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CAELA Currents April 2006
April Articles CAELA Activities: Ask a Simple Question... State Capacity-Building Meetings Engaging Immigrant Seniors in Community Service and Employment Programs CAELA Activities: Ask A Simple Question... CAELA staff members are involved in a number of activities that include preparing reports and research briefs; supporting state teams through telephone calls, emails, and regional meetings; disseminating information and resources at conferences and workshops; and moderating the electronic discussion list (Adult English Language Learners Discussion List, accessible at http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/Englishlanguage) for practitioners who work with adult English language learners. An important role that CAELA plays is responding to questions from state teams and the field. In the past few months we have responded to dozens of questions on topics related to adult ESL teaching and learning. Questions range from how best to provide feedback on learners’ writing to what information is available on teaching and assessing math literacy, to whether there are studies on setting English language standards in the workplace. As an example: Question: What statistics are available on the training and education levels of adult ESL teachers? Answer: One recent study about adult educators and reading instruction surveyed 208 adult education practitioners (77.9% were teachers, 16.8% were program supervisors or coordinators) and found that 21.6% had certification in elementary education, 5.8% in secondary education. 26.9% had certification in more than one area, and 17.3% had no certification ( Bell, Ziegler, & McCallum, April 2004, “What adult educators know compared with what they say they know about providing research-based reading instruction,” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 47:7, 542-563.) To find more information on the topic and to follow the steps CAELA followed click here: Searching public access Web sites Responding to questions about adult ESL education can be a complex and challenging process, but we welcome the opportunity to think about new questions and consider old issues in new ways. If you have a question about adult English language learners or adult ESL education, please do not hesitate to ask us (caela@cal.org), and we will do our best to find an answer for you. Two New CAELA Briefs English Literacy and Civics Education cal-org.wdi.net/caela/esl_resources/briefs/elcivics.html This brief provides concrete examples of how teachers can develop EL/Civics education that is appropriate for learners at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of English proficiency. Many online resources for EL/Civics education are also identified. Promoting the Success of Multilevel ESL Classes: What Teachers and Administrators Can Do
This brief discusses instructional strategies for teachers of multilevel classes, including needs assessment, lesson planning, grouping strategies, using native languages, project-based learning and thematic instruction, and using self-access materials. It also outlines strategies for program administrators to help teachers, who need support from administrators in order to successfully serve the learners in their classes. Upcoming CAELA Briefs The following briefs will be available in the coming months:
TESOL 2006 The 40th Annual TESOL Convention was held in Tampa, FL, March 14-18, 2006. CAELA staff participated in a number of presentations, which are summarized here. ESOL in Adult Education: Perspectives on the Adult Immigrant Experience Today Presentations in this session focused on the adult immigrant experience and implications for adult ESL instruction. Research on adult immigrants in Australia and New Zealand. Former TESOL president, Dr. Denise Murray, a professor at Macquarie University, in Ryde, Australia, noted that recent immigrants in Australia and New Zealand face similar issues to those of immigrants in the United States. For more information on this presentation, click here. Language, culture, and families in Ontario, Canada. Constantine Ioannou of the Ottawa –Carleton District School Board ( Canada) spoke about working with family literacy programs in Canada and gave the suggestions for those working in these programs. For more information about this presentation, click here. Immigration, naturalization, and citizenship in the United States. Linda Taylor of CASAS and Lynne Weintraub, a consultant in Amherst, Massachusetts, spoke about issues related to immigration. Ms. Taylor gave figures about recent immigrants For more information about this presentation, click here. Ms. Weintraub described issues related to the naturalization process. For more information on this presentation, click here. Research on adult English language learners. Miriam Burt of the Center for Adult English Language Acquisition reminded participants of the importance of research in an era in which teachers must demonstrate that they use evidence-based practices in their instruction and must show that students are making gains in language proficiency. For more information on this presentation, click here.
Using Program Quality Standards to Evaluate Adult ESL Programs Joy Peyton, CAELA, and Gretchen Bitterlin, San Diego Community Colleges, presented a session on program quality standards that describe the important components of a program that will lead to learner achievement as outlined in content, performance, and proficiency standards. For more information on this presentation, click here. From Individual Workshops to Systematic Professional Development Miriam Burt and Kirsten Schaetzel (CAELA) led a discussion group focused on how systematic professional development differs from “one-shot” trainings and described the research showing that systematic professional development is more beneficial. For more information on this discussion group, click here. Using Study Circles for Professional Development Kirsten Schaetzel led a discussion group on study circles and how to implement them. For more information on this discussion group, click here.
Using Volunteers in the Adult ESL Class In this discussion group, Sarah Young (CAELA), gave participants an opportunity to share experiences and ideas on the variety of ways in which volunteer tutors, teachers, and teaching assistants are used in adult ESL programs. For more information on this discussion group, click here. Interactive Student-Generated Questioning Techniques Sarah Young also gave a demonstration session of a popular and effective speaking activity, known by its ESL class name as “The Hot Seat.” For information on this technique, click here.
