One of the main subjects I teach at my school is Model United Nations.  Known in some countries but completely unheard of in others, I believe this is an excellent course for students to learn.  This is especially the case in Japan, where students rarely have a view beyond Japan, or sometimes even their own prefecture.  However, there are very few teaching guides & resources available for finding out how to structure a Model UN syllabus.  I have written this guide in the hope that it will be of some use to people and that they can start implementing some aspects of the MUN course in the future in their classes.  If you have any questions about how to teach the course, or comments on it in general, do not hesitate to get in contact with me.

Introduction

The Model United Nations is a programme that allows students to take on the role of delegates from specific countries, learn about international issues, and discuss these issues from the point of view of their chosen country.  The 4 core skills (reading, writing, speaking & listening) are practised and improved both during the research sessions and the actual UN conference itself.  Weeks before the conference, delegates will conduct research into their country, the topic to be talked about, and their country’s opinions on the issues at hand.  When the time comes for the meeting, delegates will discuss the issues on the agenda, and try to put forward resolutions to solve these problems; resolutions which will need to be voted on if they are to be passed.  So the delegates must negotiate with each other, trying to secure a “Yes” vote for their resolution.  The end of the conference leaves the students with a heightened knowledge of international issues, and problems that they might not otherwise have known about.  It also leaves them realising that things they do in their own country can affect global issues such as global warming or child soldiers.

Although the MUN only began in 1945, model conferences were being held much before that, with students taking on the role of countries in the League of Nations from the 1920s.  Initially, the MUN started in the USA, and it remains very popular there both in high schools and universities.  Although not well known in Europe, conferences are starting to increase in number and size.  This year over 200,000 students will take part in over 400 MUN conferences in around 50 countries in the world.  The main conference in Japan is the All Japan MUN (AJMUN), which features around 300 students from 50 high schools throughout the country.  Koyo Prefectural Senior High School also runs 1 or 2 conferences throughout the year in Okinawa, to which delegates from other Okinawan high schools are invited.  These conferences usually feature around 50 students, with each student being a delegate for a separate country.

Creating or joining an MUN conference

The MUN conference should be the goal for both teachers and students in this programme.  Whether the MUN is performed as a club activity, or a classroom-taught subject, everything should be focused towards the MUN conference and emphasising the importance of students taking an active part in the meeting.

Topic: The first thing that needs to be determined for an MUN conference is the topic to be discussed.  This could be a very specific issue, such as “The North Korea Nuclear Problem”, or it could be a much wider-ranging topic, such as “Global Warming” or “Resource Conflicts”.  If you are creating your own conference, some thought must be put into the topic by teachers.  Too general a topic could result in a conference which takes too long and doesn’t result in a good final resolution.  Too specific a topic could result in a conference which is over in a couple of hours.  At Koyo SHS, the classroom conferences usually last between 10 and 14 hours.  Be creative with the ways you introduce your topic: in 2007 the students talked about, “Conflict diamonds and how to stop future resource conflicts”.  As an introduction to this topic, the students watched the film, Blood Diamond.  This achieved a number of goals: the students were watching and listening to a film in English, they were learning about their MUN agenda item, and they didn’t feel like they were in a classroom lesson.  If you are joining a conference hosted by another school, the issues of choosing a topic are not relevant to you.

Country selection: This is a very big thing to think about for your MUN conferences.  You really want to create a good geographical spread of countries that will take part in the conference.  A good example of this would be choosing 25% of countries from North & South America, 25% from Europe, 25% from Asia & Oceania, and 25% from Africa.  Also try to have an even number of developed and developing countries in the conference – if you don’t it could make discussions very one-sided.  Also, think about the countries involved in the topic at hand.  For example, if your topic is global warming, you would want to include both the world’s largest polluters, and the countries which are feeling the effects of global warming, no matter how small.  Here it is good to emphasize to students that all countries have an equal standing in the UN, and they all get one vote.  So smaller countries have as much power as larger ones.

Research: Once students have chosen/been allocated their country, this is where the work for them begins.  Their aim is to create a Position Paper – a speech detailing their country’s background, their country’s opinion on the issue to be discussed, and possible actions they feel the UN should take.  A lot of research should be undertaken, and it could be done in 3 parts.  Firstly, the country is researched so that the students know about where they are delegates from.  For some countries this is easy, but do many students know where Maldives or Angola is?  To start them thinking about this, the students can be given a worksheet to fill in about their chosen country (Click here for a sample worksheet).  Students can then make a presentation of their country to their class, so that everyone starts to understand where each country is.　　The presentation shouldn’t be too indepth to start with; introduce the country’s name, location, flag, and then something more interesting for the students to research and present, like the language for example.  If the students are of a high level then you can ask them to present more detailed information about their country.

