A
Peace Corps volunteer and Benicia native is teaching his Indonesian
students how to speak English with the help of postcards. His
name is Matthew Borden, and he calls the teaching method, "Postcards
to Java."
Here's
how it works, according to the Peace Corps:
By
asking friends, family and others around the world to send a postcard
to his class, Borden gives his students the opportunity to apply what
they’re learning. When the class receives a postcard, the students
read them and craft a response to the sender. Borden hopes to collect
postcards from all 50 states and across the globe.
“When
a student sees a postcard sent from a faraway place and realizes it’s
addressed to them, it sparks an enthusiasm for learning English that
the textbooks don’t match,” Borden said. “Even my least
motivated students will call me aside to help them decipher new words
and phrases.”
The
postcards also teach Borden’s class about the United States and
other places around the world. Each postcard provides an opportunity
to start a discussion and learn more about the culture and geography
of the place it came from.
“People
participating abroad are sharing all sorts of lessons about life
outside of Indonesia,” said Borden, a graduate of the University of
California, Santa Cruz. “What most people in my community know
about the U.S. and other countries is limited to what they see in
movies and television.”
The
postcards will be displayed in the school library, next to a world
map and a map of the United States, so others at the school can read
them. Borden is also keeping an online archive where anyone
interested in his project can follow along with the class as they
receive postcards from around the world.
For
more information on Borden’s project, how to send a postcard to his
class and to see the postcards they have received,
visit http://postcardstojava.wordpress.com/.
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