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Bahá'í Language Educators SIG Program and Report

28th Annual Conference of the Association for Bahá'í Studies — North America

Calgary, Alberta
3-6 September, 2004

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Program: (click for report)

10:00-12:00 Geradine Graber "The Role of International Pioneers in Advancing Civilization"
Abstract: Current trends in globalization raise concerns for the Bahá'í communities in the third world. What is the balance between our assisting in the advancement of civilization and our responsibility to moderate it? What is the role of the Bahá'í international pioneer in setting an example of this balance? Participants will examine practical applications of these considerations in a simulation exercise, Bafa Bafa, and then explore Bahá'í solutions for real life dilemmas.

Presenter bio: Geraldine Graber, Ph.D., is the founder of Willing Hearts International, Canada, with headquarters in Powell River, B.C. She is currently an education consultant in Chad, Africa, where she has been pioneering for part of the past two years, and will be travelling to Cameroon in the fall.

12:00-1:30 Lunch

 1:30-2:15 Dara Shaw: "Professional Bahá'í Partnerships in EFL"
Abstract: The Masters Program in Teaching English as a Foreign Language is the first program of its kind offered by an Ecuadorian university, the Escuela Politécnica del Litoral in Guayaquil Ecuador. The presenter will share information about the development, design, and implementation of the program, and the many opportunities it offers for both directly and indirectly teaching the Bahá'í Faith, to the program participants.

Presenter bio: Dara Gay Shaw began her teaching career in the villages of Colombia in 1971, and since then has taught English to Speakers of Other Languages, co-directed a university Intensive English Program, and taught students and professionals from many different countries. Currently, she is teaching Spanish in a public high school in Berkeley County, West Virginia and teaching in a TEFL Masters Program at the Escuela Politécnica del Litoral in Guayaquil Ecuador.

2:15-3:00 Nancy Watters: "The Art of Encouragement"
Abstract: To encourage literally means to "infuse with courage". Help students overcome their fears, "take heart", learn from mistakes and keep trying. The process of encouragement builds good character and inspires students to live up to the best within them. When done correctly encouragement develops initiative, internal motivation, competence and self-direction. In its absence we often see de-moralized individuals who are not able to achieve their full potential. Come discover the secrets of successful encouragement and pitfalls to avoid.

Presenter bio: Nancy Watters, MA, is President of Watters & Associates. She is an educator, teacher trainer and consulting psychologist.

3:00-3:30 Break

 3:30-5:00 Roundtable on Bahá'í Inspired Teaching Activities

 Facilitator: Dara Shaw
  1. Nancy Watters: "Sticks and stones can break my bones and names can break my spirit"
    Words can build us up or tear us down. Come try a simple experiment that demonstrates the impact of words on body, mind and spirit. Learn an effective technique to verbally encourage yourself and others, and pitfalls to avoid.
  2. Joy Allchin: "Book Presentation: Cross-Cultural Awareness by Elizabeth Gibson"
    Longtime pioneer Elizabeth Gibson created Cross-Cultural Awareness to use as a text in her classes at Shantou University, Guangdong Province, in the south of China. Cross-Cultural Awareness presents values and culture through readings, workshop activities, case studies, and writing and discussion topics, and provides a model for infusing spiritual principles into the writing of a secular text. Joy Allchin will present on behalf of Ms. Gibson.
  3. Dara Shaw: "Making Inroads in Multicultural Awareness of Religious and Cultural Diversity at a Rural West Virginia High School"
    What can you do in a U.S. high school to expand the school community's worldview, and awareness of religious, racial and cultural diversity? Two Bahá'í teachers spent the year supporting each other in choosing and implementing activities with their students and colleagues to explore this question. The presenter will share these activities, and the results of their use in this session.
  4. Joy Allchin: "Teaching African American History and Language Skills to Middle School ESL Students in Greenbelt, Maryland"
    The Guardian called racism America's greatest challenge, and that challenge calls for both an understanding of the injustices of the past and a vision of unity for the future. Middle school immigrants to the United States come with little or no understanding of American racism, and must learn its history and manifestations in order to understand the culture and frame their own vision. This talk presents a framework for a middle school ESL unit which introduces African American history through the study of novels, biographies, poetry, and film.

    Presenter bio: Nancy Joy Allchin teaches English and American culture to adolescent immigrants in the Washington, D.C. area. She holds a B.A in Spanish and an M.A. in TESOL/Linguistics.
  5. Sandra Fotos: "Draw What You Hear--A Sharing Activity"
    Drawing on the humanistic tradition, this Bahá'í inspired activity involves the four skills of listening, reading, writing, and speaking, as learners draw shapes dictated by the teacher, complete partial sentences written in the shapes about their hopes, virtues, and favorite things, share this information with their group, and present a summary of their group's choices to the rest of the class.

