Our program has the same issue (advantage?) of having students who 
speak many languages.  An additional issue is time... for the students. 
  I 've asked my students if they would be interested in learning to 
read in their L1, but most of them already have full schedules 
including work, family time, etc and don't see it as a priority.  I 
would love to know, however, if students (those with the same writing 
system) who learn to read in a second language use that knowledge to 
learn to read their first language.  Has anyone ever looked at that?  
Abbie Tom

abtom at mindspring.com
Abbie Tom
Durham Technical Community College
Durham, NC US




On Saturday, November 5, 2005, at 04:35  PM, Jill Kramer wrote:


> Offering literacy courses in the first language is ideal but 

> impractical for programs such as the one I work in. Our students come 

> from Africa, Asia, Central and South America and Europe.  It would be 

> impossible to offer literacy classes in many languages, not to mention 

> finding instructors.

> Jill Kramer

> Columbus Literacy Council

>

>