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The impact of incipient trilinguality

on the socio-affective development of
Jewish elementary school children in
Israel
a
Deborah Dubiner
a
Carnegie Melon University , PA, USA
Published online: 04 Jan 2010.

To cite this article: Deborah Dubiner (2010) The impact of incipient trilinguality on the socio-
affective development of Jewish elementary school children in Israel, Journal of Multilingual and
Multicultural Development, 31:1, 1-12, DOI: 10.1080/01434630903367215

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 Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development
Vol. 31, No. 1, February 2010, 1
12

The impact of incipient trilinguality on the socio-affective development

of Jewish elementary school children in Israel
Deborah Dubiner*

Carnegie Melon University, PA, USA

(Received 11 February 2009; final version received 25 August 2009)
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For many decades now, applied linguistics studies have investigated the impact of
second language acquisition on various aspects of the development of school
children. Few studies, however, have focused on the simultaneous acquisition of
two additional/second languages in the classroom. The present paper explores the
impact of a spoken Arabic language programme in a Jewish elementary school in
Israel on the children’s socio-affective (attitudinal) development. The participants
of the study comprised fourth-grade students studying two second languages,
English and Arabic (the focal group), and comparable children in a regular
programme, who study only one second language, English, in school (the control
group). Participants answered attitude questionnaires; in addition, interviews with
the Arabic teachers were carried out. Results indicated that participating in a
spoken Arabic programme in elementary school indeed had a positive impact on
Jewish children’s attitudes towards the Arabic language, culture and population. It
is hoped that information from this study will be useful in designing and
implementing innovative language programmes throughout the globe.
Keywords: attitudes; target culture; multiculturalism; multilingualism; social
change; second language acquisition

Introduction
The study is about the impact of the simultaneous acquisition of two second languages
on the linguistic and socio-affective development of Jewish elementary school children
in Israel, who typically learn only one second language (English) in school. There are
innovative programmes of spoken Arabic instruction starting concomitantly with
English, the default mandatory foreign language in Israeli schools. The present paper
discusses the influence of this language constellation (Hebrew as a native language L1,
and English and Arabic as additional languages) on children’s attitude towards the
Arabic language and the Arabic-speaking population in their country.

Background
Since Arabic is an official language of Israel (alongside with Hebrew), and 20% of the
population comprises Palestinian
Israelis, a logical assumption would be that Arabic
is a language with which the children may have some contact. The reality, however, is
that there is almost no contact between Jews and Arabs (Feuerverger 1996; Kraemer

*Email: ddubiner@andrew.cmu.edu

ISSN 0143-4632 print/ISSN 1747-7557 online

# 2010 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/01434630903367215
http://www.informaworld.com
 2 D. Dubiner

and Birenbaum 1993), and both ethnic groups live mostly in separate enclaves. Even in
a few mixed cities, there is hardly any interaction between Arab and Jewish children;
thus the environment does not facilitate significant exposure to the language. This
stems from the fact that the two ethnic groups live in separate neighbourhoods
(Kraemer and Birenbaum 1993) and go to separate schools, with each community
attending school in its native language, according to a curriculum that reflects its
heritage and culture. Indeed, in virtually all aspects of life, Jews and Arabs conduct
their business apart from each other, including [pre-academic] education, work and
leisure (Al-Haj 2003). Although the linguistic landscape of Israel reflects the presence
and status of the various languages of Israel and its evidence of the multilingual
character of the country, the hegemony of the Hebrew language in Israel is
indisputable (Ben-Rafael et al. 2006). Hence, Jewish children residing in an all-Jewish
urban setting have minimal exposure to the Arabic language: they may see a very small
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number of Arabic print outdoors and may occasionally hear Arabic being spoken.

