Trustee Joe Jo Bianco

Editor’s note: In this piece, Trustee Joe Lo Bianco reports on TIRF’s endorsement of two important international language policy statements.     

As part of TIRF’s role to encourage language policies which promote best practices in English teaching and research around the world, the Board of Trustees monitors developments that have the potential to shape the future of language education. In light of this goal, TIRF Board members recently voted to endorse both the Juba Conference Statement and the Lahore Declaration on Language Sciences in the Developing World.

The Lahore Declaration calls for the use of language research “that both forwards our understanding of how language works and functions in society and of how these understandings of language can be used ethically and appropriately to create better societies.” The full Juba Conference document is a series of statements about language in education. It can be found on pages seven and eight of Multilingual Education in Africa. This book can be downloaded for free from the British Council’s website by clicking here.

TIRF considers these statements to represent important milestones promoting equitable and excellent language education in diverse contexts. We encourage affiliate and partner organizations to promote public awareness and endorsement of the important principles these statements contain. These two documents should stimulate discussion about principles of international education, as well as donor-recipient relations in international aid and professional collaboration, in both teaching and research endeavours. We would like to stress that TIRF is concerned only with the language education principles contained in the two statements, and does not necessarily agree with all the specific details or wording.

TIRF is committed to fostering an international dialogue among non-governmental organizations and public officials in relation to the role of English in national education systems and as a global auxiliary language. We encourage professional associations to provide time in their meetings for discussion of the Lahore Declaration and the Juba Conference Statement, with the intent of encouraging debate about the principles and practices these statements promote.

To provide a preview, the report’s executive summary is included below:

The modern workplace is increasingly globalised and competitive. Communicating with customers, colleagues and partners across international borders is now an everyday occurrence for many workers around the world. Consequently, employers are under strong pressure to find employees who are not only technically proficient, but also culturally astute and able to thrive in a global work environment.

The research shows that there is real business value in employing staff who have the ability to work effectively with individuals and organisations from cultural backgrounds different from their own. 

In particular, employers highlight the following as important intercultural skills: the ability to understand different cultural contexts and viewpoints; demonstrating respect for others; [and] knowledge of a foreign language.

Employees with these skills are seen to benefit organisations through their ability to bring in new clients; work within diverse teams; [and] support a good brand and reputation for their organisation.

Conversely, employees who lack these skills may leave their organisations susceptible to risks including loss of clients; damage to reputation; conflict within teams.

While few employers report actively screening for intercultural skills, they do actively observe candidate behaviour in order to identify attributes closely associated with these skills. Employers look for the following in job candidates demonstrating strong communication skills; speaking a foreign language; showing cultural sensitivity.

Most employers report encouraging their staff to develop intercultural skills through in-house training, meetings and events. However, employers also say that educational institutions could do more to equip students with intercultural skills.

The findings suggest that policy makers and education providers could do more to contribute to the development of a workforce with the necessary intercultural skills through interventions, such as prioritising teaching communication skills; offering foreign language classes; availability of opportunities for students to gain international experience; [and] development of international research partnerships.

The research implies that employers would benefit from formalising and improving the ways in which job candidates’ intercultural skills are assessed through the recruitment process.

For job seekers the research findings suggest that they must pay attention to the intercultural skills needed by employers. Job seekers would also benefit from presenting evidence of strong communication skills, foreign language abilities and international experiences when competing for jobs.

We would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Dr. Denise Murray (Professor Emerita, Maquarie University, Sydney, Australia), principal author of this study, for her diligence and professionalism in conducting this research-based paper. This study is based on a series of eighteen case reports about online professional development opportunities for language teachers. We are especially thankful for the expertise of each of these eighteen contributors.

For those of you who were able to attend the TIRF presentation in Dallas, thank you for coming! We hope you enjoy the photos below.

For those of you who were not able to attend the presentation, you can access the slidecast by clicking here or pasting the URL into your browser: http://www.slideshare.net/tirfonline/tirf

Click here to download the paper. (For a printer-friendly version, click here.) To access and download the case reports utilized in this study, click here.

Dr. Denise Murray

We would be thrilled to have you join us for TIRF’s presentation, which will be held on Thursday, March 21, 2013 from 10:00 – 11:45am in room C-150 of the Dallas Convention Center. We will be providing coffee and tea for attendees during a brief meet-and-greet session. The following is a summary of Dr. Murray’s and Dr. Christison’s talk: This presentation highlights initial findings of the literature review, information from a survey of websites, and the analyses of case reports submitted by eighteen organizations that offer online professional development opportunities for teachers.

We hope to see you in Dallas!

Monday, December 17, 2012

As another year comes to a close, I ask myself (as I do every December) where the time has gone and what I’ve accomplished for good in the world this past year. Once again, I can honestly say that volunteering with TIRF has been one of the most rewarding parts of 2012. On a daily basis, I hear from grant recipients as well as from students and scholars around the world who have benefited from TIRF’s initiatives. I hope this newsletter conveys to you the enthusiasm with which the other Trustees and I view the opportunities to serve the language teaching profession by volunteering our time to TIRF.

