Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h26EukP04219; Thu, 6 Mar 2003 09:56:46 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2003 09:56:46 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <001401c2e3f0$1cd89f50$e66b2c42@yourw92p4bhlzg> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Sherry Migdail" <shermigd@erols.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8749] RE: NIFL's Policy X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 2660 Lines: 60 Of course Ujwala is right - teaching adults English (or anything else except the purest of sciences, perhaps) must by the very nature of both teaching and of this country have within it the context of the population one teaches and the population within our borders. We do not have a national curriculum but we do have funding (shifting with each administration) and we do have methodological differences ... but surely all of us have content and that stems from how we live and how we live with one another - that's political as well as social. Sherry Migdail l----- Original Message ----- From: "Ujwala Samant" <usamant@comcast.net> To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 7:50 AM Subject: [NIFL-ESL:8745] RE: NIFL's Policy > >>Is your sense of proportion a bit skewed here? Are your priorities > straight, given all that is going on in the world right now? > > I ask that you moderate and lead discussions and stop censoring the list. > It's that simple. Also, you might all be a bit more honest about what > happened instead of dumping on one person who became upset (he didn't use > words like 'asinine' or 'troublemaker', two others did). The individual > became upset at the whining, upset at the dishonesty, and upset about the > censorship. At least that is what he said in a post offlist. << > > I am inclined to agree with you. I think the censorship and banning has been > arbitrarily done. All the initial exchanges seemed inflammatory from one > direction, and the responses were always polite. Then came the arrogant, > rude replies which went unchecked. That unfortunately seems to be the tone > of any debate that includes politics, on or off line. > > How people can imagine that all they do is teach a language without the > context of politics, given our population, is either an expression of > naiveté or an expression of their ostrichlike tendencies. We talk Freire and > do something entirely different in our practice. We critique academics for > not being in touch with reality, and then turn around and do exactly the > same thing. We are not teaching high school students English as a subject, > as one does Spanish or French. We're teaching adults to speak the language > of power, the language that will help them negotiate this new culture, which > especially in today's world, is rife with political innuendo. Or are we > teaching discrete, isolated skills sans context? Language teaching is not > some sanitised K-12 scenario where we teach grammar, history in sequences, > with no connection to the reality of learners' lives. > > regards > Ujwala Samant > > > >
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