Customer Reviews

The Gift of the Stranger: Faith, Hospitality, and Foreign Language Learning

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

How does Christian thought relate to foreign language teaching? At first thought, this question may not seem pertinent. Why would one's theology influence whether they used Krashen's model of language learning, Total Physical Response drills, or any other method or theory?

The Gift of the Stranger answers these questions and others by applying the teaching of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible to these contemporary issues. The authors, both of whom identify themselves as Christians, argue that the biblical image of the "stranger" should be applied to language teaching. The added dimension of ethics and morality is a significant contribution to the field. The book argues that language teaching should prepare students to participate appropriately in the foreign culture as a stranger and to welcome strangers from this culture when they come to the student's home area.

In addition to the biblical case studies, the authors also present fascinating historical notes on Christian language teaching programs throughout the Christian Era.

I recommmend this book to all language teachers, even if they do not share the authors' Christian background. The book can help teachers consider how their own moral and ethical philosophy influences their choice of teaching materials and methods.

Dear Friends:

I am just back from the International TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages)Convention 2003, where I had the great privilege of hearing Dr. Smith speak. His topic was Language Teaching and Spirituality.

Let me tell you that he impressed me as one of the finest language professors out there! His ideas were well thought out and incorporated strategies that engage students at a significantly deep level...not just according to Christian tradition...just "What kind of values and purpose do you have in your life today? What values would you like to see in yourself in 5 or 10 years from now? Is there ever a time when a person needs to stand up for what they believe in (like Sophie and Hans Scholl)?" These are all open-ended questions that do not force any sort of doctrine on the student, but only encourage them to think, think, think and explore! I believe his method incorporates language learning, great student interest and engagement, emotional intelligence, and values. Dr. Smith uses a certain textbook in his German classes, put out by Charis ...in England...very, very impressive. He claims his students learn just as much or MORE of the target language when they are asked questions that relate to their lives at such a deep level!

The part about the responsibilities and privileges of the stranger (immigrant) and the host (society) were exceptional as well...truly enlightening and full of "ah-hahs". I firmly believe that this book could be used to teach language in any culture and any situation, as it guides the student to think about what matters to THEM in the target language (the one they are learning).

This is authentic language learning for authentic purposes, people. Don't miss out on reading this gem! Your students and administration will thank you for years to come! :-)<...

At the beginning of this refreshing and helpful book, David I. Smith and Barbara Carvill write,

"We will respond to various notions of what foreign language learning is all about with three simple assumptions and three related questions in mind. The first assumption is that, as we go about our educational tasks, we work with an implicit or explicit picture of the kind of person we would like to see leave our classroom. We seek to have some effect, however slight, on the learners who pass through our care; we want them to develop in a certain direction. The first question, then, is this: What kinds of persons do the proponents of varying motives for doing foreign language learning want their students to become?

"Our second assumption is that it is not adequate to view language learning simply as a self-enclosed end in itself, something that can take place without reference to an outside world or to the speakers of the language studied. As foreign language educators, we are, among other things, enabling learners to come into some kind of relationship with speakers of the target language. The second question, then, is: What kind of relationship to members of the target culture do advocates of these different motives have in mind?

"Our third assumption is that sharing a world with fellow humans who are created in God's image and who are linguistically and culturally diverse has something to do with the reason for making foreign language learning part of education. The time-honored habit of dividing the world into members of our culture, on the one hand, and lesser beings of inferior importance on the other, is not ... consonant with a Christian worldview. This leads to the third question: Does the motive under consideration honor the stranger as one created in God's image, as one who hopes, thinks, suffers, trusts, and weeps, and whose sighs and laughter are just as audible to God as our own?"

These assumptions and questions are part of the framework the authors develop in the service of their overall vision for foreign language teaching and learning--"being a blessing as a stranger and practicing hospitality to the stranger."

They root their vision in an interpretation of the Babel story in Genesis, the story of Pentecost in Acts, and other Biblical passages, that emphasizes God's delight in diversity and God's sovereign disapproval of imperial arrogance (as demonstrated, for example, by Babel's builders). With special attention to a 17th-century educational reformer I'd barely heard of, Comenius, Smith and Carvill show that a humane and God-centered understanding of foreign language instruction has deep roots in Christian intellectual tradition.

They go on to apply their three assumptions and three assumptions in a review of the various reasons currently used to sell foreign language learning--appealing to "The Entrepreneur," "The Persuader," "The Connoisseur," "The Tourist," "The Escapologist," "The Revolutionary." There are redemptive aspects to all of these motivations, but mostly they are oriented around "profit, pleasure, and power" for the learner, rather than developing the capacity to offer healthy hospitality and to be a sensitive stranger.

The last third of their book considers ways to apply their insights in the classroom. I loved the case study of using the history of the anti-Hitler White Rose movement in wartime Germany, as well as a Bonhoeffer poem, as ways of conveying even very basic German language instruction in a powerfully humane context. The whole book is like that--a thoughtful and fertile reflection that applies directly to my own situation as an expat (a stranger) attempting to build a hospitable English-language classroom.