Innovation in Language Learning

The English language classrooms in New York City’s public colleges are filled with immigrants and refugees from around the world, an assemblage of cultures befitting of a global metropolis. Most of these new arrivals are well-aware of the socio-economic and political forces that led them to leave their native countries and to embark on the journey, with or without legal documents, to the United States. Yet, few have much knowledge of global patterns in migration, or an awareness of the similarities in their struggles and experiences, nor of the political context that eventually led the student sitting next to them to this same classroom. With the goal of bridging this gap from the personal to the global, I aimed to develop a high-intermediate ELL course with global migration as the focused theme. We began by doing some online research on the phenomenon of migration. According to a 2020 UN global migration report, there were around 281 million international migrants in the world in 2020, which equates to 3.6 per cent of the global population. This was an increase of 128 million migrants from the estimate in 1990 and over three times the estimated number in 1970.Over the course of the next three months, the class explored multiple perspectives on this theme through multi-media sources. We watched Flee, an animated documentary on the plight of an Afghan refugee in Europe; we read Enrique’s Journey, the true story of a Honduran boy’s efforts to make it across the US border to reunite with his mother; the students listened to numerous podcasts on the refugee crisis in the Ukraine; we read, What Strange Paradise, a novel by Omar Al Akkad, focused on the plight of Syrian refugees washed up on the shores of Southern Europe and watched a documentary, Fire at Sea covering the same topic. The students took part in class debates on the causes and effects of global migration and the extent to which governments are responsible to welcome and shelter those who arrive without legal documents. Throughout the course, students had the freedom to share their personal migration stories, or, if they preferred, to approach the topic at a greater distance by focusing more generally on trends in migration from their native culture. Many chose to share. In an article entitled, ‘Narratives of trauma and self-healing processes’,  Kristina Montero writes that the narration of trauma stories in a supportive setting such as a classroom may have a healing effect. Susana Marcus adds, “As we develop bonds of trust between and amongst our students, stories unfold.”

In the Fall 2023 semester, our students teamed up with a refugee agency called Make the Road New York and took part in a number of activities aimed at welcoming the many new immigrants arriving in our city.

Two of the aims of this project were to build intercultural understanding through knowledge of shared experiences and to create more globally-aware citizens, better prepared for the challenges of navigating an ever more complex world.