Attitudinal change
Much of Robert Gardner’s work has been dedicated to investigating the social
psychology of language. In his writings, the relationship between language and
attitude is evident; to name a few, students with a negative attitude to a certain
language or its speakers will have a harder time learning it; those with a positive
attitude have higher motivation to learn a new language; parents’ attitudes towards
an ethnic group will influence their children’s feelings about the target language and
culture. In Social psychology and second language learning, Gardner (1985) reviews
studies that investigate the dynamic relationship among various constructs relating to
language: attitude, motivation, language learning, language knowledge and achieve-
ment, knowledge of the target culture, etc. His conclusion is clear: the learning
experience (which should include not only language learning, but also other kinds of
experiences related to the process) has an impact on a student’s attitudes.
Gardner (1985) defines attitude as ‘an evaluative reaction to some referent or
attitude object, inferred on the basis of the individual’s beliefs or opinions about the
referent’ (9). While part of Gardner’s, and others’, work focuses on attitudes and pre-
conceived beliefs as an impediment to the second learning acquisition process, he has
also underscored the significance of attitude and attitude change as an outcome of
second language acquisition.
A few studies have focused specifically on the improvement of attitudes towards
different ethnic groups as a result of being exposed to the language spoken by these
groups. In their comparison of two groups of Anglophone children in Québec, for
instance, Lambert and Tucker (1972, 205) found that those who had attended a
bilingual programme (French and English) ‘were much fairer and more charitable
than those of the English and French Control children’: they were less ethnocentric
and had more favourable attitudes towards French Canadians than the English
monolingual control group. In addition, Lambert (1977) has found that bilinguality
can lead to an increase in tolerance. Results of his study showed that students who
attained a certain proficiency in L2 in a bilingual context in Canada (English/French)
evaluated out-group members more favourably than did students who had not
reached a comparable level of L2 proficiency. In a more recent study, Guimond and
Palmer (1993) examined intergroup attitudes and bilingualism in 663 Francophone
students in Quebec, 521 Anglophone cadets in an Ontario military college and 271
 Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 3

students in an Ontario university. Their findings denote an absence of in-group

favouritism among older bilinguals, and a gain in tolerance that accompanied
development of bilinguality. It is inferred from these studies that learning a language
may help debunk myths about a language and its speakers. Hamers and Blanc (2000,
239) provide a summary of studies in the field of language attitudes and perceptions,
concluding that ‘acquiring competence in an L2 can modify ethnolinguistic attitudes
and enhance positive perceptions of the other group.
The studies described above portray a clear tendency to favour the institutiona-
lisation of bilingual and trilingual programmes for both majority and minority
students, in second languages and in local languages.

Attitude studies in Israel

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In a study about learners of Arabic as a second language, Donitsa-Schmidt, Inbar, and

Shohamy (2004) investigated whether the teaching of spoken Arabic as a second
language in Israeli elementary schools affect students’ attitudes towards the language,
its speakers and culture, and motivation to study the written language in middle and
high school. Attitude questionnaires were distributed to 692 fourth
sixth grade
students and 362 parents from 14 elementary schools in Tel Aviv. The answers by
students who study spoken Arabic (the experimental group), revealed more positive
attitudes towards the Arabic language, its culture and speakers than their counter-
parts who did not study the language; they also claimed to be more motivated to study
Arabic. Interestingly, as Abu-Rabia’s study mentioned, the programme of study was
the best predictor of motivation to study the language. That is to say, all other factors
influencing motivation became minimised when the students enjoyed the lessons, had
pleasure with the activities carried out in the classroom, liked the teacher, had a good
rapport with her
in short, liked the programme. When their attitude towards the
programme was high
so was their motivation to continue studying the language.
Abu-Rabia (1995), considering the geopolitical and social situation in Israel,
examined Arab students’ attitudes towards learning Hebrew as a second language.
The author mentions Hebrew’s negative stance in Arab students’ eyes as the language
of conflict (reflecting the animosity between Arabs and Jews) and as the dominant
language of the majority. The author claims that the conflict and the lack of
motivation to learn the language that derives from it may be attenuated by teaching
through more adequate content.
In another study involving the acquisition of Arabic as a third language, Abu-
Rabia (1998) investigated Jewish sixth-graders’ attitudes towards the language. It was
found that in spite of the negative feeling towards the language that stemmed from
the sociopolitical context of the country, quality of classroom situation was a better
predictor for language attitude in this sample.
In a similar vein, Bekerman (2005) examined the extent to which sociohistorical
and political contexts in conflict-ridden areas influence language attitudes and the
implementation of bilingual programmes. In his investigation of a bilingual/
bicultural school (Jewish
Arab) in Israel, he found that Jewish parents’ motivation
to send their children to the bilingual programme was to foster intercultural
sensitivity. Regarding the connection between language and social change, Bekerman
quotes the testimony of a Palestinian teacher: ‘I think language is the door to thought
and culture . . . knowing Arabic, he [the Jewish child] will change his views and
stereotypes and will understand the other side’ (13).
 4 D. Dubiner

In summary, second language acquisition can have a positive impact on the

learner’s attitudes towards the target language, culture and out-group members by
means of the acquisition of cultural knowledge, or by mere exposure to the target
language and teachers.

