Amazing.  Thank you so much for your very articulate and interesting  
insights.  I am new to these lists (about a week) which I discovered  
after hours  of desperate "googling."   I am inspired,  SB
On Feb 19, 2007, at 8:57 AM, robinschwarz1 at aol.com wrote:


>

>

> SB--

> For one thing, the refugee programs I visit with only a very few

> exceptions lump all ESOL learners into begininng ESOL based on oral

> screening, not on a complete screening.   Yet more and more  

> evidence is

> accruing to support what neuroscience has known for a long time-- that

> non-literate brains necessarily learn differently from literate

> brains--and literacy skills must be developed slowly and deliberately

> in the non-literate, a need literate students simply do not have.   As

> I just wrote at length in another response, those who are literate can

> be normally expected to not only transfer their literacy skills

> readily, but acquire language much faster since they are

> --theoretically at least-- more oriented to school and school

> behaviors.

>

> Also, literacy programs are often burdened with the reality of getting

> refugees out into jobs with basic English in three months-- a  

> difficult

> task for those older adults with no previous language learning

> experience who are also non or low literate, and nearly impossible if

> efforts are made to have them become literate at the same time.

>

> In addition, many refugee programs, in my biased opinion, make the

> incorrect assumption that others who can speak a little English make

> good teachers for the beginning ESOL learners, when literature is  

> there

> to support the fact that language learners do not do well with those

> who do not speak the language well.   What I know about phonological

> memory--the function needed to hold onto novel/unfamiliar speech  

> sounds

> long enough for the brain to process them into long term memory or for

> repetition--indicates that the brain can only work with what it gets

> and if the models are poor, that is what it will retain.  So when a

> teacher speaks Spanish in English--Spanish syntax,

> phonology/pronunciation and grammar with English words--that is what

> the poor learners must deal with.    Then we wonder why they do not

> advance in their oral English skills......

>

> I have stated on this list before the assertion that is also true -- 

> and

> a problem--in special needs education:  Those who are neediest often

> get the least trained personnel.   In my LONG experience as a language

> teacher, I have found that learners at low intermediate skills or  

> above

> do very well for at least part of their learning with conversation

> partners who are willing to answer vocabulary questions and model

> English structures for them-- not actually teach grammar( native

> English speakers who want to volunteer in adult education).  Having

> conversation partners--and using far more innovative teaching methods

> for pairing and group work and teaching learners how to be more

> independent learners---- would relieve better trained teachers to work

> with those needing more help.

>

> In some programs I have visited, they have been relatively  

> fortunate to

> recruit teachers who have either been Peace Corps teachers or have

> otherwise taught English abroad.  But experience does not apply  

> equally

> when learners have such varied needs. One teacher I spoke with in a

> refugee program was still in a state of shock months into her job over

> the extent of differences and challenges her adult refugees had as

> English learners compared to the Chinese students she had taught in

> China for three years.

>

> Adult ed in general--adult ESOL included--has been cursed with the  

> K-12

> model of heavily teacher centered, class oriented instruction--when

> adult learners do not need nor necessarily benefit from this type of

> teaching.  But inexperienced teachers find it difficult to give up the

> power of directing learning and learner"centered" instruction (which

> really ends up with teachers and others doing "to" the learner, not  

> the

> learner deciding, which is true learner DRIVEN instruction).  This is

> an issue that runs through all adult education-- I saw an article on a

> research project about literacy tutors(not ESOL) and their adult

> learners--the bottom line in the qualitative research was that every

> tutor, though she or he asserted that the learner's input was sought,

> actually stated that they made all the important decisions in the

> structuring of and choice of content of lessons.   When I train  

> about a

> learner-DRIVEN  approach,  teachers often respond immediately by

> complaining that they do not have time to plan for every student--  

> when

> in reality, learner-driven instruction only means teaching learners  

> how

> to make their own decisions and learn for themselves with the teacher

> acting as coach and guide, not driver.  (Again, I refer you and the

> list to the method that PowerPath to Basic Learning uses for  

> developing

> learner-driven instruction)--though as I have also said, it cannot be

> as directly  developed  ESOL learners who may have cultural biases

> against the concept.)

>

> Refugee programs are also faced with educating learners about

> everything else besides just pure English, too-- health literacy, job

> training, basic survival in the American setting, etc.  That is where

> the learning about the ineffectiveness of pictures has been most  

> vivid:

> Learners not even acknowledging that what was in pictures was real, or

> not responding to instruction given through pictures versus using real

> people and real objects.  One program I visited that is in a very cold

> climate had a lot of difficulty getting parents to dress their  

> children

> warmly. Signs, posters etc--translated into that language by native

> speakers of it-- made no impact and the parents were in danger of

> sanctions from the department of social services until the teachers

> brought a child into the classroom and dressed him piece by piece in

> front of the parents.  THEN they got it.   We as a culture have so

> little way of understanding what a distance from print/picture  

> literacy

> and all its facets these learners have that we have trouble, as one

> tutor of the Sudanese in Boston noted, "going back far enough."

