30 Language Teaching
Peace Linguistics and Its Connections to TESOL
Gwangju News, August 2022
gwangjunewsgic.com
TEACHING & LEARNING
An Inter view with Jocelyn Wright
We are all familiar with the terms linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics. But peace linguistics may not be so firmly seated in our lexicons. To find out more about this, we turned to Jocelyn Wright for an interview. You may remember that earlier she spoke with us about teacher and student well-being in this column [Gwangju News, July 2021]. Jocelyn is a longtime member of Korea TESOL (KOTESOL) and has been working in the Department of English Language and Literature at Mokpo National University for quite a number of years, too. Below is our interview. — Ed.
K
OTESOL: Annyeong-haseyo! Thank you for making time to meet again, Jocelyn. I believe your teaching focus has changed quite a lot over time – from a focus on teaching English skills courses to teaching content courses in English. To start things off today, could you tell us what the biggest differences have been for you? And maybe the biggest joys and challenges?
Jocelyn Wright: Yes, my work has changed quite a lot! When I started off as a lecturer, I mainly taught conversation courses in the liberal arts program and writing courses to English language and literature and English education undergraduate majors, but I also taught elementary ▲ Jocelyn Wright school children in the afterschool program and at camps, facilitated non-credit adult and lifelong learning classes, and participated regularly in in-service teacher training and other special programs. After becoming a professor, I have primarily taught and advised undergraduate and graduate-level students, and while I mostly focused on content in the early years, more recently, my courses have been about 60 percent content-based and 40 percent task- or project-based. However, I
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still adopt a skills-based approach when teaching Spanish. Usually, when I design a new English course, my focus is on using the language while developing other skills (e.g., creativity, computer literacy, research, nonviolent communication [NVC], leadership, peacebuilding, etc.) that are useful for students’ futures. Tasks and projects are built in because, following John Dewey, I want to ensure that students learn by doing. After all, skills require practice. The biggest challenges? Well, coming up with or adapting relevant, stimulating, and level-appropriate materials. Scaffolding project work to maximize efficient learning and minimize stress is another, and evaluating projects can take more time and energy. Nevertheless, when well planned and led, such work generally leads to more meaningful, more creative, and higher-quality work, which students are proud to exhibit at the end of the semester, such as the mounted paragraphs and animated poems they prepared for my English Composition for Inner Peace course. KOTESOL: Speaking of peace, I have noticed that you are still quite active on Facebook facilitating your group, Peace Linguistics. Would you explain exactly what “peace linguistics” is and how and why you have become so interested in this area of
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