Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id i82K3iR28365; Thu, 2 Sep 2004 16:03:44 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2004 16:03:44 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <20040902195947.92104.qmail@web60904.mail.yahoo.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: PAUL ROGERS <pwaynerogers@yahoo.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-ESL:10439] Freire and adult ESL X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Status: O Content-Length: 14284 Lines: 361 I just came upon a very interesting ariticle on applying Freire's methods to adult ESL: http://adulted.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cal.org%2Fncle%2Fdigests%2FfreireQA.htm How can the Freirean approach be adapted for use in ESL literacy education? Literacy teachers in the United States and Canada who work with adult nonnative speakers of English have attempted to apply Freire's general approach using compatible ESL teaching methods and techniques. In doing so, they have had to overcome two important difficulties. First, Freire's approach assumes that learners are highly knowledgeable about the culture in which they live, and that they are expert speakers of the language that they are learning to read and write. For nonnative speakers of English in predominantly English-speaking countries, neither of these conditions pertains. How can teachers pose problems for their classes to discuss in English, and then develop literacy lessons based on these discussions, if their students cannot speak English? A number of authors have suggested that beginning ESL students can develop problem-posing and dialogue skills rather early on in their acquisition of English. Teachers can foster the process by focusing their initial instruction on development of their students' descriptive vocabularies and teaching them to use questions to exchange information in English. Some familiar ESL methods and techniques that have been used by Freirean practitioners to develop students' descriptive and questioning abilities have included language experience stories, oral histories, Total Physical Response activities, picture stories, the use of flash cards to introduce new vocabulary and structures, and skits conducted with puppets (Wallerstein, 1983; Nash, Cason, Rhum, McGrail, & Gomez-Sanford, in press; Faigin, 1985; Auerbach & Wallerstein, 1987; Barndt & Marino, 1983). A second problem for ESL teachers is that the spelling and syllabic structures of English do not lend themselves to the syllabary method originally used by Freire in Spanish and Portuguese. How, then, can generative words be used to build word-attack skills in reading and writing? Ra£l A¤orve, a literacy trainer for California Literacy, uses a whole-word and word-family method. Learners memorize the spelling of each new vocabulary word and place them in lists of other words on the basis of similar morphological structure or related meaning. For example, the word "American" might appear in two different word lists: in one with words like "African," "Dominican," and "Canadian," and in another with words suggested by students like "apple pie," "Statue of Liberty," and "rich" (A¤orve, personal communication, October 10, 1988). Other practitioners adapt the use of generative words to the phonics method of reading instruction, where students learn the spelling patterns of English in order to be able to sound out new words they need to read and write. In languages such as Spanish and Portugguese, generative words contain syllables that can be recombined to form new words. In English, generative words are used to teach other words witht he same sound-letter correspondences or similar morphological structure (Long & Speigel-Podnecky, 1988). Still others have abandoned the use of generative words altogether in favor of other whole language techniques developed for English. How can the ESL curriculum be based on students' life experiences and cultures when teachers do not speak students' languages? In her book Language and Culture in Conflict, Nina Wallerstein (1983) emphasizes that ESL teachers and students typically come from different cultural, linguistic, and economic backgrounds that need to be recognized as equally valid. To bridge this experience gap, teachers must make special efforts to get to know the realities faced by students in their personal lives and communities, either by living among their students or by observing in class and in the community. Wallerstein recommends that teachers visit the homes of their students as invited guests to learn first hand about their lives and families. To learn about the cultural attributes of students, teachers should attempt to be present as observers at times of cultural transmission from the older generation to the younger (social rites and child-rearing practices) and of cultural preservation (festivals and historic celebrations in the students' neighborhoods). They should learn about times of cultural disruption by asking students either in simplified English or through an interpreter to describe their immigration to the host country and to compare their lives in the two countries. Teachers should also become familiar with the neighborhoods where students live, walking in them with students, taking photographs, and bringing realia back to class to discuss. In class, teachers should observe student interactions, including body language, and take note of students' actions, because these usually reveal their priorities and problems. The teacher should also invite students to share objects from their cultures with others in class. Having a bilingual aide in the ESL class can also facilitate dialogue on the cultural themes and problems that generate the curriculum in the Freirean approach. Hemmendinger (1987) found cultural themes and problems for the curriculum through classroom observation and conversations with her Laotian Hmong students. Sometimes problem-posing activities resulted from the sharing of cultural information; at other times the discussion of a problem led to intercultural dialogue. In one instance, for example, she found a student closely examining all the potted plants in the class. When Hemmindinger, through the bilingual aide, inquired as to why the student was interested in the plants, she found that he was a practitioner of Hmong herbal medicine. This theme led to a discussion of Hmong health and medicinal practices as they compared to those practiced by the dominant culture in Canada and problems that students were having as they confronted the Canadian health-care system. Can the Freirean approach be used with competency-based approaches to ESL? Although some educators advocating the Freirean approach have criticized competency-based ESL as being a form of "banking education" (Auerbach & Burgess, 1985; Graman, 1988), other Freire-inspired ESL teachers have described their use of competency-based instruction within the Freirean framework to teach specific language skills and functions (Faigin, 1985; Hemmendinger, 1987). Working with Central American refugees in Washington, DC, Spener (1990a) adapted the Freirean approach to the selection and development of ESL competencies in the curriculum. In bilingual discussion workshops, Spener and his students engaged in posing problems in which the solutions were related to the learning of English. The product of each of these workshops was a class syllabus agreed on by the group that included the daily situations where students felt improving their English would help them most. For each situation on a class's syllabus, Spener wrote out specific ESL competencies in Spanish and English that he would then bring back to class for the students to reject, modify, or approve for inclusion in their syllabus. The syllabus, which was called the study agenda, served as a guide to follow, allowing Spener and his students to incorporate other elements of dialogue and problem"posing in class sessions to enrich the educational process (Spener, 1990a, 1990b). References A¤orve, R. L. (1989). Community-based literacy educators: experts and catalysts for change. New Directions for Continuing Education, 42, 35-42. Ashton-Warner, S. (1963). Teacher. New York: Simon and Schuster. Auerbach, E. R., & Wallerstein, N. (1987). ESL for action: Problem-posing at work. