Such an interesting and stimulating discussion!  I have long been fascinated
with why some second language learners do so much better than others.  I did
my Master's thesis on language learning strategies years ago, and I
interviewed students on how they approached learning a second language.
These were students in an academic prep setting, so they were already used
to the idea of studying, but still the differences were vast.  Some just
expected it to come to them, depending on their class time and teacher
knowledge and teacher led activities.  Others had elaborate strategies that
they had set up on their own, which included things like carrying a small
notebook for questions and vocab words, watching the same weekly TV show so
that they could get into the plot and characters and start to understand the
language better, and even tapping into a friendly native speaker as a
resource for cultural and grammatical explanations.  They were risk takers
also, who were not afraid to make mistakes or look a little foolish.  They
tended to be more gregarious, but not always and that wasn't the one crucial
element or anything.  It was a combination of desire and personality and the
ability to deal with the language in an abstract manner, and then
translating that into active strategies of their own.  Sometimes it seemed
that the actual strategy mattered less than the desire to be active in this
whole language learning experience.

So - what's this have to do with adult ed?  It has influenced my teaching a
great deal.  I try to teach and talk about language learning strategies in a
very direct way, while still respecting each individual's learning and
interacting preferences.  I build them into the classwork when possible.
And of course, I make sure learners know why we are doing something - that
it's not just busy work, or fun at board games, but what I expect they will
practice and learn from this and what strategies they can use from this
activity after they leave the classroom.
As for goal setting - that's a tough one.  Adult learners can rarely
articulate goals!  I agree, they seem to start to lose confidence in me and
in the class if I ask them what they want to do - what kind of teaching is
that, they wonder.  So I get at goals in a round about way, after getting to
know them.  We look over the South Dakota Competencies for their level and
talk about the categories.  I suggest goals based on what they have told me
and see what makes students light up.  Or we vote as a class on what to work
on first.  Low level learners can vote with sticky notes on pictures if that
works best.

And then after that it is a matter of balancing grammar with language for
communication, and weaving them together and meeting the needs of the
student who wants more structure and grammar without losing the student who
is lost by too much grammar.  Hoo - whee, isn't adult ed fun!

Hope this wasn't too far off topic - it is all exciting stuff.

Missy Slaathaug
Pierre SD
On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 11:43 PM, <robinschwarz1 at aol.com> wrote:


> Two questions have come up off list about non-literate adults that I think

> the list might find interesting.

>

> One had to do with the difficulty for a tutor of trying to teach "correct

> English" as well as achieve conversational goals with the learner.  There

> are several parts to this question.  I, too, was completely puzzled by this

> two-headed objective when I first arrived in adult ESOL and found it totally

> frustrating.  I had just spent over 30 years teaching English as a second or

> foreign langauge-- so the purpose of teaching was teaching ENGLISH-- so

> specific communicative goals were added.  It was assumed that as the English

> proficiency grew, communication needs would get met.

>

> However,  I have come to appreciate that adult ESOL learners do have

> communicative goals that they need to meet.   My recent forays back into

> second language acquisition literature about adults only reinforces my own

> belief that it is very difficult to try to achieve communication goals while

> trying to teach English as a language at the same time.    I have only

> encountered one school that managed to do both realistically.  It has a

> circular curriculum overlaid on proficiency levels.  Learners go through the

> entire curriculum at a given proficiency level;  when they move up, the

> curriculum is the same, but the English structures talking about it are more

> complex.

>

> As for OTHER places and tutoring, my preference is this:  Learner's actual

> learning goals and needs MUST drive the teaching.  If the learner for

> example, needs to be able to talk to parents coming to pick up children at

> the day care center where she works, then the tutor's work is clear:  All

> lessons will be designed around that need-- and will include actual

> instruction in language only insofar as the learner requires it.  If

> millenia of language learning are correct, out of the ability to communicate

> with the parents, co-workers and the children, the adult learner will

> acquire language skills that will gradually generalize and will prompt him

> or her to need or want more.

>

> I know this will run counter to the movement to develop standards for

> adult ESOL etc., but adult ESOL is not a foreign language class.  Learners

> are there for specific purposes ( even if they won't say anything more than

> " I need to speak English better"--there is a specific need there somewhere

> that must be uncovered.) and teaching them the present continuous or how to

> use pronouns correctly often does not get at their needs quickly enough for

> them.  Then they leave.....

>

> And that brings us to the second question-- How is it that some people

> "pick up language" so well even though they have never been to school?

> One does not have to have formal education to speak a language

> competently.  Children often speak their native language extremely

> competently before they have had formal schooling of any kind.   I know my

> own did.   Again, the literature I have been reading would suggest that how

> well one learns to speak a language has far more to do with where and how

> much one listens to it, who is speaking it and for what reason and how much

> one uses the language than with formal instruction in the forms of it.    In

> other words, it does not require education to be an aggressive language

> learner with an inquiring mind.   I think one of the greatest weaknesses of

> many adult ESOL learners is that they do not know this.

>

> One of the factors that hinders progress for some is culture.  If your

> learners' cultural attitude towards teaching and learning is that the

> teacher knows all and students know nothing, then they are not likely to

> become  aggressive language learners.    When you ask your learners for

> goals and they give you blank looks, more than likely they are thinking that

> YOU are the TEACHER--AREN'T YOU supposed to know what it is we are supposed

> to learn?

>

> This attitude is almost the opposite of what we really WANT adult learners

> to have-- but many of our learners need to learn how to become active

> learners--and  especially active LANGUAGE learners.  When Tom Woods talked

> about how he discusses Spanish versus English with his student, he is

> showing the student that knowing about these differences is helpful in

> figuring out what to say and how to say it.   It is REALLY important to

> realize this and to help learners understand little by little how they can

> help themselves learn.  This does NOT mean assigning them homework (

> especially by saying things like, "Why don't you look over these words?"  )

> and then when they don't do it, blaming them for not becoming actively

> engaged in the learning process.   (Another of my collected quotes " They

> just don't engage in the learning process, do they?")

>

> It means teaching them how to learn and how it will help them-- by having

> them demonstrate for themselves that it works.  If you do not do this, they

> will sit and wait for you to pour information into their heads, I guarantee

> it. .

>

> This is getting long-- I will add more in another posting.   Robin

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

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