I may have said this before, and if so I apologize. I have learned another langauage fluently (French, also my earliest) and have tried more with less success (Russian, German, Italian, Hebrew, i.e. for academic purposes or for enough to get by in a country but nowhere near fluency), but never, except for French, in the cultural setting of the country. But the other thing that allows me to understand not just ESL students but basic literacy students or LD students as well, is by being visually impaired. I am in no way suggesting these lanuage learners or emergent readers are disabled. What I am suggesting is that I know what it's like not to be able to see all the print environment around me; not being able always to see facial expressions puts me in the position of someone not always able to decipher social or cultural cues or body language. I've also learned to enunciate and many ELLs have told me that I'm the first they've been able to understand: I
 do give them reduced language, but very carefully. I think that involves having learned the phonemic system of another language; I can distinctly remember when learning the phonetic alphabet made a quantum leap in my French pronunciation that I've carried onward. When I teach computers (and I have to low level end users) I am able to sympathize with the ones who can't follow all the steps of an operation, the need to slow down and give the instructions step by step. Sometimes they have to help me because they see something more quickly than I do, so that helps them (especially in a regular classroom when I had to adapt to Word 2007 very quickly without magnification). When I immediately spot a grammar or usage error in a writing center session, which I try not to point out right away, I'm more credible when I tell them that we can't always see our own mistakes because we see what we expect to see. It's when we have no previous cultural or visual
 referent (can you remember the first time you saw an Internet page and hadn't a clue what the main content was because there were so many images, tabs, links?) I've had to learn at the beginning to read a web page a quadrant at a time. Some of the newer multimedia applications are equally challenging to me now, but given time I should be able to adapt to them; there will still be a learning curve. All of this is to say that there are many factors in our lives that cause us to adapt to the needs of our learners; if we're lucky we're conscious of them and can thus enhance their own learning styles. I would not say that learning one thing or trying one thing is the way to reach students of any population. Self-reflection on our teaching and learning styles is what will help us to make our own students aware of theirs. 



________________________________
From: Pamela Haran <harangod at comcast.net>
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thursday, June 4, 2009 2:17:53 PM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 4391] Re: Teachers as Second Language Learners


Hi, all.  I have to disagree with the idea that everyone MUST live in a different culture before they teach ESL.  I have seen teachers who are certain they know exactly what my students are going through because they (the teachers) have lived in another country.  They are often so certain of this that they can no longer hear what the students are saying!  Empathy and the ability to listen to your students seem like much more valuable assets for a teacher than a semester abroad experience. It is so important to teach our students to listen.  It is even more important to teach the teachers. Just a thought.  Pam Haran , ESL Teacher, Boston
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Drukovskis, Aiva 
To: 'englishlanguage at nifl.gov' 
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 1:07 PM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 4389] Teachers as Second Language Learners

Hi all:
It should be mandatory that everyone who wants to teach ESL experience daily life in a foreign language and culture. There is no substitute for having to rely on your minimal conversation skills to complete daily life to teach you how it is when you don’t speak the language.  You really don’t understand the struggle that people go through, and the creative ways that they adapt to situations.  It forces you to think about the  value system that you function under, and to appreciate the value systems of those who live in other cultures. If you have never had to function in a place where you didn’t understand the language, you are teaching ESL with knowledge of only half the picture. 
 
Being out of your comfort zone is a frightening prospect ……..
A.      Drukovskis
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