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Auerbach, E. R., & Burgess, D. (1985). The hidden curriculum of survival ESL. TESOL Quarterly, 10, 475-495. Barndt, D., & Marino, D. (1983). Getting there: Producing photostories with immigrant women. Toronto, Ontario: Between the Lines. Chacoff, A. (1989). (Bi)literacy and empowerment: Education for indigenous groups in Brazil. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 43-62. Philadelphia: Language Education Division of the University of Pennsylvania. Collins, S. D., Balmuth, M., & Jean, P. (1989). So we can use our own names, and write the laws by which we live: Educating the new U.S. labor Force. Harvard Educational Review, 59, 454-469. Facundo, B. (1984). Issues for an evaluation of Freire-inspired programs in the United States and Puerto Rico. Reston, VA: Latino Institute. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 243 998) Faigin, S. (1985). Basic ESL literacy from a Freirean perspective: a curriculum unit for farmworker education. Major essay for the degree of Master of Education, University of British Columbia. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 274 196) Fargo, G.A. (1981). The power of literacy applied to traditional birth attendants, Saulteaux-Cree Indians and Hawaiian children. Paper presented at the 48th annual meeting of the Claremont Reading Conference. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 201967)Freire, P. (1973). Education for critical consciousness. New York: Seabury Press. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum Publishing Corporation. Goodman, K. (1986). What's whole in whole language? Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Graman, T. (1988). Education for humanization: Applying Paulo Freire's pedagogy to learning a second language. Harvard Educational Review, 58, 433-448. Gudschinsky, S. C. (1976). Handbook of literacy. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics. Hamayan, E., & Pfleger, M. (1987). Developing literacy in English as a second language: guidelines for teachers of young children from non-iterate backgrounds. Teacher Resource Guide Number 1. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 290 343) Hemmendinger, A. (1987). Two models for using problem-posing and cultural sharing in teaching the Hmong English as a second language and first language literacy. Unpublished master's thesis, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Hope, A., Timmel S., & Hodzi, C. (1984). Training for transformation, Vols. I, II & III. Harare, Zimbabwe: Mambo Press. Jurmo, P. (1987). Learner participation practices in adult literacy in the United States. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Massachusetts. Laubach, F. C. (1947). Teaching the world to read. New York: Friendship Press. Long, L. D., & Spiegel-Podnecky, J. (1988). In Print. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Nash, A., Cason, A., Rhum, M., McGrail, & Gomez-Sanford, R. (1989). Talking shop: a curriculum sourcebook for participatory adult ESL. Boston: English Family Literacy Project of the University of Massachusetts/Boston. Newman, J., (Ed.). (1985). Whole language: Theory in use. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Noble, P. (1983). Formation of Freirean facilitators. Chicago, IL: Latino Institute. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 256 845) Rabideau, D. (Ed.). (1989). El espanol en marcha [Spanish on the March]. Comite de Educacion Basica en Espanol. Shor, I., & Freire, P. (1987). A pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues on transforming education with Ira Shor and Paulo Freire. New York: Bergin and Garvey. Simich-Dudgeon, C. (1989). English literacy development: Approaches and strategies that work with limited English proficient children and adults (Occasional Papers in Bilingual Education, 12). Washington, DC: New Focus: The National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education Spener, D. (1990a). Setting an agenda for study in home-based ESL classes with native speakers of Spanish. Unpublished manuscript. Spener, D. (1990b). Suggested structure for meetings of home-based ESL classes for native speakers of Spanish. Unpublished manuscript. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 318 300). Wallerstein, N. (1983). Language and culture in conflict: Problem-posing in the ESL classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. For Further Reading Association for Community Based Education. (1988). Literacy for empowerment: A resource handbook for community based educators. Washington, DC: Author. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 321 593) Auerbach, E.R. (1989). Toward a social-contextual approach to family literacy. Harvard Educational Review, 59, 105-151. Auerbach, E. R. (in press). Making meaning, making change: Participatory curriculum development for adult ESL literacy. Washington, DC and McHenry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems. Fauteux, D., & Alamo, M. (1991). Palabras de lucha y alegria [Words of struggle and joy]. Syracuse, NY: New Readers Press. Freire, P. (1985). The politics of education. New York: Bergin and Garvey. Rivera, K.M. (1990). Devewloping native language literacy in language minority adults. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse on Literacy Education. Vella, J. K. (1989). Learning to teach: Training of trainers for community development. Washington, DC: OEF International. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ERIC/NCLE Digests are available free of charge from the National Center for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE), 4646 40th Street NW, Washington, DC 20016-1859; (202) 362-0700, ext. 200; e-mail: ncle@cal.org. World Wide Web: www.cal.org/ncle. Citations with an ED number may be purchased from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS) at 1-800-443-3742; or at email: service@edrs.com; or at http://www.edrs.com. The National Center for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE) is operated by the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) with funding from the U.S. Department of Education (ED), Office of Educational Research and Improvement, under contract no. RR 93002010. The opinions expressed in this report do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of ED or the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. More NCLE Digests and Q&As NCLE Homepage __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Y! Messenger - Communicate in real time. Download now. http://messenger.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Thu Dec 23 2004 - 09:46:50 EST