May 2005 Archives

Have you ever used Cinquan Poetry in your EFL class? I did the other day and was pleasantly surprised by the results. My adult EFL students wrote beautiful and evocative poems that moved me. Writing Cinquan Poetry doesn't take up much class time and as I have discovered, it's a fun and novel way to introduce poetry and review grammar points such as nouns, adjectives, and action verbs.

This is a follow up to my previous article on "Some thoughts on the shadow side of teaching abroad�?. Are you planning to teach abroad? Are you teaching abroad presently? Well, you'd better take care. Whether you like it or not it's going to happen to you or it's happening to you at this moment. It's something to be taken seriously and not to be pooh-poohed. What am I referring to? Well, it's culture shock. Perhaps, you've heard about it or read something on it. It affects long-term visitors rather than short-term visitors who relocate to foreign countries that are culturally different from their own to live and/or take up a job. It's unavoidable so please take care.

The subject of my piece is a personal reflection on xenophobia. A topic that I haven't seen covered in print in relation to the EFL teaching experience within a foreign context. I'd like to share with you my experience and personal thoughts and feelings on the matter. Perhaps, it may spark some thoughts for you in your context. I've also included some advice on dealing with xenophobia.