Professor Alan Bishop
We live in a complex multicultural and multilingual world, and crises and conflicts abound both because of and in spite of that. It behoves those of us who work in the field of education to face the challenges of multilingualism and to strive to create a more linguistically inclusive world for future generations. That is the context in which this book, and the teaching course it describes, resides.
One hundred and fifty years ago a young Polish doctor was born into a world of conflicts exacerbated by linguistic barriers between Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish neighbours. His idealism drove him to create a new language, easily learnt yet eloquently rich, which the advanced thinkers and educational pioneers of his day recognised as being of immense practical value. That language was Esperanto – the practical result of his bold vision.
The vision has been ratified by adoption of the language by millions of willing participants spread over more than one hundred countries, and by respectful recognition by UNESCO, the postal system and, more recently, a spate of social networking sites with a globally inclusive perspective. Esperanto is increasingly popular in China and the president of Brazil has, in the last month, expressed support for its use which resulted in legislation being passed promoting its use in schools.
This book, and its teaching course, equally represents a very practical implementation of a bold vision. In this case the vision is nothing less than having every elementary school teacher being empowered to teach Esperanto as a first Language Other Than English (LOTE).
The English-speaking world (ESW) often makes the false assumption that since English (usually the American version) is so popular in the world, it is a waste of time trying to teach “our” children other languages. Far from being a waste of time, that goal is one of the most pressing of our era.
Never before has it been so important for us to model to our children the ability to respect other people’s ways, and to create, accept and implement win-win solutions to global challenges. We need our children to develop their cognitive skills in every way we know how, in order to be part of the solution to the crises, and participants in the opportunities, that face life on a planet with more billions more people than ever existed before.
Unfortunately the ESW has a history of unsuccessful LOTE teaching and learning. Many people know the frustrations of learning another language at school only to find that on visiting a country using that language, their use of the language is at best inadequate, and at worst , laughed at or dismissed by the locals. Indeed, most Australian children do not even get to that stage before their target language has been changed three or four times and they lose hope of ever getting past numbers and colours.
The background research for this course shows that Esperanto is far easier to learn than any national language. The research studies also show us how much easier Esperanto is to teach compared with other languages because of its simple and logical structuring. For example the EKPAROLI project which we undertook at Monash University in 1994-6 showed that not only was it possible for non-specialist elementary teachers to teach Esperanto, but that their students quickly learnt the basic elements of the language. Moreover it was striking how much better their attitudes were to learning a language compared to those students who had been struggling with other languages. The secondary schools to which they went were greatly impressed with their positive attitudes.
So much for the vision and the background research, but what about the course and its practicalities? What can the average elementary teacher expect to find in this book? Teachers want structure, teaching and learning activities, assessment ideas and above all the enthusiasm for portraying the vision. This text certainly fulfils these needs – the structures are there throughout, the range of activities is excellent, the assessment ideas will help both learners and teachers succeed, and the enthusiasm of the author is abundantly evident.
Penny Vos is a well respected and nationally recognised teacher of Esperanto to young children. She knows what good teachers need in a language course, and she has written herself into every page. So does the book fulfil the promise of the vision? Only time, and the book’s widespread use, will tell. As was the case over one hundred years ago, much depends on the advanced thinkers and educational pioneers of our time, who can take on the challenge of bringing LOTE teaching into the mainstream of the elementary school curriculum. This book shows how that can be done, and it deserves to succeed.
Alan J. Bishop
Emeritus Professor of Education
Monash University
Melbourne
One hundred and fifty years ago a young Polish doctor was born into a world of conflicts exacerbated by linguistic barriers between Polish, Russian, German and Yiddish neighbours. His idealism drove him to create a new language, easily learnt yet eloquently rich, which the advanced thinkers and educational pioneers of his day recognised as being of immense practical value. That language was Esperanto – the practical result of his bold vision.
The vision has been ratified by adoption of the language by millions of willing participants spread over more than one hundred countries, and by respectful recognition by UNESCO, the postal system and, more recently, a spate of social networking sites with a globally inclusive perspective. Esperanto is increasingly popular in China and the president of Brazil has, in the last month, expressed support for its use which resulted in legislation being passed promoting its use in schools.
This book, and its teaching course, equally represents a very practical implementation of a bold vision. In this case the vision is nothing less than having every elementary school teacher being empowered to teach Esperanto as a first Language Other Than English (LOTE).
The English-speaking world (ESW) often makes the false assumption that since English (usually the American version) is so popular in the world, it is a waste of time trying to teach “our” children other languages. Far from being a waste of time, that goal is one of the most pressing of our era.
Never before has it been so important for us to model to our children the ability to respect other people’s ways, and to create, accept and implement win-win solutions to global challenges. We need our children to develop their cognitive skills in every way we know how, in order to be part of the solution to the crises, and participants in the opportunities, that face life on a planet with more billions more people than ever existed before.
Unfortunately the ESW has a history of unsuccessful LOTE teaching and learning. Many people know the frustrations of learning another language at school only to find that on visiting a country using that language, their use of the language is at best inadequate, and at worst , laughed at or dismissed by the locals. Indeed, most Australian children do not even get to that stage before their target language has been changed three or four times and they lose hope of ever getting past numbers and colours.
The background research for this course shows that Esperanto is far easier to learn than any national language. The research studies also show us how much easier Esperanto is to teach compared with other languages because of its simple and logical structuring. For example the EKPAROLI project which we undertook at Monash University in 1994-6 showed that not only was it possible for non-specialist elementary teachers to teach Esperanto, but that their students quickly learnt the basic elements of the language. Moreover it was striking how much better their attitudes were to learning a language compared to those students who had been struggling with other languages. The secondary schools to which they went were greatly impressed with their positive attitudes.
So much for the vision and the background research, but what about the course and its practicalities? What can the average elementary teacher expect to find in this book? Teachers want structure, teaching and learning activities, assessment ideas and above all the enthusiasm for portraying the vision. This text certainly fulfils these needs – the structures are there throughout, the range of activities is excellent, the assessment ideas will help both learners and teachers succeed, and the enthusiasm of the author is abundantly evident.
Penny Vos is a well respected and nationally recognised teacher of Esperanto to young children. She knows what good teachers need in a language course, and she has written herself into every page. So does the book fulfil the promise of the vision? Only time, and the book’s widespread use, will tell. As was the case over one hundred years ago, much depends on the advanced thinkers and educational pioneers of our time, who can take on the challenge of bringing LOTE teaching into the mainstream of the elementary school curriculum. This book shows how that can be done, and it deserves to succeed.
Alan J. Bishop
Emeritus Professor of Education
Monash University
Melbourne
021