Schools are not just meant to pass knowledge to the students, they are a defining factor to social interactions and co-existence of people throughout the world. Schools provide a meeting point for students who come from different parts of the world thus contributing to the unity of the people in the whole world. Below are some of the programs that schools are offering as a way of ensuring peer-to-peer interaction among the students and to create a sense of community.
Offering online courses.
Online courses are so common today in universities and colleges. Students all over the world are enrolling to these courses every day. What makes these programs to be very popular is the fact that they are very flexible and convenient that students can take them from any part of the world provided they have access to the internet. Some of them don’t even require the students to physically sit for the exams, everything is done online. Students apply them, process the payment online, and then start classes. They complete all the assignments and then take a test online and if the pass they get their degree, diploma or certificate. It is that simple.
What makes them encourage international interaction and a constructive peer to peer relation is the fact that they comprise of people from different countries who interact through discussion boards. The students are required to regularly write a post in relation to what they learn. Sometimes the posts are based on a discussion question given by the instructor. Once a student has posted, other students are required to respond constructively on the post and likewise get a response for their original post too. Such interaction creates a sense of friendship and cohesiveness among them as opposed to if the class was passive or dormant with no discussion forums.
Bilingual programs.
Many schools in the United States have students that come from different countries. As such making English as the only language to use in teaching would leave many students stranded. In relation to that, many schools have adopted a program where they teach in more than one language as a way of ensuring that even the needs of the minority are met. Bilingual programs have encouraged foreign students to actively take part in class activities because they feel that there are recognized as part of the school.
A school could use English as the main teaching language (native language) and other languages such as French or Spanish as the secondary languages. In a bilingual system of education, the teachers are expected to cover some part of the syllabus in the native language and the other part in a secondary language. By doing so, it ensures that the students don’t just know one language. The students must be conversant with at least two languages which increase the rate of interaction between students that come from different countries.
For example, a school that uses a bilingual system of education in the US could use English and French as the two teaching languages. In doing so it provides an avenue for the Americans in the schools to interact with other students that come from France. Students from France and those from the US and other English speaking nations are able to engage with each other in discussion groups because they understand the language of each other. It is unlike where they use only one language thus leaving one of the group out.
Foreign Language courses.
A significant number of schools are now offering foreign language courses to their students. These are the courses that enable students to learn languages that are originally from other countries. These courses involve learning how to speak these foreign languages and how to write them. It is important to note that foreign language courses are not similar to the bilingual education system. It is because while in bilingual foreign languages are used to teach other subjects, foreign language course involves just learning the language. Learning the basic grammatical aspects that will enable one to understand, speak and write the foreign language in the context.
And how does learning foreign languages encourage peer to peer interaction and creating a sense of community? Well, that can be explained by understanding that the biggest part of interaction involves verbal communication. There is the art of speaking to each other. And when there is a language barrier then it implies that there cannot be interaction especially among the students from different countries. This is the problem that foreign language courses have come to solve. They are equipping the students with many languages such that they can be able to interact with other students from different part of the world easily.
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