The Muqaddimah, a massive 14 century text by Arab historian Ibn Khaldun, while primarily a history, in the later chapters deals with linguistics and pedagogy. Multiple publications on what his work contributes to the field of education exist. But surprisingly, only two papers have appeared specific to teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL): one decades old, the other primarily arguing an early case for communicative language teaching (CLT) is presented. Ibn Khaldun lived in a kind of global world, an Islamic one: cosmopolitan, and having its own international language. Analogies with today’s globalism and English are obvious. This article therefore reviews the total Muqaddimah, comparing its content to dominant ideas and figures in contemporary English language teaching (ELT), and showing it is still relevant to ELT. Congruences include Ibn Khaldun’s constructivist-like conception of identity and realization of second language learner (L2) identity’s role and formation process. Also, what would today be called Whorfianism, leading to concluding a language should be taught together with its discourses—but English is no longer viewed as just Anglo-American or native-speaker—Ibn Khaldun’s case is saved by reimagining English as global and cosmopolitan, which TESOL exactly has. It will also be shown that not CLT, but rather study abroad or immersion education is being portrayed. The importance of affect, a case made for both learner and teacher autonomy, together with other issues, all current in TESOL today, make Ibn Khaldun’s Muqaddimah a rediscovered source of inspiration for the milieu of modern ELT.

中文翻译：

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Ibn Khaldun 的 Muqaddimah 给当今外语教师的教训

Muqaddimah 是阿拉伯历史学家 Ibn Khaldun 的 14 世纪大文本，虽然主要是一部历史，但在后面的章节中涉及语言学和教育学。关于他的工作对教育领域的贡献有多种出版物。但令人惊讶的是，似乎只有两篇专门针对讲其他语言的人 (TESOL) 教授英语的论文：一篇有几十年的历史，另一篇主要论证了交际语言教学 (CLT) 的早期案例。Ibn Khaldun 生活在一个全球化的世界中，一个伊斯兰世界：世界性的，并拥有自己的国际语言。与当今的全球化和英语的类比是显而易见的。因此，本文回顾了 Muqaddimah 的全部内容，将其内容与当代英语语言教学 (ELT) 的主导思想和人物进行了比较，并表明它仍然与 ELT 相关。一致性包括 Ibn Khaldun 的类似建构主义的身份概念以及第二语言学习者 (L2) 身份的角色和形成过程的实现。此外，今天所谓的沃尔夫主义，导致语言的结论应该与其话语一起教授——但英语不再仅仅被视为英裔美国人或母语人士——伊本·哈勒敦的案例通过将英语重新想象为全球性和世界性而得以挽救，这正是 TESOL 所拥有的。还将表明，正在描绘的不是 CLT，而是出国留学或沉浸式教育。情感的重要性，一个为学习者和教师的自主性提供的案例，以及今天 TESOL 中的其他问题，使 Ibn Khaldun 的 Muqaddimah 成为现代 ELT 环境重新发现的灵感来源。