Methodology
The data were collected in two public schools in Sha’ar Tzion (pseudonym), a middle-
class Jewish town in central Israel. According to the Israeli Bureau of Statistics, in
2007 Sha’ar Tzion had a total population of over 80,000, which consisted of 99.9%
Jews, 0.1% ‘other’ and no Arab Israelis.
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Participants
The participants in the study included a total of 89 fourth-grade Israeli Jewish
students enrolled in two elementary schools (focal and control) in an upper-middle-
class town in central Israel. In one of the schools, spoken Arabic was taught as an
additional second language (in addition to English), and this constituted the focal
group (n 74). The control group comprised students who were exposed exclusively
to English as a second language, no Arabic was taught (n 15). The control group
was selected from the same geographical and socio-economic area, within a neigh-
bourhood with a population similar to that of the focal group. The choice of control
group was made in consultation with the municipality’s department of education. It
must be mentioned that children are assigned to public schools based on their street
address. In other words, the implementation of the programme was dictated by the
school, and Arabic instruction in fourth-grade is not parental or student choice.
Children and their families have little or no contact with the Arab population outside
the school.
The Arabic teachers were two young female Israeli
Palestinians from a nearby
village, as such, Arabic is their native language and both have a native-like command
of Hebrew. They hold bachelor’s degrees from a prestigious Israeli higher education
institution (medium of instruction: Hebrew) and a teaching certificate in Arabic.

Questionnaires
The questionnaire I used was originally created by Donitsa-Schmidt, Inbar, and
Shohamy (2004) and adapted for the participants in the present study. The
questionnaire was completed by the students in two administrations during the
school year of 2006
2007, in the fourth and ninth months of the school year. They
were analysed using SPSS.

Interviews
I carried out two semi-structured interviews with the two Arabic teachers, one in the
beginning of the observation period and one after its completion. The interviews
took place at school and at the teachers’ village and lasted between one and two
hours each. Furthermore, informal conversations took place at each observation day,
walking to and from the classroom, or sitting in the teachers’ lounge during recess.
These conversations also carried useful information for the present investigation.
 Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 5

Findings
Attitudes
Analyses of the questionnaires revealed that children enrolled in an Arabic
programme (focal group) ranked the importance of Arabic higher than the controls.
They reported more positive attitudes towards the language, Arab culture and out-
group members than children who study only English as a second language. These
results were found both in Months 4 and 9 if the school year. As we can see in Table
1, differences in attitude between groups grew as the school year progressed.
Attitude towards the language and the Arab culture did not change significantly
in either group between Time Points 1 and 2. However, attitudes towards out-group
members improved in the focal group, supporting the hypothesis. An additional
finding is that the importance of Arabic decreased in both groups during the period
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when Arabic was part of the curriculum in the focal group. These and other findings
are summarised in Table 2.

Impressions about the programme and its outcomes

The following interview excerpts provide enlightening insights about the programme;
they also illustrate the effects of the programme on the students, teachers and
community.

Illustration 1
One of the teachers reported on her experience with a student from the programme.
She was standing in line at the grocery store’s cashier in a Jewish town near an Arab
village. The cashier was also a native speaker of Arabic and they engaged in
conversation. Behind the teacher in line, a child was waiting with her mother. The
moment the child heard the Arabic conversation, she introduced herself in Arabic
and initiated a conversation. It turned out she was a student in one of the schools
that implement the Let’s Talk programme.
The description of the interaction above illustrates two positive outcomes of the
programme. Firstly, the child’s initiative to use the language shows a positive attitude to
Arabic, a will to use it in context, and the realisation that it is not only a school subject,
but also a communicative tool. The child seems to have ‘appropriated’ the knowledge,
which she decides to use and indeed does it effectively in an appropriate situation.
Secondly, we can assume that in the past this Jewish child would not have initiated
a conversation with a complete stranger, let alone one who does not belong to his
ethnic group and who possibly (in a child’s mind) does not understand Hebrew.
Knowledge of Arabic, then, served as a bridge between the two.

Illustration 2
An even more representative moment is illustrated by a different teacher’s story. Her
student told her that he was at the shopping mall with his family when he overheard a
different family speaking Arabic. He walked up to a boy who was about his age, and
started talking to him in Arabic, and the two boys took some time to play, using
Arabic as their language of communication, while their parents watched the unusual
event and chatted.
 6
D. Dubiner
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Table 1. Attitude variables: differences between control and focal groups, Time Points 1 and 2.

