I have discussed and described our VESL program at the San Diego Community
College Continuing Education program with Heide and others.  If you would
like a description of our VESL program, go to www.sdce.edu and type VESL in
the search box.  Click on the first link and you'll get a description and
schedule of our program.  Then go back to the VESL page and read the
testimonials by students.  They're very encouraging.
In our program, we do 'cluster' VESL.  Because of the attendance policy our
district has of requiring 26 students in class every day, we had to put VESL
students together.  Here's a typical class:
The classes are usually 3 hours.  The class consists of students who are high
beginning and above level ESL (about a 211 on CASAS reading).  The students
want to go to the vocational classes, but their basic English skills are too
low.  Some of the classes they want to attend are welding, business
information technology, certified nursing assistant and child care worker.
Other students have jobs and want to move up in their jobs.  Others want to
get a job in retail or food service.  The first 1 1/2 hours, the VESL class
is a pretty typical ESL class, including listening, speaking, reading and
writing, but the theme is the world of work.  The topics would include how to
make small talk, taking criticism, attitudes, etc.  The techniques would be
whole group, small group and paired practice using cooperative learning
activities.  The last 1 1/2 hours students work individually or are put in
groups by their career field and they work on curriculum specifically for
their field.  Most of this curriculum can be found on the OTAN (www.otan.us)
website. Most of the curriculum modules include computer work, videotapes,
language master card activities, worksheets and some interactive work.  When
they complete their modules, they give a speech (a big deal is made of this
graduation--we video tape it and invite the deans and president) and they go
to the vocational class or hopefully get a job or go to ABE classes to get
more basic skills.
This is a very quick description.  If you want more information, contact me
directly off list at dprice at sdccd.edu.
Donna Price
VESL Coordinator
San Diego Community College Continuing Education Program
________________________________

From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Wrigley, Heide
Sent: Thu 7/24/2008 5:48 PM
To: The Workplace Literacy Discussion List; agallup at essentiallanguage.com
Subject: [Workplace 1549] Re: VESL and such



Hi, Barbara and all 

 

I'm weaving in and out of the discussion so forgive me but here are my
thoughts on VESL 

 

Ah, yes - definitions. Trying to come up with a definition of VESL brings to
mind the exchange between Humpty Dumpty and Alice in Wonderland

Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean -
neither more nor less.
Alice: The question is, whether you can make words mean so many different
things.
Humpty Dumpty: The question is: which is to be master - that's all.

 

Through the years, I've seen VESL (Vocational English as a Second Language)
defined in various ways, including the following

 

# 1. An ESL support class that is attached to a vocational or occupational
skills class and where the ESL instructor and the vocational skills
instructor coordinate to some extent. Quite often, the major burden is on the
ESL instructor, and the vocational skills instructor may pass on vocabulary
lists or lesson plans, but as a rule the occupational skills instructor does
not change his/her curriculum or teaching approach very much. 

 

# 2.  An integrated class where ESL and job skills are well coordinated and
both the ESL teacher and the occupational skills instructor are expected to
work closely together either in an I-BEST model where the classes are team
taught or in a coordinated model where the classes are taught separately but
the curriculum is jointly developed. This model is often called "embedded
training" in the UK or in Australia or New Zealand, 

 

# 3. An occupation or industry specific ESL class that serves as a bridge
class to training - sometimes called "cluster VESL" 

 

# 4. An employment general (or employment-oriented) class that teaches
English for Work focusing on the kind of English communication and literacy
skills that students are likely to need in any job (e.g., explaining a
problem; understanding or giving instructions; dealing with difficult people,
working in teams; dealing with forms; understanding how workplaces tend to
work; advocating for self and others; etc. Such a class may or may not have
an employability and career exploration component (as might the other models)

 

# 5. Any form of ESL taught in a workplace or union hall. 

I tend to use definition (1) or (2) when talking about VESL but I
increasingly hear employers refer to workplace ESL classes (# 5) as VESL
classes

 

Heide

 

Heide Spruck Wrigley

Mesilla, NM 

 

 

 

From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov] On
Behalf Of Barbara Tondre
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 8:29 AM
To: agallup at essentiallanguage.com; 'The Workplace Literacy Discussion List'
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

 

 

 

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