Ah, but what about people whose first languages are not European, and perhaps not even Indo-European? People with low literacy levels whose first writing system is not a roman alphabet also face extra challenges, along with those who have no L1 literacy. Further, a teacher who teaches in a multi-lingual community is not likely to have more than a sketchy knowledge of all the languages and writing systems of all the students. Eritrean, anyone?
Cheryl Thornett
ESOL & Literacy tutor
Birmingham UK Adult Education


----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Wrigley, Heide 
  To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List 
  Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 3:51 AM
  Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3818] how difficult is English? (even longer)


  Greetings all 

   

  I wanted to take up the issue of English learning and “language distance” one last time (I promise) and it’s an even longer note. But if you just skip to the end and consider the question, we can perhaps move toward a thoughtful conversation on the topic. 

   

  Mhmm, English does indeed have Germanic roots but over the years, many other languages, especially the Romance languages have been grafted onto English and influenced both its structure and its vocabulary. For example, we've lost all those Germanic verb endings - plus the "thee" and "thous" along the way and gained a tremendous amount of Latin-based words, all easily accessible to speakers of Romance languages. Since Britain was part of the Roman Empire, quite a few new words related to the courts and the law came from Latin-based languages and many ended up on our tables after 1066 and the Norman invasion of Britain (Battle of Hastings, anyone?) - so that we now eat beef or, if you are so inclined venison (from the French language the nobility used ) but get the meat from cows and deer (the Germanic words the farmers used) – 

   

  In terms of teaching then, it makes sense to capitalize on similarities in languages and show Spanish speakers, for example, that there are close relationships in sentence structure (Subject-Predicate- Object) and vocabulary between the two languages that can be exploited to make English easier to understand for beginners (construcion – becomes construction; integracion becomes integration and inauguration .. well, you get the picture). 

   

  I am always amazed that teachers who only have Spanish speakers in their classes (and there are many of those at the beginning level), start their teaching with Germanic based words (which have all those complicated spelling patterns) instead of creating early success experiences by introducing (oral) texts that use words that students can, with a little practice in cognate awareness, understand quite easily – The United States of America is a nation of immigrants –is understood more readily by a Spanish speaker than if we use “our country” or “this land” is used to refer to the US. While these types of sentences may not be the highest priority for everyday functioning, they nevertheless help to build a foundation in English that students can build on – plus get across a sense from the start that learning English, although not easy, may nevertheless is “doable” – whereas learning all the different sounds that English “e” can make, does indeed feel overwhelming.   

   

  So I didn't mean to make the case that because my first language is German, English was easy for me (it wasn't). I meant to point out that all things being equal (which, admittedly, they never are) - "language distance" does matter.  That is, if I speak French and Spanish, learning Italian is not that much of a stretch and won't require the same effort that say, learning Chinese or, for that matter, Tamil would (given the same interest in the language, opportunity to learn, and aptitude) 

   

  An Eric Digest on language learning cites this example: At the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, for example, languages are placed in four categories depending on their average learning difficulty from the perspective of a native English speaker. The basic intensive language course, which brings a student to an intermediate level, can be as short as 24 weeks for languages such as Dutch or Spanish, which are Indo European languages and use the same writing system as English, or as long as 65 weeks for languages such as Arabic or Korean, which are members of other language families and use different writing systems. 

   

  So while “language distance” is not the only factor that makes language learning difficult or easy (there may be other, more important, individual factors), it definitely is a factor. And for L2 literacy development, not just general L2 acquisition which I am focusing on, the level of literacy in L1 seems to override other factors. In quite a few classes, I have seen educated Chinese speakers pick up English literacy much more quickly (after initial struggles) than Spanish speakers whose L1 literacy skills were a bit shaky. 

   

  I am wondering what the experiences of others have been who teach mixed classes where those without much education in the home country are placed in ESL Literacy classes side by side with students who are highly literate in L1 but have not yet acquired English of any sort, spoken or written.  

   

  Best 

   

  Heide Spruck Wrigley 

  Mesilla, NM 

   

   

   

   

   

  -----Original Message-----
  From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of cece valentine
  Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 7:36 PM
  To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
  Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3804] Re: how difficult is English? (long post)

   

  In the old dictionaries, English is a Germanic language, so maybe it's easy for you.  Anyone who speaks a Romance language, Latin, Italian, Spanish finds English just a little more difficult.  How many ways can you pronouce "e" in English compared to Spanish or Italian?

