welcome
00:02
to this panel
organized by the world innovation summit
for education -
wise which is an initiative of qatar00:08
foundation for education science and
00:10
community development
00:11
my name is ahmed baghdadi i'm a research
00:13
manager at wise and i'm happy to be the
00:15
moderator for this panel
00:16
this panel is part of the global
00:18
learning festival 2020 which is held
00:20
virtually
00:21
from september 1st to 4th
00:24
as we all know as a result of the
00:26
current covet 19 pandemic
00:28
communities around the world are trying
00:30
to transform the learning systems to
00:32
ensure
00:32
resilience inclusivity and impact on a
00:35
digital
00:36
digital frontier and language is a key
00:38
component
00:39
of our learning systems uh building off
00:42
of the wise research report entitled
00:44
language policies in globalized context
00:47
which was published by
00:48
wise in 2019 in partnership with
00:51
carnegie mellon university in qatar
00:54
this discussion will explore how
00:56
multilingualism
00:57
challenges education systems to examine
00:59
how they develop the communities
01:01
to be cohesive and to value individual
01:03
identities of the community
01:06
this report published by wise and
01:08
carnegie mellon university is available
01:10
to download for free at wise
01:12
qatar.org
01:15
informed by the current global health
01:17
situation this panel will focus on how
01:20
the super diversity of cities today
01:22
changes the nature of policy responses
01:24
especially regarding which languages to
01:26
teach
01:27
and to teach in before i introduce the
01:31
panelists for this
01:32
uh for today i would like to mention
01:34
that this panel will run
01:36
for one hour and we're planning to have
01:38
a discussion with the panelists
01:40
for about 45 minutes and hope to have
01:42
around
01:43
15 minutes towards the end for questions
01:46
from the audience
01:47
so please write your questions in the
01:49
chat box and we will hope to
01:51
hope to try to answer as many of them as
01:53
possible
01:55
i'm pleased and honored to welcome a
01:57
group of expert panelists
01:58
today who will share their insights and
02:00
experiences on the topic of this panel
02:04
i'm pleased and honored to welcome
02:05
dudley reynolds who is a teaching
02:08
professor
02:09
of english at carnegie mellon university
02:11
in qatar
02:12
dudley has been a teacher and a
02:14
researcher for over 30 years
02:16
and has served as president of tesol
02:18
international which is the
02:20
association for teachers of english the
02:22
speakers of other languages
02:23
in 2016 and 2017 is also the author of
02:26
the wise research report we're
02:28
discussing today
02:30
i'm also pleased and honored to welcome
02:32
alin sarah who's the co-founder and ceo
02:34
of natakella
02:36
netakalam is a social enterprise that
02:38
connects refugees
02:39
and displaced persons with work
02:41
opportunities in the language sector
02:43
through the freelance economy and i'm
02:46
also happy to
02:47
welcome lori noel who has been a
02:49
journalist and writer for 25 years
02:51
he's written for publications in
02:53
australia the uk
02:55
canada and his work has been published
02:57
in the herald sun
02:58
the guardian the times in the daily mail
03:01
he's currently working in media and
03:02
public affairs for migrant
03:04
migrant refugees settlement agency ams
03:07
in
03:07
australia dudley
03:11
allen and laurie welcome to this panel
03:12
and thank you for joining us today
03:16
i would like to start uh this discussion
03:18
by um
03:19
uh sort of a big picture question about
03:22
how can we break social barriers through
03:24
language teaching in our societies and
03:26
what are the best
03:27
uh practices in this regard um i'd like
03:30
to start with dudley uh if you could
03:32
share with us your thoughts on on how we
03:34
can break social barriers through
03:36
language teaching i think you know the
03:39
the start to answer that question is
03:41
looking at where the social barriers are
03:43
coming from
03:44
and one of the patterns that we see
03:47
worldwide and especially in cities
03:50
is increasing diversification as a
03:53
result
03:53
of migration and
03:56
you know it's and this isn't going to
03:58
change it's a reality that cities
04:00
everywhere
04:01
are dealing with and as
04:05
uh current communities of
04:08
migrants get larger and as new migrant
04:11
groups
04:12
move into community um there's always
04:15
been a tendency to
04:17
to stick together from communities
04:19
within the larger community
04:22
and if we're not careful those
04:26
communities begin to erect barriers
04:28
between them
04:30
and i think that we have to recognize
04:33
the essential role
04:34
of language learning in
04:38
breaking down those barriers and
04:42
when i'm talking about language learning
04:43
i'm not just talking about a one-way
04:46
type of relationship where the host
04:49
community says
04:51
they need to learn our language in order
04:54
to be part of our community
04:56
what i'm talking about is a much more
04:58
reciprocal understanding of language
05:00
learning
05:01
where cities make an effort
05:04
to encourage the learning of
05:07
new languages that are being brought
05:09
into their community
05:11
they support programs that
05:14
teach community languages
05:18
and this is good for two reasons one
05:21
when
05:21
obviously when we learn someone else's
05:24
language
05:25
then we can see the world through their
05:27
eyes we can empathize
05:31
we can share information with them
05:35
but also just the very process of
05:38
language learning
05:39
in in a formal setting in a classroom
05:42
puts
05:43
people from different communities in
05:45
contact with each other
05:47
and it leads to to friendships it leads
05:50
to relationship building
05:53
um and that goes a long way i think
05:56
in breaking down
05:59
the tendency that exists everywhere to
06:01
erect barriers
06:04
really based on my experience as a
06:06
teacher and and um
06:08
and in my classes i used to you know
06:10
notice that students don't only learn
06:12
from teacher
06:13
from the teacher they learn from one
06:14
another and if someone is
06:16
you know i mean most of them might not
06:18
be native speakers of the language and
06:20
they can
06:20
they have different backgrounds and
06:22
different you know uh
06:24
proficiency levels so they might
06:26
actually learn from each other have you
06:27
seen this in
06:27
your experience absolutely and i mean
06:30
you have to think about
06:32
what is the content of language classes
06:34
right
06:35
it's not just grammar instruction it is
06:38
often questions about
06:42
values it's questions about how do you
06:44
do
06:45
this uh you know how you know what's
06:48
your process for doing something whether
06:50
it's cooking
06:52
um whether it's teaching
06:55
uh a practice to your children whatever
06:58
it is
06:59
and in this way students become
07:02
informants
07:03
for each other right and so there's
07:08
often as much peer learning going on
07:11
in a language classroom as there is a
07:13
teacher
07:14
pushing out some kind of knowledge
07:18
all right thank you um i'd like to turn
07:20
that to um
07:21
lori i think laurie i know you work
07:23
through your um your
07:25
job with ames australia with migrant
07:27
communities
07:28
and you you write about that and you're
07:30
you're engaged in
