Journal of Universality of Global Education Issues

The importance of Globalization to engender a greater awareness and understanding of different attitudes, behaviors and perspectives of countries, economies, cultures and people from around the world

2022-04-06T17:54:57+00:00

I will always remember the year the world went on lockdown. When we were told that Education Abroad was being cancelled and we all became online educators in March 2020. Online meant learning Effective and Affective ways to construct our newly moved classes online and when one interacts in another language, one is also interacting with(in) the culture that speaks that particular language. So understanding someone else’s culture without accessing that culture’s language directly, and vice-versa seemed virtually impossible, no pun intended.

I will introduce summarily some successful tips for teaching Italian Language, Life and Culture both on campus and abroad, while stressing the need to motivate the learners and by giving them access to the thoughts behind the words. I believe that culture is not learned by imitation alone, and mostly taught by oral instruction. There could be some imitation, of course, if the learner is still young, but in most cases it is through language that as native speakers we learn about a specific culture: so why not try to duplicate the process in our classes, virtual or not? With language, we can explain methods of social control, products, techniques and skills to the learners. With Language we can access culture to access the target language and the importance of GLOBALIZATION to engender a greater awareness and understanding of different attitudes, behaviors and perspectives of countries, economies, cultures and people from around the world and more. So following the “initial” tips for moving online, this is what I learned.

Adult Refugee Language Learners’ Perceptions of Literature Circles to Support Reading Comprehension and Reduce Foreign Language Anxiety

2022-11-03T18:58:08+00:00

The number of adult refugee English language learners is growing in the United States. As a new resident and English learner there are many obstacles, they face such as, English language ability, academic achievement, and foreign language learning anxiety. Many adult refugees seek educational opportunities to learn to communicate effectively in English and increase career opportunities. A qualitative method design was applied to examine the perceptions of adult refugee English language learners toward Literature Circles while enrolled in an advanced reading comprehension course in the United States. The purpose of the study was to determine if participation in the Literature Circle discussions better supports reading comprehension versus traditional approaches to second language learning. Additionally, the second purpose of the study was to examine the influence of Literature Circle discussions on English learner’s foreign language learning anxiety level.

The participants were five adult refugee English learners enrolled in an advanced reading comprehension course in a bilingual language institute in the United States. Findings of the study revealed adult refugee English learners’ perception toward the Literature Circle approach was positive. Participants strongly believed the Literature Circle approach enhanced their reading comprehension skills, reduced anxiety in learning English, and improved English language ability.

Closing the Gap or Accelerating the Problems: A Discourse Analysis of H.B. 4545

2022-10-26T12:49:51+00:00

The Texas Legislature’s 87th regular legislative session focused significant attention to K-12 and higher education. House Bill 4545 is the plan to accelerate learning to account for real (and perceived) loss of learning during the 2019 – 2020 and 2020 – 2021 school years. We examine HB 4545 using discourse analysis, specifically James Gee’s seven building tasks (2011). The analysis of HB 4545 with the use of Gee’s building tasks allows us to uncover the “dominant discourse” in the bill (Gee, 2005). The purpose is to uncover the dominant perspective as to how the pandemic learning gaps can be ‘corrected’ in one school year through parental selection of teachers, accelerated learning, accelerated learning committees, and school board policy requirements. The results present our findings of the dominant identities in educational policy created through HB 4545 (Strauss, 2012).