About 47 million people speak another language in the United States... I don't think it will only keep out Spanish-speaking immigrants, it will keep out all different groups of people. If English becomes the official language, well then, which variation of English? Will there be a mandate over dialects? Who sets the standards? I do not speak perfect academic English, and my grammar is not perfect either. Will I be penalized because my use of English is not "good enough"? Are they going to pay for the many classes needed to biliteracy so that we can all speak English? I think these individuals are just afraid of people that they do not and refuse to understand... seems like domestic xenophobia to me.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Response to Consortium for Worker Education Visit
I really enjoyed our time at the Consortium for Worker's Education. I feel that the Consortium is a very valuable for so many people. I actually brought up the consortium to some of my students who are struggling to graduate. They feel as if they are not ready for college, and I informed them about the workshops to prepare them for college, and GED programs since a few of my students are considering dropping out. I did not know what type of programs were offered up until the readings that were required of us, and when I saw the list of services available. I definitely believe that the consortium is a way for people who are not as fortunate to better their lives.
Response to The Need for Teaching Critical Literacy
This is an issue even today.
In our school, classes reserved for critical thinking is for our honor students. Most of our resources are pooled for our honors classes. For the rest of the population, the classroom is overcrowded, abbreviated books are given and no technology incorporated. The process just dumbs down our students and doesn't help nurture their abilities to do better. The focus for the lower level students is to make sure that they pass their regents and get a high school diploma. If they go to college or not is not of the school's concern. We celebrate when our honors students go to great colleges, but the school does not celebrate any achievements of the lower level students. The students are aware that they are in the "dumb classes" and they accept it. They do not even fight for a higher education, they believe that a high school diploma is good enough for them, and that life after will be easy and prosperous. They are not meant to be the "elite", they are meant to be the managed workers for the elite. WHen they are not critical thinkers, they are individuals who take orders and perform tasks.
Response to Mike Rose- Lives on the boundary
Social failure is a huge obstacle to overcome for inner city students. About 50% of students in my school do not end up as a high school graduate in a 4-7 year range. Some of my students that had fallen into this category believed that there was no point to school. They grow up in a society where they believe opportunities do not exist for them. Their living environment is decrepit, family structure is unstable, no health insurance, income is scarce and going to school that labels them as incapable, they have been socialized into having a low sense of self. All their lives they had no opportunities to having a better life, so therefore they do not want to achieve more. Living out of what they know is scary, as it is for all of us. Goals, and a better life is unknown to them, so they are too scared to try and achieve it.
response to preparing for success
“Traditional jobs are changing and new jobs are created every day. High paying but unskilled jobs are disappearing.”
I remember when I was a child, that a High School diploma was essential for landing a job that was well paying. As new jobs are created, and the hierarchy of competition increases, we need to have more and more education to acquire and sustain work. I have family members that only have their high school diplomas, and they made a very good salary. To this day, they hold their positions and make $75,000. I have more education than they do, but my salary is no where near that high. Also, for me to earn more money, I need more schooling and a degree of completion. As time continues, I feel as if we are having skilled low-paying jobs and attached to that is debt from schooling. Now a bachelor's degree isn't much anymore, people need their masters degree to be hired for a job. I feel that this is disheartening for adults that have no high school degree. How many years will it take for them to have a decent job with a decent salary so that they may have a better life?
how to test teacher practice
How to Test Teacher Practices
Here is an article from the UFT website about what can be done to evaluate learning and teaching practices within the classroom. We all know that measuring test scores is a farce, so here is an alternative proposed.
Study to measure what teachers do kicks off
by Dorothy Callaci
Mar 18, 2010 12:29 PM
UFT President Michael Mulgrew, a strong supporter of the Measures of Effective Teaching study, tells teacher volunteers not to worry about classroom videos because “you are beautiful, talented people.”
One of the hottest issues in education today is also an age-old question: What makes a good teacher? And the UFT is working to help find an answer.
Federal officials, in testimony before Congress recently, called for a refocus away from looking at “paper credentials” to gauging teacher effectiveness by asking states to find a better system for teacher evaluation.
