Read my article in the November 2023 issue of Language Magazine
Not long ago, my husband and I were in our kitchen discussing the news of escalating conflict in Gaza when he asked an unexpectedly complicated question:
What happens to language learning when there is a war?
He teaches cybersecurity for a program that caters to veterans, so he frequently contemplates the impact of geopolitical tension on his field. I train world language teachers, though, and in our field the impact is harder to predict and more varied.
Our most prevalent standards for language learning guide us to focus on “world-readiness” (https://www.actfl.org/educator-resources), but I find that language educators are less likely to be immediately concerned about the effects of world conflict on their everyday lessons and are often wary of triggering conflict in their classrooms.
