Learning language with global issue

Abstract

This presentation will examine Exploring Global Realities, a core English course taught at Mahidol University International College, an international arts college for undergraduate students in Thailand. This course is the final core course of the English program. The academic purpose of the course is to appraise students’ written and oral presentation skills acquired in the English Communication core courses through course themes based on global issues. These global issues include freedom, democracy, human rights, genocide, and non violent resistance This presentation will focus on the unique methodology we use in exploring these global themes. For example in dealing with the theme human rights, students first read selected short stories. After a complete analysis of the theme of the short story, the students then analyze the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and associated human rights standards. They then use the standards to create an argument showing the human rights abuses in the short story. This argumentative process is then applied to a country with questionable human rights policies. These arguments are presented to the class and a written paper is submitted for grading. In this way students demonstrate the written and oral skills acquired in the previous English Communication courses but on contemporary global issues. Similar methodology is used to analyze other themes of the course. Because this is a content-based course, the presentation will pay particular attention to the choice of materials and how these materials link the themes of the course together. Lastly a discussion of problems and applicability of the course will conclude the presentation. The presenter will show how the effective teaching of language, coupled with an awareness of global issues, will produce a cadre of citizens who are repulsed by discrimination, ignorance and intolerance and are equipped to intellectually demand a better society for all citizens of the world.