Well, 700 New York City public school teachers have stepped up to the plate and invited teams of independent researchers into their classrooms to view their day-to-day practices for the next two years.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew applauded the volunteers for being on the cutting edge of the nationwide Measures of Effective Teaching Study that kicked off at union headquarters on March 3. “Educators will be looking at you for years to come,“ he said
Chapter Leader Pat Crispino (right) of the HS of Graphic Communication Arts tells (from left) Special Representative Joseph Colletti, Project Director David Osborn and Staten Island Educational Liaison Debra Penny how proud she is that the UFT is, once again, in the forefront of new ideas and initiatives.
Itzel Rivas (left) of PS 126 in the Bronx gets a gift certificate to Staples — a gift to each school with a volunteer team — to buy resources for her school from Katie Ruddy of the MET project.
“Studying what goes on inside the classroom is what’s most important,” he added. “And teachers, the people who actually make a difference in children’s lives, have been left out of that discussion — until now.”
Some of those voices will be coming from PS 7 in the Bronx, where Nathaniel Schiavo is chapter leader and project coordinator for the school’s seven-teacher MET team.
“This project,” he said, “will measure what’s effective besides just what shows on tests, because we do so much more.”
As colleague Naomi Wise pointed out, “There’s been no formal assessment before to judge the valuable things going on in the classroom that were not seen.”
Standing ready to open their classrooms at PS 7 in the Bronx to MET researchers are (from left) Elizabeth Harley, Naomi Wise and Chapter Leader Nathaniel Schiavo.
Project participants — 4th- through 8th-grade math and English language arts teachers, and high school living environment, English 9 and algebra teachers — will be videoed in their classrooms four times a year by specially designed, unobtrusive cameras that will be able to sweep 360 degrees to cover the entire room.
The tapes will then be analyzed by experts and the students’ learning will be assessed. Teachers will have opportunities to reflect on their taped performances. The Gates Foundation-funded study includes six other urban school systems and some 3,000 teachers nationwide.
Other parts of the project include student surveys and supplementary assessments, teacher surveys and assessment of teacher ability to recognize and diagnose student misperceptions.
Chapter Leader Pat Crispino of the HS of Graphic Arts said of her school’s 16 volunteers, “These are the very people who got us off the SURR list.”
Mark Catanzaro, an English teacher at the Manhattan high school, is looking forward to “working with the project in the hope that it will benefit education for years to come.”
Jeff Glasse, the research team member who will be in charge of classroom videos, described the project as “incredibly bold, audacious, challenging and novel because it focuses on practice.” He expects to tape 17,000 hours of practice in a process that he said “will gather all the richness of the classroom.”
Fifteen teachers at Curtis HS on Staten Island have signed on because, as English teacher Michelle Castelli remarked, “Test scores don’t tell the whole story. We want a more accurate way to show what goes on in our classrooms.”
Study to measure what teachers do kicks off
by Dorothy Callaci
Mar 18, 2010 12:29 PM
UFT President Michael Mulgrew, a strong supporter of the Measures of Effective Teaching study, tells teacher volunteers not to worry about classroom videos because “you are beautiful, talented people.”
One of the hottest issues in education today is also an age-old question: What makes a good teacher? And the UFT is working to help find an answer.
Federal officials, in testimony before Congress recently, called for a refocus away from looking at “paper credentials” to gauging teacher effectiveness by asking states to find a better system for teacher evaluation.
Well, 700 New York City public school teachers have stepped up to the plate and invited teams of independent researchers into their classrooms to view their day-to-day practices for the next two years.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew applauded the volunteers for being on the cutting edge of the nationwide Measures of Effective Teaching Study that kicked off at union headquarters on March 3. “Educators will be looking at you for years to come,“ he said
Chapter Leader Pat Crispino (right) of the HS of Graphic Communication Arts tells (from left) Special Representative Joseph Colletti, Project Director David Osborn and Staten Island Educational Liaison Debra Penny how proud she is that the UFT is, once again, in the forefront of new ideas and initiatives.
