Globalisation and internationalisation: what they mean in our workplaces/schools/study environment
I believe that globalisation and internationalisation have changed their meaning in the way people understand them in the context of the situation in the world. At the same time, people realise the importance of sharing knowledge and experience including methods of delivering information and spiritual concepts. I am not a native speaker of the English language though I believe that I am actively using the opportunities offered by globalisation and internationalisation by learning English and using it in everyday life, communication with friends, and education.
Moreover, I feel that many people would like to use such a chance for other purposes such as learning cultural differences and gaining experience related to professional career. As you probably know, English has not always been the language of international communication, trading, economics, and education though the situation changed due to the rising demand for a universal language that would be used as a unique method of sharing and acquiring information and gaining experience. There is no person that would not know about the situation in the international arena but this free access to information about other countries and people that live and perform actively all over the world is the result of globalisation and internationalisation.
Globalisation and knowledge
I do not think that all people should share the same point of view about the benefits of globalisation though i know exactly that some people think that globalisation blurs the borders between cultures and even makes some distinctive cultural features disappear. At the same time, knowledge and an opportunity to acquire it is a great deal of globalisation and every educated person would agree that educational policies and methods have been actively borrowed from Western educators and theorists influencing the way information is presented and taught to students in other countries of the world. On the one hand, globalisation opens many ways to access information, compare and contrast different concepts, language, religions. On the other hand, there are no two absolutely identical cultures which means that the same methods, for instance, in education can be beneficial in one country and absolutely destructive in other. I believe that a universal approach is not propagated in the western countries though it happens that diversity is not used commonly yet in other countries. In other words, diversity should be the major point in education opposed to universal educational policies and principles shared currently by many educators.
Internationalisation on: Teacher and student expectations in different contexts
Whether a person is a teenager or an adult a problem of information is raised in any case. Though we have free access to information and a great number of opportunities in terms of education and employment worldwide, we continue talking about globalization and internationalization and their potential benefits. Students that go abroad to receive a diploma of a prestigious university have certain expectations concerning the curriculum. Meanwhile, their understanding of the foreign curriculum and the educational process can be based on the information received from the media. For instance, many students that come to the English speaking countries have no idea of how the teaching-learning process is structured and what are the requirements.
At the same time, educators should take into account the cultural diversity with regard to the differences in educational policies and the ways of perception of this or that concept. There always should be different perspectives to teaching the same issue. I think that the educational context offers a number of variants for understanding students’ and teachers’ expectations and possible ways of meeting those. If a student comes to another country and expects everything would be the same as in the homeland only because he/she is a foreigner, this individual should realize that thousands of students come annually to other countries to obtain diplomas and all of them have specific expectations to the educational policies, curriculum, etc.
Language policy and the debates on international English: imperialism and the death of local languages vs efficiency and global access
We all know that English can be currently considered the most widely learnt and spoken international language on our planet. At the same time, a number of debates rise due to the authenticity of the indigenous people with their cultures and languages as parts of those cultures. In this respect, people that tend to learn English without even trying to protect the authenticity of the native culture should think thoroughly about the consequences of such unification. I also would like to discuss the historic perspective of the problem with regard to the invasions and conquests when the dominant empire was spreading its culture including the language on the occupied territory. Can we say now that the English-speaking countries are dominating in the world in terms of political, economic, and cultural situation? I believe that the latter is absolutely truth because all the clichés are adapted from the English, Australian, and American TV shows and other media projects being one of the factors that reflect the invasion of the media space which is the first stage of forgetting the local languages.
Whose language? Which language? What power?
I think that Brooke’s article vividly reflects the ordinary changes that happen in Japanese language though a citizen of every country can trace such changes in his/her native language as well. As we all know, language is a part of the culture and, as a rule, it is influenced by changes that occur in other branches of the same culture. as it was already mentioned in previous discussions, globalization and internationalization can be considered the causes for blurring borders between the world cultures and languages. As for different variants of the English languages, there has been a tendency for simplification. I believe that it is natural for a language to change in accordance with the shifting needs of the population. Besides, people from other countries also tend to contribute greatly to the changes in the native language. In this respect, it is not appropriate to treat the changes negatively though those improper images and slogans on T-shirts should be left to parents of those teenagers. Besides, there is such a tendency as fashion (it does not always mean good taste) that makes people all over the world use some images on their T-shirts or phrases in their speech.
The rise of intercultural communication theory: from deficiency theory to assimilation, from adaptation to interculturality
Though many people would treat the concept of a stranger and a host as equal, I believe that those are absolutely different, especially when applied to culture and language theories. When an individual comes to another country to learn something new – a student comes to obtain a diploma, a tourist comes to see the tourist spots, a businessman comes to make a deal and learn about the opportunities of the market – it is necessary to treat this person as a stranger though most strangers seem to know a lot about the culture they encounter through the internet, books, and other resources. At the same time, a host is someone who tries to influence our culture in the way we do not like. As such, some people currently treat globalisation as a reflection of hostile behaviour because it makes people adapt other rules and traditions as well as changes in language to meet the needs of changing expectations of contemporary members of the modern society. I believe that it is an issue of every person to have a definite position in this debate.
Intercultural communication Part 2: Citizenship, identity, diversity and interculturality in the classroom
Though interculturality in the classroom is one of the currently widely-spread concepts, there is one thing i thing every student and every teacher should remember. Regardless of differences in the cultures of the native language of the learners and the one acquired in class or the one used for instruction, it is necessary to respect traditions and culture of students as well students should demonstrate more interest and respect to the culture of the language learnt. In this respect, i believe that identity and diversity should become integral parts of every class with regard to the cultural peculiarities of students and the teacher. When I think about a culturally-diverse class in terms of environment, I try to think of the methods to eliminate possible hostility and make students respect each other. Though I cannot make every student like culture of others, I can make them aware of the do’s and taboos that should be avoided in order not to offend other people. As such, respect for others’ feelings from the perspective of culture is really important.
Approaches to comparative and international education
If I were in a position to devise a funded research study, my choice of topic would be the educational methods in the developed countries opposed to potential danger from extreme freedom in such issues as choosing the subjects and shaping the curriculum. Though students should know what to strive for, they should also know that there are some universal facts that every person should know. Though a linguist does not need to know a lot about the chemical elements, there should be a set of universal knowledge for every student. In this respect, I would like to emphasize the level of knowledge for students that are free to choose the subjects that are aimed to develop their inborn skills. At the same time, it is necessary to conduct a qualitative research in terms of the percentage of students that do not try to develop their inborn skills with regard to their chances to enter a college. I think that sometimes students should be told what to do and what information they should definitely acquire.
Preparing to work outside Australia
As a teacher, I can contribute greatly to understanding of the material by students (especially if they are TESOL teachers) by providing material of my own instead of relying on the typed books and other resources of information that often happen to be outdated and illustrate inappropriate vision of the problem. I should be able to help those TESOL teachers to understand the problem from the modern perspective on examples that can be seen in everyday life instead of being too bookish in my lectures. For instance, I should leave enough time for communication when students may have some questions to ask when I should be ready to answer those questions without relying on the books. When I would need a good example, it would be more appropriate to tell something about my own experience of teaching-learning activities. The more TESOL teachers would learn from books or online articles themselves, the more we would be able to discuss in class. As such, I think that I would actively encourage self-improvement and more reading up. As a teacher, I should teach to find proper sources of information and use them adequately instead of imposing bookish theories on their educational methods.