07:31
discussions around language in in the
07:33
migrant communities what are your
07:34
thoughts on how we can break social
07:36
barriers
07:37
through language teaching well i think
07:40
language
07:41
is very important in breaking down
07:44
social barriers and
07:45
and i think what dudley said about it
07:47
being not just a one-way
07:50
street is really important i mean a lot
07:52
of the work we do
07:53
is to help communities
07:57
tell their own authentic stories in the
07:58
mainstream media here so that there's
08:00
some understanding
08:01
in the broader society of their cultures
08:03
and their traditions
08:05
um and i guess you know australia's
08:08
it's kind of unique in that you know
08:10
it's uh
08:12
it traditionally was a sort of
08:13
monolingual
08:15
settler society but in the last 30 years
08:18
it's become one of the most diverse
08:19
countries in the world if not the most
08:21
diverse
08:22
um you know a third of us were born
08:25
overseas and
08:26
half of us have at least one parent who
08:28
was born overseas
08:29
and in the last 30 years the majority of
08:32
those migrants have come from countries
08:34
where
08:34
english is not the um the main language
08:37
and we found that
08:39
communities that are confident in their
08:41
own culture
08:42
and able to preserve and access their
08:45
own their own language and traditions
08:47
are also also more confidently and
08:50
successfully engaging with mainstream
08:52
society
08:53
um and we see this all the time in in
08:55
lots of communities
08:57
so um you know and
09:01
the basis to this is language you know
09:02
language is kind of everything it
09:04
in a sense you know defines a community
09:06
and if there's a
09:08
broader understanding in the wider
09:11
society that these languages are
09:13
important then
09:14
that kind of builds on social cohesion
09:16
and it becomes a really important factor
09:18
in
09:19
having a cohesive society
09:23
thank you i think australia would
09:24
probably be a perfect example for us to
09:26
consider here given the diversity and
09:29
you know the migrants and the settlers
09:31
and the you know
09:32
original uh people in the country so
09:35
this is um
09:35
interesting aline i know you work with
09:38
migrants but
09:38
maybe in a slightly different way you
09:41
don't necessarily teach them
09:43
language but you actually enable them to
09:44
teach their own language to others
09:47
would you mind sharing your thoughts
09:48
about uh how this can
09:50
break social barriers within a society
09:52
especially with regards to migrants
09:55
yes sure hi everyone it's it's nice to
09:57
be here
09:58
uh so yes um so uh i am the co-founder
10:01
of netaquellum which is a social
10:03
enterprise
10:04
that hires refugees as language teachers
10:07
over the internets
10:09
so echoing what has already been said by
10:12
the panelists um language is a window
10:15
into the world
10:17
language is a window into other cultures
10:20
and it's absolutely
10:21
critical to foster understanding and to
10:24
kind of bridge the gaps between the
10:25
different cultures in the world
10:26
especially
10:27
as communities diversify and people are
10:30
more
10:31
mobile and migrating much more um
10:34
i would say that the particularity of
10:36
what we're doing is
10:37
uh twofold uh with let's because
10:41
while we are trying to create um an
10:43
understanding of
10:44
different cultures we're also trying to
10:47
create an understanding of migrants and
10:49
particularly for
10:50
netakalam's case refugees
10:53
unfortunately we're living in a world
10:55
where there is a rise of populism
10:58
and there is um overall a negative view
11:01
of people migrating uh for whether it's
11:04
due to war or natural disaster or for
11:07
um economic purposes so what netankalem
11:10
does is not only bring languages to
11:12
people who might not speak them as
11:14
they're signing up to learn them
11:15
but their teacher is is a refugee and
11:18
that enables them to also
11:20
change their mindset and see a different
11:23
image than what might be painted in in
11:25
the media and political spheres
11:27
uh and seeing really that migrants are
11:29
just like you and me
11:31
we're all similar people with uh similar
11:33
goals and ambitions and uh refugees
11:36
especially have just
11:37
uh been subject to extraordinary
11:39
circumstances that have forced them to
11:41
flee
11:43
and um you know you've been doing this
11:45
for a number of years i understand and
11:47
and
11:47
could you tell us a little bit about how
11:49
successful this has been
11:51
uh so far yes sure so um sunata
11:55
was born out of lebanon in light of the
11:58
syrian refugee crisis
12:00
i'm myself lebanese born and raised in
12:02
the u.s
12:03
and the idea was how can we enable
12:06
syrian refugees in lebanon who are
12:08
typically barred from the local economy
12:10
not given a right to work and suffer
12:12
discrimination like many refugees
12:14
regardless of what country they find
12:16
themselves in well the idea was
12:19
they have an innate skill which is their
12:21
language
12:23
and across the world people are looking
12:25
to learn
12:26
languages many people who learn
12:28
languages need to practice
12:29
through conversation and so the idea is
12:31
very simple
12:32
um what if we could create a platform
12:35
which is what we did
12:36
that enabled people around the world
12:38
mostly americans i would say we started
12:40
with
12:40
who could learn arabic or at the very
12:42
least practice
12:43
um speaking arabic um with
12:46
refugees who would be in lebanon who
12:49
can't actually get a full-time
12:50
employment
12:51
but could then be paid to be the
12:53
language partner of
12:54
these individuals worldwide so since uh
12:57
the the founding in 2015 um so we're
13:01
going on five years old
13:02
um that's economics actually expanded so
13:05
we we do
13:06
work with many syrian refugees but we've
13:08
expanded to other arabic speaking
13:10
refugee communities iraqis palestinian
13:12
yemeni
13:13
um unfortunately there's there's many
13:15
refugee populations in the middle east
13:17
to choose from
13:18
uh we've also launched uh persian with
13:21
iranian and afghan refugees
13:23
spanish with venezuelan and central
13:25
american refugees as well
13:27
as french with francophone african
13:29
refugees and so
13:30
we're we're going on uh five years and
13:33
we've
13:33
connected with thousands of students but
13:35
also
13:36
have our programs running in schools and
13:38
universities and um the qatar foundation
13:40
has been a significant supporter of ours
13:43
for this work um and we're excited to be
13:46
hitting a million dollars in
13:48
disbursements to refugees as well
13:50
in the next couple of months wow this
13:53
sounds
13:53
amazing and it's super diverse as well
13:56
um
13:57
well speaking of the super diversity now
14:00
my next question is about
14:01
how the super diversity of cities today
14:03
uh change the nature of policy responses
14:06
especially with regards to language
14:07
teaching more specifically
14:09
which languages do we teach in and which
14:12
languages do
14:13
we teach and uh i'd like to ask this
14:15
question specifically
14:16
um um to uh dudley and see uh
14:19
based on on the report what do you think
14:22
how do you think we
14:24
should consider languages to teach in
14:25
the classroom and the language of
14:27
