English Mania Now - What Next? - 21 September 2011

English Mania Now - What Next?


In 2009 the American entrepreneur Jay Walker argued that the world’s mania for learning English is good because English “represents hope for the future” as the language of global problem-solving. In his talk “The World’s English Mania” he gave the example of Chinese students manically learning English in order to better their prospects - and here is a link to a transcript of the talk in case the video is inaccessible: http://dotsub.com/view/2b38ad8e-fd71-4f90-9534-40b3000f6a24/viewTranscript/eng. Knowing that English is currently the language of business, science, and diplomacy, many listeners would probably agree.

What Walker forgot to mention, ironically, is that the Chinese language Mandarin is one of the fastest growing languages in the world. Perhaps he was thinking only of the near future. In contrast, the British linguist David Graddol had taken a more far-sighted view of the issue as far back as 2006. In his book English Next he pointed out that global English may be a passing phase with the rise of other languages such as Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic. In fact, according to his research, Arabic seems to be the fastest growing language currently, demographically speaking, though even by 2050 the majority of Arabic speakers will be very young (p. 61). Two sections of his book, “English Challenged” and “Beyond English” explain the need for native speakers of English to learn other languages.

A mania is usually a passing phase, so what next is definitely a good question to ponder.


Posted by May Mikati on 21 September 2011, 11:48 PM

Teacher Quotes - 17 September 2011

Teacher Quotes


When the new academic year starts, the frequency of my blog posts will probably decline as I’ll be much busier. Lately, though, I’ve been scouring the web for quotations about teachers and teaching as a way of starting a new year: something very general but highly relevant nevertheless. Luckily, most of the quotes I encountered were favourable, but this one about teachers of English sounded really out-dated (though it may have been true a century ago, it could currently be interpreted as insulting):
•In order to teach chemistry or psychology or even history or Greek a man must actually know something, but for the teacher of English nothing seems to be necessary beyond a crude capacity to read and write. ~Henry Louis Mencken

On the other hand, here are the quotations that rang the most true:
•In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years. ~Jacques Barzun
•Teaching creates all other professions. ~Author Unknown
• Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more. ~Bob Talbert
• Education costs money, but then so does ignorance. ~Sir Claus Moser
• Nine-tenths of education is encouragement. ~Anatole France
•Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose. ~Bill Gates
•Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. ~Bill Gates
•A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. ~Thomas Carruthers
•The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward


Posted by May Mikati on 17 September 2011, 1:18 AM

Blended Learning: "The Best of Both Worlds" - 13 September 2011

Blended Learning: "The Best of Both Worlds"


Blended learning, also known as hybrid learning has rightly been described by many as superior to both distance education and conventional, face to face education as it combines “the best of both worlds”. Pedagogically speaking, the online environment fosters a constructivist approach to learning more easily and transparently than the traditional classroom does. It encourages student input and interaction, allowing the teacher to become more of a “guide on the side” than a “sage on the stage”. It also allows for the display of course content in an organized, systematic way. Furthermore, it is more flexible in that it caters better to multiple learning styles. While some learners are verbal (preferring text), others may be auditory or visual learners, preferring audio or video, which can also be delivered online. In this sense, some deliberate redundancy in content is considered not only desirable but commendable, as long as the effect is not one of “cognitive overload”.

The face-to-face environment tends to be considered more suitable for certain aspects of education: some experiments and discussions, certain components of team assignments, oral presentations, individualized tutoring of students, and most of all, for reliable assessment. Not that all assessment needs to be conducted in the physical classroom: most diagnostic and formative assessment can be carried out successfully online.

In 2005, I presented a paper on the subject of blended teaching & learning at the annual conference of the International Association of Teachers of English, in the U.K. The paper was entitled “The Transition to Hybrid Courses: Some Practical Implications”. At that time, there was talk on campus of possible future distance course delivery, but sensing justified opposition to the idea of 100% online courses, I felt that exploring less aggressive possibilities was necessary. Besides, the online infrastructure we had gradually built up for our web-enhanced courses could easily cater to blended courses. All that remained to be done was further development, refinement and organization of the online components of courses we already had in place. There was no need to change learning objectives although some could be tweaked to reflect the online course elements more effectively. By 2010, AUB had started offering blended courses, along with the relevant training for faculty members. The class I offered last year in this new format went well.

