Lynda,

I would like to see a serious discussion on the current meaning(s) of the word "literacy." I recently polled a number of my long-term ESL colleagues and most of us, including yours truly, tend to accept the semantically and historically original meaning, "the ability to read and write."  Now the limits seem to be changing and expanding quite a bit. Either we need extensive agreement on something that is mutually realistic or we need to clarify and make it "graphic literacy," "communication literacy," and/or something more tangible. If we are going to talk about it, we need to know what it really is. When I first heard of NIFL, I thought that it was all about reading, which interests me less than language teaching methodologies, techniques, approaches, the application of phonology, cultural factors and measurement in total L2 acquisition. NIFL seems to represent much more than my original interpretation. 

Thank you.

Ted Klein
Lake Travis in Texas
www.tedklein-ESL.com

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lynda Terrill 
  To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov 
  Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2008 11:48 AM
  Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2101] Topics for the list 2007, 2008


  Dear subscribers,

   

  I'd like to sum up the topics the list discussed last year and also to look forward to possible topics of discussion this year on the list.  

   

   First, I want to say that my favorite thing about this list community is that so many of you bring up  topics of interest and concern and so many of you respond so quickly. In fact, this is a subscriber -centered list and, to me, that makes this list a powerful tool. 

   

  In 2007, we had several successful guest facilitated discussions and we spent some time in the fall sharing resources in a focused and reflective way, but you brought up and worked on many  other important topics as well   

   

  Last year there were guest facilitated discussions on 

    a.. workplace ESL 
    b.. teaching writing to adult English language learners 
    c.. adult ESL content standards 
    d.. practical strategies for working with literacy-level learners. 
   

  In addition to the focused sharing of resources, we also had the yearly discussion and sharing about TESOL/COABE sessions (as we will again).  

   

  Other topics you brought up-- which were sometimes part of the above discussions or offshoots of them-- included the following: 

    a.. immigration, citizenship preparation, and EL/civics 
    b.. native language literacy 
    c.. bilingual classes 
    d.. phonemics and pronunciation\ 
    e.. reading aloud in adult ESL classes 
    f.. multilevel classes; 
    g.. vocabulary acquisition 
    h.. offering a menu of  classes rather than general ESL classes; 
    i.. technology and distance learning. 
   

  By February 11, will you send your suggestions to the list for "special" discussions?  

   

  Thanks, and, as always, please bring to the list issues related to teaching adult ESL as they come up.   .    

   

  Sincerely,

   

  Lynda Terrill

  List moderator

  lterrill at cal.org

   

   

   

   

   

   



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