[NIFL-ESL:6834] Re: Democracy in Action on NIFL-ESL

From: Anna Silliman (anna@handsonenglish.com)
Date: Fri Jan 04 2002 - 14:56:57 EST


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From: Anna Silliman <anna@handsonenglish.com>
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Subject: [NIFL-ESL:6834] Re: Democracy in Action on NIFL-ESL
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Thanks to Tom Sticht for the interesting data, and
Kathleen Bombach for her thoughtful posting.

I wondered when I saw this data if it wasn't comparing
apples to oranges? To me it seems that the ESL list is
the best place in our field to get resource questions
answered quickly by knowledgeable people, to get help
in other words on practical issues. It seems too large
and diverse for ongoing discussions of specific topics
though. If the other lists are providing a forum for such
discussion then they are extremely valuable too. Some very
interesting things have been filtered over to us (on the
ESL list) from other lists.

Adult ESL/ESOL Literacy draws in a huge
number of new instructors all the time, as there is so
much turnover in the field, and it is fast-growing.
The NCLE folks do a wonderful job of alerting programs
(and their new instructors) to their web resource and
inviting people to join the list. So maybe part of
the reason for all the action on the ESL list is that
we're a bunch of floundering newbies, desperate for help??

What we need in this field is more of everything.
We need more resources, more websites, more funding, 
more grants, more publishers, more conferences, more
organizations, more networks, more publications, more
communication, more help. What we have now isn't enough.
I don't think we can afford to compete with each other about
who's doing a better job; we want to be appreciating each
others' contributions.

My 2 pesos,
Anna Silliman
Hands-on English 



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