instruction
14:29
yeah you know and i'm going to repeat
14:32
something i already said which is
14:33
that um we have to move away from this
14:37
mindset
14:38
that when someone comes into our
14:40
community
14:42
the only aspect of language learning
14:45
that we need to worry about is teaching
14:46
them
14:47
our language and
14:51
what we're seeing you know every
14:54
individual
14:55
has a need to connect to their their
14:58
history
14:59
their identity they need to be part of a
15:02
community
15:03
and you know in terms of special
15:06
cohesion
15:07
and they also need economic opportunity
15:11
and economic opportunity in today's
15:13
world
15:15
often uh touches on globalization
15:19
and having language skills that allow
15:21
you to work
15:22
not only within your local place of
15:26
living but also
15:27
worldwide and
15:31
so what schools and communities are
15:34
increasingly having to do
15:36
is support find ways to support
15:40
a very sort of complex matrix
15:43
of needs and they're having to do it
15:46
in a way you know in a situation where
15:50
the languages that each student
15:53
in this are that satisfied each
15:55
student's needs
15:56
are different you're not you're no
15:59
longer teaching to a classroom
16:01
where you've got 30 students
16:04
and in particular their their heritage
16:08
languages are all the same
16:10
or even the languages that they want to
16:12
learn for for wider opportunity outside
16:15
the community
16:16
are the same and so we're having to
16:20
come up with new models for language
16:22
instruction
16:24
that support the learning of multiple
16:26
languages
16:28
at the same time cities are having to
16:31
come up
16:31
with ways to support uh
16:36
programs for for many different
16:39
languages
16:40
uh and they're you know there's some
16:42
great models out there that i can talk
16:44
about
16:45
uh if you're interested but um
16:49
it's it's how you deal
16:53
and and support diversity
16:56
um at the same time i mean i i like to
16:59
use the phrase that what we're
17:01
um we're no longer just teaching
17:04
multilingualism
17:06
we're teaching in every classroom
17:10
multilingualisms right
17:13
we're we're encouraging each student to
17:15
be multilingual
17:17
in whatever configuration matches their
17:20
needs
17:21
and that's that's a very different
17:23
paradigm
17:26
i totally agree i think this qatar is a
17:28
is a perfect
17:29
example for this and and if you can tell
17:32
us a little bit about how
17:34
you know um teaching languages or
17:36
teaching in
17:37
uh a specific or multiling language
17:40
languages and qatar
17:41
um happens and if there's anything that
17:43
we can learn from that
17:44
yeah i think i mean you know at this at
17:47
the classroom level in particular
17:49
i think we've got to get away from the
17:52
notion that
17:54
in order to you know teach a language
17:58
um you have to restrict
18:02
a conversation in the classroom to just
18:05
that language
18:06
and instead realize that it's possible
18:11
to
18:12
in a sense license multiple languages
18:15
in a classroom and that the focus
18:18
is much more on understanding language
18:22
and how language
18:23
works as a mode of communication
18:27
as as a sort of matching of resources
18:31
you know uh to communicative needs
18:35
it's about understanding what our
18:37
communicative needs are
18:39
um and and really sort of in a sense
18:43
building this meta awareness um
18:48
not just memorization of vocabulary or
18:52
grammar rules and that that's what
18:54
language teaching is
18:56
and uh you know there are lots of
18:59
classrooms
19:00
in qatar where they are adopting this
19:03
um this mode and i had a chance to
19:06
work some with the qatar foundation
19:10
uh schools and and qatar academy schools
19:14
um that are really pioneering some of
19:17
these
19:17
these methods because they have such
19:19
diverse classrooms
19:22
yeah i think it's uh it's perfect here
19:25
to see uh students from
19:26
various backgrounds in the same school
19:28
in the same classroom learning
19:30
you know in multiple languages i think
19:32
that would be uh that would be a pioneer
19:34
as you as you said
19:35
um i'd like now to focus more on the
19:38
impact
19:39
uh of teaching migrants um the local
19:41
language and their ability to integrate
19:43
into the society and there could be some
19:45
direct and indirect um
19:47
you know impacts of that lori based on
19:50
your experience and your
19:51
work with the migrant communities in
19:53
australia what do you what do you see as
19:55
the impact of
19:56
teaching the migrants the local language
20:01
well i guess at a fundamental level it's
20:03
what we do we support around
20:05
70 000 newly arrived migrants and
20:07
refugees
20:08
to settle in australia every year um and
20:11
what is critical
20:13
um in successful settlement for most
20:16
people is economic participation
20:18
so for most people that means finding a
20:22
job or starting a business
20:24
and having enough english to achieve
20:26
that is vital for for most people
20:30
and so having this economic
20:31
participation leads to social
20:34
participation
20:35
and access to mainstream society which
20:38
in turn builds
20:39
social cohesion across the whole of
20:41
society
20:42
um so it's it's it's very important that
20:46
i think that people you know learn the
20:49
language
20:50
of the workplace when they arrive in a
20:52
new society just last week
20:54
our federal government kind of
20:56
recognized this and made available
20:58
unlimited free english language tuition
21:02
to
21:03
anyone who's living here is a permanent
21:05
resident um
21:06
so that's a sort of quite a major step
21:08
for them and
21:09
uh i guess it it's underpinned by the um
21:13
the the government's um
21:17
desire to invest in people to make sure
21:19
that you know set them up for success in
21:21
terms of their
21:22
economic participation in this country
21:24
and um you know
21:25
it was broadly welcomed
21:28
right uh and did you notice any um any
21:31
differences between
21:32
uh migrants communities and refugee
21:35
communities uh i mean for migrants they
21:37
usually come in
21:38
through the standard immigration
21:39
programs and they have to prove they
21:41
have specific you know a certain level
21:42
of english proficiency but the refugees
21:44
might not have this
21:45
uh you know this level so uh did you
21:48
notice any differences
21:50
yeah no there are there are different
21:51
cohorts of people i mean most of the
21:53
skilled migrants come here
21:54
who come here will have you know
21:56
reasonably good english um
21:58
but maybe refugee communities who we
22:01
accept something like 20 000 refugees
22:03
every year and many of them
22:05
um have no english and some of them are
22:07
not literate in their own language
22:09
so um these programs that are run um
22:12
are um exist at several levels to co to
22:16
cater for people with
22:17
different um levels of of literacy and
22:20
um
22:20
you know there are also categories of
22:22
people such as you know the spouses of
22:25
skilled migrants who may not have um
22:28
much english and it's important that
22:29
they are able to
22:31
you know navigate the society and speak
22:33
to their kids teachers and and just
22:35
sort of operate in the community so you
22:37
know it's good that there are these
22:39
programs that um uh help people