Pedagogically, it is difficult to argue with blended learning. Technically, though, it may rightly be observed that internet speeds in Lebanon present a hurdle. Lebanon has been very unfortunate in this regard over the past two decades; it has had the slowest connections at the most exorbitant prices. On the other hand, if internet speeds and prices improve soon as promised, new horizons will open up for teachers: better reliability of e-learning in general and, in particular, better prospects for using online video in teaching and learning. Currently peripheral and supplementary, video may become more central, not only to content delivery but also to assessment. Teachers: brace yourselves for this brave new world of teaching and learning.


Posted by May Mikati on 13 September 2011, 8:28 PM

Should Students Work or Learn? - 13 September 2011

Should Students Work or Learn?


The term “work” is used synonymously with “study” when it comes to describing what is expected of students, yet the appropriateness of the term in the context of learning has been challenged by Alfie Kohn, who has written extensively on education and human behaviour. In the article “Students Don’t Work – They Learn” he explains that in paid work the important outcome is the product, while in learning (especially at the school level), the process is much more important. Whereas a worker’s product is expected to be perfect, a student’s product should be valued for the improvement it shows rather than perfection.

While Kohn is known to be unconventional in his views and somewhat controversial, his idea of the need to de-emphasize grades may ring true with many teachers, and may be especially relevant in the teaching of English as a second language and composition where grammar and writing skills develop gradually over time and rigid formulas are to be rejected. On the other hand, his opposition to take-home assignments may be opposed by stakeholders who believe that “practice makes perfect”. Still, he sees such assignments, especially for children, as an unwelcome “second shift”. In a newer article, Kohn launches a more vehement attack on “homework”: “If slogging through worksheets dampens one’s desire to read or think, surely that wouldn’t be worth an incremental improvement in skills. And when an activity feels like drudgery, the quality of learning tends to suffer, too (“The Truth About Homework: Needless Assignments Persist Because of Widespread Misconceptions About Learning”).

Kohn concedes that some aspects of the workplace do apply to the classroom, but they are not enough to complete the metaphor. While in both collaboration should be valued over competition, people’s input over dictatorship, and intrinsic motivation over extrinsic rewards, the objectives are not of the same nature. Even though some managers may care about their workers in the same way that teachers are concerned about their pupils, there is more emphasis on results in the workplace: “the bottom line is that they are still focused on--well, on the bottom line.” This business-style approach, where every task is a means to an end (in this case a grade, the honour list, etc.) is unsuitable for the educational system in Kohn’s view; curiosity, exploration and discovery should be appreciated, rather than mere “factory-style” performance and achievement.

Rejecting the workplace metaphor for student learning, as many teachers would, has implications for teaching and assessment. If we expect students to experiment, be creative, and learn through trial and error, we cannot compare their outcomes with those of an employee, and our assessment tools need to reflect this, hence the need for greater emphasis on constructivist learning and formative assessment, and hence the superiority of terms such as “activities” and “projects” over “homework”.

Finally, Kohn has produced a DVD entitled NO GRADES + NO HOMEWORK = BETTER LEARNING. Quite a character – no wonder Time magazine has described him as "perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores." Taken with a grain of salt, his ideas present a brave challenge to conventional thinking in education.


Posted by May Mikati on 13 September 2011, 12:30 AM

Considering Workplace Metaphors - 12 September 2011

Considering Workplace Metaphors


As a language teacher, I am rather fond of metaphors, and among those I have analyzed with my students are a number of workplace metaphors. For example, the metaphor of the tree and the shadow represents the difference between true character and reputation, and the metaphor of the shark portrays the attitudes and behaviours of the workplace bully.

