ERIC Number: EJ1137781
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1559-663X
EISSN: N/A
Book Clubs as a Tool for Community Building and Language Enhancement
McCaughey, Jessica
English Teaching Forum, v55 n1 p22-29 2017
In this article, the author talks about establishing a book club comprising international students and scholars and other members of the community interested in improving their English language skills. This book club, free to participants (although sponsored by the English Language Institute of the author's university), ran for ten weeks each over two summers. The club was created to help international members of the university community improve conversation skills. But the successes went much further than that, and ultimately the groups dug into American history, culture, values, and stories and, as time went on, also felt a real sense of community. And while this particular group met in the United States and stimulated dialogue about this country, it became clear over the course of these endeavors that such a club could be even more valuable to communities of English language learners abroad. The author discusses the creation of the book club and its goals, how she selected texts for the club, and the dynamics of the book club, including the difficulties she faced in allowing her facilitating and planning work to be secondary to the conversations the participants wanted to have.
Descriptors: Clubs, Books, Reading Strategies, Foreign Students, English (Second Language), Language Proficiency, Program Effectiveness, Cultural Awareness, Communities of Practice, Foreign Workers
US Department of State. Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of English Language Programs, SA-5, 2200 C Street NW 4th Floor, Washington, DC 20037. e-mail: etforum@state.gov; Web site: http://americanenglish.state.gov/english-teaching-forum-0
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A