Itzel Rivas (left) of PS 126 in the Bronx gets a gift certificate to Staples — a gift to each school with a volunteer team — to buy resources for her school from Katie Ruddy of the MET project.
“Studying what goes on inside the classroom is what’s most important,” he added. “And teachers, the people who actually make a difference in children’s lives, have been left out of that discussion — until now.”
Some of those voices will be coming from PS 7 in the Bronx, where Nathaniel Schiavo is chapter leader and project coordinator for the school’s seven-teacher MET team.
“This project,” he said, “will measure what’s effective besides just what shows on tests, because we do so much more.”
As colleague Naomi Wise pointed out, “There’s been no formal assessment before to judge the valuable things going on in the classroom that were not seen.”
Standing ready to open their classrooms at PS 7 in the Bronx to MET researchers are (from left) Elizabeth Harley, Naomi Wise and Chapter Leader Nathaniel Schiavo.
Project participants — 4th- through 8th-grade math and English language arts teachers, and high school living environment, English 9 and algebra teachers — will be videoed in their classrooms four times a year by specially designed, unobtrusive cameras that will be able to sweep 360 degrees to cover the entire room.
The tapes will then be analyzed by experts and the students’ learning will be assessed. Teachers will have opportunities to reflect on their taped performances. The Gates Foundation-funded study includes six other urban school systems and some 3,000 teachers nationwide.
Other parts of the project include student surveys and supplementary assessments, teacher surveys and assessment of teacher ability to recognize and diagnose student misperceptions.
Chapter Leader Pat Crispino of the HS of Graphic Arts said of her school’s 16 volunteers, “These are the very people who got us off the SURR list.”
Mark Catanzaro, an English teacher at the Manhattan high school, is looking forward to “working with the project in the hope that it will benefit education for years to come.”
Jeff Glasse, the research team member who will be in charge of classroom videos, described the project as “incredibly bold, audacious, challenging and novel because it focuses on practice.” He expects to tape 17,000 hours of practice in a process that he said “will gather all the richness of the classroom.”
Fifteen teachers at Curtis HS on Staten Island have signed on because, as English teacher Michelle Castelli remarked, “Test scores don’t tell the whole story. We want a more accurate way to show what goes on in our classrooms.”
Response to Ruben Rengel
At first I was taken aback by Ruben just sitting off behind all of us, and there was no direction at first. I was wondering, where is this going? Are we just going to sit for the whole class? It taught me that maybe with a classroom, that it may need to be more structured at the beginning and then the teacher can back off and have students negotiate on the content and context of the classroom. I have done similar exercises in my own class, but it is usually superficial information (ex, what is yur favorite color? movie?). I feel as if that works for high school students and they tend to be more friendly with eachother after it. But what we went through in class did have me uncomfortable. I am usually a very private person and I do not open up to people I do not know. But I am grateful for the exercise because I realized that it's okay to be vulnerable so that people in the same community can help guide and advise. I always thought that my circumstances were different than my classmates, but essentially it is all the same. I feel as if after that work shop students are more comfortable with eachother, and not as shy to discuss ideas and thoughts in class.
response to increased graduation rates
I remember reading this same article in our teacher's lounge and many of my colleagues were outraged. Mayor Bloomberg credited principals and teachers for the increased graduation rate, but the rates acheived are not because the students are gaining the necessary skills. Teachers are encouraged to skew their grade scale. I know teachers that have students that attended class once every two weeks, and these students managed to get a 65. If the student has a 50 average, they are eligible for credit recovery, by taking a multiple choice test on a computer where they can look the answers up on the internet. How can a multiple choice test be equivilent to a semester of class? We have seniors who are graduating with a 5th grade reading level. How can a senior with a 5th grade reading level have a successful year in college? The problem isn't graduation rates, the problem is that the students who are socially promoted to graduate do not have the skills to go to college so they will have a better life in the future. I remember 15 years ago, a high school diploma meant something. It's not like that anymore, not even an associates degree is counted as a greater achievement anymore either. Most careers are looking for a bachelor's degree or higher. NYC has dumbed down their standards because instead of teachers having resources to elevate student learning, their jobs are threatened. Since a high school diploma doesn't mean as much, what is the harm in passing them along? They rather keep their jobs.