22:42
reach a level of english that suits
22:44
their circumstances
22:47
interesting um elaine have you
22:50
um have you noticed any um you know any
22:53
um
22:54
economic impact i i see you're you're
22:56
helping um you know migrants become
22:58
teachers or teach
22:58
uh on freelance basis uh does this have
23:01
a significant economic impact on their
23:03
uh you know situation and how they can
23:06
uh settle in and
23:07
sort of integrate in this society
23:10
yeah i mean so i think it's when we talk
23:13
about refugees and migrant it's you know
23:15
it's such a large population
23:17
and so many people are in different
23:19
situations so
23:20
a syrian in lebanon uh who is actually
23:23
not even recognized by the lebanese
23:24
government as a refugee
23:26
um that his or her situation is going to
23:29
be very different
23:30
than a syrian or an iraqi or an afghan
23:33
in germany
23:34
uh and that will be different than uh
23:36
venezuelan in
23:38
costa rica so i think you know it's for
23:41
me it's very important to always kind of
23:42
acknowledge the nuances and that when
23:43
we're speaking we're kind of
23:45
generalizing quite a bit um and that
23:47
each experience is very different
23:49
um the the core uh segment of the
23:52
population
23:52
we started to focus on when we were born
23:56
um was refugees in quote-unquote limbo
23:59
situations meaning they fled
24:02
the immediate violence in their in their
24:04
homeland and they've crossed a border to
24:06
a country
24:07
where they are not allowed to stay and
24:09
they are not given a right to work and
24:11
they are
24:12
struggling to get to europe or
24:15
to australia or to canada um where they
24:18
would actually
24:18
you know either claim asylum and get
24:21
accepted or
24:22
file for or hope to get through the
24:24
complex
24:25
resettlement system formally resettled
24:27
um and the chances of that happening
24:30
uh for for refugees who are kind of in
24:32
that situation
24:33
is actually less than one percent uh so
24:36
it is
24:37
it is a terrifying number it is a
24:38
catastrophic situation and so
24:40
you know what we saw um the whole
24:43
european
24:44
refugee crisis which you know is
24:46
relative because i think
24:48
you know the middle east and other parts
24:49
of the world they have a real refugee
24:51
crisis
24:52
um but what people try to do is get on
24:54
their own to places
24:56
like germany which back then was
24:57
granting you
24:59
um asylum if you cross the border and
25:01
made it there so
25:02
so our goal was really to try and
25:04
support those people in this
25:06
complete in-between situation who have
25:08
really no prospects ahead of them
25:10
really struggling and they don't really
25:12
know what's going to happen and so
25:13
that's why
25:14
you know in lebanon that was the focus
25:16
it was you know middle upper class
25:17
syrians
25:18
who are highly skilled but really are
25:21
don't have a future ahead right now
25:23
um and and actually you know of course
25:26
we've expanded we do have different
25:27
profiles because we noticed that
25:29
um when refugees for example syrians who
25:32
get to italy they don't speak italian
25:33
even though they have
25:34
been granted you know the refugee status
25:37
they struggle
25:38
to get access to work and an income
25:40
because language
25:41
is indeed a significant barrier and so
25:44
what netaquelm enables them to do is to
25:46
actually sustain themselves
25:47
while they are adapting to this new life
25:50
learning italian and
25:52
i mean i it is also quite amazing to see
25:55
the resilience and the capacity for
25:57
these individuals
25:58
to learn those languages um
26:02
so um for neta kendam in terms of income
26:05
provided
26:07
about 60 of the refugees we work with um
26:10
nets academy is their only source of
26:11
income for them
26:13
and for their families and based on the
26:16
profile
26:17
some of them are pretty much making the
26:19
amount of a full-time
26:20
job especially we've also added
26:22
translation services we do programs in
26:24
schools so
26:25
our goal at net academy is actually to
26:28
try and make it as close as possible to
26:30
being you know
26:32
a full-time compensation i mean that's
26:34
why we don't
26:35
have thousands of refugees working at
26:38
nasa kelem because we'd rather have
26:40
um in-depth uh impact and so it means
26:43
that
26:44
one tutor will be working with dozens of
26:47
students because
26:47
one student may be one to two hours per
26:49
week rather than having
26:51
thousands of refugees who teach one or
26:53
two hours per week
26:54
um so no the the impact is significant
26:57
and what i would say
26:58
is it's the sense of dignity and purpose
27:02
which is the most powerful because uh
27:05
refugees
27:06
um unfortunately the way we look at
27:09
refugees instead of as heroes
27:11
is very different and um what we see is
27:14
that
27:14
the friendship and the sense of
27:16
empowerment
27:17
and the the pride they get from teaching
27:20
their language and their culture and
27:22
making the world realize
27:23
who they are where they're from why
27:24
they've fled uh the psychosocial impact
27:27
is
27:27
very important and very powerful as well
27:30
i i can imagine i think it would change
27:33
lives you know by
27:34
becoming a teacher um you know uh they
27:37
don't you know sit in a classroom but
27:38
they actually
27:39
do the same job as a teacher virtually
27:41
and on top of that
27:43
they earn uh you know decent income so
27:45
that's that's actually very
27:47
very good um can i jump
27:50
in this is deadly because i i think
27:53
there's something really interesting
27:54
that connects
27:55
the answer that laurie just said uh uh
27:58
with
27:58
aleene's which is the connection between
28:02
language teaching and learning and
28:04
economic empowerment
28:07
and we've always thought about economic
28:09
empowerment
28:10
as coming from learning the language
28:13
that you need to operate in in the new
28:15
community
28:17
but economic empowerment also depends
28:20
on a sense of identity and a sense of
28:24
self-worth
28:25
and one of the really neat things about
28:27
neta kalam is
28:29
that it positions the the refugee
28:33
as an expert based on their knowledge of
28:36
their own language
28:38
right and it builds that sense of
28:41
i can do this look i i do have something
28:45
to contribute
28:46
to my new uh you know
28:49
play you know either new place of
28:51
residence or place that i want to
28:53
to head towards and you know and i think
28:57
that that's
28:58
getting back to that first question
28:59
about what is it that cities can do
29:02
and if we think about language teaching
29:06
and learning programs
29:07
that position new members of our
29:09
communities
29:10
as experts and as people
29:14
with knowledge to share and give back to
29:17
the community
29:19
that we we create that
29:22
that can-do sense that then
29:26
you know leads to entrepreneurship
29:28
activities
29:29
and a whole range of
29:32
um ways of economic empowerment
29:35
beyond that what used to be thought of
29:38
as
29:39
you know migrants being just tracked
29:41
into
29:42
the lowest paid entry-level jobs in a
29:45
society
29:47
and and uh wdc a role for schools to
29:50
play here and should we
29:52
engage schools in providing those
29:54
programs although maybe those programs
29:55
should be
29:56