Once the students have a fairly solid foundation about their country, they can start to research the topic.  It should be stressed though that the students need to know and remember information about their country.  If the student can’t remember who their country’s leader is or if their country is a developed or developing country, they will struggle in the MUN conference.  The foundations of knowledge need to be made here as everything from here on will be building on that.  Knowledge can be tested by a test on their chosen country.  Researching the MUN topic is first done on a general and global scale (i.e. not specifically relating to their country).

Teachers need to be actively involved in this part of the research, and information should be given to the students in the form of reading assignments.  The teacher will need to do extensive research on the topic, as students will expect them to have answers to their questions.  It will also help you direct the students own research.  Be aware that there will be a lot of new words for the students, and the meanings should be made clear.  If the topic is large, students could be asked to make a presentation about a certain aspect of it.  This will allow them to focus their research a little, and then learn from the presentations made by others.  Teachers should stress that presentation giving, listening and note-taking skills are vital for a good MUN delegate.

When students are doing research on the topic, encourage research to be done in English.  This may be more difficult initially, but will help them during the conference when they have to talk about these things in English.  And once again, be creative with how you get the students to research topics.  This year, Koyo students were asked to contact jewellery shops all over Japan by phone,and ask them where their diamonds came from, and what their policy was on conflict diamonds.  The students were not keen on this initially, but it was very successful and will be continued and built upon in forthcoming conferences.  Depending on the class type, you can incorporate skits or drama so the students can illustrate parts of the topic they will discuss.

Student poster presentation on resource conflicts in DR Congo

The final part of research is joining the 2 previous parts.  The students now have to look at the topic and how it affects their country.  This is the part of research where some students will become frustrated.  Because, for example, there is no direct relationship between the UK and child soldiers, they may think there is nothing to talk about.  But encourage the students to think and look deeper.  Maybe the weapons the child soldiers use are made by British companies.  Maybe the resources they are fighting for are used in western goods; the demand for these goods and the resources are high, so the conflicts and killings continue.  Even if a country has no relationship at all with the issue, encourage the student.  This gives them the chance to be completely neutral in the conference and to find a solution that is best for everyone.  The students should be working towards making a position paper.  This is a 2-3 minute (usually) speech which is made up of 3 parts:

1. A very brief introduction to the country.
2. Information on the problem and how it affects their country.
3. A general idea of how the problem can be solved.

If you click here you will find a template that the position paper should follow, and a sample position paper made by Koyo students who were talking about Global warming.  You will notice slight differences in the template and the position paper they made.  This is because there is no set position paper.  If a delegate wants to talk about the problems only, without talking about their country and a possible solution, that is their choice and they are free to do so.

A common problem you will find when students start taking on the role of delegates and talking about their country is that they are often too honest!  They often continue to look at the issue from a neutral point of view and will criticise their own nation.  For example, you may have the delegate from Burma/Myanmar stating to the UN that they admit to committing many human rights abuses as one of the first parts of their position paper.  This is a difficult problem to overcome, and you just have to keep encouraging students to think as if they were from their chosen country.  Hopefully they will start to understand and will refine their speeches appropriately.

Regional Bloc Meetings:  As the MUN conference draws closer, and position papers are completed, students should continue to research the topic.  If possible, teachers should search for news articles relating to the subject and present them to students.  This is also the time for regional bloc meetings to take place, if possible.  In this meeting, all of the delegates from one continent will come together and talk about the problem.  They will present their position paper in small groups, and then hold short Q&A sessions.  Their position papers must be given in English, but it is possible to allow students to ask questions in Japanese in these meetings.  A clear understanding of the issue and countries’ opinions is more important than practising their English listening skills at this time.

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Well that’s it for now.  In the follow-up piece to this tomorrow I will look at the actual Model UN conference, introduce meeting procedures, and show you how to conduct the meeting so your students benefit most.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Part 2 of this guide is available here.

Tags: education, efl, global issues, model un, model united nations, mun, Teaching English, tefl, TESOL

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