   

  c valentine

  cgv757 at yahoo.com

   

  --- On Sat, 1/31/09, Wrigley, Heide <heide at literacywork.com> wrote:

   

  > From: Wrigley, Heide <heide at literacywork.com>

  > Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3798]  how difficult is English? (long post)

  > To: "The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List" <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>

  > Date: Saturday, January 31, 2009, 6:22 PM

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > Hi, all – what a rich and

  > interesting discussion!

  > Thank you Martha

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > With an extra hour or so at the

  > airport I just had to jump in

  > here to talk about the two or three things I’ve

  > learned in my work

  > learning languages, teaching ESL and doing demonstration

  > lessons in German with

  > teachers, studying successful programs and reviewing the

  > research.

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > I’ve not read all the

  > posts, but am hoping we can remember

  > that while we know a great deal about second language

  > acquisition, literacy

  > development, and learning in general, we also know that

  > there is a great deal

  > of variability in the way individuals come into a new

  > language.  So how difficult

  > a language is to learn (or how difficult it is perceived to

  > be by a learner)

  > depends on a number of factors, including aptitude,

  > attitude and motivation (or

  > the “need to learn”) – factors addressed

  > in various posts at the

  > beginning of the week.

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > But there are some

  > “objective”  factors as well

  > (and no, I don’t want to get into a discussion on

  > phenomenology at this

  > point J).  How

  > difficult a language is to learn depends in great part on

  > how close or far the

  > home language is from the target language. For example,

  > someone who speaks German

  > and has learned a Romance language will, (for historical

  > reasons), find English

  > grammar and vocabulary not all that difficult to master

  > (though exceptions

  > abound). True there are thousands of idioms in English and

  > lots of exception

  > but for the most part English IS rule governed and the

  > rules aren’t all

  > that complex.  Just like President Obama was

  > incredulous when the DC

  > school system closed down because there was a bit of ice on

  > the ground, those

  > who have had to study German often find English much

  > easier. While German is

  > phonetically regular, mastering grammar and sentence

  > structure can be a huge

  > challenge (German  varies its articles (der, die, das)

  > according to

  > gender, case, and singular or plural, giving the learner

  > something like 24

  > options she has to choose from in order to hit the right

  > form.

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > So yes, sound/symbol

  > relationships in English are not

  > transparent and getting used to the way the sound of a

  > vowel will shift depending

  > on the environment in which the vowel occurs can mess with

  > your mind.  All

  > the more reason, I would think to start with meaning and

  > start with “compelling”

  > oral language before moving to print.

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > Presenting interesting

  > information orally, supported by real

  > items, pictures, graphics, and drawings can help beginning

  > level students understand

  > what’s going on and can anchor (spoken) words and

  > concepts in their mind.

  > Introducing print slowly and matching print with meaningful

  > images, items, or

  > ideas (a picture or drawing of something you love

  > accompanied by print) can  help

  > to make the association between oral language, reality, and

  > print stick.  Once

  > quite a bit of the new language sticks, the patterns of a

  > language, whether

  > they are phonological (sounds/symbol relationships),

  > grammatical, or lexical

  > (vocabulary) can then be highlighted,studied and practiced.

  > Getting help in “noticing”

  > these patterns (and building language awareness in the

  > process) can be a great

  > help to those who have a hard time abstracting rules on

  > their own – or those,

  > whose need to be analytical keeps them from immersing

  > themselves in the new language

  > and just letting the acquisition process happen.

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > I know from my own work,

  > whenever I am doing oral work with

  > learners (story telling, conversations, discussing pictures

  > of momentous events),

  > only those who have studied the language before ask

  > “why do you say it

  > this way?” (and if you have Russian students you know

  > what I mean). In my

  > experience, once we try to communicate in L2, the

  >  learners who are new to

  > the language tend to hang on by their fingernails trying to

  > figure out what

  > being said or are too busy to get their point across to

  > wonder how exactly to

  > say something – if it’s important for them to

  > make a point.