implemented by other city organizations
30:00
absolutely you know in in the report i
30:03
talk about
30:04
um kind of as a case study ottawa
30:07
ontario where you've got you know first
30:10
of all i need to teach
30:12
two national languages english and
30:14
french
30:15
um you have an extremely diverse uh
30:18
population in terms of the
30:22
you know different you know if you look
30:24
at the census data
30:26
the the number of languages
30:29
that have a significant enough
30:32
population to actually show up
30:34
in the the census data and not just be
30:36
listed as other
30:38
um it's it's a really long list
30:41
and the schools there come up with a way
30:44
in which
30:46
if a group of 23 people from the
30:49
community
30:50
petition the school board for a language
30:53
program
30:54
the school board will provide
30:58
essentially a classroom on saturday
31:00
morning or after school
31:02
they will provide training
31:06
for someone from the community to teach
31:08
that language
31:10
right and they will advertise it
31:14
and so many of these programs become
31:17
first and foremost a way
31:19
for migrants to pass on
31:22
a heritage language to their their
31:25
children
31:26
right um in a school setting but then
31:29
they also become a way for other
31:31
community members especially in adult
31:33
classes
31:35
to to learn you know pick up a new
31:37
language
31:39
um through these so it's not just
31:42
you know to heritage speakers and
31:46
that that program is channeled through
31:49
the schools
31:50
because the schools have classroom space
31:53
they also have expertise in teacher
31:55
training
31:56
and even curriculum development right
31:59
and so they can work with
32:01
communities to develop these programs
32:04
right well that's uh that's very
32:06
interesting and um
32:07
alina i wonder if you have a similar
32:09
experience working with schools
32:12
probably if you could share briefly with
32:13
us how you do
32:15
uh how you help migrants through schools
32:18
yes sure so and we so we work with
32:21
universities
32:22
and we work with schools the university
32:26
programs
32:27
are typically bringing that kellem as a
32:30
complement to language teaching so
32:33
people taking
32:34
arabic we work with the professors to
32:37
integrate
32:38
practicing what's being taught in the
32:40
classroom through netekelem so natakerem
32:43
is
32:44
effectively playing kind of the role of
32:46
the language lab
32:47
um which also in turn enables students
32:51
to learn about the refugee crisis about
32:53
refugees
32:54
what their day-to-day life is like um
32:56
but at the same time very strictly kind
32:58
of following
32:59
what is asked from the professors uh to
33:02
help reach the level of the the
33:04
practicing with the native speakers
33:06
so that's the more traditional model of
33:08
partnerships with universities though
33:10
we've also been added as
33:11
um a compliment to classrooms on
33:14
anthropology
33:15
on migration issues on politics
33:17
political science
33:18
human rights because of course these are
33:20
hands-on experiences
33:22
and and wonderful testimonies for
33:24
students to learn from directly
33:25
when we come to the classroom program um
33:28
which is
33:29
younger learners so it's k-12 um
33:32
this is um we've created our own
33:33
curriculum um
33:35
and it's you can do one hour five hours
33:37
or ten hours
33:38
and it's a combination of course we we
33:41
work around the request of the teachers
33:43
as well
33:43
but it's it's not as much language it's
33:46
language but also
33:47
again the journey of displacement to try
33:50
and raise awareness uh with children at
33:52
a young age
33:53
about why people are fleeing why do you
33:56
only hear about war in the middle east
33:58
um and so it's it's quite an incredible
34:01
uh
34:02
experience uh and and phenomenon really
34:04
to see for example
34:06
young american kids in kentucky who
34:09
you know who knows where they're hearing
34:12
about the middle east and and
34:13
what they're hearing about refugees
34:15
because the news unfortunately as i
34:17
mentioned
34:17
is not the best source but they actually
34:19
get to meet um
34:21
refugees this way and so there's an
34:23
integration of
34:24
a little bit of conversational language
34:26
teaching but also really
34:28
uh the journey of being a displaced
34:30
person
34:31
um and and it's really actually very
34:34
powerful we've seen
34:35
people who um who really uh came from a
34:38
complete different political perspective
34:40
and
34:40
and conversation is so powerful really
34:43
conversation can do wonders in changing
34:45
people's minds
34:47
i'm i'm sure it does it's genuine and
34:49
it's you know
34:50
one to one and um i can imagine how
34:53
um you know how powerful this can be in
34:55
in bridging
34:56
you know our cultures and um
34:59
uh well the current situation with covet
35:02
19
35:03
might have uh changed uh you know things
35:06
probably for you aline and for um uh
35:09
lori and
35:09
and probably dudley can and can also uh
35:12
tell us about that but
35:13
i will leave this open for all panelists
35:16
or
35:16
who would be interested to jump in and
35:18
share with us how you think
35:20
the current crisis has affected the way
35:22
we use language to communicate
35:24
whether in the classroom or outside the
35:28
classroom
35:30
so so we um we
35:33
uh in australia think we do
35:35
multiculturalism very well
35:37
um but we've had an interesting um time
35:40
here in melbourne in the past few months
35:42
where
35:43
unlike the rest of the country we've had
35:46
a
35:47
second wave of the coronavirus and
35:51
these cases have i guess
35:53
disproportionately
35:54
affected new and emerging communities
35:56
and the local the local health
35:59
um authorities in the state government
36:01
kind of thought they knew how to
36:02
communicate with these communities
36:05
but it turns out they didn't and so it's
36:07
been really interesting to watch the
36:09
kind of catch-up work that's been going
36:11
on and we've been helping with that a
36:12
little bit
36:14
but it's really about i guess
36:16
understanding the way communities
36:18
you know speak within themselves and to
36:20
other communities
36:21
the nuances of language dialects
36:25
and also um i guess using you know
36:27
trusted voices from
36:29
within these communities to you know get
36:31
those messages out about
36:32
um health and hygiene and you know the
36:35
dangers of the
36:36
of the virus so it's been it's been
36:38
really interesting to watch that as a
36:40
sort of public policy response um
36:43
slightly gone wrong
36:44
if you know what i mean
36:48
thank you the lady
36:52
do you have uh you have anything to
36:54
share on on this question
36:56
yeah i mean i think the
36:59
the pandemic experience has been
37:03
you know an incredible learning
37:04
opportunity for all of us
37:07
and when it comes to language teaching
37:10
um i mean one of the first things i
37:13
think it's done
37:15
is
37:18
encourage in a sense encouraged a whole
37:20
lot of language teachers around the
37:23
world
37:24
to buy into what alien already knows
37:27
which is that you can provide remote
37:30
instruction
37:32
in language and you can do it quite
37:34
effectively uh
37:36
you can have conversations just like
37:38
we're having that
37:39
are great experiences in live use of
37:43
language
37:44