Reponse to Open comments-class meeting March 2
I agree with Charlene that the "commuter train" is a very important aspect to adult education. As we do accumulate more and more responsibility, school can seem almost impossible. I feel as if this type of accomodation is necessary for adult education. Instead of adults not finishing their degree because life can be compunding, this option will have adult students come back and finish. This is beneficial for the students because they can have the personal and academic fulfillment because they finished their degree. Also, going back to the census; about 37% of people within the US have their post secondary degree, I feel that having the option to come back to school later on will help boost that statistic.
Response to MTA bigwigs
I find this absolutely ridiculous... Anytime the state is running out of money they look to cut the education funds. Schools are already suffering as it is. There isn't money to hire new teachers so that class sizes are reduced. So the classrooms have up to 34 students. There isn't enough to keep the music and art programs open. There isn't enough to buy new books. Anything that can be a creative outlet it cut. AND now, that the budget cuts have already severely hindered students creative outputs, now this metrocard situation is going to drop graduation rates more. A monthly metrocard is about $90 a month. Most of my students are raised in a single parent household, and they have about 2-3 other siblings. If all the family needs a metrocard that is about 450 dollars spent. That is so much money. Parents cannot afford this. So what will it come down to? Students don't go to school, and they cannot better their lives. It also makes a more class based society. Only the people that can afford can go to school. That is truly horrendous. We shouldn't of built 2 new stadiums for $2 billion.
Response to classmates on Teacher Tenure
This is an issue. I feel that the added pressure to standardized tests takes away from students learning and developing skills that they will need for college. Many students that do graduate from my high school do not know how to write MLA research papers, expository essays, thematic essays- the list can continue. The students are very underprepared for college. The English regents is also a 6 hour long test, 3 hours each day. It is long and tiring. The students that do very well on the English regents are usually honors students who are required to have two class periods of English every single academic year, while the rest of the student population has one period of English. These students need the extra class, but resources are not given to them because my school just wants them to graduate and get them out of the school. I feel as if we are failing the majority of the student population.
To comment on Barbara's responses, I agree with you entirely on measuring students progress from the beginning og the term to the end. I have proposed that, but, there are too many types of students that will need different types of tests and we do not have the funding to do it. It is a mess!!!
Teacher Tenure
Teacher Tenure Based on Test Scores
Mulgrew attacks chancellor’s tenure guidelines
by Michael Hirsch
Feb 18, 2010 1:17 PM
Calling Chancellor Joel Klein’s move to use student test scores in tenure decisions “another example of mismanagement,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said it underscored the need for a teacher evaluation system that teachers can trust.
“It is a shame that rather than doing the hard work of trying to create a better process — something we have been working on with the state — the chancellor chose to make up his own misguided rules and rely on tests the state has deemed unreliable for this very purpose,” said Mulgrew.
Without negotiating or even conferring with the UFT, Klein told principals in the Feb. 11 edition of the Principal’s Weekly to include student test scores as one of the criteria for making tenure decisions this spring.
In a letter to union members on the same day that Klein announced his plan, Mulgrew wrote, “In order to protect you and your students from this ill-considered plan, we will pursue any and all legal remedies available to us.”
The UFT on Feb. 12 filed a complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Board charging that the Department of Education had an obligation to negotiate with the union before changing the procedures for making “tenure decisions.”
Of the approximately 6,800 teachers up for tenure this year, the new policy would affect about 700 teachers in grades 4 through 8 who have been teaching the same subject or grade for at least two years and whose students have taken the state math or English Language Arts exams.
“Mayor Bloomberg in November called on us to take the long overdue step of considering a teacher’s impact on student learning in tenure decisions. Linking tenure to a teacher’s results in the classroom makes common sense,” Klein wrote.
The chancellor said the change would make for “a more rigorous tenure system,” where 93 percent of teachers who were eligible for tenure last year received it.