Point 1 Point 2

Variable School N M SD p, one-sided N M SD p, one-sided

Importance of Arabic Focal 69 3.85 1.81 0.0145 63 2.86 0.75 «0.001

Control 15 2.76 1.33 15 1.79 0.71
Attitude towards the language Focal 69 3.02 0.63 0.0005 63 3.00 0.71 «0.001
Control 15 2.17 0.79 15 2.11 0.70
Attitude towards the Arab culture Focal 69 2.99 0.60 «0.001 63 2.94 0.72 «0.001
Control 15 2.10 0.60 15 1.93 0.75
Attitude towards Arab population Focal 69 2.46 1.23 0.045 63 3.17 1.10 «0.001
Control 14 1.86 1.10 15 1.47 0.64
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Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development

Table 2. Difference in attitudes between groups and between data collection time points.

Focal Control

Variable Data collection N M SD p, one-sided N M SD p, one-sided

Importance of Arabic Point 1 69 3.85 1.81 «0.001 15 2.76 1.33 0.0105

Point 2 63 2.86 0.75 15 1.79 0.76
Attitude towards the language Point 1 69 3.02 0.63 0.4225 15 2.17 0.79 0.420
Point 2 63 3.00 0.71 15 2.11 0.70
Attitude towards the Arab culture Point 1 69 2.99 0.60 0.342 15 2.10 0.60 0.2525
Point 2 63 2.94 0.72 15 1.93 0.75
Attitude towards Arab population Point 1 69 2.46 1.23 0.0005 14 1.86 1.10 0.1245
Point 2 63 3.17 1.10 15 1.47 0.64

7
 8 D. Dubiner

This is an encouraging story because it shows not only high motivation and
ability to use the target language, but also an illustration that there is a change not
only in the attitude, but also as phrased by his teacher:
we can see change in, and by, actions. Here the action was to go and talk with an Arab
boy. I believe that changes in behavior [e.g. initiating a conversation with an Arab boy]
come after a change in one’s perceptions. My student could approach the Arab boy
because of a change in his way of thinking.

Discussion
Previous research on attitudinal change through second language learning led us to
anticipate that participation in the spoken Arabic programme described in this study
would lead to a more positive view of Arabic language, culture and population for
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the ‘focal’ students than for those in the control group, i.e. students who had no
exposure to Arabic and did not attend Arabic lessons. These findings substantiate
Dagenais’ (2008) discussion about the close relationship between ‘critical language
awareness’ and diversity as part of the extant literature on change of attitudes and
deconstruction of stereotypes brought about through language education.

Language and attitudes

Indeed, significantly more positive attitudes displayed by members of the focal group
compared to their control group counterparts also support theories grounded in the
sociopsychology of language acquisition as described initially by Gardner (1985). In
the other words, the language classroom carries with it the potential of providing
students with opportunities for developing attitudes which are void of pre-conceived,
ethnocentric ideas and in which tolerance prevails; and for helping deconstruct
previously developed attitudes if they had been already formed, at such a tender age.
Indicators of tolerance used in this study included attitude towards the sounds of
the language, to its culture, and population. The relationship between the sounds of
language and tolerance towards the speakers by listeners has been described by
Lambert (1967), based upon a series of matched-guised studies. In these studies,
listeners judged speakers’ personality based on the style of their speech, revealing the
powerful influence that the sounds of language has on subjects’ views or judgements
of the speaker.
Findings from the present study are in line with additional studies on language
attitudes in the Middle Eastern milieu, which have revealed that learning the ‘language
of conflict’ may help attenuate, if not eliminate, pre-conceptions and prejudice.
Feuerverger’s (1996) ethnographic work in a Jewish
Arab mixed village in Israel, where
Jewish and Arab students attend the same school and learn each others’ languages,
provides data on cohabitation, language learning and improvement of attitudes. The
student population in the school in question comprised village dwellers (students
experienced with Jewish
Arab cohabitation) as well as students from outside,
monocultural settings, who attended school daily in the village but returned to their
monocultural surroundings after school. Her study reveals poignant quotes from
students and teachers about positive inter-ethnic relationships that emerged as
language ability improved
both for inhabitants of the village as well as for those
from the outside. Testimonies from students also reveal the increased openness towards
the other ethnic group through increased exposure to their language and culture. One
 Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 9

