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Date: Wed, 11 Jun 1997 00:08:21 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <19970610.200056.5391.0.paul168@juno.com>
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From: paul168@juno.com (Grassroots Initiative)
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: Home study - distance learning
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Denise:
I am currently tutoring an English class for Latino parents of
children in the elementary schools. We use the home of one parent, and
there are 7 students.
They are all working women, and for various reasons are unable to attend
the ESL classes offered by adult education. The main purpose of the class
is to find a way to help the parents so that they can assist their
children with homework in English.
I use texts which I wrote while teaching English in Mexico, adapted
somewhat for teaching here. Throughout the class, Spanish is used
frequently.
I concentrate on several issues.
First, relaxation about learning English. I focus on progress not
perfection.
Then pronunciation. Then grammar, etc., in context of a story or
essay, which are in the form of graded readers - i.e. each lesson is
built upon the previous one. Plus, I incorporate cognates a lot in the
lessons for "rapid learning."
So far we have had about fifteen classes, which average about 90
minutes. Tonight I asked the students to read out loud a little faster
than usual and with a little bit more air, without worrying about
mistakes. Most of them felt more confident about speaking during this
exercise.
The most important part of the class is the time spent in
translating from English to Spanish. And what usually happens is that the
students help each other. The reason that this is the most important is
that one of the objectives is to be able to clone this type of class so
that many more people can study at home.
I am now putting together a script for a video course, plus I have
begun audio taping the texts for studying, and stories and poems,
primarily for listening.
So, I am definitely interested in the development of distance
learning. Not only the changes in the Welfare laws, but also other
reasons have created a real need for this type of approach.
I'd like to hear from you and anyone else interested in ESL distance
learning.
Paul Rogers
On Tue, 10 Jun 1997 21:42:25 -0400 (EDT) Denise M Eide
<Denise.M.Eide-1@tc.umn.edu> writes:
>My name is Denise Eide. I am a graduate student at the University of
>Minnesota.
>With the changes in welfare legislation many of my students dropped
>out the ESL
>program in order to go to work, support elderly parents, etc. I have
>become
>very interested in how to reach adult immigrants and refugees with
>English. One
>idea is distance language learning, or independent language study with
>tutor
>support. I am in process of doing a literature review on this topic.
>As you
>can imagine, however, there is very little material available.
>I am wondering if anyone either knows of any research on this topic,
>can
>recommend books or articles, or if anyone is currently involved in
>distance
>education and would be willing to share your experiences and thoughts
>about the
>curriculum which is currently available.
>
>Finally I would be interested in discussing the current distance
>learning
>curriculum which is available such as the video series Learning
>English and
>discussing what an "ideal" distance learning curriculum would look
>like. How
>would current language teaching methods be incorporated? etc.
>
>Denise Eide
>
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