This blog post will take more of a bird’s eye view of the workplace. Whether you would liken your place of work to a home, a military establishment, a prison, or a lunatic asylum may be a personal matter, and the list of possibilities is extensive. A thorough internet search can produce dozens if not hundreds of possibilities that have already been used – though of course it is always nicer to invent one’s own. For now, let’s examine some of the workplace metaphors found on the internet and see if any are especially suited to educational institutions. Here are some from the Creative Think blog by Roger van Oech:
•Our company is like a supertanker. It's large and powerful, but moves slowly. Also, once the course is set, it's tough to change.
•Our company is like the sun shedding light on the computer world.
•Working here is like a nightmare. You'd like to get out of it but you need the sleep.

Horse metaphors are common in describing the workplace from the leader’s point of view as Nancy Lowery explains in her article “The Perfect Metaphor”. She illustrates the idea using these examples: "Handing over the reins of responsibility", "Leading the charge" and "Don't put the cart before the horse".

Sports metaphors are popular in the workplace, as in “touching base”, being “in the zone” and “winning the game”. The “family” metaphor is also common; however, as Dale Dauten argues in his article “We are Family. Really?”, one doesn’t want employees to feel like children in relation to managers. He proposes the “group of allies” metaphor instead as allies bond through a shared cause without necessarily having to be friends or “family”; they simply recognize that by helping each other, they are furthering their cause.

While interesting, these metaphors may not be particularly relevant to the teaching/learning experience though I suspect many students (and probably teachers and administrators) might identify with the “nightmare” one!

The metaphor of “bringing the whole world into the classroom” (used by Norwegian teachers to describe the introduction of smart boards to Norwegian schools) would be one of the most relevant to our current educational mission. With the faster internet the Lebanese government has promised, our teaching should more easily bring the world into our classrooms for the benefit of our ambitious, knowledge-hungry students and our society as a whole.


Posted by May Mikati on 12 September 2011, 1:51 AM

Reflecting on Affirmative Action - 09 September 2011

Reflecting on Affirmative Action


The subject of affirmative action is a highly controversial one in the U.S. for several reasons, including the fact that some people view the phenomenon as a form of reverse discrimination, negating meritocracy. Still, AUB purports to be an affirmative action institution, so it would be interesting to reflect on what the concept means and how it originated.

According to the American Heritage Dictionary, affirmative action is “a policy or a program that seeks to redress past discrimination through active measures to ensure equal opportunity, as in education and employment.” A key term here is “past discrimination”; instituting affirmative action therefore means that you are admitting past wrongdoing, a noble thing. Another key term is “active measures”; in the U.S. these measures generally involve quotas for women and minorities in order to counteract, for example, the effects of discriminatory employment practices. Still, the definition of “discriminatory practices” has been contested; for example, it has been claimed that there is a difference between intentional and unintentional discrimination. Furthermore, the meaning of "equal opportunity" has been questioned.

A euphemism for affirmative action commonly used these days at AUB – and please correct me if I am wrong - is “promoting diversity”. However, besides the quotas we hear about (but most of us don’t know much about) in admissions and hiring, the method of application of affirmative action remains somewhat elusive. We do see the following statement appended to job advertisements: “The American University of Beirut is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer”. Additionally, we can find a “Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment” mentioning equal opportunity regardless of “gender, race, religion, color, national origin, disability, marital status, age, creed, citizenship, or veteran status”. That’s about it, though.

Historically speaking, civil rights programs in the U.S. grew out of the need to end slavery and stop racial discrimination. By the time the Civil Rights Act had taken effect in the 1960s, the concept of affirmative action had come to encompass - besides race - color, religion, sex, and national origin. In the 1980s the Reagan administration sought to water down the effects of the phenomenon, but Congress later passed the Civil Rights Act of 1991, emphasizing the importance of compensation, payback, and restitution in cases of unlawful harassment and intentional discrimination.

