english-education

Professors have been advised to “publish or perish” for nearly 100 years. First coined in 1927, this phrase warns professors that in order to maintain their jobs, they must publish their work. Publishing has always been central to academia, as it is the primary vehicle through which scholars share their research with a larger audience. Yet, in recent years, academia has changed so that publishing is not reserved for those who are already professors. Instead, publishing has become a requirement for any one who is applying to become a professor, with PhD students being encouraged to publish their research before they have finished their degrees.

The last few decades have witnessed a growing interest in the benefits of linking the learning of a foreign language to the study of its literature. In fact, the emphasis on working with culturally authentic texts is one of the central claims for curriculum reform in EFL/ESL teaching nowadays. Moreover, the latest developments in text-based teaching point to a curriculum in which language, culture, and literature are taught as a continuum. 

Nevertheless, the incorporation of literary texts into the language curriculum is not easy to tackle. Many linguists refer to literary content as extremely demanding for both teachers and students. Not surprisingly, many teachers tend to avoid using literary texts for this reason. 

In our current climate of fake news from seemingly authoritative sources, and high journalistic integrity from formerly discounted sources, it is clear that our criteria for evaluating the reliability of sources is shifting. I propose that a lack of news literacy is part of a larger literacy problem: readers need to understand tone from context and form. For as long as we have been assigning our composition or literature classes to read "A Modest Proposal" or anything else with an unreliable narrator, and as long as we have been explaining to potential book banners that a book with blatantly racist characters is not inherently racist, we language and literature instructors have been developing strategies to teach tone.

ESBB is a non-profit circle of international academics. The aim of our conferences is to assemble English teachers and scholars from across the globe in order to expand conceptual horizons. The conference will explore the diverse borders and boundaries that English teachers and scholars negotiate to benefit learners. Further information can be found on the group’s website here: http://www.englishscholarsbeyondborders.org/

Please send proposals to: esbb@leedsbeckett.ac.uk. Proposals should include a brief biodata, a 50-75 word abstract and a one page summary of approximately 300 words.

Culture In Focus, a new eJournal of the English Department at Middle Georgia State University, is seeking papers for its inaugural issue.  Never before has culture been so important. Culture, after all, matters! So for our first issue of Culture in Focus we are setting our sights on nothing less than the state of cultural studies as it is being practiced throughout the realms of language and literature, and indeed, in all the relevant areas that fall within the scope of this journal. What is new in critical analysis? What is being reassessed or reinterpreted? What are cultural specialists doing and saying now?