um you know you can bring opportunities
37:47
to classrooms
37:49
that people never imagined before
37:53
remote instruction i think the other
37:56
thing
37:56
that when which i see it as creating an
38:00
opportunity that i hope will stick
38:02
around after the pandemic
38:04
is because students
38:07
are learning from their homes they are
38:10
spending
38:11
more time with their with their extended
38:15
family
38:16
right and they are
38:20
having to interact with that extended
38:22
family for example
38:23
quite simply a greater number of hours
38:25
every day and
38:27
that extended family is becoming a
38:29
resource
38:31
and they should be a resource for
38:34
language learning
38:35
right you know if you if your
38:38
grandmother is the one
38:39
who's watching you every day
38:43
then i hope you're learning to
38:45
communicate
38:46
in your grandmother's language right
38:49
and take advantage of this and
38:53
i think that's something that teachers
38:54
by the kinds of activities they come up
38:56
with
38:57
can actually actively encourage you know
39:00
go out and interview someone find this
39:03
this information now if it's in another
39:07
language
39:08
translate it in a way that you can then
39:10
communicate it to the other students in
39:12
your classroom
39:14
and that encourages students to begin to
39:17
take on that role of being a language
39:19
broker or a language go between
39:22
and so there are there are positive
39:25
opportunities if we think about how to
39:28
take advantage of them
39:31
well i i agree this uh this crisis did
39:34
not bring
39:34
only challenges also brought
39:36
opportunities for uh reimagining and
39:38
revisiting
39:40
what we do and probably thinking about
39:43
opportunities for
39:44
transforming our learning systems and
39:45
our education systems
39:47
um well post pandemic i mean we'll
39:51
hope that this will be over soon as soon
39:53
as possible with a vaccine or
39:55
with anything else but we hope that
39:58
you know in a few months or you know
40:01
early next year we'll be able to
40:02
get back to what we used to do but
40:06
should we do things differently what
40:07
would we do differently
40:09
going forward
40:12
and that applies to schools and cities
40:25
we've seen around communicating during
40:27
the covert crisis
40:28
is it's just what we're doing now it's
40:30
um connecting remotely as dudley said
40:33
using technology that didn't exist even
40:36
you know a decade ago
40:37
so that's a great opportunity to make
40:39
and for us especially when we're
40:41
um trying to provide flexible learning
40:43
learning opportunities for
40:45
refugees and migrants you know this kind
40:47
of technology can be
40:49
really useful for instance for a mother
40:51
who's looking after children but also
40:53
trying to learn english
40:54
um or anything else you know a
40:56
vocational skill
40:58
um so you know there's a great
41:00
opportunity to make
41:01
learning of any kind more accessible and
41:04
more flexible into the future
41:06
and i think this will be um one of the
41:09
great i guess
41:10
lessons from the from the pandemic
41:14
yeah i i i would add that um i i think
41:17
um
41:18
i i think unfortunately that the
41:20
pandemic's impact
41:21
will be devastating we've seen the
41:23
economic impact and of course
41:25
migrants and refugees are extra
41:28
vulnerable
41:28
and will be the most hit um
41:32
that being said you know a typical
41:34
entrepreneur
41:35
uh mindset is you know you've got to
41:37
find the silver lining and the
41:38
opportunity
41:39
in in the in the in the challenge and i
41:42
think yes it's
41:43
it is been wonderful to see that um
41:46
there are ways to find how as dudley was
41:49
saying that that you can learn
41:51
and teach a language uh virtually uh of
41:54
course
41:55
nothing will replace that immersion and
41:57
that study abroad experience
41:59
but for the time being um we're stay
42:02
still able to do that and and
42:03
interestingly for natakallam during
42:06
uh the confinement period actually there
42:09
was a
42:10
a tripling of the number of people
42:11
signing up for natakalem classes
42:14
so while um it was much harder
42:17
i just everyone in general was suffering
42:19
more we were actually able to
42:21
uh disburse more income to the refugees
42:24
who work on our platform
42:25
um and if you know anyone you know
42:28
following the language space saw such a
42:31
surge
42:31
in all of the language apps and the
42:33
language programs online
42:35
um and hopefully i mean because so many
42:37
people you know
42:38
have this you know oh i have free time i
42:40
can learn a language
42:42
but how can we shift that to it's not
42:44
because i have free time that i'm
42:46
learning a language it's because
42:47
learning a language is priceless and
42:50
transformative
42:51
um and so how can we make people now
42:53
continue to not look at this as an extra
42:56
but as a core um a core and powerful
42:59
aspect
43:00
for people's careers but for the world
43:03
um and
43:03
for you know building bridges and and
43:06
fostering understanding
43:07
so i think you know if uh of course from
43:10
a policy perspective um
43:12
i i'm i'm sad to say that i believe that
43:15
there are terrible budget cuts going on
43:16
in the u.s around
43:18
language teaching um which is of course
43:21
catastrophic and the last thing i think
43:23
that that is needed in in
43:25
in the us right now um so you know
43:28
i think that we should push for more
43:31
funding of language learning and
43:33
push for making it more common and um
43:36
you know i would i would just
43:38
give an example from just lebanese tend
43:41
to be
43:41
bilingual trilingual and they are of
43:44
course our country is crumbling but the
43:46
diaspora
43:48
is typically doing all quite well and we
43:50
often attribute it to
43:52
the fact that they speak french english
43:54
arabic so it is quite
43:55
interesting um and i my personal journey
43:58
has been that i feel i can connect
44:00
with french people i can connect with
44:02
anglophones
44:03
uh middle easterners and and also i was
44:05
privileged to learn spanish and and
44:06
also that way as well so i think
44:09
languages is priceless and should become
44:11
part of
44:11
of the core education system
44:15
wherever we are i would say and uh and i
44:17
think it's wonderful
44:18
that australia is providing free english
44:21
tuition
44:22
to anyone based there i think that's
44:23
amazing as well because
44:25
it is of course a a huge challenge for
44:28
um for refugees um the language barrier
44:32
when they
44:32
they migrate yeah yeah i i
44:36
mean i can't stress this enough it's uh
44:38
it's you know i think it's
44:40
crucially important for uh for people to
44:42
learn language not only for the
44:44
opportunities it opens or for the you
44:46
know economic prospects but also for
44:48
you know cultural uh understanding and
44:51
and um
44:52
you know cross-cultural uh you know
44:55
collaboration and cooperation among
44:58
among people of different backgrounds
45:00
um this actually leads me to the next
45:02
question um
45:04
regarding how local governments can
45:05
empower refugees and migrant communities
45:08
to preserve their own language and
45:10
culture
45:11
while actually supporting them to
45:13
integrate into
45:14
the new community i don't know if dudley
45:18
uh do you have any uh what's your take