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >  I think it’s worth

  > thinking about how we can create interactions

  > inside and outside of the classroom that allow low literate

  > learners to be

  > successful in a new language and spend some time on that

  > process before we move

  > to “activities”  that they have such

  > difficulties with - gaining

  > meaning from print.  – This I know for sure, if

  >  I were in

  > China, trying to learn Chinese to get by (and not having 10

  > years to invest in

  > the process), I would drown in a class where the teacher

  > starts teaching

  > literacy before I had at least some sense of how one can

  > use Chinese to communicate

  > an idea. I would want to hear what it sounds like, how it

  > flows, how it is used

  > to get meaning across and I would want to learn something I

  > can use from Day 1 –

  > ordering a beer say or buying some of those steamed

  > dumplings with BBQ pork

  > inside …………  Then if you can

  > show me how to

  > recognize the symbol for Sale so I can buy those cool

  > Chinese tennis shoes or

  > help me recognize the name of my street (as it’s

  > written on the street)

  > sign so I can find my way home that would be a good start.

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > They are calling my flight

  > …

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > Bread and Roses –

  > that’s my idea of a good language class

  > – and I would want to start with the Roses

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > Best to all

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > Heide

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > Heide Spruck Wrigley

  > 

  > 

  > Austin Airport at the moment

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > From:

  > englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov

  > [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On

  > Behalf Of Dan

  > 

  > Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 2:40 PM

  > 

  > To: cgv757 at yahoo.com; 'The Adult English

  > Language Learners Discussion

  > List'

  > 

  > Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3796] Re: The divorce of

  > language from meaning

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > I always tell my students the

  > most difficult language to learn

  > is the one they are trying to learn whatever that language

  > may be.  I

  > really do not believe that English is the most difficult

  > language to learn and

  > would not set up students with the idea that they probably

  > are not going to be

  > able to learn English even if they try.

  > 

  > Dan Wann

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > From:

  > englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov

  > [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On

  > Behalf Of cece valentine

  > 

  > Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2009 3:39 PM

  > 

  > To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion

  > List

  > 

  > Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3794] Re: The divorce of

  > language from meaning

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >   One more thing-- i always begin my

  > new classes with the

  >   statement that English is the most difficult language to

  > learn.  There

  >   are different sounds for one letter for example.  I

  > also tell them to

  >   follow the page left to write while I read because some

  > languages have the

  >   reader to go right to left. It also helps, Steve, to put

  > a sentence in Russian

  >   on the board and ask someone to read it. (This is for

  > tutors as well.) Unless

  >   U have a Russian student or national there, no one has a

  > clue.  This is

  >   to show just how a nonliterate person feels when U expect

  > him or her to

  >   remember the alphabet and the combinations to make

  > English  words in

  >   just a few days.

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >   c valentine

  > 

  > 

  >   cgv757 at yahoo.com

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >   --- On Thu, 1/29/09, Jill Watson

  > <jillawatson at comcast.net>

  >   wrote:

  > 

  > 

  >   From:

  > Jill Watson

  >   <jillawatson at comcast.net>

  > 

  >   Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3753] The divorce of language

  > from meaning

  > 

  >   To: "'The Adult English Language Learners

  > Discussion List'"

  >   <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>

  > 

  >   Date: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 7:03 PM

  > 

  > 

  >   Philip’s

  >   post reminds me of the sense of loss and tragedy I

  > witness, and get, when

  >   students from oral, relational cultures begin to

  > understand that the way to

  >   get ahead in hyperliterate “first world”

  > societies includes

  >   learning to use language in a new and dehumanizing, often

  > profoundly sad way,

  >   a way which asks them, for the first time perhaps, to

  > consider and use

  >   language in a way divorced from meaning.  What I

  > mean to say is that the

  >   communication environment many of us were born and

  > educated into is suffused

  >   with 2 fallacies:  1) an overly triumphant

  > positivism with regard to the

  >   underarticulated promise of a “better world”

  > held out by the

  >   postcolonial nations to the rest of the

  > “underdeveloped” world,

  >   all of which is underwritten since the advent of

  > chirographic culture and the

  >   printing press by the notion of inexorable, modernizing

  > progress, and

  >   includes such very well-meaning formulations as

  > “eradicating

  >   illiteracy,”  which I saw quoted just

  > yesterday in The Jakarta

  >   Post; (this issue I am raising very briefly here is

  > expounded in many of our

  >   great scholars from Foucault to Ali Mazrui to the

  > Scollons to Walter Ong, and

  >    2) a profound, barely recognized cynicism with

  > regard to our own

  >   capability for life-sustaining wisdom in the post-modern

  > occidental paradigm

  >   (here I am indebted to Marshall McLuhan, David G. Smith,

  > Vine DeLoria, Homi

  >   Bhabha, Chet Bowers, and others).

