Very nicely explained Wayne.  I will be thoughtful about sharing your
thoughts with our students.  I think this description would be most
helpful for students in understanding their own language acquisition
struggles so they can proceed with confidence when setting explicit
goals.   Thank you

 

Sheryl Rogel
English Instructor
Bates Technical College
1101 Yakima Ave S
Tacoma, WA   98498
253-680-7267 

"Every study of young writers I've done in the last twenty years has
underestimated what they can do; in fact, we know very little about the
human potential for writing."  Donald Graves

 

________________________________

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Wayne Hall
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 1:46 AM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2371] Re: advancing competency

 

A paradigm that I have used with advanced adult students of English in
Korea is to tell them that learning a language is a bit like being in a
small boat on a body of water. When students first begin learning a
language, it's a bit like being in a small boat that is passing midway
down a narrow stream. As the boat moves forward, the banks of the stream
are passing by, so it is easy for the learner/traveller to have a sense
of progress, and a sense of where they are going. 

 

When you become an advanced student, however, you have a problem...the
small stream has opened up into an "ocean" of English. There are no
"banks of the stream" anymore; nothing to give you a reference point or
a sense of direction. The language you've learned is now an ocean...it
goes on forever, and you can "move" and "see" in any possible direction.
However, it is now very difficult to have a sense of progress or a sense
of direction. You can move your boat over to the region of legalisms and
legal English, for example, and study those for a while...but when you
finish, there is still something else to learn. And there always will
be. 

 

So what does an advanced learner do? They have to develop new tools to
give themselves a reference point and be able to determine where they
are going and how they are progressing. They need a "nautical chart": a
set of explicit goals, means to achieve those goals, and ways or
milestones to measure your progress. Then we go through an exercise
where the students have to develop five very explicit, specific goals
ffor language acquisition, and how they will achieve those goals. For
example, one student decided she wanted to learn the names of all the
Italian spices, and what dishes they are used in.

 

Wayne Hall

Global Language School

Gumi, Korea

Holly Dilatush <holly at dilatush.com> wrote:

	Hello Sheryl, all,

	a quick response now, maybe more later --

	But setting written specific goals and then developing a rubric
(with input from learner and facilitator/instructor on observed
error/challenge patterns) --

	then ensuring that the rubric is understood, then editing
paragraphs with a focus on ONLY one rubric item at a time, repeatedly --


	challenge the learner to take one paragraph, edit it looking
ONLY for ONE of the errors she/he is trying to correct, 

	then have it reviewed by instructor, then edited / perfected
again for that ONE error only.

	Then repeat with another paragraph and another and another until
learner feels more confident in that skill (this may be a day, days,
weeks; varying per learner), then POST a written dated track record of
progress, and tackle the next item -- I've noticed in informal research
that this method yields positive results, measurable results, and is a
motivator, and often rapid incremental progress noted, with fewer
backslides than other approaches.

	 

	must dash, hope this makes some sense and is helpful in some way
-- will try to post/share a sample rubric later,

	Holly 

	On Fri, May 9, 2008 at 3:29 PM, Sheryl Rogel
<srogel at bates.ctc.edu> wrote:

	Greetings.  I am new to this blogging world; thus, I may be not
applying
	this form correctly as I am just 'replying to all' via my email.
	
	I am quite interested in the how teachers advance the language
of higher
	level learners of English.  In my regular college prep English
courses,
	I work with a few students each quarter at this level, and in
the last
	week I have been introduced to two young, 14 year old, Chinese
students
	attending a local private school who want to advance their
English this
	summer.
	
	They have been excellent students in their Chinese schools and
their
	thinking shows depth and much of their speaking and writing in
our
	language is delightful --- similar to our high school and adult
	students.   However, their writing also reflects a variety of
	misunderstandings about sentence structure and verb and
preposition
	choices, as well as a lack of depth in vocabulary, i.e. overuse
of words
	such as 'good' - 'nice' - words that appear in primary school
readers.
	They are asked to write page+ long assignments and the
misunderstandings
	continue to pile up until we must ask,  "Where do we start?"
	
	Any suggestions focusing on strategies, lessons, and/or ideas
that have
	been successful in advancing English competency would be
welcomed.
	Thank you.
	
	
	Holly (Dilatush)
	
	holly at dilatush.com
	(434) 960.7177 cell phone
	(434) 295.9716 home phone
	[OK to call 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. EST / GMT -5 time]
	
	"As soon as we begin to generalize, we fail to have meaningful
dialogue." (Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt, 2008)
	
	"Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope,
seek awe and nurture in nature."
	
	www.tales-around-the-world.blogspot.com
<http://www.tales-around-the-world.blogspot.com/> 
	www.abavirtual-learningcenter.org
<http://www.abavirtual-learningcenter.org/>  

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