Comments from a teacher attending a TESOL conference.
“When I go to TESOL, I try to take some time to go to a session that may not be directly related to my work as a teacher educator and professional developer. It is a way for me to explore and expand what I know and what I think. This year I went to a very interesting session by Cynthia Nelson and the ILGBT Forum. Cynthia created a reader’s theater piece entitled “Queer as a Second Language” and used the voices of actual ESL students and teachers collected through research about sexual identities in the ESL classroom. The piece was performed and then a discussion was held where folks could talk together about how the characters experienced and grappled with socio-sexual diversity in the classroom.
It was fantastic to sit with a group of colleagues and listen to how we all have (or have not) dealt with issues of sexual identity in the classroom and what this means for teachers and students. I was also very intrigued by the performance idea – doing ethnographic research and integrating ideas and informant’s words into theater. It was very moving and a cool way to explore research findings!”
How does this relate to language learning?
1 comments on “Queer as a second language.”
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I really get angry at “teachers” that are just political organizers in disquise. Then I see them on tv wearing tshirts that say ‘proud to be educator’….an educator of what exactly? They are using their vulnerable students as props for their political theater antics. Students who are learning english are particulary vulnerable because they don’t understand the language well enough to even know they are being used. Shame on these “teachers”