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >   You may

  >   accuse me of hagiography.  Perhaps I too am

  > suffering from the ennui and

  >   alienation that characterizes so many in the western

  > academe.  Call me

  >   crazy (and I do maintain that true polylinguals, as I am,

  > are insane by many a

  >   personality measure…).  But I have to fling my

  > arms and

  >   exclaim—my god, sometimes, in my openest, most

  > lucid, most receptive

  >   moments, I am acutely aware that my preliterate, no

  > formal schooling,

  >   refugee, utterly marginalized adult learners possess

  > something that I have

  >   spent a Middlebury, Sorbonne, Goethe Institute-educated,

  > OED-reading,

  >   intensely intellected lifetime to finally come to

  > appreciate--  literacy

  >   may help us “get ahead” (and we’d

  > better start

  >   concentrating hard on why that is and what that means),

  > BUT ILLITERACY IS NOT

  >   A DISEASE, and illiterate people are not ill.

  > Indeed, the way of life

  >   that does not depend on things to be written to be true,

  > in which

  >   “literally” does not mean

  > “truly,” and meaning is

  >   born by smell, skin, the cast of eyes, and the

  > willingness to spend time

  >   together, may hold some of the keys to our very survival

  > here in the

  >   hyperliterate west.  There may be a need to have

  > true semiotic diversity

  >   for our noetic universe to survive, just as we are

  > becoming more and more aware

  >   of the need for biodiversity for our natural world to

  > survive.

  > 

  > 

  >   Please

  >   note that I have spent years and years as a teacher of

  > reading to ELL

  >   newcomers!  I want students to be empowered by

  > literacy!  But if

  >   literacy alone is cast as the cure-all for everything, we

  > have missed a big

  >   point in the deeper meaning for what we are doing in

  > education, namely, a

  >   true, unconditional exchange of knowledges and cultures

  > (the oral and the

  >   literate cultures)—not only what we (literate

  > teachers) have to teach

  >   them (orally rooted students), but what they have to

  > teach us.  Philip

  >   sounds like a magical and beautiful teacher, because he

  > has been willing

  >   throw open the doors of his heart and classroom to the

  > lifeworlds these

  >   students truly bring (not only the ones that people like

  > me can document in

  >   research), creating a full-body experience of

  > authenticity where something is

  >   REALLY HAPPENING (not just reading about things that have

  > been textualized),

  >   a true Language Experience Approach, which includes

  > language used meaningfully

  >   in experiences.  This is, dear friends, the only way

  > oral people have

  >   every used language, and I have to say, I sometimes envy

  > that.  Without

  >   hesitation I can say that I admire and envy the

  > unquestioned belonging I see

  >   in many newcomer communities.

  > 

  >   A final

  >   note:  the great French neurologist Alfred Tomatis

  > many years ago

  >   documented the amazing Tomatis effect, which demonstrated

  > the

  >   interconnectedness of the ear, the skin, and the psyche,

  > which when all in

  >   balance bring about “attuned

  > well-being.”  This sounds

  >   mystical, and it may be, but in scientific terms it also

  > has to do with the

  >   power of tonalities of voice as connected with

  > receptivity of skin and ear to

  >   either cause extreme malaise and dysfunction, or bring

  > about harmony and

  >   well-being.  In some ways, in our first world

  > society, we are

  >   “dying from what we love” as David Smith puts

  > it—the very

  >   things we elevate most and count as most important have

  > unintended

  >   consequences that harm us, while some of the ways of

  > living that would

  >   sustain us are unpalatable for ideological or other

  > reasons.  As Chet

  >   Bowers says, if you want to figure out a good way to

  > live, study a culture

  >   that has lived sustainably on the same patch of ground

  > for 1000 years, and

  >   has the lowest rate of suicide.  Food for

  > thought…

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >   From:

  >   englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov

  > [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On

  >   Behalf Of Anderson, Philip

  > 

  >   Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 12:32 PM

  > 

  >   To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion

  > List

  > 

  >   Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3735] Re: ESL for low

  > literacy students

  > 

  > 

  >   Dr. Edwidge

  >   Crevecoeur-Bryant has done several studies on low

  > literacy students in

  >   Florida .  I remember from one of her presentations

  > that non-literate

  >   students typically went to the middle of a piece of paper

  > when they were

  >   asked to point to something on the page, or to write

  > something on it.

  >   Edwidge can be reached at the Univeristy of Florida

  > – Gainesville

  >   .  Her email is ecbryant at coe.ufl.edu.

