Abstract
This paper reports the results of a study that had been conducted to examine the successfulness of carrying out a project of integrating human values in EFL classrooms in two years in a row. It was part of the practical work of Arab student teachers who are majoring in Teaching English as a Foreign (EFL) in a teacher training college in Israel. The aim of including human values in EFL instruction is to qualify student teachers not only professionally and academically, but also humanly since they live in a deeply divided society which suffers also from increasing violence either at school or in the street. The project is designed to promote values that help pupils grow intellectually, morally and emotionally which eventually helps in creating a productive, healthy and peaceful society. The focus of the project is on three main values: respect, cooperation and tolerance. The project was carried out by adopting content-based instruction, problem solving and technology. Therefore, the participants integrated all language skills, included stories and folktales, showed video segments, prepared games and presented dilemmas for group discussions. The results showed that the student teachers as well as the pupils evaluated the project very positively and asked for more opportunities to extend it.
Highlights
The aim of including human values in EFL instruction is to qualify student teachers professionally and academically, and humanly since they live in a deeply divided society, ethnically and politically, which suffers from increasing violence either at school or in the street
The lessons were special because the suitable activities for teaching values were touching and enjoyable in the same time, they create a noticeable motive for the students to be creative, to think deeply in their morals and they understand all of the values in interesting ways
The positive results of this study regarding the appropriateness of addressing human values in an EFL context support the claims of Pinkley (2012)
Summary
The aim of including human values in EFL instruction is to qualify student teachers professionally and academically, and humanly since they live in a deeply divided society, ethnically and politically, which suffers from increasing violence either at school or in the street. The Israeli society is deeply divided ethnically, and polarized economically (Kemirling, 1998). There is a lack of social solidarity among the different ethnic groups (Sagie, 2000). 2014, Vol 2, No 2 only between Arabs and Jews in Israel, but among the different ethnic groups in the Jewish society itself. There is a need for civic education in a democratic country (Adar, 2013). Civic education includes values that promote understanding, sympathy and acceptance among the members of the different ethnic groups. Student teachers should be well qualified to cope with the challenges of the 21st century in terms knowledge, pedagogy, technology and multiculturalism (Tawil & Cougoureux, 2013)
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