Keys to be English teachers in the 21st century

What are the 21st century skills that English teachers should incorporate? What are the keys to being English teachers in this century? What is the value contribution of ‘Our World’, ‘Welcome to our World’ and ‘Explore Our World’ Series that National Geographic Learning offers to teachers and children at the primary level of education? Interview with Dr. Joan Kang Shin in occasion of her recent conference 'Are you a 21st century teacher?' realized in the city of Lima (Peru) on August 27th 2014.

Dr. Joan Kang Shin is the Director of TESOL Professional Training Programs in the Education Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and specializes in the training and professional development of teachers of English to young learners. In her role she is responsible for administering professional development and teacher training programs that reach teachers in over 100 countries around the world.

She is Senior Editor of National Geographic Learning/ Cengage Learning innovative Series ‘Our World’, ‘Welcome to our World’ y ‘Explore Our World’, directed to children of primary school that are currently being launched in Latin America.

Dr. Kang Shin is also the Project Director of the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) funded STEP T for ELLs Program (Secondary Teacher Education and Professional Training for English Language Learners) in the Education Department at UMBC. This five-year program provides professional development to secondary math, science, and social studies teachers in Maryland to give effective content instruction to English language learners (ELLs).

In addition, she keeps herself busy as an English Language Specialist for the Office of English Language Programs (OELP) in the U.S. Department of State and has conducted EFL teacher training programs with hundreds of teachers in Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Korea, Laos, Libya, Morocco, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Venezuela, Vietnam, and U.A.E. She has reached audiences of up to 300 through online webinars and trained groups of teachers through digital video conferencing in Cuba, India, Sudan, and Taiwan.

What are your expectations of your presentation ‘Are you a 21st century teacher’? What are the objectives of the presentation?

Dr. Joan Kang Shin: The presentation I am doing called "Are you a 21st century teacher?" focuses on how English language teachers can transform their classrooms to build students' 21st century skills. I think that most teachers feel the pressure to keep up with new technologies and the increased connectivity of people around the world through social networks. I hope that this presentation helps English language teachers realize that their job is so important because of the status of English in the 21st century as a global language. It is the language of science, technology, business, tourism, diplomacy, and global problem solving.

What are the 21st century skills that English teachers should incorporate? What are the keys to being English teachers in this century?

Dr. Joan Kang Shin: Using English in the 21st century means building skills for communication and collaboration as well as helping our students gain a global perspective on the world. One important aspect of establishing a global perspective is to teach about international cultures in the classroom. In the past, English teachers would introduce only English-speaking cultures, like the U.S. or the U.K. in the class. Now our young learners will grow up using English to communicate with people from any and all countries around the world. English is no longer just associated with the U.S. or the U.K. because there are so many more speakers of English as a second or foreign language now. We have to prepare our young learners by introducing all different cultures from around the world in our English teaching materials.

We should work on students' critical thinking and problem solving skills and encourage them to be life-long learners. As Alvin Toffler said, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." We have to focus our learners on handling the enormous amount of information they now have access to through technology, the internet, and social networks. This extremely important with English because the majority of the information accessible online is in English.

What is the value contribution of ‘Our World’, ‘Welcome to our World’ and ‘Explore Our World’ Series that National Geographic Learning offers to teachers and children at the primary level of education?

Dr. Joan Kang Shin: As a series editor and author of Our World, Explore Our World, and Welcome to Our World published by National Geographic Learning, I strongly believe that our goal to create an English language series that also prepares children for life in the 21st century has been realized.  Our motto is "Bringing the world to the classroom ~ and the classroom to life!" These 3 series for preprimary and primary school age students does this.  With stunning National Geographic photos and videos, our English language materials inspire children to learn by bringing images of the world into the classroom.  Children are curious about the world, so these materials tap into their curiosity and motivate them to learn and communicate in English.  But National Geographic is not just about amazing photos.  It is about real world content.  The richness of the content in the areas of science, social studies, culture, history, and the arts builds students knowledge about the world as they learn to communicate in English.  This provides opportunities for authentic communication about real people, places, and points of view from around the world.

Of course, the activities have developed appropriately for kids at every age. They include songs, stories, videos, hands-on games, computer and interactive white board games, and projects that will engage children and give them lots of chances to listen, speak, read, and write in English.  They encourage both visual and digital literacy that will help our young learners communicate in the 21st century.

Ultimately I hope that Our World, Explore Our World, and Welcome to Our World will help bring up our young learners as good, productive global citizens.  The 21st century is an exciting century but also a challenging one.  We want our kids to explore other people, places, and cultures in order to encourage them to care about the endangered world we live in.  If they are inspired to care more, maybe they will grow up and participate in solving the issues plaguing our planet.  As English is a global language, they will need it to be good caretakers of our world.