> Children in our culture usually are taught about books and pictures

> starting at weeks of age, while many refugees-- but not ALL--have just

> never had that kind of visual training, and thus their brains do not

> respond to pictures as ours do.

>

> But I keep repeating all this-- I hope it is of help and interest.

>

> Robin Lovrien Schwarz, Independent Consultant in Adult ESOL/Education

> and Learning Difficulties.

>

>

>

> Tell me more about the refugee programs you visit.

> I don't see workbooks as an easy fix.  After 30 years of teaching

> General Ed, migrant workers,   ESL/Resource I have  pretty good

> diagnostic skills and the ability to adapt materials.  However, I

> don't want to reinvent the wheel if there is something already

> available.  I am just  discovering  to my great surprise  that there

> isn't much going on with literacy pedagogy ... at least not as much

> as I thought.   I am a volunteer in an ESL center and quickly became

> resident "expert" on literacy.  I am currently creating and adapting

> my own materials.  I want to meet my students' needs, but I don't

> want to become a full time teacher again.   There is money available

> to purchase materials, but I haven't seen anything that seems

> worthwhile.  Thanks for your excellent input.   It is the most useful

> and practical that I have discovered thus far.  SB

>

> SB

> On Feb 17, 2007, at 10:33 AM, robinschwarz1 at aol.com wrote:

>

>> Teaching reading to adult ESOL learners is not so simple as finding

>> workbooks or programs.  Their needs vary enormously depending on a)

>> whether they are literate or not, b) what language and orthographic

>> system they know and use, c) their understanding of how text is

>> organized to read; d) what their working vocabulary is in English,  

>> and

>> e) what stage of acquisition they are at in their fundamental reading

>> vocabulary ( different from their oral vocabulary--see below for more

>> on this)

>>

>> Research is accumulating that gives more weight in terms of

>> instruction

>> to the neuroligical fact that pre/non-literate learners' brains do  

>> not

>> perceive figures on the page ( pictures, drawinngs, letters,

>> shapes) as

>> do the brains of more literate learners--this would indicate that

>> these

>> learners must have visual training with such information before text

>> and the alphabet can be reliably put in front of them.   Virtually

>> every refugee program I visit that works with non-literate learners

>> reports finding this out the hard way-- learners who do not  

>> respond at

>> all to pictures or drawings are are very confused by workbooks.

>>

>> Learners who are already literate in a language using a Roman  

>> alphabet

>> must only make  adjustments to the English version and English

>> phonics.

>>    But most phonics programs for native English speakers are not

>> suitable for ESOL because they  are not controlled linguistically--

>> i.e.

>> the way adults learn language--and are far too complex in grammar and

>> vocabulary for ESOL learners.  There are certainly excellent reading

>> programs for literate ESOL learners to learn to read in

>> English--because it is NOT learning to read per se, merely do the

>> decoding in English.  However, because of culturally different

>> ideas of

>> teaching and learning, these learners often--usually--have  very

>> different expectations of text and how it is organized and what they

>> are supposed to do with text when they read it.  I often quote a  

>> 20-yr

>> old woman from Burundi who burst out in frustration to her teacher, "

>> You GED teachers are so stupid!!  You do not even know what you

>> want us

>> to learn!  In our country, the teacher tells us exactly what to learn

>> and then we are tested on that. Here you tell us to read something  

>> and

>> then we do not know what questions you will ask."  This is typical of

>> those from cultures where memorization is the primary mode of

>> learning--not analysis of texts ( safe to say the majority of our

>> learners)--and  yet this kind of confusion is often cited as proof

>> these learners have low reading comprehension.

>>

>> Learners literate in non-Roman alphabets of course need to learn our

>> alphabet, and here a practice recommended by many remedial reading

>> experts-- training in orthographic sensitivity, or developing

>> automaticity in response to print-- is extremely helpful to these

>> readers.   ( for more on this see the work of Pam Hook and Charley

>> Haynes from the Mass. General Speech Disorders unit--they have done a

>> lot of training around this practice, and remedial reading tutors  

>> know

>> that struggling readers need this kind of training.)  These learners

>> also, may have very different cultural expectations of text and

>> understanding of how they think it is organized, so explicit teaching

>> in how American text is organized is necessary.