  > 

  > 

  >   When I was in the

  >   classroom teaching adult ESOL in central Florida , I had

  > non-literate

  >   students that started to enter my classes that were being

  > held in the

  >   community room of a farmworker housing

  > neighborhood.  The class was

  >   open-entry, open-exit.  I already had 15 or so

  > students that were

  >   literate, and about 5-10 non-literate students began to

  > come.  The

  >   non-literate students did not come by themselves, but

  > always in the company

  >   of a relative or friend.  This class was the

  > only evening adult

  >   ESOL class in a town of 16,000, and it was sponsored by

  > the community college

  >   in the area.  The town had an immigrant population

  > of 4,000, or 1/4th

  >   of the total population.  Most of the immigrants

  > were from Mexico ,

  >   Haiti , and Guatemala .   The non-literate

  > students in the class

  >   spoke Haitian Creole mainly, with two or three students

  > speaking indigenous

  >   languages of Mexico or Central America . I had the class

  > year-round, four

  >   nights per week for about 3 years.

  > 

  > 

  >   After one year,

  >    it was clear to me that the non-literate students

  > were not making the

  >   “progress” I expected them to make.

  >   I began to search

  >   for resources and to ask colleagues for help. Heide

  > Spruck-Wrigley’s

  >   book “Bringing Literacy to Life” (1992,

  > Aguirre International

  >   Press) was a big help to me.   Anotther helpful

  > text was Basic

  >   Literacy Workbooks A and B, by Joan Saslow, of Pearson

  > Educatiion.

  >   Picture dictionaries also proved helpful.

  > 

  > 

  >   “Connect the

  >   classroom to the student’s lives!” was one of

  > the main tecnniques

  >   I learned from it.   When I began to do

  > real-life needs-based

  >    projects with the non-literate students,

  > ones that helped them do

  >   something they really wanted to do in their everyday

  > lives, everything began

  >   to fall into place.  Some of them simply wanted to

  > be able to sign their

  >   name in cursive “like everyone else.”

  > Others wanted to hold

  >   a Bible and read a special verse they already knew by

  > heart.  Or one of

  >   their special hymns from their church hymnal.

  > Others wanted to be able

  >   to write out their social security number on a form.

  > 

  > 

  >   I finally began to

  >   prepare any number of different exercies to practice the

  > same thing.

  >     We did a variety of exercies that got them up

  > and out of their

  >   chairs to practice, practice, practice.  We taped a

  > line on the floor

  >   and had contests of throwing wadded up paper balls at

  > pictures of letters,

  >   objects, people.  We used a digital camera to take a

  > picture of each

  >   other showing some type of injury or symptom: toothache,

  > headache,

  >   backache.  The next day we pasted our pictures on

  > the wall and threw our

  >   paper balls at the pictures upon request of another

  > student.  We used

  >   sandpaper letters and numbers.

  > 

  >   I learned at an

  >   ESOL training that the skin is a key receptor of

  > information, and when we use

  >   our skin to touch or feel somehting we are trying to

  > learn, we remember it

  >   better.   We put information on “body

  > pegs” on our

  >   head, our shoulders, our hips, our laps, our knees and

  > feet. And we proved to

  >   ourselves that we could truly remember new vocabulary

  > better than if we sat

  >   and copied the words on paper.  We used color, we

  > used songs and chants,

  >   we used boxes of real things from home, we used magnetic

  > letters, we used my

  >   son’s LEGO blocks with letters and words written on

  > them to build words

  >   and sentences.   We squeezed rubber balls while

  > we chanted and

  >   marched around the room.   We stood up and

  > clapped for ourselves

  >   when we finished an exercise.  We formed two or

  > three groups in the room

  >   and had shouting contests to see who could chant the

  > loudest any motivational

  >   phrase that seemed to fit best with the work we had done

  > that evening.

  > 

  >   Another precept I

  >   learned during that time was never to deny a student an

  > opportunity to do an

  >   exercise that he or she thought was

  > “necessary.”  Many ot

  >   the non-literate students had an image of what people are

  > supposed to do in

  >   “school” such as tracing, copying,

  > memorizing, holding books and

  >   silently reading, going to the board and writing.  I

  > was trying my best

  >   to be a cutting edge teacher and I was excited to use

  > many exercises that

  >   brain research showed would produce better results

  > faster. However, if the

  >   student’s perception of what “school”

  > meant was not

  >   validated, the student’s anxiety level remained

  > high, and they were not

  >   as pleased with the class as I thought they would

  > be.

