<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>I love this statement <STRONG>that only the learner can decide what is</STRONG> <STRONG>meanigful!!</STRONG></DIV>
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<DIV>We had a student who wanted to read children's books so that he could read to his own child because his wife, who could read English, was reading to their daughter and he wanted to do it. We need to make our material relevant to the learner's needs. If that material is a child's book, so be it. </DIV>
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<DIV> We cannot, however, insist that a student read a book that they find childish or ridiculous in their mind. Adult learners usually do not have to be in a class and they do not complain; they let us know they are disatisfied by not coming to class.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Barb Sabaj</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><BR>--- On <B>Wed, 12/3/08, Steve Kaufmann <I><steve@thelinguist.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid">From: Steve Kaufmann <steve@thelinguist.com><BR>Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3218] Re: I don't understand the current thinking behind teaching reading to adults!<BR>To: "The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List" <englishlanguage@nifl.gov><BR>Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008, 9:28 AM<BR><BR>
<DIV id=yiv508201392>I do not understand why teachers are deciding which books their students should read and listen to. We know that the brain learns best from meaningful, relevant abd enjoyable content. Only the learner can decide what is meaningful and enjoyable. <BR><BR>Today, with all of the resources available in libraries and on the internet, it should be possible to help students find content that is of interest to them. That is probably more important than any explicit instruction on how to read, or teacher directed discussions of elements of the culture, that may or may not be of interest to learners.<BR><BR>I certainly would never use children's books to learn another language. But for those people who like them, fine. I am also not interested in having a teacher select which elements of the new culture to present to me. As an adult, I prefer to start my learning with audio and text material from normal adult daily life, since that
context is familiar to me. From that starting point, I gradually explore the culture on my own terms. In most languages there is no shortage of such material to choose from, and in English such resources are particularly abundant.<BR><BR>
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<BLOCKQUOTE style="MARGIN: 1.5em 0pt">--<BR>Regards, <BR><BR>Steve Kaufmann<BR><A href="http://www.lingq.com/" target=_blank rel=nofollow>www.LingQ.com</A><BR>1-604-922-8514<BR><IMG style="BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; FLOAT: left; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; WIDTH: 75px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 10px; BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; HEIGHT: 75px" height=75 alt=LingQ src="http://www.thelinguist.com/media/2008/LingQ_logo_120.jpg" width=75> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>The future of language </BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR>----------------------------------------------------<BR>National Institute for Literacy<BR>Adult English Language Learners mailing list<BR><A href="mailto:EnglishLanguage@nifl.gov" target=_blank rel=nofollow>EnglishLanguage@nifl.gov</A><BR>To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to <A href="http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage" target=_blank
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