In my 15 year experience in the classroom and as a student in education classrooms spanning the same time,  the optimal number for special populations has been cited at around 15.  This means there is time for the teacher to interact with each student and increases time on task. 50 in a class is far too much for such an interactive necessity as language learning, unless the person who told you believes that learning a language is a passive process akin to watching t.v.(which it is not). In any conversation with a professional educator who knows the research that I have had, the understanding is that lower class size matters greatly, and this goes for all populations (and especially if you are talking K-12, ESL, and Special Ed.)

Wm. Peter MacMonagle, M.Ed. 
Central Piedmont Community College 
West Campus 2219
Community Development/Workplace Basic Skills 
704-330-4668 

Murphy's Law of Possibility: All things are possible 
except skiing through a revolving door. 



-----Original Message-----
From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Ronna
Sent: Wed 1/18/2006 4:21 PM
To: 'The Workplace Literacy Discussion List'
Subject: [Workplace] Optimal number of students in a classroom
 
Help me please.... I'm working with this organization that insists that they
had an ESL teacher who told them that you can effectively teach 50 people at
a time.  I've been teaching workplace ESL and regular ESL for 15 years,
doing teacher training AND have a masters in TESOL and have never heard
that.  She really frustrated me, so I need some facts/research about the
optimal number of students in a low level ESL classroom.  At the university,
we never had more than 25.  In the workplace, I never allow more than 30 to
sign up.  

Please help and THANKS!!!!


------------------------------------
Workplace ESL Solutions
Ronna Timpa
Author, Leader & Motivator
ronna at WorkplaceESL.com
tel: (702) 873-3520
fax: (702) 896-5689
mobile: (702) 812-2161
------------------------------------

-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.14.19/231 - Release Date: 1/16/2006
 

----------------------------------------------------
National Insitute for Literacy
Workplace Literacy mailing list
Workplace at nifl.gov
To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/workplace

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 4096 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/workplace/attachments/20060119/c578c0e9/attachment.bin