Hi --this is in response to the person from Oregon or Washington and to 
Janet Isserlis on another list, both of whose topic was teacher 
professional development and the fear of overloading teachers with 
information.

This topic is near and dear to my heart.  As I indicated in another 
posting today, it is surprising to me that the field of ESL does not 
seem to prepare teachers for the sort of really hard-core learning 
problems that several readers and responders have mentioned.

In another message on one of the NIFL lists the notion of profesisonal 
development qualification standards for teachers in adult education was 
mentioned.

Frankly, what I often see is that it is too common that teachers in 
adult education and adult ESOL education are woefully unqualified to do 
what they do.   Then learners suffer.   My article in FOB indicated 
that in some of those cases, teachers were simply not prepared to ask 
the right questions or to consider the key issues in adult ESOL 
learners' situations that significantly impact the learners' progress 
in their settings.

Those of you who know me, know that I get pretty passionate on this 
topic.  I believe, as do my business partners, Laura Weisel and Al 
Toops, we are supposed to be in business for the learners, not for the 
tutors and teachers in our programs.  In other words, it is not the 
needs and limitations of the teachers or tutors that should drive 
decisions or policies about how our programs run but rather the needs 
of our learners.  I have advocated for years that there need to be 
minimal qualifications for hiring teachers or tutors to teach adult 
ESOL learners.  I can write an entire book-- and someday will-- of 
stories like those in the article where the learner was somehow blamed 
for no progress when in truth the learner's teacher had no idea how to 
address the learner's real needs.

I agree strongly with Janet that it is essential that the nature of 
learning challenges-- of all kinds, including language learning 
challenges-- be constantly put out to teachers and required reading for 
them.    Though I am sure no program is going to fire its tutors 
because I say so, I certainly hope you will consider a far more 
stringent approach to requiring that those already in your employ 
inform themselves about adult learners and adult ESOL learning,  about 
the very most basic principles of language instruction,  about the 
culture of their learners. etc.    Also, program administrators have 
everything to gain by requiring more training for tutors and better 
experience and qualifications for teachers.  In the end, they will be 
more effective and programs with have better outcomes.  The NCSALL 
research project on learner persistence (2005 --at NCSCALL.net) 
indicated that when tutors were better trained, not only were learners 
happier and tended to persist longer, but tutors also persisted because 
they did not feel so helpless in helping those with significant 
learning needs.

Somewhere recently I saw reference to the suggestion or proposal that 
adult education teachers be subject to qualification much as K-12 
teachers are.  This can only be a good thing for our learners.

And as for LD issues, I know for a well-documented fact that having a 
tutor or teacher who is well meant and kind but does not "get" LD and 
language learning challenges is actually worse for the learner than 
just sitting in a class and trying to absorb something.

Just as for learners, having high expectations for teachers and tutors 
is critical to having an effective program.

As a start for ESOL and learning challengs,  programs might want to 
look at the handbook : Taking Action: A Handbook for Instructors of 
Adult ESOL Learners with Learning Dissablities"  produced and 
distrbuted by the Minnesota Learning Disabilities Association (visit 
www.ldaminnesota.org to find it).  This walks teachers through the 
topic of LD and an approach to determining if other problems might be 
at the root of learning difficulties.

There is also a great handbook for tutors teaching reading to 
English-speaking adults  called The Adult Reading Toolkit ( ART)

Both of these are designed for tutors and teachers who have little 
prior knowledge on the topic--and they are extremely user-friendly and 
beautifully thought out.   --And no, I don't have any financial 
interest in them......


 Robin