It was an Earthquake, not a Lifequake! We're Lucky!!

It was an Earthquake, not a Lifequake!

As CNN and the other global news organizations rushed to tell the world, a 5.4 earthquake hit Los Angeles yesterday. The earth shook, people got scared, and fears of “the big one” entered the minds of millions. The shaking lasted for almost a minute, many pictures fell from walls and books left their shelves.

Yet nobody was killed, no bridges fell, and very few injuries were reported. This hometown earthquake was, in many ways, a non-event.

It was an earthquake, not a lifequake!

A lifequake, as slang experts and blog readers know, is an event that suddenly changes your life. Being hit by a falling building, injured in a car accident, getting diagnosed with a terrible illness, or losing a job is a lifequake. The 5.4 earthquake spooked many Los Angeles residents, but it was only an earthquake. It wasn’t a lifequake.

Let’s hope that the next earthquake is just as harmless – and lifequakes stay far away!

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P.S. Yesterday’s earthquake reminds Los Angeles residents to prepare for emergencies. Adult schools usually have a mandated lesson on this life skill, but IEP and EFL students could benefit from reviewing safety procedures too.

PPS. The sound “ake” appears in many words in English.

Bake cake fake lake

make take wake shake

quake earthquake milkshake lifequake

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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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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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Raise the roof for adult English Language classrooms!

What do English language learners need to succeed at work, in college, and in life? That's a tough questions with few easy answers.

How many adult immigrants want to improve English language skills? How many adult immigrants need to improve their English? Do current adult education programs provide the language skills so students can enter and survive in community college classrooms? How can we improve the quality of English language classes in adult education programs?

OTAN opens new forum on the transition from adult education to community college.

The forum includes an outstanding collection of recent research studies looking at the numerous obstacles, program needs, and best teaching practices to help adult education – including ESL – student enter and succeed in mainstream college classes. Take a look!

Some of the clear conclusions include:

1. - ESL students can and sometimes do succeed despite many obstacles.
2. - A huge gap remains between students needs and current adult education programs
3. - Only a small percentage of adults who would benefit from English language courses attend free adult education courses in California
4. - ESL students face exceptional barriers and require additional resources
5. - adult education needs far more resources to meet its missions
6. - English classes need to teach broader, deeper language skills
7. - English teachers need far more support
8. - Current funding formulas fail to adequate fund English language programs
9. - adult schools should offer a wider range of courses at far more times
10. - adult education needs to provide more fulltime teaching positions
11. - funding shortages limit the ability of educators to meet student needs
12. - Students need to write and speak better to realize their goals
13. - English remains the passport to the American dream for immigrants

“California’s Commitment to Adult English Learners: Caught Between Funding and Need”, an excellent study written by Arturo Gonzalez for the Public Policy Institute of California (2007) also details these problems with considerable tact. Focusing on the outdated and inadequate funding structure, the report documents the conflict between large classes – needed for attendance – and quality language instruction. It also notes the tension between providing minimum educational services for California immigrants and the fiscal costs of exceeding their allotted caps for enrollment. The report warns that “Without a change in the funding formula, the conflict between funding and mission may result in a long-term decline in the quality of instruction and diminish the pace of immigrant integration.”

That’s very polite language for a tragic bottomline: our current adult ESL programs provide too little help to too few students for too short a time. The standards are too low, and the standardized tests only measure passive skills like listening and reading under the rubric of “life skills.” Far too many adult ESL programs currently fail to meet the student needs to master enough language to enter and succeed community college, earn enough money, or realize their American dreams. If current funding formulas don’t change, the huge gap between the official ambitions of adult education programs and the actual classroom realities will grow far worse.

Immigration, especially illegal immigration, remains a very hot and heated political issue – in California and across the United States. Yet helping immigrants, both documented and undocumented, learn English should bring everyone together. Immigrants want to join the national family and need to learn English. The current naturalization law mandates that immigrants “read, write, and speak English” before becoming citizens.

Let’s help adult immigrants take that huge step by expanding and deepening English language classes. English language learners win, English language teachers win, program administrators win, and California residents win when everybody shares a common language.

Let’s raise the roof on English language programs – in California and around the United States!