In the past decade, affirmative action has come under attack once again, especially by those who believe that it is obsolete, no longer needed, because their society has already become egalitarian (colour blind, etc.). However, its proponents want to broaden the concept further. The latest news on affirmative action comes from a New York Times article proposing the widening of its scope to include the physically unattractive, offering “ legal protections to the ugly, as we do with racial, ethnic and religious minorities, women and handicapped individuals” (Hamermesh, “Ugly? You May Have a Case”). You might think this is a joke, but the author, a professor of economics at the University of Texas, Austin, ends on a serious note: “… you shouldn’t be surprised to see the United States heading toward this new legal frontier.”

AUB has more urgent issues to deal with, but it does tend to follow U.S. trends. Following up on this latest piece of news, therefore, wouldn't be an entirely irrelevant activity.


Posted by May Mikati on 09 September 2011, 2:41 PM

Analyzing University Rankings - 07 September 2011

Analyzing University Rankings


From my point of view, this year’s global university rankings have been propitious. First of all, AUB has made it into the “Top 300 in World QS University Rankings” for 2011/2012, moving up significantly from last year. Its rank is identical to that of Beiging Normal University and very close to that of well known institutions such as National University of Ireland, George Washington University, University of Newcastle, and University of Utah. This is an amazing achievement, considering the difficulties AUB is constantly bombarded with by virtue of its location in a particularly troubled part of the world. Secondly, Cambridge, which I have also become associated with, has once again established itself as the number one university in the world. Not only that, my Cambridge department/subject, Linguistics, ranks first globally, and my college, Trinity, has outdone all other Cambridge colleges (“First-Class Arts and Humanities Students Help Trinity to Top Place in Cambridge League Table”).

Since the QS world rankings have come to be regarded by many as the most reliable guide to university performance, it is important to understand what they mean and where they come from. Well, the letters Q and S stand for Quacquarelli (a Wharton MBA graduate who in 1990 founded a company specializing in education and study abroad) and Symonds, the British entrepreneur who partnered with him in 1998. Today, QS has hundreds of employees operating from offices in different parts of the world. QS methodology appears to be based on six indicators, with different weights: academic reputation (40%, from a global survey), employer reputation (10%, from a global survey), citations per faculty (20%, from SciVerse Scopus, a global database), faculty student ratio (20%), proportion of international students (5%), and proportion of international faculty (5%). In terms of sub-categories for academic reputation, the QS advisory board claims to have rejected financial criteria such as research income, focusing rather on the following: geographic/cultural diversity, unbiased approach to different subjects, contemporary relevance, reduced language bias, statistical validity, and resistance to data manipulation. As for the “employer reputation” indicator, it targets the reputation of university graduates among employers (focusing on quality) rather than the other way around. As part of this, employers are asked to list “up to ten domestic institutions they consider best for research” as well as “up to thirty international institutions they consider best for recruiting graduates”.

What has kept Cambridge at the top then, exactly? Its average of ratings across indicators: it is second globally on academic reputation, third on employer reputation, thirty eighth on citations per faculty, thirty second on faculty student ratio, thirty fourth on international faculty (with two gulf universities ranking first and second) and thirty eighth on international students. On average, it has scored better than Harvard, MIT and Oxford. For example, while Harvard ranks first on both academic and employer reputation, it is way behind on the last three indicators.

Back to AUB: Attempting to compare it with other universities in Lebanon on the QS web site, using the site’s search engine, can be mystifying. It produces only two hits for “Lebanon”: American University of Beirut and “Islamic University of Lebanon”. Where are the other Lebanese universities we are all familiar with? Could some of them appear among the top 700 to be released next week? That would definitely be something to explore.


Posted by May Mikati on 07 September 2011, 12:47 PM

Avoiding Workplace Gossip - 05 September 2011

Avoiding Workplace Gossip


Here is a follow-up on the topic of workplace noise and chit-chat.