student claimed that he understood the Arabs better because he could now speak, read
and write Arabic. Granted, there are many more variables than language in this
equation (e.g. cohabitation, attending a bilingual/bicultural school), but the children’s
ability to isolate the language factor as catalytic in the affective development between
them and their peers cannot be ignored.
Children in Ytzhak Rabin elementary (pseudonym) have a different opportunity
from students in other schools. The growing tolerance prevalent even during hard
moments indicates a tendency to construct a new reality amidst a complex history
and present sociopolitical context. The contact with their Arabic teachers appears to
have stamped an indelible mark on the formation of their personalities: children
abstain from overgeneralisations because they have close contact with a caring
Arabic teacher. Likewise, the ‘intercultural excursion’ mentioned was a powerful tool
in the construction of inter-ethnic communication and the deconstruction of
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stereotypes. This meshes with Young and Hélot’s (2003) finding that stereotypes
are debunked by meeting ‘real people’. Critics may say this has little to do with the
study of language properly speaking; however, this is an activity promoted by the
language classroom as part of the curriculum and as part of a wider range of
activities that indirectly affect language learning.
From the observation of classes at Ytzhak Rabin elementary school, we notice
that it is not the language per se that leads to change and to a healthy formation of
stances, but the process of learning that language. Education in this sense starts even
before the first Arabic lesson
it starts with becoming aware of a new, challenging
concept: learning Arabic. This is followed by a continual encounter with new
situations: having Arab teachers, mingling with Arab kids or building the model of a
Mosque. Later, the practical components of language and language learning are
added to this conceptual basis, contributing to the shaping of a new world view. A
refreshing one, considering today’s reality.

Social change
The second language classroom seems to have the potential to carry with it social
change, not in the sense of ‘emancipation’, but in the pure sense of the words

changes in society. This realisation should construct the rationale for additional
innovative language education programmes beyond Sha’ar Tzion, the town where the
present study took place. Indeed, in his study of instructional conditions for
trilingual development, Cummins (2001) states that the acquisition of a third
language has not only a linguistic character, but also sociocultural and sociopolitical.
With minority students in mind, Cummins argued that teacher
student interaction in
the bilingual/trilingual classroom is there to change historical patterns; it is thus called
‘transformative pedagogy’. This concept can be projected to a different environment:
Arabic language learning in Israel, in the Middle Eastern context, may very well
serve the purpose of a pedagogy that will bring about some social transformation.
The tough reality of the area, along with constant expressions of a deep-seated
hostility in this historical conflict, has persisted for a century; the change in historical
patterns is long overdue. Findings from the present study lend additional evidence for
the argument that language education can help attain the utopia of better
intercultural understanding
the utopia of a ‘eutopia’ (from the Greek ou, ‘good’
or ‘well’, and tóPos, ‘place’).
 10 D. Dubiner

As the findings show, the teacher
student interaction in the Arabic classroom

made a difference in the students’ attitudes. Admittedly, various authors (Dagenais
2008; Palmer 2008; Richards and Burnaby 2008) focus on the role of the teacher as
an agent of social change. Although their studies focus on different contexts from the
one of the present study (immersion programmes and linguistic minorities), the
forementioned researchers stress the importance of understanding the sociocultural
context in which these programmes operate and their power for broad social change

one which reaches students, parents, teachers and other members of the community.
The influence of the spoken Arabic programme inevitably reaches wider social
circles: the teacher’s lounge becomes a mixed-population setting, where teachers of
both ethnic backgrounds mingle during their break over a cup of coffee. Each side
has the opportunity of experiencing the personal contact with a population that
otherwise is estranged, distant, unknown. A window of knowledge is opened. In
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addition, teacher
parent meetings and other interactions constitute yet another layer
in the circles influenced by the language programme. Both sides have the opportunity
to have meaningful contact with someone who otherwise would probably never
become part of one’s circle of acquaintances.
Teachers, by nature of their status, have the latent force of transforming
unsuccessful social and historical patterns, the force of moving realities; educators
are, as Freire (2005, 186) phrased, ‘agents of social transformation’. Let’s Talk
teachers seem to be such agents; they show genuine eagerness to help their students
achieve intercultural understanding. The two teachers interviewed for this study also
feel they are taking action to change entrenched social patters. Their acts are by
themselves educational acts, for they are in accordance with their beliefs. An Arabic-
speaking teacher who displays genuine love for her students is conveying to them a
message that transcends textbooks, one which is likely to be more effective than the
words that they carry. This echoes Freire’s notion of the discourse of the body:
I believe that education’s major pathway lies much more in the discourse of the body
than in the discourse of the voice. This does not mean that we do not speak with the
purpose of conforming, forming and informing. What I mean to say is that speech that
contradicts the gesture has no power. . . A coherence between what is said and what is
done is indispensable
my discourse cannot be different from my gesture. My discourse
has to be coherent with my body. The way my body moves in the world has to be
coherent with the discourse that speaks of the world’s movement. (186, my translation)