TIRF’s work is sustained through the generosity of individuals and organizations. I hope you can help us by making a contribution to TIRF by clicking here or by sending a check drawn on a US bank to “TIRF” at the address on this newsletter. If you would like to read the Foundation’s year-end report, please click here. Let me add my best wishes to those of my Board colleagues. May this holiday season, and every December, bring you peace and happiness.

Marti Estell is the US State Department’s new representative to the TIRF Board of Trustees. We welcomed her to our recent Board meeting in White Plains, New York, via Skype. She provided the Trustees a report on a new initiative between the US State Department and the TESOL International Association.

Marti began her post as the Director of English Language Programs at the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in August 2012. Joining the Foreign Service in 1990, she has worked in media relations, educational exchanges, and cultural programming in Malaysia, Indonesia, Honduras, Ecuador, Spain, and El Salvador, rising to the ranks of the State Department’s Senior Foreign Service.

In her ex-officio position on the TIRF Board, Marti’s role is to advise the Foundation on how research findings about language learning and teaching can influence policy makers around the world. We are delighted to welcome her to TIRF!

 Dr. Paula Hidalgo (left), Dr. Lewis Johnson, and Dr. Kathi Bailey

      Alelo means “tongue” or “language” in Hawaiian. Hawaii is a crossroads for languages and cultures throughout the Pacific Rim, and thus is a metaphor for Alelo’s mission. Alelo develops computer-based learning products focused on communication skills and cross cultural competencies needed for particular jobs and missions. The platform uses social simulations in which learners engage with human-looking avatars in meaningful communicative situations. (Some examples of social simulations can be found on YouTube by clicking here.)
      Alelo’s work is in line with TIRF’s current focus on promoting research and best practices to improve the use of English in the emerging global knowledge economy of the 21^st century. The Alelo team is now focusing on cultural awareness and occupational communication skills for people with limited proficiency in English in corporate environments. An example task might be training hotel front-desk staff on how to deal with a dissatisfied guest, or using the right tone to address a customer in English.
     In September, Dr. Paula Hidalgo, Alelo’s Vice President of Product Strategy and Marketing, and Dr. Lewis Johnson, CEO and co-founder of the company, met with TIRF’s President, Kathi Bailey, and TIRF’s Executive Assistant, Ryan Damerow, to discuss common research interests, needs assessment strategies, and critical sectors of the workforce. Afterwards Dr. Johnson commented, “We are happy to have had this opportunity to learn more about TIRF’s activities, and we look forward to further exchanges of research findings.”

There were five Trustees representing TIRF in São Paulo: David Nunan, Jun Liu, Michael Carrier, Kathi Bailey, and Lorraine de Matos. Lorraine was the masters of ceremony for the event and added a number of interesting points based on her perspective of working in São Paulo. Kathi gave a brief orientation to TIRF, followed by David talking about the development of approaches to investigating and teaching English in the workforce. Michael then shared some of the findings from TIRF’s recent publication on English language training for the workforce. Then Jun talked about English language learning and teaching in China.

A number of interesting and influential local speakers were also invited to address the audience. The British Ambassador to Brazil, Alan Charlton, led off with his view of the importance of English in Brazil. He was followed by Herman Jacobus Cornelis Voorwald, the State Secretary of Education for São Paulo, who shared some data about English language developments in the public schools of São Paulo. The following speaker was Rodolfo Fücher of Microsoft, Brazil. His talk was entitled “How to Survive and Succeed: Market Condition and Perspectives on the English Skills Needed for the Knowledge Economy.” Next, Rodrigo Alberto Correia da Silva of the law firm of Britcham SP, talked about “Brazil Growth and Globalization: The Challenge of Building the Necessary English Speaking Workforce.” Data from a Euromonitor research project was presented by Marcel Motta, who talked about “The Importance of English for Employability for Brazilian Professionals.” Michael Connelly, a British Council representative working in India, talked about the importance of English learning there.

After the various presentations, Lorraine read a statement about Professor Antonieta Celani, a former TIRF trustee whom the Board recently elected as a Trustee Emerita in March. Due to a recent injury, Professor Celani was not able to attend the event, but she had sent a statement, which was read on her behalf by Mr. Antonio Mendes, the President of the Board of Directors of the Cultural Inglesa. (See page 2 for details.)

Prior to the event, the press person at the Cultural Inglesa conducted a Q&A with Kathi Bailey. The comments from the interview were translated into Portuguese and released to the local press in São Paulo. The result was a full-page spread in the Brazil Econômico. The top two-thirds of the page was about globalization and English in the workforce, and the bottom third of the page was the interview with Kathi. Since the initial publication mentioned above, another story has appeared in the press. Click here for that text in Portuguese. (Google translate can be utilized to read the article in English.)

We would like to point out that the Foundation incurred no expense for the Trustees’ travel and activities in Brazil. We remain dedicated to using our donors’ invaluable gifts in ways that they will most effectively help us carry out our mission.

We would like to thank Ms. Meredith Morgan, who is responsible for the expert layout and design of both the executive summary and complete version of the paper. We would also like to extend our appreciation to Ms. Hadley Chatel at National Geographic Learning for her careful coordination of the production stages of the manuscript. And a great many thanks are due to National Geographic Learning and Trustee Dennis Hogan for their sponsorship of the production of the paper.