45:20
on this
45:22
well i mean i think
45:25
this sort of circles back around a
45:27
number of things we've been talking
45:28
about
45:28
and so there are clear ways that
45:31
programs can be set up
45:34
um and those require you know the
45:36
programs
45:37
start with a policy and intention
45:41
on the part of local governments in
45:43
terms of community
45:45
schooling and and school boards
45:48
uh as well um
45:52
and but i think it's also
45:57
you know we have to think about this
46:00
this
46:00
wider thing and when you with the
46:03
question you just ask about kind of
46:05
takeaways from the pandemic
46:07
i think one of the things is that
46:12
is both you know elaine talked about the
46:14
incredible opportunity
46:16
that language learning brings i think we
46:19
also
46:20
need to remember ignore language
46:23
learning at your peril
46:25
how many public health ministries around
46:27
the world
46:29
have been you know
46:32
going crazy trying to figure out how to
46:35
get
46:36
public health messages out in multiple
46:39
languages
46:40
because they hadn't built the language
46:43
resources
46:44
in their community to reach out to
46:48
all of the members of the community and
46:51
we are all in this together
46:54
and we've got to be able to speak each
46:58
other's languages we've got to be
47:00
able to um
47:02
[Music]
47:04
work with each other and we can't
47:08
you know we can't achieve that by um
47:12
asking people to uh
47:16
subvert or submerge the languages that
47:20
they're comfortable using
47:21
right we have to acknowledge that and
47:23
build that up
47:25
um and so it's it's kind of a rambling
47:28
answer to your question
47:30
but i do think it's it's important to
47:32
think about
47:34
the overall ramifications
47:38
right absolutely um gloria uh
47:42
you know given your the context you're
47:44
in um you know
47:45
several diverse migrant communities how
47:48
can how can uh governments deal with
47:50
that and enable migrants to
47:53
uh you know celebrate their own culture
47:54
but also merge into the new
47:56
society well i'm no expert on that but
48:00
there's a
48:00
couple of things i could i could say one
48:02
is we have a thing in australia called
48:05
sbs which is a special broadcasting
48:07
service
48:08
so it's a publicly funded broadcast that
48:11
was set up about
48:12
40 years ago by a progressive government
48:15
but
48:15
it's got you know broad support and and
48:18
it's
48:18
going strong and it produces programs
48:21
um on radio and tv in about i think
48:24
about 68 languages
48:25
and it's becoming this national
48:26
institution that sort of supports
48:29
communities to preserve
48:30
um you know their own culture helps them
48:34
tell their authentic stories um and it
48:36
also connects them to
48:38
to sort of you know mainstream australia
48:40
through inland
48:41
things like in language news broadcasts
48:43
and um you know other
48:45
programming but then at a kind of
48:48
i guess local government level there's a
48:50
lot of funding here for things like
48:52
cultural festivals which are organized
48:56
by communities themselves
48:58
um but in the last decade or so they've
49:00
become really popular
49:01
people from beyond the communities have
49:02
been attending them in droves
49:05
and also local government libraries are
49:07
now a
49:08
huge resource for people from diverse
49:11
communities in terms of
49:13
you know learning english finding out
49:15
about their own culture
49:17
or even accessing services and finding
49:19
out you know
49:20
how you get to see an orthopedic
49:22
specialist or
49:24
um you know what special education means
49:26
for your children
49:27
so you know there are lots of things
49:29
that um
49:31
can be done on a sort of program level
49:34
but it requires investment you know
49:35
requires
49:36
people who hold the purse strings to
49:38
understand
49:39
the importance of investing in in
49:42
communities
49:44
so that you do build social cohesion and
49:46
and you know the more you do that
49:48
the more welcome people from overseas
49:50
are in a in a country when they arrive
49:53
um you know it's a lesson that's been
49:54
sort of hard learned here
49:56
i mean we're protected from a lot of the
49:58
i guess more
49:59
um nationalistic populistic politics
50:03
in a way but there's still an
50:05
undercurrent of people who
50:06
don't see migration as a good thing and
50:09
and um
50:10
you know that needs we need to be
50:11
vigilant about that about those things
50:14
well yeah i think we there will be a
50:16
need for a lot of advocacy work um
50:18
you know not only for language but for
50:20
education in general and uh as
50:22
aline said we need to ensure that there
50:25
will be enough investments and funding
50:27
for education
50:27
post pandemic so we ensure that you know
50:30
what was lost in the past
50:32
uh six months and probably for the next
50:33
few months until this is over
50:35
is uh made up for and hopefully and we
50:38
can build on
50:39
you know for the future um i think we're
50:41
uh
50:42
we're almost uh we're over time actually
50:44
for the uh panel discussion and i would
50:46
like to thank all
50:47
three panelists uh and um i've received
50:50
a few questions
50:51
um from my colleagues supporting the
50:53
panel and i would like to move to these
50:55
questions um
50:56
uh for the next uh seven or eight
50:57
minutes or so uh so we have a question
50:59
from uh
51:00
ak um and uh this is basically
51:03
regarding uh the rohingya refugees who
51:06
don't speak bengali or english
51:08
and uh you know they face a lot of
51:10
challenges
51:11
in bangladesh when they move to
51:13
bangladesh and
51:14
you know and people don't speak their
51:16
language there so what are the options
51:18
to help them learn
51:19
learn the language in in their host
51:21
country i know that we
51:22
were not pushing for um you know
51:24
migrants to ignore the language and
51:26
learn the foreign language
51:27
but are there any uh any ways the local
51:30
society can support them learn
51:32
the local language in bangladesh i don't
51:35
know if
51:36
that they may have any um experience
51:39
with that
51:40
so they're different models around the
51:43
world
51:43
and unfortunately in my mind one of the
51:47
most common models
51:49
is this notion that
51:54
someone has to learn the language before
51:56
they can learn they can do anything else
51:58
and this impacts school children in
52:01
particular who
52:03
may have started school um in their
52:07
country of origin um
52:10
or not but um
52:13
then they're they're put into a new
52:16
system
52:17
and they're told well you know study the
52:20
language until you're ready to go back
52:21
to school
52:23
and that's you know a real loss of time
52:28
and and so i think it's developing
52:31
systems that allow
52:32
people to continue learning and and
52:34
using the resources that they have
52:37
while at the same time adding additional
52:39
languages
52:40
into that mix and it's a
52:44
process of uh empowerment it's a part
52:47
it's a process of adding on it's a
52:49
process of seeing
52:51
relations between languages
52:54
um and you know
52:57
i often remind people that
53:01
um
53:04
the people who gain the most economic
53:07
benefit
53:08
from language learning if we're going to
53:10
focus just on economic benefit
53:12
are the ones who actually are competent
53:15
