What should every ESL student know?

What should every ESL student know?

Beats me. One size fits all philosophies often seem a bit strange to me. Can anybody really answer this question for every international student and ESL college student in the United States? Really? Don't circumstances, needs, and desires differ?

On the other hand, administrators, teachers, future college students, and current international ESL students constantly face this common question. What should every ESL student know?

Fortunately, braver and more confident souls feel comfortable answering this reasonable question. That's why a small green and purple book, What Every ESL Student Should Know: A Guide to College and University Academic Success, caught my eyes at a recent English teachers' conference in California. Kathy Ochoa Flores, the author, has both more confidence and deeper insight into this essential, yet puzzling, question. In 119 pages, she displays considerable wit while dispensing practical advice to international students and immigrants preparing for college.

"My students always want to know what they should do to learn English," notes Flores in chapter 2. "I tell them to marry an American - one who is a native speaker and rich. That way, they can have someone to practice with every day, and they won't have to worry about working and studying at the same time. Unfortunately, this advice does not work for most of my students."

So Flores goes on to advocate, since many students are already married or too young to get married, to at least make some American friends. In bold print, she argues: "Native English speakers are everywhere. Use them. They are like free tutors." How? Take the bus, sit down next to some nice looking American, and start talking. Seek out the elderly since they tend to have both more free time and might be lonely. Talk to children, meet a school counselor, and ask many questions. "Talk to the telemarketers who call you during dinner time, and ask them lots of questions about their products." I completely agree.

This affordable book provides dozens of these imperative statements followed by detailed advice. Written in a clear manner, the concise format and friendly style make this book a wonderful book for newcomers. Easier to read, smaller in scope, and less than controversial than the popular book What's Up, America?, this book serves a slightly different purpose. Both titles help international students adjust to American college campuses, but What Every ESL Student Should Know focuses more on survival skills. International counselors, orientation coordinators, and even English language schools could provide a real service to their students by including this thin book in their orientation sessions and pre-college materials. The minimum cost will pay for itself by reducing ESL student stress.

Meanwhile, future international students should find it and buy it. This "one size fits all" work offers enough tips to satisfy any ESL student - and even a sceptical ESL university teacher!

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Please speak a bit louder so I can hear you

Student conferences, especially with shy students worried about their grade or academic performance, can often be a bit awkward for both the professor and student. ESL students, sometimes insecure about their pronunciation or vocabulary, can feel particularly anxious. ESL teachers have to find ways to reduce student anxiety, provide a safe place for students to speak, provide feedback on student work, and uphold standards.

In general, I love student conferences because you get a chance to really work with a student on their writings and assignments. I often feel that I learn as much as I teach in these 20-30 minute conferences.

Sometimes, however, I have awkward conferences. If the student has plagiarized, then this can’t be avoided. Those moments, which I dread, can not be avoided. So it goes.

Yet sometimes, as occurred last semester, an ESL student is so shy, so timid, and so unsure that they speak so softly that I can’t even hear. Sometimes I lean forward and ask them to please speak a bit louder. If a student continues in the same low volume, I might apologize for my poor hearing and again request they speak up. What does one do on the third request?

“Please speak a bit louder so I can hear you.”

Was this too direct? I wanted to say, “If I can’t hear you, you will be misunderstood. I want to understand you. Speak up!!”

Patience, this time, paid off. The student raised her voice to an audible level, and replied, “okay.”

“Good to hear you,” I replied. We proceeded to have a productive end of semester conference.

Bottomline: students must speak up in conversations, conferences, and class discussions. Volume matters.

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Investing in quality ESL classes improves daily life

A good society helps its citizens flourish and visitors feel welcome.

A good society also invests in education, including teaching immigrants enough English that they can use their considerable intelligence, creativity, and skills in the workplace.

Unfortunately, low standards in public education have eroded support for government sponsored education programs. Worse, the few underfunded English as a Second Language programs usually provide the most basic English skills. Students learn to listen and read at about 4^th grade level, and speak like a child with a very limited vocabulary.

From my perspective as an English instructor and former adult ESL teacher, the current adult ESL standards too often only teach immigrants passive skills like listening and some minimum reading. English language programs, whether designed for vocational skills or general language, must include speaking and writing. If people can’t hold a conversation in English, their job prospects remain rather limited!

A frontpage article in today’s Los Angeles Times points out the obvious problem. America, or at least Los Angeles and California, have become dangerously dependent on foreign trained labor for many professions from nursing to engineering. Lack of Skilled Workers Will Lead to a Fiscal Crisis noted the headline that spoke for itself. The acute shortage has lead, as so often, to a lower of standards and more workplace problems.