One form of such noise is gossip. From the point of view of evolutionary psychology, gossip seems to have had a survival value for human beings in the past; in terms of networking, influence, and alliances, it can play a constructive role according to the Psychology Today article “The New Word on Gossip”. However, in the workplace, gossip can be a waste of time and, in that sense at least, counterproductive. Additionally, it is often based on half-truths and concocted ideas, as illustrated in this educational video: “Gossip in the Office and Workplace”. Twisting information while passing it on is rarely funny. Common sense dictates that you don’t pass on certain things you’re told, yet some people can’t help doing this. They parrot what they’ve been told, either as they’ve heard it or in a clearly contorted form. Hence, a relatively benign comment may metamorphose into a hideous story – often blown out of proportion – propagated to a third, fourth, and fifth party. Those who gossip usually forget the possibility of “spontaneous trait transference”, also known as “the boomerang effect” in social psychology. They forget that gossip can backfire.

On the other hand, one cannot deny that some types of gossip can have their benefits. Unless you hear that someone’s just had a baby or that another’s relative has passed away, you are not likely to take the right action. This type of workplace chatter is a far cry from the other type often confused with free speech.

Dealing with workplace gossip is a tricky business. It may be likened to handling computer worms, Trojan horses, and viruses that corrupt people’s work, or to cookies at best. No matter how careful you are, things may unexpectedly go wrong. Still, professionalism dictates that you find for yourself a workplace environment that is relatively immune to such intrusions so that you may work in peace, ensuring efficiency – prevention is better than cure. If you can’t find such an environment – as such things don’t come pre-packaged with jobs – then you may need to create one for your own sake and that of your colleagues and organization as a whole.

Here is how Einstein related work to idle talk: “If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.”


Posted by May Mikati on 05 September 2011, 8:10 PM

Handling Office Clutter - 03 September 2011

Handling Office Clutter


My previous blog post was about office noise and one way of escaping it. Besides the chatter, there is also the clutter to be dealt with.

Office clutter, whether physical or electronic, can be very distracting, and at best unsightly. Whether you are the source of the clutter or not, the more you control it, the more efficient your work is likely to be. Overflowing paper and e-mail can be a sign of disorganization, and though they may take time to sort out on a regular basis, the time saved later, for better productivity, is worth it. In fact, an organized office not only saves time, it also saves face. As Don Aslett, author of The Office Clutter Cure puts it, “Your desk is you.”

Reducing initial use of paper and/or saving only electronic copies of paper documents is definitely one way of reducing clutter. Let’s face it: old documents that have long been dealt with belong in the recycling bin, not on desks or in the corridor outside. Clicking “Save” should be given priority over clicking “Print”, and proper filing should replace hoarding. This can be combined with making sure that one’s desk contains only the material pertinent to the work currently at hand.

E-mail and electronic files need sorting on a regular basis. Old useless documents should be deleted and important ones arranged into clearly labelled folders and subfolders. If you’re afraid of losing these documents, keep multiple copies for backup, and never place important office documents on a personal computer that is virus-prone. Always update your anti-virus. Even workplace computers aren’t perfect; for example, if you are a teacher, your usb may be affected by a virus picked up from a classroom computer, which might then affect an office computer, etc., hence the need for more than one backup: backups may be affected simultaneously, in a sort of chain reaction, so try to keep at least one of them properly secured and relatively out of reach.

It may be argued that an organized office is a purely personal matter or a matter of keeping up appearances, but it is partly a professional matter and could be more public than you think. Besides wasted time, disorganization may lead to missed deadlines and meeting tardiness. Besides, your office may give an impression not just about you personally, but also about your organization and how you work. It might additionally affect neighboring offices depending on the situation.

It may also be a cultural matter, and correct me if I’m wrong, that in some workplaces people like to physically display their work because, if they don’t, the perception may be that it doesn’t exist: a relatively empty office, no matter how neat, is not as convincing as one with piles of paper here and there – right? Some even go as far as citing Albert Einstein on this: "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what's an empty desk a sign of?"

If Einstein had envisioned our digital age, wouldn’t he have phrased his statement differently?


Posted by May Mikati on 03 September 2011, 7:13 PM