The world today is facing trying times with democracy in crisis around the world, extreme weather events, and state fragility coming on the heels of a global pandemic. However, crises have been the driving force in the evolution of human society. The problems confronting us today cannot be resolved by one organization or one country alone. What is needed is effective communication among peoples, groups, and countries. Even with technological advances in machine translation and AI tools, we as language teachers have much that we can do. This talk will suggest the importance of building social capital through communication, present evidence-based education concepts for efficient teaching, and examine how to work with Gen Z students. Education for a VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014) must prepare students to learn how to take charge of their own learning experiences and thus develop a growth mindset to embark on a never-ending life-long adventure of learning. They can thus contribute to social capital and a better human society.
Never have people’s mindsets been as important as they are today. This is because social media makes it so easy to spread beliefs that can influence the thinking of other people (Cinelli et al., 2021). Humans tend to find it difficult to break old habits that make them feel safe. This leads to selective perception, which means that they avoid things that can cause discomfort or go against their beliefs. By selecting only what they want to hear or see, people enter an information bubble so aptly described by Barack Obama in his farewell address:
a “threat to [Americans’] democracy,” i.e., the “retreat into our own bubbles, ... especially our social media feeds, surrounded by people who look like us and share the same political outlook and never challenge our assumptions... And increasingly, we become so secure in our bubbles that we start accepting only information, whether it’s true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that is out there (The New York Times, 2017).
People who seek solace in an echo chamber are like those who have a fixed mindset that Carol Dweck (2015) describes as believing that their intelligence and abilities are innate, making them afraid of failing. However, in the VUCA world of today, filled with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014), what is needed to survive and thrive is a growth mindset. As Dweck (2015) notes, “growth is the heart and soul of education—it is the very purpose of education” (p. 242). And why is education so important? Savani et al (2017) point out that “without education, people all over the world may have little hope of improving their social position or life outcomes” (p. 1284).
In a world fraught with global issues ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation on social media to climate change and natural disasters, Paul Reville at the Harvard Graduate School of Education observes that we are in “uncharted territory” but that facing a crisis also signals the opportunity to change the status quo and aim for something better (Mineo, 2020). How do we rise to the challenges of the times? I would suggest that as language teachers, we have much to do. We can help people build social capital through communication. We can move away from trying to cram our students with propositional knowledge to helping them acquire procedural knowledge. We can show them how to wisely use technology to support their learning journey.
For a well-functioning society, we need not only technological advances, but also social capital. Social capital is defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as “networks together with shared norms, values and understandings that facilitate co-operation within or among groups” (Keeley, 2009, p. 103). Francis Fukuyama (1999), addressing the International Monetary Fund Conference on Second Generation Reforms said, “Social capital is important to the efficient functioning of modern economies, and is the sine qua non of stable liberal democracy” (paragraph 1). As language teachers, we can show students how to contribute to social capital by building bonds with those close to them who share their culture, building bridges to those close but without a shared sense of identity, and developing linkages with those even further away. Developing linkages is probably the most challenging, but Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, in an interview about her role as executive producer of the film Joyland, says that storytelling can help us connect with people around the world because “we are able to see them, what is going on in their life and find the commonalities and helping people find those commonalities.” She admits, “It’s really challenging to change perspectives ... but behind all of those conversations is something” that can make it possible for us to see what we have in common. If we can do that, perhaps we can find ways to work together to resolve the problems confronting us today (ABC News, 2023).
The second thing we can do is move away from trying to teach only propositional knowledge, or book learning, through exercises and quizzes. We should shift our focus to the acquisition of procedural knowledge, or experiential learning, through activities and the preparation of student portfolios. This approach is supported by the findings of the Education Endowment Foundation (Pearson, 2022), which shows that the most effective way to improve learning performance, with good cost performance, is to aim for metacognition and self-regulated learning. Here, the concept of a cognitive apprenticeship approach (Collins et al., 1987) is important because it points to the importance of making students aware of the processes involved in using and acquiring knowledge. The most natural way to learn is through apprenticeship and adding the metacognitive aspect can motivate and empower the learner. Of course, we need to consider what content to present and how to teach it. With respect to learning a foreign language, much research and practice has been documented in the area of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), as attested to by the many articles in journals such as English for Specific Purposes and the Journal of English for Academic Purposes. ESP makes evident how discourse communities employ specialized genres to optimize communication and can now even help native speakers of English acquire professional communication skills. Buntrock (2009), in reviewing the book Write Like a Chemist: A Guide and Resource (Robinson et al., 2008), points to the methods used to teach chemists the essentials of professional writing. Although ESP is not specifically mentioned, the methods described, such as “structural (‘move’) formats,” arise from ESP research.
The third thing we can do for our students is show them how to use technology to support their learning. The students in college today are of Gen Z, born between 1995 and the late 2010s. Katz et al. (2021) conducted an in-depth study of these young people who are digital natives and have experienced cultures being shaped by technologies. The results showed that they are passionate about identity, freedom, agency, authenticity, belonging, collaboration, diversity, equity, and inclusion. They recognize what is wrong and want to work for a better society. When working with them, Haynes (2010), in discussing how to bridge the generation gap when teaching medical students, suggests assimilating technology, giving feedback and coaching, including students in the decision-making and evaluation processes, and expecting them to share information and work in teams.
