RT Book, Section
A1 Della Chiesa, Bruno
T1 "Expansion of our own being"
JF Educational Research and Innovation
YR 2012
FD Apr 24
SP 437
OP 461
AB For consideration by the education community, here is a provocative hypothesis regarding the relationships between acquisition of languages, consciousness of cultures, and development of ethics in human beings. Starting from the basic idea according to which "a fish does not know what water is," I postulate, using the mathematical metaphor of the "tesseract," that mastery of several languages is not only essential to developing cultural consciousness but also a key to (partial) access to global awareness. How about applying the developing understanding of empathy in the brain toward the design of new approaches to language education that maximise its potential to cultivate a positive local-global dialectic in students? This might open research avenues for a number of disciplines; if sound neuroscientific work, possibly combined with quantitative studies, proves the hypothesis right, then we may hope to take one small step toward more tolerance: yet another "giant leap for mankind"?
PB Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
DO 10.1787/9789264123557-31-en
UL http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/;jsessionid=lhajlvjauxhx.x-oecd-live-01content/chapter/9789264123557-31-en