When will the employers and voters decide to invest in real, serious, quality English languages for immigrants? And why are immigrants trained in English programs abroad so much stronger, better, and more effective than the adult ESL programs here? After all, immigrants have many more opportunities to speak English and learn outside of the classroom than students in Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Argentina, or France.

Again, the case for dramatically expanding and raising the standards of our English as a Second Language programs seems clear.

Unfortunately, reason and government policy do not always co-exist in the United States! What about in your country?

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Does Uncle Sam Want Immigrants to Learn English?

Learning to read, write, and speak English remains a legal requirement for legal immigrants to become citizens in the United States. National polls also consistently show that over 80% of American voters favor making English the official national language. Immigrants to English speaking countries like the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia also want to learn more English to gain better jobs, feel more comfortable, talk with doctors and teachers, and a thousand other reasons.

Yet funding for English language classes, especially for adults, remains quite limited. Government programs only help students learn rather basic English, often around 1200 essential words. Students can "pass" all their ESL classes and learn enough English to hold low-level jobs. ESL students learn to listen more than speak, and read more than write. These low standards, by the way, also include a very, very low level definition of "can read, write, and speak" English for citizenship. (More on this subject in future posts.)

Many states, like California, are cutting back on all their education programs. English as a second language classes face even more dramatic cutbacks, partly because the students seldom vote. On one hand, this decision makes perfect sense during economically difficult times. Recessions and economic fears force citizens and governments to make tough choices, and cutting funds for English classes for immigrants - especially undocumented (illegal) immigrants is popular. It's also very short-sighted and counter-productive. America is a stronger, better, and smarter country when we allow immigrants to use their intelligence and creativity, and we develop everyone’s skills.

" Uncle Sam wants you to speak English" reads a popular bumper-sticker. Uncle Sam, the traditional symbol for the United States government, probably does want everyone to speak English. The American people clearly want immigrants to know how to speak English too. A gap exists between vague desires and concrete actions. How will immigrants learn English faster if they are kicked out of school?

I saw this bumper-sticker on the way back from an English teacher's conference again last week. I also wondered about the driver. Does he support helping immigrants learn English? Does he really think immigrants who don't speak English will understand his message? Would a Spanish speaking immigrant, for instance, know who Uncle Sam is? Or is the driver simply stating that immigrants - who might speak two, three, four, or more languages - should only speak English in the United States? Or would he prefer illegal immigrants just leave the country? Was he inviting everyone to share his language and country, urging linguistic unity, or expressing a distrust of people speaking other languages? Would he expect French tourists, Japanese visitors, and international guests to only speak English too? Really?

Unfortunately, I never had a chance to talk with the gentleman who placed this provocative message on his car. I don't really know what he meant by his "Uncle Sam wants you to speak English" bumper-sticker. I hope, however, that he supports adding, not cutting, English language classes. We both would like more people to be able to speak to him and ask him questions in his best language too. How does the driver expect his wish to come true?

Perhaps if "Uncle Sam wants you to speak English", than he could find more ways to help immigrants and refugees learn English!

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Negative headlines and trendlines for ESL in California public schools

Immigrants remain the future . Smart countries invest in their people, including new immigrants seeking to improve their language skills. Enlightened leadership in California, and the entire United States, would invest in teaching English to immigrants .

Yet the gap between "ought" and "is" remains very wide in Bush's America and in California's public schools.

The dollar continues to decline in value. The national budget, seldom balanced, has zoomed deep into mega-debt during the Bush II era with two expensive wars, a deepening recession, and record tax cuts for the wealthy. The California state budget runs at least a $14 billion dollar deficit. Cutbacks in public education, therefore, seem inevitable.

In California, the governor has pushed for a 10% across the board cut in government programs. Adult education, almost always a step-child to K-12 programs, has been hit exceptionally hard as school boards try to minimize the impact. Of course, many adult education students do not vote so elected officials find cuts easier to make. The growing anti-illegal immigrant sentiment has also helped made ESL programs a natural target for budget cutting. The acute need for far more effective, modern, and well-funded programs to restore some standards to public education gets overlooked - again.

