[NIFL-WORKPLACE:573] Re: Curriculum for Business/Clerical

From: Ruth Farrell (ruthfarrell@shaw.ca)
Date: Fri Jun 21 2002 - 01:56:10 EDT


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From: Ruth Farrell <ruthfarrell@shaw.ca>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-workplace@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-WORKPLACE:573] Re: Curriculum for Business/Clerical
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Hi Juline,
I don't know if this is a fitting answer to your question.  But my first
thinking is this:  Do you have the opportunity to do some "living research"?
That is go out, and/or get your students to go out with tape recorder and
questions.  Do the old information interview (that I first learned about in
What Colour is Your Parachute) where you pick the brains of the worker who
has a job in the area you are targetting.  Questions can be wide ranging:
What do you like about your job?  What kind of training/education do you
have, or did you need to get?  What kind of people are in this business?
What's the environment like?  What are the biggest challenges?  Or any other
questions.  Then you transcribe the tapes (transcription machine very
handy).  You can build glossaries of vocabulary, listening for stress and
intonation excercises, and thematic comprehension activities that focus on
concepts, areas of knowledge, values, expectations,etc - from which you
could build role plays and high frequency language functions.   Of course
this is all very labour intensive, but highly focussed on your geographical
area, and the human/institutional realities of the workplaces they seek to
enter.  If the students can do the interviews themselves, that's really
powerful.  If not, you know you have meaningful content.
Ruth Farrell
Vancouver, B.C.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Juline Thomley" <jthoml1@mail.isd77.k12.mn.us>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-workplace@literacy.nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2002 9:12 PM
Subject: [NIFL-WORKPLACE:572] Curriculum for Business/Clerical


> I am looking for any curriculum ideas that may be out there to help ESL
> learners get/maintain jobs in an office/business/retail
store...cashiering,
> filing,answering phones, working the floor, customer service, etc
> Any help is greatly appreciated.
> Juline
>
>
> --
> >From one of my ESL learners:  A dyslexic agnostic insomniac lay in bed
> wondering if there really was a dog.
>
>



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