in multiple languages
53:17
not the people who've transitioned
53:20
from one language to another and
53:23
forgotten the original one along the way
53:26
and so it's designing educational
53:29
programs
53:30
that focus on all of education um
53:33
adding new language into the mix
53:36
realizing that
53:37
language teaching is as much about
53:41
um providing input and making it
53:44
getting people to to notice it figure it
53:48
out
53:48
solve it as a puzzle see how it relates
53:51
to what they already
53:52
know um and designing your programs in
53:56
that way
53:58
thank you thanks dudley um alin do you
54:01
work with any uh refugees in bangladesh
54:04
or in any uh country definitely uh
54:07
that's that's out of our scope uh for
54:10
the time being
54:11
but i mean i think it is you know one
54:13
thing to say is
54:14
is as i mentioned there are such
54:16
different categories and profiles
54:18
uh in in the refugee community community
54:22
um and and one thing i would say is that
54:24
we've had instances
54:25
of i mean as as i mentioned nathan
54:28
chose to focus its impact on the middle
54:31
upper class community of refugees who
54:33
are skilled and have been robbed from
54:35
the future
54:36
and um you know this is a decision we've
54:39
made from a
54:40
from an impact perspective because when
54:42
we talk about refugees and migrants
54:44
the crisis is so massive you have to
54:46
choose where you're taking action
54:48
um but what we've seen and what we've
54:49
had is actually many people come and
54:52
want to
54:52
uh fund lessons for refugees who don't
54:55
speak and who aren't bilingual
54:57
and so we'll have syrians who arrive to
54:58
the us who don't speak english
55:00
and who are being taught by our syrian
55:03
tutors who are bilingual
55:04
and i i think this is an interesting
55:06
model because
55:08
um these populations have endured trauma
55:11
and are struggling and so when they're
55:14
taught by someone who has a similar
55:16
background
55:16
basically they're the same background
55:18
they come from the same country
55:20
there might be an interesting dynamic
55:22
that might make it more comfortable for
55:24
them to learn this language so
55:25
this might be a model that can be
55:27
explored um
55:29
for example um with the rohingya finding
55:32
certain you know certain of the
55:33
population of the displaced who could be
55:35
themselves teaching
55:36
um their their fellow uh nationals but
55:39
um
55:40
i i would say that that is not my uh my
55:43
area of expertise
55:45
yeah i understand but this is actually
55:46
the model you follow can be
55:48
you know replicated in other contexts
55:50
and um you know i'm hoping
55:51
to you know to see another you know
55:53
social enterprise
55:54
taking care of this in other contexts in
55:57
bangladesh
55:58
thank you um another question that came
56:01
from
56:01
issandalari
56:03
[Music]
56:04
this is basically about the danger of
56:07
extension of native languages which
56:08
happen to be
56:09
in many communities in australia how can
56:11
we make sure that people maintain their
56:13
native language
56:14
from a policy level and um i wonder if
56:17
uh lori can can address that question
56:20
yeah it's very it's very difficult there
56:22
are literally i don't know how many but
56:25
more than 200 native languages in
56:27
australia and
56:28
many of them have um have disappeared
56:31
forever unfortunately but
56:33
there's a lot of work being done
56:34
recently to try to
56:36
preserve what's left and even um
56:39
resurrect some that had thought to be
56:41
lost
56:42
i'm not an expert on the subject but i
56:44
know that there is a an agency
56:46
in canada in the capital that has um
56:49
begun a lot of research into this
56:51
recruited a lot of experts from or at
56:53
least you know
56:54
um you know language speakers from
56:56
indigenous communities and
56:58
it's been beginning to come become a
57:00
quite a
57:01
a strong focus of the our national
57:05
uh reconciliation um effort which
57:08
which is seeing um indigenous people uh
57:12
about to be recognized in the
57:13
constitution um and a whole lot of work
57:16
done to try and um improve i guess
57:19
educational and levels and
57:23
rates of poverty among some some of the
57:25
communities so it's a work in progress
57:27
but it's obviously
57:28
um becoming much more important in the
57:31
minds of a lot of people
57:33
absolutely yeah and i think again
57:35
australia is is
57:36
a case in point here um uh
57:39
i think we have about one uh one minute
57:41
left so i'm uh
57:42
i'd like to address this next question
57:44
to uh to dudley this is a question from
57:46
sin then about the the challenges that
57:49
efl teaches english foreign language
57:51
teachers encounter
57:52
in a class of culturally diverse
57:54
refugees and migrants
57:56
um that i know you work with teachers
57:57
and you train teachers
57:59
what are some of the challenges that um
58:01
ufl teachers encounter when they have
58:03
you know refugees from different
58:05
cultural backgrounds
58:07
so i think first
58:11
one and uh this goes back also to to
58:14
kind of the model that elaine shared
58:16
there's real value when a teacher models
58:19
being multilingual
58:21
and what it means to be multilingual
58:23
because what we're really teaching
58:25
we're not teaching english we're
58:27
teaching students to be
58:29
multilingual and multilingualism goes
58:32
with a whole set of
58:34
behaviors and it's knowing that they're
58:37
situations where you can
58:38
mix multiple languages at the same time
58:41
because of who you're talking
58:43
with and it's fun that you can be
58:45
creative in that way
58:47
uh something we often refer to as trans
58:49
languaging
58:52
it is learning how to
58:57
become good at translating become good
59:00
at
59:01
using one language maybe to do to plan
59:04
another language to present
59:07
um and you know even
59:10
if the language profile of the teacher
59:13
in terms of the competencies that the
59:15
teacher has
59:16
doesn't match the the profile of the
59:20
students because they're diverse
59:22
you still can model these processes
59:26
and then encourage the students to do
59:28
them with their own languages
59:30
encourage them to uh to the extent that
59:33
they can
59:34
learn from their peers in the classroom
59:36
that may share some of their
59:37
competencies
59:39
you have to design exercises and
59:42
activities
59:43
that allow students to
59:46
um help each other with learning it's
59:50
not only the teacher's responsibility
59:54
well i think this requires actually um
59:56
involvement of curriculum developers and
59:58
teacher trainers and
60:00
a lot of work in this regard well thank
60:03
you very much
60:03
um for all our panelists and for the
60:06
participants who joined us i think we're
60:08
um
60:08
one minute over time so i it's probably
60:10
time to wrap this up
60:12
um i would like to uh thank dudley renz
60:14
professor of
60:15
teaching professor of english at
60:17
carnegie mellon university uh alin sarah
60:19
the co-founder and ceo of natacallem
60:22
and lorien well the media manager from
60:26
ames in australia and i encourage
60:29
the participants to try to download the
60:31
report from the wise website
60:33
and hopefully join us for future events
60:36
thank you very much
60:54
this
61:04
okay
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