Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g0U746n29739; Wed, 30 Jan 2002 02:04:06 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2002 02:04:06 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <NFBBJBDNALBFFABFAMINEENNCAAA.dlmsmith@msn.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Debra Morris Smith" <dlmsmith@msn.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:7078] interests, questions, concerns X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 2978 Lines: 59 I've been interested in nearly everything here -- it's amazing what people know. I mostly just 'lurk' because my background is in English literature rather than language and I've recently quit a classroom adult ESL job in order to move to another state, so I don't have anything scholarly to contribute or any pressing practical concerns at the moment. As you can probably tell from what I said about the discussion group slipping into a private conversation, I'm interested in the dynamics of the group itself and discussion groups in general; seeing the same few names most of the time makes me wonder what the rest of the read-only crowd is thinking about, how many people are on the nifl-esl mailing list, why people talk or don't talk... I've heard that people with ESL credentials in linguistics or education look down on those of us teaching without them, so I feel a bit intimidated saying anything and wonder if this is an issue for other readers on either side of the credential divide. But, since I've stuck my neck out this far, I do have a broad area of concern that I'd love to see discussed a bit if you feel like a change of topic. Most of the students I was teaching were refugee women with no reading or writing skills in their native languages and little or no knowledge of spoken or written English. My community college pretty much insisted that I use a textbook to support reading, writing, speaking, and listening, but I found very few available at so basic a level, and all of them had too-busy pages and required facility with schoolish tasks like circling and underlining that asked a lot from students who'd practically never seen words on a page before. My class was the only level in the system that assumed no literacy in L1, and I never saw any students who were truly nonliterate in L1 become sufficiently literate in English to manage the more intensive reading and writing in even the most basic classes that assumed L1 literacy. So I'm wondering several things: Are there texts that people have found especially workable with this population? Has anyone found a way to allow students to progress to more sophisticated oral instruction while remaining at a very basic reading and writing level? To what extent is it even possible to forge the neural pathways required for reading in nonliterate adults? Do the decoding rules you've all been discussing re phonemes and syllables etc. help previously unschooled students? Thanks, Debbie -----Original Message----- From: nifl-esl@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-esl@nifl.gov]On Behalf Of AWilder106@aol.com Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 6:44 PM To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: [NIFL-ESL:7075] Re: how you got this message Debbie, What are your interests, questions, or concerns? It seems to me this is a linguistically adept group--how about all those voiced /th/ 's produced in a couple of hours! I'm tickled to get answers to what are some low level/high concern questions. Andrea
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