    Presenter bio: Sandra Fotos, Ed.D., is Professor of English at Senshu University, Tokyo. Her research interests include bilingualism, the effects of formal instruction on second language acquisition and computer assisted language learning (CALL). She has been a pioneer to Japan for the past 24 years and is secretary of the Association for Bahá'í Studies, Japan
5:00-5:30 BLE SIG Annual Meeting

6:00 Fellowship Dinner

Report

Annual Report: The Bahá'í Language Educators SIG
Association for Bahá'í Studies- North America
By Dara Shaw


      The Baha'í Language Educators SIG met at the 28th Annual Conference of the Association for Baha'í Studies- North America in Calgary Alberta on September 6, 2004. Dr. Geraldine Graber, founder of Willing Hearts International, Canada, gave the first session, entitled “The Role of International Pioneers in Advancing Civilization”. The session was lively and interactive with a mixture of current pioneers, youth year of service returnees and former pioneers. Cooperative discussion groups were formed during the session on such topics as cultural sensitivity and awareness, the role of youth in pioneering and international service, and parenting in the pioneering field. The groups shared the results of their discussions. Some of the issues that were discussed included miscommunications, and misunderstandings among Bahá'í pioneers and Youth Year of Services and the institutions at their posts, and how to avoid them. The need for increased official training was underscored. Suggestions were made that more effort should be made to connect pioneers and Youth Year of Service participants with Bahá'ís that had been to similar places. There was a consensus that returning YYOS participants and returning pioneers needed additional preparation for the shock of reentry into their own cultures. The groups concurred that pioneers, and YYOS participants should document their experiences. The YYOS participants talked about how they were rarely given opportunities to share their experiences with their local communities upon return to their own communities. The attending group of Bahá'í Language Educators shared many other topics with great interest and passion.

      The second session tied in with the first as presenter Dr. Dara Shaw talked about how pioneering and travel teaching opportunities for Bahá'í Language Educators abound in the Americas. However, the spectacular development of the Latin American Bahá'í communities now often require a different kind of pioneering and service. Pioneering as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language now requires a higher level of expertise. She highlighted several such opportunities in her talk such as the Masters Program in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at the Escuela Politécnica del Litoral in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the Bahá'í Elementary School, Ciudadanos del Mundo in the same city, a Bahá'í run English Language Elementary School in Piura Peru.

      The third session of the BLE-SIG was entitled “The Art of Encouragement” and was lead by Nancy Watters, MA, President of Watters and Associates. She is an educator, teacher trainer and consulting psychologist. Her session provided hands-on exercises that demonstrated the power of encouragement. She gave many examples of how to use and teach encouragement. The participants were very inspired by and enthusiastic about the session.

      The final session of the day was a roundtable on Bahá'í inspired teaching activities. The activities can soon be found and downloaded on the BLE-SIG Website. The teaching activities which were shared were:
“Sticks and stones can break my bones and names can break my spirit” by Nancy Watters - An effective technique to verbally encourage yourself and others, and pitfalls to avoid.

Cross-Cultural Awareness by Elizabeth Gibson. A teacher in China writes about provides a model for infusing spiritual principles into the writing of a secular text, as well as a discussion of how her university course book evolved with the help of her Chinese colleagues.

“Making Inroads in Multicultural Awareness of Religious and Cultural Diversity at a Rural West Virginia High School” by Kathleen Holsinger and Dara Shaw, Ed.D. Two Bahá'í teachers spent a year supporting each other in choosing and implementing activities with their students and colleagues to explore how to expand a school community's worldview, and awareness of religious, racial and cultural diversity.

“Teaching African American History and Language Skills to Middle School ESL students in Greenbelt, Maryland” by Nancy Joy Allchin Middle school immigrants to the United States come with little or no understanding of American racism, and must learn its history and manifestations in order to understand the culture and frame their own vision. This talk presented a framework for a middle school ESL unit which introduced African American history through the study of novels, biographies, poetry and film.

“Draw What You Hear- A Sharing Activity” by Dr. Sandra Fotos. This activity involves the four skills of listening, reading, writing and speaking, as learners draw shape dictated by the teacher, complete partial sentences written in the shapes about their hopes, virtues, and favorite things, share this information with their group and present a summary of their group's choices to the rest of the class.

At the end of the sessions the annual meeting was held. The following decisions were made:
Decision 1: Sandy Fotos will ask presenters to submit their papers for the newsletter, and send the downloadable activities to ABS for Baha'i review by the end of October. She will also distribute Baha'i review guidance to the presenters so they will have it when editing their papers.

Decision 2: Dara Shaw will write up the conference report.

Decision 3: Joy Allchin and Dara Shaw will produce the updated membership list and the newsletter by the end of November. Dara's article will be the featured article. The newsletter will include a call for papers for the next conference.

Decision 4: Based on the interest shown this year, we will consider the following topics for next year's SIG meeting:
Finally BLE-SIG participants enjoyed a fellowship dinner.

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