Oh my!  I remember back in 1992, one of our sister college's, Richland
College, received a substantial grant to implement a VESL program, and
the training was opened to all ESOL practitioners of our district. 
Vocational English as a Second Language was ESL with handouts of
activities strictly related to work vocabulary, setting, and support.  I
remember that the intake instrument was in Spanish and in other
languages (Vietnames, Urdu, etc.) and that the majority of the questions
were about the students' past experiences as a worker and level of
English.  The test used for the project was an aural/picture test.  I
have a master's in ESOL and my degree at the time did not help with
VESL.  I felt I was going to have to learn all about workplace
vocabulary and employment and I did not have time for it.  The group
that stayed with the program was provided VESL teacher training and the
program ran for about two years.  

Now that I am involved in leading workforce ESL, I can say that VESL
was much more complex, the teaching was harder and the regulations for
the program quite stacked.

Maria Caratini Prado
Eastfield College
Mesquite (Dallas) Texas


>>> Janet Isserlis <Janet_Isserlis at brown.edu> 7/24/2008 12:43 PM >>>

VESL is an old, old term that many of us used in the late 80's/90's, to
talk
about Vocational ESL - up to and including language/culture connected
to
employment for those not yet in the workplace.  A cottage industry, of
sorts, had sprung up to develop and publish materials - partially in
response to the influx of refugees from Southeast Asia.

Some of the work that came out of this, like Thomas Jupp's Industrial
English, and a lot of the work that Heide Wrigley was (and is) doing
has
been great.

Other pieces have fallen by the wayside, as things will do.

Janet Isserlis



From: Barbara Tondre <btondre at earthlink.net>
Reply-To: The Workplace Literacy Discussion List <workplace at nifl.gov>
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:28:52 -0500
To: <agallup at essentiallanguage.com>, 'The Workplace Literacy
Discussion
List' <workplace at nifl.gov>
Subject: [Workplace 1536]  VESL

Amber*s use of the term VESL caught my attention.  Business and
industry is
beginning to use this term but I*m not sure what they mean by it.  Do
we
dare include defining this term in our discussion?
 
Barbara Tondre 
 


From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov]
On
Behalf Of Amber Gallup
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 3:05 PM
To: The Workplace Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [Workplace 1531] Managing expectations
 
 
       In response to Pat Sawyer's last message -
 
 Several posters have alluded to the challenge of managing the
client's
expectations.  It's common to hear questions like that which Pat
mentioned,
"How many weeks is this going to take?"  I have found that it will take
much
more than one conversation before my clients really begin to
understand
what I'm saying regarding the process and time commitment of language
learning and the goals of the course (which we develop together as much
as
possible through the needs analysis process.)
 
 I have found that the needs analysis itself is useful not only to
identify
students' and workplace needs, but also to bring out into the light of
day
the stakeholders' expectations....which are often unrealistic and/or
conflicting with other stakeholders' expectations.  The needs analysis
process provides an opportunity to do the very important work of
getting all
stakeholders on the same page...it's a little teachable moment.  If
important stakeholders have different ideas of why we're doing this
(say,
union and management) and  how it will impact them....that can deal a
death
blow to a program! 
 
 I always use an example from a electricans' union for which I once
put
together a VESL program when I first began this work:  In the needs
analysis, I did my language task analysis and I interviewed some
workers,
the union leaders, the apprentice coordinator, the organizer, and the
contractor (the "big boss").  I felt good that this part of the needs
analysis had been thorough and everybody shared an understanding of
our
goals.  Yet, by the end of the semester, the otherwise very successful
class
was almost done away with!....why?  Because the workers' foremen (who
were
not getting jobs finished on time because they lost some of their crew
for a
few hours each week) were angry and refusing to let their workers leave
for
the class.  I had neglected to make them part of the process, and
their
differing expectations and needs led to revolt.  We modified the
course
schedule and luckily continued on, but I learned some lessons about
needs
analysis.
 
 Also, I liked Miriam's description of how she did her observations
(language task analysis) BEFORE she interviewed the various
stakeholders.
I'll be using that tip...it's a great idea - because it gives us more
information on which to base our questions to stakeholders, and as Pat
already mentioned, often the management (or HR, or union leader, etc.)
will
just say, "I want them to learn English," and not be able to go much
farther
than that.  
 
 Amber
 
 Amber Gallup      Director, Essential Language
  (202) 234-4565 
  www.essentiallanguage.com 
   <mailto:agallup at essentiallanguage.com>
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
  
 


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