AAA Foundation's New Seat Belt Safety ESL Curriculum

ESL Curriculum Now Available

English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers play an important role in integrating students into the United States. Specifically, ESL instructors can make students aware of safe and unsafe behaviors. Given this knowledge, the AAA Foundation commissioned the Injury Prevention Center of Greater Dallas and the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning in Denver to develop a seat belt safety curriculum for ESL programs. Developed with input from experts across the U.S. and Canada as well as focus groups of ESL students and teachers, the curriculum is available free-of-charge online here.

The traffic safety curriculum is comprised of four lessons and a myriad of additional resources for both teachers and students. The lessons can be incorporated into beginning ESL programs to increase seatbelt and child restraint use among new immigrants who enroll in these programs. The curriculum targets students with low to intermediate experience, tailoring specific training methods to each. For example, if teaching a low beginning class, the amount of material presented and the vocabulary used will need to be limited. If teaching a high intermediate class, the students can be asked to take a more advanced step and present the material in some way.

Tools within the curriculum are designed to teach participants about safe behavior in cars and engage them in activities that reinforce the use of seat belts and car seats, as part of being a good citizen and a responsible family member. The curriculum provides language associated with seat belts and safety, and offers facts about seat belt use with the expectation that people will understand the value of using seat belts and will implement use into daily routines.

Each lesson is designed to minimize a teacher’s lesson preparation time. The activities can be part of a unit on safety and safe practices in transportation or serve as segways and introductions to other lessons. There are many resources available in different states to enhance these lessons. For instance, local community organizations, such as police departments or hospitals, may have additional materials to supplement the original lessons. Teachers can also access videos to visually illustrate the effectiveness of seat belts during a car accident.

Traffic safety statistics have been included in some of the lessons to inform both the teacher and the students about the importance of car occupant safety. In some cases, statistics are part of the lesson. In other cases, the teacher may choose to rely on them for their “shock value” alone. The goal is not to have students memorize statistics, but to motivate students to take simple steps to protect themselves and their families when driving or riding in cars.