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[ProfessionalDevelopment 2533] Re: New Issue of Change AgentSteve Kaufmann steve at thelinguist.comMon Sep 22 12:42:32 EDT 2008
Language students should be allowed to freely choose what content to learn from. There is nothing wrong with making content available to them that conforms to the teachers position on various issues. The enthusiasm of the teacher can be a source of motivation for the learner. However, I would hope that learners are also offered different perspectives on these issues, and a chance to choose unrelated content, or even content that represents a different point of view to learn from. >From my Russian learning I am aware of the fact that there is a major rewrite of history taking place in that country whereby Stalin is described as an efficient manager, forced collectivization of the peasants and the repressions ( resulting in the loss of millions of lives) were necessary for the industrialization of the country and to prepare for war, Russia's invasion of Poland was just the liberation of the Western Ukraine, and on and on. I am very wary of the state, or other well intentioned groups imposing their perspectives on students. This is all the more so if the subject is really supposed to be language learning. Steve -- Steve Kaufmann www.lingq.com 1-604-922-8514 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/professionaldevelopment/attachments/20080922/a2983537/attachment.html
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