This article uses Shakespeare's play The Tempest as an allegory of issues facing the English teaching profession at the end of the 20th Century. The author examines Shakespeare's tale of colonialism and imperialism and the implications for EFL of how Prospero, Duke of Milan, arrives from Europe to dispossess Caliban of his island home and proceeds to teach him English. From the play, the author draws out key points about the nature of language and power, teaching methodology and student empowerment, and the dual role of English teaching as a force for cultural domination or promoting cultural diversity. (IATEFL Issues #151 Oct. - Nov. 1999, UK)

In this article, the authors refer to a panel discussion of United Nations speakers on Creating a Culture of Peace held at the TESOL '99 conference in New York, and report on the Hague Appeal for Peace Conference held in Holland in May 1999. They describe the aims of the conference to work towards abolishing war and creating a culture of peace, and report on sessions concerning the six main conference themes: (a) disarmament, (b) conflict resolution/prevention, (c) international law, (d) the root causes of war, (e) youth, and (f) gender. The article argues that language teachers have a special role to play in helping to build a future of peace, and refers teachers to the Hague Appeal for Peace website. (TESOL Matters #150, Oct. - Nov. 1999, USA)

This newsletter issue of the Teaching Children Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) focuses on international awareness. Feature articles:

• Words Can Really Hurt You by Donna McInnis (Soka University, Tokyo) - This article discusses youth violence from the US Columbine High School shooting to student bullying in Japan, and urges teachers to address the emotional violence of put-downs, labeling, and exclusion that underlie these. It surveys ideas on peace education from UNESCO Linguapax and Educators for Social Responsibility, and describes an English course based on Nel Noddings' "caring curriculum" featuring activities on Creating a Caring Classroom, Caring for Self and Others, Caring for the Environment, Caring for Ideas, and Caring for Things.



• Yellow Submarine by Kathleen Olson (Ohio State Univ.) - This article describes a children's ESL course which uses music to explore world cultures and teach English. Children first learn the Beatles' song "Yellow Submarine," then set sail on an imaginary submarine for a make-believe class trip around the world. A world map is put on the board or spread on the floor, then children visit different countries to learn about their cultures, stopping for example in Taiwan, carrying on to India, through the Suez Canal to Egypt, through the Mediterranean to Spain, across the Atlantic to Venezuela, then the Panama Canal and home.



• Your Classroom is a Window to the World by Reiko Tada (GET: Group of English Teachers) - This article (in Japanese) discusses the Japanese Ministry of Education's plan to introduce English teaching and foreign cultures into elementary schools from the year 2002, and argues that teachers should see English as a tool for learning about the world and the English classroom as a window on the world. It recommends that elementary school EFL teachers show the lifestyles of children in other countries and give kids the opportunity to express Japanese culture and environmental issues through classroom activities that are fun and easily understandable.



• You Can Teach a Sneetch! Language Skills with Dr. Seuss by Irma Ghosn (Lebanese American University) - This article uses the example of Dr. Seuss to show how children's literature can be used to promote peace, tolerance and language learning. It introduces the Dr. Seuss story The Sneetches, which deals in a humorous way with issues of class, snobbery, prejudice, tolerance and exclusion, and shows how this story can be used to practice English reading, writing, listening and speaking skills while raising children's awareness of human rights and discrimination.

(The School House: JALT Teaching Children SIG Newsletter, Vol. 4, #2, July 1999)

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