>>

>> Another issue with low literate learners is that though their

>> languages

>> may have the terminology for reading, they may not know that

>> vocabulary

>> yet (Part of what is known in the field  as CALPS--cognitive academic

>> language proficiency skills--the language needed to understand texts

>> and directions etc. ).  Again, this gap in information leads teachers

>> to believe these students have trouble with comprehension--but not

>> because the learners cannot understand the English-- more because  

>> they

>> do not have the CALPS to transfer from their first language to the  

>> new

>> language.

>>

>> The CALPS gap exists for all learners normally --there is much

>> research

>> ( Collier of George Mason, U) showing that the normal lag of CALPS--

>> the

>> language needed for understanding textbooks, directions, tests and

>> text

>> written by native speakers for native speakers--vs. oral/survival

>> language is somewhere between 5 and 10 years.  That means learners

>> topping out in ESOL/BEST are NOT ready to do ABE materials because

>> their CALPS aren't there yet, even though their oral skills are

>> --relatively--strong.  Every program struggling with transitioning

>> ESOL

>> learners into SBE or GED confirms that the ESOL learners crash--and

>> often burn--when they are put in these classes.   As I have mentioned

>> before on this list, one has only to administer a reading test

>> designed

>> for English speakers to know where an ESOL learners' CALPS are--

>> whatever grade level they achieve on such a test is NOT indication of

>> reading problems, but rather of normal CALPS for their stage of

>> learning.  The college ESL students I taught for many years, who all

>> had at least high school educations and most had some college-- came

>> into our program with CALPS at around 4th grade---instruction in

>> reading was designed to help them build their CALPS(through teaching

>> contextual reading, morphology skills, etc. )  and to help them learn

>> how American text was organized.

>>

>> And the basic phonological skills, now well recognized as  

>> essential in

>> reading instruction in this country, are often expectedly weak in low

>> literate readers, and missing in non-literate readers.  These

>> skiills--being aware of the sound chunks of the language and how they

>> work, among others-- are critical to literacy and are normally low in

>> the low or non-literate because these skills develop as literacy

>> develops.  However, if reading instruction comes in at a level of

>> phonological skills higher than where the learner currently is,

>> confusion will reign.

>>

>> The normal transfer of literacy skills--and CALPS-- is well

>> recognized,

>> which is why more literate learners can learn to read and write

>> readily, often without being able to speak a language all that

>> well---because they understand what they need to know to learn to  

>> read

>> in the new language.  The lower the literacy skills--and CALPS-- in

>> first language, the more challenging and longer it is for learners to

>> develop literacy skills in a different language than their primary

>> one.

>>

>>

>> These are just the major issues in ESOL reading-- other issues--

>> whether

>> the learner can actually see to read, and whether things move or

>> jiggle

>> on pages and thereby reading is impeded--also impact reading progress

>> fairly significantly.  Populations of adult ESOL learners in general

>> neglect vision care yet do not realize the impact of poor vision on

>> being able to read.  I screened an Ethiopian last year who had been

>> trying to learn to read for 5 years.   His tutors kept complaining

>> that

>> he could not remember the names of letters.  When he read letters he

>> read almost randomly, with little recognition of what was on the  

>> page.

>> When asked what he saw, he raised his hands and moved them back and

>> forth, indicating that the letters were jiggling.  After he had  

>> chosen

>> double goldenrod plastic overlays, he grinned form ear to ear and  

>> read

>> letters without error. He couldn't remember them because they had

>> never

>> stood still long enough for him to recognize them twice.

>>

>> So --there are MANY issues to consider in helping ESOL learners

>> read--no single approach will ever help.   What is needed is thorough

>> training not only in teaching reading, but in teaching reading to  

>> ESOL

>> learners of different education and cultural backgrounds as well  

>> as in

>> other issues that ESOL learners come with.

>>

>> And by the way, all these needs of adult ESOL learners add  

>> strength to

>> the argument that adult ESOL should be totally separated from adult

>> Education.

>>

>> Robin Lovrien Schwarz, Independent Consultant in Adult ESOL/Education

>> and Learning Difficulties.

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>> -----Original Message-----

>> From: bishopsl at cc.usu.edu

>> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

>> Sent: Wed, 7 Feb 2007 12:05 PM

>> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1049]  adult literacy programs

>>

>> I am just beginning to understand the difference between teaching

>> reading to adults and to children.  That knowledge of what more I

>> need to do is creating some frustration because I know what I need to

>> do but I been able to access the help I need.    Currently I am now

>> relying on many many years of teaching resource and ESL to children.

>> Of course, this is unsatisfactory to me.   So, what I need is to find

>> supplementary workbooks or programs so that I do not have to develop

>> a program from the ground up.  I would appreciate any help you could

>> provide.  bishopsl at cc.usu.edu

>> ----------------------------------------------------

>> National Institute for Literacy

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>>

>>

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