Communication is the only way that we can start resolving the global issues of climate change, state fragility, and pandemics. This means we need to have growth mindsets that allow for an optimistic approach of viewing problems as opportunities in order to improve and feel motivated to accept challenges and continually put forth efforts to do better. As language teachers, we can help our students develop a growth mindset about the development of their communication skills so that they can help build social capital for a better world.
References
ABC News. (2023, April 8). Malala Yousafzai’s first Hollywood film leads to bans in Pakistan. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/s55by0iuIQw
Bennett, N. & Lemoine, G. J. (2014). What VUCA really means for you. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you
Buntrock, R.E. (2009). Write like a chemist: a guide and resource. CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, 46(9), 1729. link.gale.com/apps/doc/A266631288/AONE?u=temple_main&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=dce5c87a.
Cinelli, M., De Francisci Morales, G., Galeazzi, A., Quattrociocchi, W., & Starnini, M. (2021). The echo chamber effect on social media. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(9), 1-8. https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2023301118
Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1987). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the craft of reading, writing and mathematics. Center for the Study of Reading. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED284181.pdf
Dweck, C. S. (2015). Growth. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(2), 242-245. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12072
Fukuyama, F. (1999). Social capital and civil society. International Monetary Fund. https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/seminar/1999/reforms/fukuyama.htm
Haynes, C. (2010). Generation gaps in medical education: Implications for teaching and learning. SlidePlayer. http://slideplayer.com/slide/6632756/
Katz, R., Ogilvie, S., Shaw, J., & Woodhead, L. (2021). Gen Z, explained: The art of living in a digital age. University of Chicago Press. https://www.bibliovault.org/BV.landing.epl?ISBN=9780226814988
Keeley, B. (2009). Human capital: How what you know shapes your life. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264029095-7-en
Mineo, L. (2020, April 10). Time to fix American education with race-for-space resolve. The Harvard Gazette. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/04/the-pandemics-impact-on-e...
Noguchi, J. (2022). Ecdysis for globalization: ESP in Japan today. World Englishes, 41(4), 523-531. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12608
Noguchi, J. (2022). Reviewing the scientific review article. In C. Hanganu-Bresch, M. J. Zerbe, G. Cutrufello, & S. M. Maci (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of scientific communication (pp. 170-179). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003043782
Noguchi, J., & Kunioshi, N. (2022). Genre-based, corpus-supported writing courses for science and engineering students at Japanese universities. In G. Hill, J. Falout, & M. Apple (Eds.), STEM English in Japan: Education, innovation, and motivation (pp. 117-136). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11116-7
Pearson, H. (2022, May 25). COVID derailed learning for 1.6 billion students. Here’s how schools can help them catch up. Nature, 605(7911), 608-611. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01387-7
Robinson, M. S., Stoller, F. L., Constanza-Robinson, M. S., & Jones, J. K. (2008). Write like a chemist: a guide and resource. Oxford University Press.
Savani, K., Rattan, A., & Dweck, C. S. (2017). Is education a fundamental right? People’s lay theories about intellectual potential drive their positions on education. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43(9), 1284–1295. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217711935
The New York Times (2017, January 10). President Obama’s farewell address: Full video and text. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/us/politics/obama-farewell-address-sp...
Judy Noguchi, Professor emerita at Kobe Gakuin University, does research, materials development, and teaching of English for Specific Purposes. She was MEXT’s Dispatched Expert to SEAMEO Centres 57th RELC International Conference, 13-15 March 2023. Recent publications include the chapter, Reviewing the Scientific Review Article, from The Routledge Handbook of Scientific Communication (2022); the chapter, Genre-based, Corpus-supported Writing Courses for Science and Engineering Students at Japanese Universities, from the book, STEM English in Japan (2022); and the article, Ecdysis for Globalization: ESP in Japan Today, in the journal, World Englishes (2022).
Plenary Address
Learning: The Never-Ending Life Adventure
The world today is facing trying times with democracy in crisis around the world, extreme weather events, and state fragility coming on the heels of a global pandemic. However, crises have been the driving force in the evolution of human society. The problems confronting us today cannot be resolved by one organization or one country alone. What is needed is effective communication among peoples, groups and countries. Even with technological advances in machine translation and AI tools, we as language teachers have much that we can do. This talk will suggest the importance of building social capital through communication, present evidence-based education concepts for efficient teaching, and examine how to work with Gen Z students. Education for a VUCA world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity must prepare students to learn how to take charge of their own learning experiences and thus develop a growth mindset to embark on a never-ending life-long adventure of learning. They can thus contribute to social capital and a better human society.
Workshop
Cognitive Apprenticeship for Life-Long Learning
Communicative ability on a global scale has never been as important as it is today. After addressing the issues that are confronting us in the plenary talk, this workshop will present specific examples of how the concepts presented can be applied in the classroom. The focus will be on considering language as a conglomeration of genres that can be subjected to analysis in order to metacognitively grasp how they can be used for effective communication. Rather than try to aim at mastery of another language, a more realistic, attainable goal would be to aim for a multi-competence perspective, recognizing that the learners can become competent users of specific genres that they may need to express themselves. To promote effective learning, using a cognitive apprenticeship approach to ESP (English for specific purposes) concepts can offer students the scaffolding they need to develop self-regulated learning. This can promote a growth mindset that can serve them throughout their lives. Examples from classroom encounters will be presented to illustrate the concepts.
