Susan
Goodkin, Executive Director of the California Learning Strategies Center,
discusses how the No Child Left Behind Act is driving gifted students away
from public schools. She believes that gifted students in math and English
are especially underserved by being ignored, or being used to teach others,
as schools focus on low-performing students in order to meet NCLB goals.
While NCLB punishes schools for not bringing children up to proficiency,
she observes, it provides no sanctions for ignoring high-ability children.
She adds that it would take a major shift in focus – something Ms. Goodkin
does not see happening – to rectify NCLB's negative impacts on gifted students.
Read interview
The
Right Road to America?
/
 In
a recent Washington Post article Amy Chua, Yale Law School professor,
calls for a "tolerant but also tough" immigration policy. She discusses
why it is important to maintain a national identity strong enough
to hold together widely divergent communities, stating
that "one reason we don't have Europe's (immigrant) enclaves is
our unique success in forging an ethnically and religiously neutral national
identity, uniting individuals of all backgrounds." On the other hand, she
adds, "immigration advocates are too often guilty of an uncritical political
correctness that avoids hard questions about national identity and imposes
no obligations on immigrants. For these well-meaning idealists, there is
no such thing as too much diversity."
Read article
Point of View
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Assimilation
or Acculturation: What should we really expect from our immigrant population?
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 Much
of the public discourse swirling around the current administration's immigration
policies includes rhetoric from across the political spectrum calling for
immigrants' rapid "assimilation" into the host culture. Qumrul Hasan Chowdhury,
an English language teacher at Brac University in Bangladesh, explains
the difference between assimilation and acculturation and argues that assimilation
is neither necessary nor desirable.
Read article
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