Hello all -         
Jackie, regarding you comments/question below. 

Firstly, I would define empowerment as an individual having the skill sets and confidence necessary to enable change for the positive in their life. Would you agree? 

Presuming that we have common ground here, how then does CS empower? The ESL student/learner accesses the sounds of language, consonants and vowels, through their own hands, body and mind. I would liken it to individuals who have learned to play a musical instrument or a golfer. The skill becomes "automatic", the hands find the right key/positions, the ears recognize the "on target" sounds and the body knows when you are "on the mark". You body, mind and ear are a team; very adept at letting you know if/when you have made an error. The same can be said for individuals who cue proficiently. I do not profess to know how or why this happens. I do find it all very fascinating though! 

Cueing allows the ESL individual, for example, to correct their "accent" in English, loosing the "foreign" sound, if I may be so bold. It provides them with "feedback" in a very time efficient manner. 

Cueing is best learned face to face. The classroom environment for the ESL student an optimum and ideal opportunity. 

I am aware of one indidividual whose first language was French.  She attended a professional Cued Englishl weekend workshop in Edmonton, Alberta.  The intent being for this individual to learn how to cue English. Also attending this same workshop was an individual who cued French.  The first individual is now a fluent cuer in both languages and in her own words," I catch myself when my French accent sneaks into my spoken English. I can correct imyself by cueing the English word."

I hope that this provides you with some insight into the system of Cued Speech. I would be happy to connect with any indiviudal(s), interested in learning to cue and possible implementation into an existing ESL program. Perhaps this is something that can be accomplisheed via a web-cam and the internet.

I look forward to futher dialouge.

Lynn


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Taylor, Jackie 
  To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List 
  Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 9:30 PM
  Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2306] FW: from Lynn,re: Cued speech and empowerment


  The following message below is posted on behalf of Lynn Beech.

   

  Lynn, I'm wondering if you'd like to say more about Cued speech as it pertains to empowerment. Any success stories with adult learners, for example, that you'd like to share?

   

   Please see below.Jackie Taylor, List Moderator, jataylor at utk.edu 

   


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  From: Lynn and Chris Beech [mailto:cbeech at telusplanet.net] 
  Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 7:32 PM
  To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov
  Subject: Re: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2297] Re: Whatdo

   

  Hello all - 

  I have been sitting back reading all the different opinions, experiences and perspectives on language learning. Firstly I wish to thank all of you for sharing and providing the opportunity to acquire more insight into ESL learners. 

  I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my experiences as an instructor of teaching English through a very unique and much underused system called Cued Speech. Cued Speech is a multi-sensory system (visual/auditory/kinesthetic), based on the phonemes of spoken English, embracing these learning styles and combination there of. This system was originally geared toward deaf children to improve their literacy levels, as historically, these children struggle with reaching literacy scores equal to that of their hearing peers. 

  The cueing of English is a viable tool, one that I believe should be considered when working with ESL learners, young and old. When individuals, whose first language is not English, are learning English auditorially and with print, their brains do not hear/recognize sounds that they are not familiar with; for example a voiced or voiceless Th/th or an "s" in print but sounds as a "z". Our bodies are "wired" to perform listening and talking in as efficient a manner as possible, meaning "you don't know, it you don't use it." 

  The visual/kinesthetic component of cueing consists of 8 hand shapes for specific groups of consonant phonemes and 4 hand placements for specific groupings of vowel phonemes. In the language of English our mouths will make three (3) distinct shapes for vowels and for consonants. They are round/flat/open. 

  This means that the mouthshapes for c or v, are never repeated/duplicated within any of the groupings. I hope I haven't lost any one here. :) 

  As it stands to date the system of Cued Speech has been adapted to 65 dialects and continues to grow, the most recent one being Norwegian. 

  I am passionate about providing as many tools as possible to empower the learner and to reach each unique learning style. Without literacy, in this discussion in English, the world is a very different place.

  I look forward to more discussion.

  Lynn A. Beech, B.Ed.

  Alberta Cued English - President

  Cued English - Language, Literacy, Inclusion

  Candidate for Inscert - NCSA

   

   

    ----- Original Message ----- 

    From: Kathy Tyndall 

    To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov 

    Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 1:53 PM

    Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2297] Re: Whatdo

     

    Steve et al.

     

    I couldn't agree with you more. The goal of ESL classroom instruction should be functional literacy - not functional perfection. And yes, there is much more to learning a language than just sitting in a classroom. The resources are plentiful, and most ESL (EFL) students are eager to do more. They are definitely participatory learners. One of my roles as the instructor is to build confidence - to give my students the confidence to strike out on their own - to try out the new language in a setting outside the classroom and to explore the resources for learning that exist outside the classroom.

     

    Kathy Tyndall


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