State Capacity-Building Meetings CAELA seeks to improve the capacity of states to provide technical assistance to professional developers and teachers of adult English language learners. A major activity supporting this goal is annual capacity-building workshops conducted by CAELA staff for state teams of ESL professionals. The second series of annual workshops was held this March and April, and nearly 100 adult ESL specialists, professional developers, and teachers from 24 states attended. The first two workshops were held this March in Las Vegas, Nevada and Houston, Texas. A third workshop was held in April in Baltimore, Maryland. The chart below shows the states that teams represent.
Engaging Immigrant Seniors in Community Service and Employment Programs CAELA staff members have teamed up with Senior Service America to create a resource for organizations that assist immigrant seniors entering or re-entering the workforce. Engaging Immigrant Seniors in Community Service and Employment Programs: A Guide for Providers is intended to provide guidance for the staff of Senior Community Service Employment Programs (SCSEP, a U.S. Department of Labor project that subsidizes part-time employment for low-income seniors), workforce development agencies, agencies on aging, and other providers of services to older adults. The guide provides background information on immigrant seniors in the United States and the services available to them from SCSEP and partner organizations, and gives practical advice for employees of such organizations for working with seniors from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. Several chapters give useful advice on how to facilitate interactions between immigrant seniors and the SCSEP staff members who work with them. One chapter outlines nine scenarios that examine issues that may occur in work situations, such as an immigrant senior not wanting to let his supervisor and co-workers know that he does not understand a task or what is being said to him. The materials are designed to be used either for self-study or as exercises for program staff, and aim to encourage staff members to think about how they would respond to the scenarios outlined. The last chapter gives references and resources for staff of SCSEP programs and partner organizations. Engaging Immigrant Seniors is available from Senior Service America, Inc., (301) 578-8900, www.seniorserviceamerica.org. CAELA Web Site Coming Soon A number of new resources, links, and tools are being developed on the CAELA Web site. For example, the links sections for instructors ( cal-org.wdi.net/caela/tools/instructional/links.html ) and program development ( cal-org.wdi.net/caela/tools/program_development/links.html ) have been reviewed and updated following the criteria CAELA staff developed. The research links section is still under development. The Tools sections for instructors and for program development are being developed and linked to resources both on the site and from other online and print resources. For example, based on feedback from the CAELA trainings, the instructor and program development tools sections will include brief scenarios that can help practitioners narrow down and decide which resources will be most useful for them. Below is an example of how we plan to integrate a typical adult ESL scenario and the resources on the CAELA Web site. Situation: A rural section of a state has seen a recent, rapid increase in adult immigrants, who have come to the area to take entry-level jobs at a meat-packing plant. Until now, the small adult education center has offered only adult basic education (ABE) and General Education Development (GED) preparation classes. Immigrants who wanted to study took the ABE class. Now, there are enough adult English language learners to support a class, so one of the ABE teachers—a former middle-school math teacher—has agreed to teach the class. It will be 7 months before the yearly adult education conference, and the ESL class begins in 3 weeks. How the CAELA Web site can help: Through the CAELA Web site, the teacher can begin learning independently about adult ESL. First, she can visit Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) under ESL Resources (cal-org.wdi.net/caela/esl_resources/faqs.html). While all 18 FAQs are relevant to a novice, for this teacher the most immediately pertinent FAQs may be these: 7. What are the characteristics of adults learning English in the United States? 8. How do adult English language learners differ from adult basic education learners? 9. What instructional practices best meet the needs of adult English language learners? 10. How long does it take an adult to learn English? 12. How can I find out more about teaching English as second language? 18. What do beginning adult ESL teachers and tutors need to know? Each FAQ cites briefs, digests, and other resources relevant to the specific topic. Having become familiar with these FAQs, the teacher can then make use of the following resources:
The teacher also can subscribe to the quarterly online newsletter CAELA Currents (cal-org.wdi.net/caela/subscribe.html) and the adult ESL electronic discussion list (http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html). The newsletter will help connect the novice to current activities in the field. The electronic discussion list can provide a forum for communicating with approximately 800 adult (mostly) ESL practitioners from across the country and around the world. Finally, the teacher can use the CAELA Web site for a systematic and focused course of self-study.In fact,throughout the process of her self-education, the novice teacher can use the CAELA Web site as a way to methodically develop her professional knowledge of adult ESL—to become, in effect, her own teacher. Here are some of the things she can do:
After trying out a new activity in the classroom, she can reflect upon the experience, asking herself: How did the activity work? What would make it better? Is it worth trying again? Then she can jot down the reflections in the journal.
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