The main recurrent piece of "realia" that students brought to my ESOL
classes was their phone bill.  I found that the ESOL class became one of
the best ways for saving huge amounts of money for my students.  The
biggest problem for many of them was at the point of getting set up for
telephone service, either land-line or cellular.  They often signed up
for every service offered by the phone company representative without
complete understanding of the usefulness or the cost of the services.
While it was a challenge to develop lessons on practicing how to apply
for telephone service, we developed various role play scenarios for
students to practice.  While some students seemed to feel that extra
services was a way to higher quality treatment from the company or an
extra level of status among their peers, most were glad for a lower
phone bill.  
 
Another concern of the students wasn't so much that they didn't know how
to use the phone card itself, but that most of the time, the phone cards
did not give them all the minutes they promised, and were not good for
using more than once.  Sometimes students brought 4-5 cards worth $10.00
each to the class, saying none of them gave any time at all.  We did
role plays on calling the phone card company to demand that the company
give them more minutes when the card did not function properly.  It was
always a big boost to their confidence and a good story for the rest of
the class when students reported how they got the phone card company to
give them more minutes.
 
Phil Anderson
philip.anderson at fldoe.org
Adult ESOL Program Specialist
Division of Workforce Education
Florida Department of Education
325 West Gaines Street Room 644
Tallahassee, FL  32399
Tel (850) 245-9450



 

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 ________________________________

	From: Bryan Woerner [mailto:bwoerner at cal.org] 
	Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 10:59 AM
	To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
	Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2105] Re: teaching pre-paid phone
cards
	
	

	

	Hello Dottie,
	 
	I've found that most of my students (and many of my American
born friends) run up huge bills because they don't understand what
they're being charged for. Most phone companies usually have pamphlets
on "How to read my bill" - but they only send those out when you start
the service. Here is ATT's http://www.consumer.att.com/bill/sample.html.
	 
	FCC also has an online sample bill
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/phonebills/samplePhonebill.html
	 
	Another resource I've found helpful is MoneyInstructor.com. It
has plenty of materials and lessons you can use to teach money and money
management skills. http://www.moneyinstructor.com/  Some of the
resources are free, the rest you have to pay for, but it's worth the
membership ~$30 a year.
	 
	Bryan
	Center for Applied Linguistics
	 
	
________________________________


	From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Dottie
	Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 2:35 PM
	To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
	Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2103] teaching pre-paid phone cards

	 

	Colleagues -- I need ideas for a lessons on using pre-paid phone
cards!

	 

	Our agency is having a bit of a problem with a few of our adult
refugee clients running up HUGE phone bills.

	When we have  their phones installed, we get "local access"
only, but some have managed to get their service changed to include
unlimited services (including international long-distance).  The agency
pays the refugees phone & other utilities for 3 mos., but NOT $700 phone
bills!  

	 

	Most of the refugees use international phone cards to "call
home".  Now the agency bosses want me to cover the issue in our "Basics
for the U. S." classes (money; drinking/driving laws; carseats; 9-1-1;
job safety, etc.).  

	 

	I've never used phone cards, so I'll need to learn the basics
myself, but I could use some suggestions for teaching.

	 

	Thanks!

	 

	Dottie Shattuck

	ELT coordinator

	Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

	Charlotte, NC
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