Wednesday 3 February

Two recent talks by ELT PhD students past and present have brought a fascinating international perspective to the narrow confines of Bronte G13.  Jonathan Mason spoke about his experience of being a Westerner in Tunisia during tumultuous events such as the Gulf and Gaza conflicts and 9/11.  He explained how he had often been in the position of explaining Tunisian culture to his British friends and vice-versa and how this had inspired him to develop materials for his Tunisian university students which encourage them to become 'cultural diplomats' able to mediate between cultures.

Agatha van Ginkel spoke about her work promoting mother tongue primary education in Africa, emphasising the dangers of premature English medium instruction both to the children's educational prospects and their cultural heritage.  She described the challenge of developing vocabulary for the local languages to enable teachers to express educational concepts in the local language: abstract terms such as 'aim' or even more concrete terms such as 'square' sometimes don't exist in the local language.  In both talks you felt you were getting a privileged insight into another world.  Both speakers spoke with the calm authority of genuine conviction and illustrated how PhD students can enrich the curriculum.

Dr Ivor Timmis
Leslie Silver International Faculty