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ESL forum >
Techniques and methods in Language Teaching > Should I teach harsh vocabulary to my adult students?
Should I teach harsh vocabulary to my adult students?
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Lana.
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Should I teach harsh vocabulary to my adult students?
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Hello, all you Noble Teachers!
This is the first time I am posting.
My question is this:
I want at some point to cover Crime topic with my students.
It �s not in the coursebook, but I think it is something they should know.
Should I teach words such as "rape", "sexual assault", "sexual harassment", "incest" ot is not a good idea?
Your opinions would be very appreciated, since I �m really in two minds.
If I do teach, how to explain? And what if some students feel uncomfortable, and then I myself feel uncomfortable?
Hmmm....
P.S. Yes, they are adults, 19, 24, 26 ..... |
9 Apr 2009
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arlissa
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Wow, touchy subjects! Perhaps you could handle this teaching by offering a take-home reading assignment. Then, if students have questions later, they can ask you privately about it. Especially if your class consists of both male and females, I think it would be more comfortable in a private conversation.
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9 Apr 2009
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eng789
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It really depends on the age of your pupils. If they are around 15 and you don �t teach in a Catholic school (etc.), I don �t see any problem with teaching them vocabulary that they would hear or see on the news or in an English newspaper. They aren �t swear words!!!! |
9 Apr 2009
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nejar
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Hi Lana!
Are your students adults?
I think this vocabulary belongs to our �everyday life �, I mean, we see it in newspapers, news, reports, literature so why not approach them naturally? I would do it as part of working with newspapers headlines, and news on the radio. Your students will tell you how far they want to go through questions. Common sense and tactfulness is always necessary when dealing with these issues.
Regarding teenagers, I am sure we should be more careful about the way we teach these words and the volume.
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9 Apr 2009
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puglover
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We teach these words all the time, but my students are 18 and over. The fact that we taught the concept of sexual harassment has helped one female student to come forward with an issue in her life. I think that if we don �t teach these things in a controlled environment, they will learn them out of context on the street. It �s better to have a mature, caring adult explain these things rather that a peer.
Hope that helps.
Janice
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9 Apr 2009
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douglas
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I see in the title that your students are adults. My opinion is that you should teach those words. If you don �t they will use the more vulgar ones (probably with a false understanding of what they actually mean) they pick up along the way. You will be doing them a favor. They are adults, they know the words in their own language and are capable of discussing the topics as well, why not in English?
Douglas |
9 Apr 2009
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lubel
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My students are between 16 and 17 years old and I have already seen these words in class; and I can assure you that they will be very interested in this matter. I have a worksheet that deals with this. perhaphs it could be usefull for you.
LUBEL |
9 Apr 2009
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P.Hunt
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The answer is, it depends on the country you �re in, the ethnic background of your class, their religious background and maybe even the percentage of men versus women.
The words themselves are harmless, but the conversation can go down the wrong road very quickly if you have a class of mixed cultures. I once did a lesson on crime with students from all over the world and one of the questions was, "would you call the police if your neighbours were noisy?". The students who came from certain cultures where �shopping � your neighbours was paramount to making them disappear (such as old E. Berlin) found the question very uncomfortable. Students from cultures such as Japan, where it is rude to speak about your neighbours and where everybody is generally very respecful of their neighbours equally found it very difficult to discuss this question. These people just went silent.
So, my answer is, think carefully about where you want to take the lesson. If someone raises the question "is it rape if you have sex with your wife against her will?" and you have mixed cultures and mainly men, you may find yourself in a very uncomfortable situation. You may even find what you class as incest is actually acceptable in other cultures. So tread carefully, and if you do cover the topic, have a direction, such as looking at the recent news stories coming out of Austria. If handled well, it could be a very rewarding lesson.
Good luck.
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9 Apr 2009
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