Dealing with socially acute questions in the English-language classroom
Overview
In this article, I propose a toolbox that L2 teachers can draw from to nurture, facilitate, and foster constructive intercultural dialog when dealing with socially acute questions (SAQs) in the English-language classroom. Starting off with a case study describing a poorly managed racist incident that occurred in one of the author’s interfaculty conversation classes, the article provides insights into SAQs from Transdisciplinarity, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), and the Pedagogy of Encounter. The article continues with an introduction to the concepts of Safe Spaces and Story Circles, and a reminder of the key concepts of Cross-Cultural Pragmatics. It aims at providing a SAQ toolbox that the L2 teacher can draw from to deal with SAQs in cross-cultural dialog situations they may encounter in their English-language classrooms, meeting the stakeholders’ (the L2 learners’ and teacher’s) academic expectations as well as emotional needs.
Dealing with socially acute questions in the English-language classroom
In this article, I propose a toolbox that L2 teachers can draw from to nurture, facilitate, and foster constructive intercultural dialog when dealing with socially acute questions (SAQs) in the English-language classroom. Starting off with a case study describing a poorly managed racist incident that occurred in one of the author’s interfaculty conversation classes, the article provides insights into SAQs from Transdisciplinarity, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), and the Pedagogy of Encounter. The article continues with an introduction to the concepts of Safe Spaces and Story Circles, and a reminder of the key concepts of Cross-Cultural Pragmatics. It aims at providing a SAQ toolbox that the L2 teacher can draw from to deal with SAQs in cross-cultural dialog situations they may encounter in their English-language classrooms, meeting the stakeholders’ (the L2 learners’ and teacher’s) academic expectations as well as emotional needs.