So I wrote recently about my newest EAP/CBI course and I just got some official information including the title and a brief description:
American Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organizations
This seminar studies the roles and strategies of NGOs in shaping public opinion and government policies on major social and international issues of peace, environment, civil liberties and civil rights in America.
A Google search turns up some information I can use early on in the class: http://docs.lib.duke.edu/igo/guides/ngo/ has a clear description of NGOs and http://docs.lib.duke.edu/igo/guides/ngo/define.htm has a definition, categories, strengths, and weaknesses of NGOs. I'm beginning to think of a lesson in which students work in groups to define NGO. Each group reads its definition and other groups rank it. The winning group gets an extra point or some other prize. Then the students campare their own definitions to these from the Duke web pages. This one would have to be done carefully so as not to discourage students who will likely perceive that their definitions are not very good compared to the ones found on these web pages. However at the beginning of class I plan to give a little speech about how tasks must be completed in English because they are designed to facilitate language learning. Thus, while completing the task is important, the way in which a task is completed is even more important. The goal is to practice defining difficult concepts, and this is only the beginning - I wouldn't expect them to define the concepts as clearly as say the World Bank has.
Posted by James Trotta at August 24, 2004 7:31 AMESL blog is one of many Blogs for learning English & teaching English. Translation services information.