When an Arabic teacher arrives at school and lovingly hugs her young students who
come running to her, she is practicing Freire’s (2005) ‘coherent education’ by means
of the convergence between the discourse of the body and the discourse of the voice.
She is facilitating a transformation of social patterns through her acts; performing an
all-inclusive educational act, much beyond the mere transmission of information.
This discourse of the body seems to be an essential complementation of the cognitive
exchange occurring when a teacher imparts information and the student appropriates
knowledge.
Improved understanding between communities in conflict is desirable not only in
the Middle East. There are, unfortunately, additional dyads of populations world-
wide that are yet to resolve their differences. The study of language of the ‘other’ by
these groups seems to be a natural development in the twenty-first century, both in
areas of mild dissention (e.g. Anglophones and Francophones in Québec) and in
 Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 11

areas of more intense strife (e.g. Chechnya
Russia). Findings from this study are,
therefore, applicable to other contexts.
To summarise, the children who participated in this study unintentionally teach us
an important lesson, by means of their answers to the questionnaires; with their overt
zest for learning and using the new language and establishing, through it, new
contacts; through their interest in the new culture; and through the evident
appreciation they had for their Arabic teachers. They convey a message of tolerance
which we can, if we wish, extrapolate to wider circles
and accept the conception that
the change of ethnic attitudes through language education may lead to an
improvement of feeble intergroup and international relations in conflict areas. In
Ytzhak Rabin elementary, this is accomplished by means of sustained positive contact
with a target language teacher who belongs to the out-group; occasional ‘intercultural
excursions’ (Gardner 1985); as well as by attaining an enhanced understanding of, and
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a positive view on, other peoples’ culture. This, in turn, is a by-product of the
successful and effective language lessons described above. Furthermore, the exposure
of youngsters to the language and the subsequent development of positive attitudes
may trigger the beginning of a benign cycle of positive experiences, which may
accumulate and grow with time. In fact, Donitsa-Schmidt, Inbar, and Shohamy’s
study (2004) revealed that children who studied Arabic in elementary school reported
higher motivation to take Arabic in middle school.

Conclusions
In spite of some limitations (sample size, the limitations of self-report surveys and
limited linguistic data), this study has the potential of sparkling further research on the
socio-affective aspects of trilingualism. Firstly, it is crucial to interview students,
parents and educators before the beginning of the school year, and also after
completion of the programme. Additionally, longitudinal studies are called for in
order to explore the long-term effects of the programme on the attitudes of the children
when they reach high school, the army, and beyond. Finally, it is imperative that a
parallel study be carried out within the Arab community with a similar Hebrew-as-a-
second-language programme. Even more valuable for the field of applied linguistics
would be to concomitantly investigate language programmes in an Arab and a Jewish
school, including Gardner’s (1985) intercultural excursions, and compare them with
schools which do not implement any special language education programmes.
This paper has revealed the boundless value of a language teacher’s work
which
can become especially significant when it takes place in a particular context and when
it is fuelled by fierce ideology and conviction. The successful teachers are in fact
language educators who do not remain ‘realistic’ and with modest expectations;
instead, they believe that their practice will result in better intergroup understanding
in areas of conflict may assist in social change in a complex world. Education instils
values in children; it can therefore bring about change. Language education can be
the tool by which new horisons are revealed.
Innovative language programmes are in order in times when information about
places abound through the media but little is known about individuals behind the
news. In areas of conflict, children and adults are exposed to ‘one side of the coin’,
which can often be the negative side. Language programmes may be a step into
showing the other side of the coin, the human behind the news and the individual
behind the country.
 12 D. Dubiner

To conclude, I will quote Paulo Freire’s words, from his book Pedagogy of
tolerance (2005, 186, my translation): ‘I have just mentioned hope. This is what
education is all about. Educational practice is a political practice by nature, but by
nature it is also a hopeful practice’.

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