  > 

  >   Dr. Beatriz Diaz, Adult

  >   ESOL Coordinator of Miami Dade County public shools,

  >  has developed a

  >   Teacher Resource Kit specially designed for teaching low

  > literacy ESOL

  >   students.  She can be contacted at

  > bdiaz.dadeschools.net.  I have

  >   the list of resources to make a kit, as well as the final

  > report on that

  >   project.  I would be glad to send it as an

  > attachment to anyone off

  >   line, if desired.

  > 

  >   On a personal

  >   note, my mother-in-law, an elderly Haitian woman lived

  > with us  for a

  >   couple years.. “Grandma” could not read or

  > write in any language,

  >   but before she had a stoke, could look at a dress in a

  > store and sew it

  >   without a pattern.   She lived in a small

  > village that had one

  >   store that did not even sell writing paper for school

  > children.  While

  >   she lived with us, she and my wife always went out early

  > on Saturday mornings

  >   to local yard sales.  One Friday evening, Grandma

  > gave us all a big

  >   surprise.  She began to suspect that my wife

  > wasn’t going to go to

  >   yard sales the next morning. She went to the pile of

  > newspapers, sorted

  >   through the stack, found the section that has yard sales

  > listed, and brought

  >   it to my wife.  She had been observing how my wife

  > got information about

  >   yard sales, and she had learned what to do to get the

  > information.  But

  >   after six months or so with us, she was beginning to use

  > the newspaper to get

  >   what she wanted.

  > 

  >   Philip Anderson

  >   Adult ESOL Program

  >   Florida Department

  >   of Education

  >   Tel (850) 245-9450

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >   From:

  >   robinschwarz1 at aol.com [mailto:robinschwarz1 at aol.com]

  > 

  >   Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 8:38 PM

  > 

  >   To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

  > 

  >   Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3719] Re: ESL for low

  > literacy students

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >   Barbara-- I

  >   missed this yesterday when I was reading and

  > responding.  This is

  >   terrific and right in line with quite a few studies

  > showing that one behavior

  >   typical of non-literate adults is that they do not scan

  > visual fields in any

  >   systematic way unlike literate adults, who scan according

  > to whatever system

  >   they have learned in (L to R, top to bottom, R to Left)

  > .  You have given

  >   some wonderfully concrete ways to address this

  > training.  I find that

  >   this lack of scanning habit extends for a long time-- I

  > think  I wrote

  >   yesterday about a lady I tutor who has great difficulty

  > even after several

  >   semesters of school and after teaching herself to

  > read.  When she looks

  >   at a page with activities on it, she is as likely to

  > start at the bottom as

  >   the top and she sees no logic yet in those exercises that

  > have you look at a

  >   model in the left column and then find something similar

  > or opposite or

  >   whatever in the row to the right.  She goes all over

  > the page!  I

  >   will try this with her next week!   Robin

  > Lovrien Schwarz

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  > 

  >   -----Original

  > Message-----

  > 

  >   From: Barbara Caballero

  > <barbaracaballero at sbcglobal.net>

  > 

  >   To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List

  >   <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>

  > 

  >   Sent: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:10 am

  > 

  >   Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3604] ESL for low literacy

  > students

  >   Good morning,

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  >       It's easy to forget the importance

  > of training our students to move their

  > eyes

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  >       from left to right when they look at

  > words, text, charts, cartoons.  A good idea

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  >       is for the teacher to move his/her

  > closed-finger, flat hand along beneath the

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  >       material, from left to right, whether

  > teaching one-to-one with a book, or in the

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  >       classroom with a

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  >       With pictures, continue this

  > technique.  If you want your student(s) to practice

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  >       saying "red" and you have a

  > picture with red things in it, guide your student's

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  >       focus around the picture by moving your

  > hand clockwise around the picture, left

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  >       to right.  This helps them get in

  > the habit.

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  >       Even as students make progress and

  > begin to look at full paragraphs, I continue

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  >       to use this technique so that they

  > learn to read to the end of the line and come

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  >       around to the far left of the line

  > below.

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  >       This technique is also useful when

  > practicing choral reading, to improve

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  >       fluency.  ESL karaoke.

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  >       It's basic, but

  > important.

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  > 

  >       Barbara

  > Rotolo-Caballero

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  > 

  >       English at Work

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  > 

  >       Austin, Texas

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  >       ----------------------------------------------------

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  > 

  >       National Institute for

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