<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><DIV>I find in my community college ESL reading classes that men tend to prefer non-fiction to fiction more than women, and I think I've seen research to back this up for native speakers too. But I think men may be more more sensitive to the loss of status that comes with being a new immigrant in a new culture. I know in talking with my students that many of them say the patriarchs of the family often suffer the most adjustment problems. As bad as things may have been in their own countries they were still respected, but once in a new country they will usually have to take a job lower in social status, and not be able to protect and support their family as they want because of a lack of language skills and cultural capital. So they may, indeed, feel that children's books
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<DIV>I think that's why it makes a lot of sense to have a wide variety of reading materials available to students, and not rely on only one type. If students feel they have options, then they will be more likely to be open to new types of reading materials. Obviously, if your students are all women (or men) who want to read stories to their children then they may all want to read children's books. And it is true there are some children's books out there that you would never know are children's books unless someone told you. But I think we need to be sensitive to all our students. If it's the men complaining about this, then maybe that tells us we need to be more aware of the men in our classrooms.</DIV>
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<DIV>Theresa Pruett-Said</DIV>
<DIV>Macomb Community College</DIV>
<DIV>Michigan<BR></DIV>
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<B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">From:</SPAN></B> KRISTA K ANDERSON <KKANDERSON@burnsville.k12.mn.us><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">To:</SPAN></B> The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List <englishlanguage@nifl.gov><BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Sent:</SPAN></B> Friday, December 5, 2008 8:34:50 PM<BR><B><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Subject:</SPAN></B> [EnglishLanguage 3257] Re: I don't understand the current thinking behind teaching reading to adults!<BR></FONT><BR>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=Tahoma color=#000000 size=2>First, I find it interesting that the most critical voices in this discussion are men.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=tahoma size=2>One reason I use children's books once in a while is that my students who are parents are very interested in reading to their children, especially the moms. I also try to emphasize reading books at home in their native language, and not only English, but they are quite interested in reading to their kids, and in being able to read books their kids bring home from school. Also, some of my students don't read in their own language, or sometimes children's books in certain languages may be hard to come by.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT face=tahoma size=2>Krista Anderson</FONT></DIV>
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