These abstract concerns about cutbacks took a very visible shape at the statewide California Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages convention last week. Total attendance was officially down by more than 25% since school districts had few available funds to send administrators, let alone teachers, to the conference. Yet I suspect the real numbers are far, far more dramatic than the reduction from 1600 t0 1200 attendees. Here are some signs of pervasive cutbacks:

• only a single school district recruited teachers
• the exhibition hall seemed like a ghost town
• publishers and vendors were eager to talk about the freezing of public education spending in many districts
• vendors expressed hope that teachers would buy even more supplies from their personal pockets
• many workshops collected rather sparse crowds
• the few job board postings were for summertime Intensive English Programs that attract private, international students
• the mood, despite many fantastic new educational resources and software programs, seemed very downbeat

Perhaps it's unfair to juxtapose a very hectic, chaotic international teachers' convention in New York City with a far smaller state teachers' convention in Sacramento. Yet this year the two ESL teachers' conventions occurred on consecutive weekends. The contrast could not be clearer.

Teaching English, on a global level, continues to dramatically improve and expand. The development of new software for English language learners, better teaching techniques that respect students and encourage authentic communication, and the increase in international educational point to a better tomorrow. Meanwhile, the news from California's public education system, always troubled, seems to worsen almost daily - especially for immigrant students and ESL teachers. The draconian cutbacks will, again, disproportionately fall on English language programs. Instead of helping immigrants join the national family and learn English, lawmakers will maintain low taxes on the wealthy and eliminate vital educational programs for low-income children and adults. Perhaps improved educational technology and the exceptional efforts of ESL teachers will preserve the under-financed system, but the trends seem to be running in the wrong direction.

Teaching at an elite private university in Los Angeles, I could pretend these cutbacks don't matter to me. Yet that's a dangerous illusion. The collapse of public education, especially for immigrants, will have both immediate and long-term consequences. The expanding gap between the wealthy who can afford a truly wonderful 21st century education and the expanding number of under-educated, over-stressed poor indicates a worsening future for too many Californians. As a stoic philosopher Epictetus noted so long ago, "only the educated are free."

As an American, a Californian, and an English teacher, I don't like the trendlines and headlines for American public education. Do you?

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Excellent ESL Teaching resources at TESOL convention

Time flies. Or, as the Romans used to say, "tempus fugit."

Five days after the TESOl convention in New York City ended, I'm finally having a chance to sort through the numerous books, doublecheck website leads, and evaluate materials that I picked up. Sometimes "the eyes are too hungry", and I went a bit overboard in collecting ESL materials and resources for advanced English language learners. Of course, English teachers love books, new curriculum materials, and free ESL materials. I also have the excuse of working as a consultant for a workplace ESL program so I went hunting for some particular products for healthcare workers.

Here is a short list of promising materials:

VSOE ideas from TESOL convention

American Speech Sounds program for Healthcare workers. Also www.eslrules.com has powerful training materials for focused workshops for non-native English speakers working in hospital, clinics, and across the medical field.

- software and textbook designed for foreign doctors and nurses

- great reviews from professional journals (medical, language)

2. Effective Practices in Workplace Language Training (TESOL)
3. Getting Ahead in the US (Living Language) – videotape/textbook series
4. New Citizenship DVD for future naturalization tests. This free DVD, perfect for adult educators, confirms that the new citizenship test will only require a "high beginning" level of ESL to qualify for American citizenship. Personally, I consider this an absurdly low standard that implies new American citizens can speak worse English than at least a half a billion English speakers outside of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
   Of course, low standards have many fans in the world of adult education and with many immigrant groups. More on this topic later.
5. The Center for Applied Linguistics www.cal.org continues to offer wider and deeper variety of resources for ESL teachers, especially for adult education.
6. I had several fascinating conversations about various English competency tests and their possible use in the workplace. The TOEIC test, on its merits, seems the strongest by far. Unfortunately, this test - used by millions in the workplace worldwide - has become almost forbidden due to lawsuits claiming discrimination in the United States. What does this mean? Millions of applicants and employees in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, France, Germany, and other non-English speaking countries have taken this test of English skills. Why? Because English has become a global language and competency in English has become an essential workplace skill.
   
7. But not in the United States! So-called labor and civil rights activists have promoted the concept that requiring English proficiency, as tested by the TOEIC, is discrimination unless the ad explicitly states "English skills required." This strange situation means that American workers can, and so often do , speak at a lower level than educated workers in Asia and Europe. What's wrong with this picture!!!
8. Software programs continue to become stronger day by day, minute by minute. English language learners, international ESL students, and adult ESL educators have more choices than ever. I will spend a solid chunk of time researching these language programs during my summer break. So far, however, it's clear that www.openbookenglish.com and www.spokenskills.com offer great values for administrators, teachers, and students. ESL teachers will also find www.lessonwriter.com a wonderful, innovative, and time-saving site.

More later, but I must return to a large pile of research reports that need grading!

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