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Greetings ICIS Colleagues and Friends,
The editors of the newsletter have done an excellent job of
soliciting and bringing several important topics to our attention. This
year-end issue contains articles which touch on the increasingly complex
and diverse ways that multilingualism and global education are
experienced around the world.
As TESOL professionals, we represent a wide variety of
expertise in language teaching and learning and those of us affiliated
with the ICIS are also facilitators of intercultural learning and
communication. In my teaching over the past several years, I have been
increasingly utilizing various maps in my courses when discussing
linguistic and cultural diversity and its implications for teaching and
learning and cultivating global citizenship. Many of us use maps
principally for the utilitarian purpose of getting from one place to
another. However, we cannot always be sure that what is shown on the map
will match what we anticipate or what we see on the ground. I think
that maps metaphorically speak about intercultural learning, too. For
many of us, our ideas about the world, its cultures and its peoples,
initially come from maps. We seem to internalize this information as
truth rather than as a set of compromises and conventions. It is not
easy to represent the exact structure of the curved surface. How do we
think of the shapes of the land’s masses? What are our impressions of
places we have not visited? Without these direct experiences, how do we
form images of the world and its peoples? And how do these images affect
our interaction with people from different and distant places?
I also observed that the use of maps in my own teaching context
often brings to the surface the lack of most of my students’ basic
knowledge of the world beyond their own local or regional location. This
lack of knowledge, or this ethnocentric tendency, might also suggest a
lack of curiosity and respect. All three factors are critical components
in intercultural communication. In an interconnected global world and
in diverse local communities, ethnocentric attitudes can have serious
consequences. So I keep asking myself:
- How do I get to where I need to be in my own intercultural learning?
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How do I guide my students?
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What maps will help along the way as we take this journey together?
I will revisit this topic at the Academic Session of the ICIS
at the TESOL 2020 Convention in Denver, Colorado. In the next issue of
the ICIS Newsletter, I will provide more information about the academic
session and the intersection panels that are organized and co-organized
by ICIS for the 2020 TESOL Convention.
I would like to encourage you
to use myTESOL community group as a space to share information and
insights related to intercultural learning and intercultural
communication in the interest of inspiring dialogue with your fellow
ICIS members!
Finally, I wish you the very best as we are approaching the season full of holiday celebrations in all parts of the world. Thank you for your readership and enjoy this issue!
Roxanna
Senyshyn, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics
and Communication Arts and Sciences at Abington College Pennsylvania
State University, where she teaches TESOL education and intercultural
communication courses. Her research interests include three strands:
transformative intercultural learning in teacher education,
intercultural (communication) competence development for academic and
professional purposes, and second language writing pedagogy and
assessment. | 