The union contends that in addition to the violation of the Taylor Law, the action contravenes current state education law, which prohibits the DOE from using student grades on state standardized tests in tenure determinations for certain teachers whose probationary period ends this year.
The law sunsets on June 30.
The chancellor’s memo advises principals to take extra care in deciding whether to recommend for tenure teachers who have low scores on their Teacher Data Reports. (These reports give each eligible teacher a score based on the progress that her or his students have made on the state tests.) He is requiring principals to explain to superintendents their rationale in writing if they decide to recommend tenure for one of the lowest-scoring 15 percent of teachers.
The union, along with numerous scholars, cites well-grounded research showing that the method used to compute teachers’ Teacher Data Report scores is not a valid or reliable indicator of teacher quality.
The state ELA and math tests, on which the Teacher Data Report score is based, in particular are unreliable. While the most recent state test scores showed New York City students leaping over their previous years’ scores, results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, called “the nation’s report card,” show minimal improvements by city students.
In an interview with New York 1, Mulgrew posed the key question, “Why would you tell people to use broken tests? Why aren’t you working with us at the state level to move this issue forward?”
Teachers will be receiving their Teacher Data Reports via DOE e-mail in early March. Principals will have them earlier.
by Michael Hirsch
Feb 18, 2010 1:17 PM
Calling Chancellor Joel Klein’s move to use student test scores in tenure decisions “another example of mismanagement,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew said it underscored the need for a teacher evaluation system that teachers can trust.
“It is a shame that rather than doing the hard work of trying to create a better process — something we have been working on with the state — the chancellor chose to make up his own misguided rules and rely on tests the state has deemed unreliable for this very purpose,” said Mulgrew.
Without negotiating or even conferring with the UFT, Klein told principals in the Feb. 11 edition of the Principal’s Weekly to include student test scores as one of the criteria for making tenure decisions this spring.
In a letter to union members on the same day that Klein announced his plan, Mulgrew wrote, “In order to protect you and your students from this ill-considered plan, we will pursue any and all legal remedies available to us.”
The UFT on Feb. 12 filed a complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Board charging that the Department of Education had an obligation to negotiate with the union before changing the procedures for making “tenure decisions.”
Of the approximately 6,800 teachers up for tenure this year, the new policy would affect about 700 teachers in grades 4 through 8 who have been teaching the same subject or grade for at least two years and whose students have taken the state math or English Language Arts exams.
“Mayor Bloomberg in November called on us to take the long overdue step of considering a teacher’s impact on student learning in tenure decisions. Linking tenure to a teacher’s results in the classroom makes common sense,” Klein wrote.
The chancellor said the change would make for “a more rigorous tenure system,” where 93 percent of teachers who were eligible for tenure last year received it.
The union contends that in addition to the violation of the Taylor Law, the action contravenes current state education law, which prohibits the DOE from using student grades on state standardized tests in tenure determinations for certain teachers whose probationary period ends this year.
The law sunsets on June 30.
The chancellor’s memo advises principals to take extra care in deciding whether to recommend for tenure teachers who have low scores on their Teacher Data Reports. (These reports give each eligible teacher a score based on the progress that her or his students have made on the state tests.) He is requiring principals to explain to superintendents their rationale in writing if they decide to recommend tenure for one of the lowest-scoring 15 percent of teachers.
The union, along with numerous scholars, cites well-grounded research showing that the method used to compute teachers’ Teacher Data Report scores is not a valid or reliable indicator of teacher quality.
The state ELA and math tests, on which the Teacher Data Report score is based, in particular are unreliable. While the most recent state test scores showed New York City students leaping over their previous years’ scores, results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, called “the nation’s report card,” show minimal improvements by city students.
In an interview with New York 1, Mulgrew posed the key question, “Why would you tell people to use broken tests? Why aren’t you working with us at the state level to move this issue forward?”
Teachers will be receiving their Teacher Data Reports via DOE e-mail in early March. Principals will have them earlier.
NYT: High Schools to Offer Plan to Graduate 2 Years Early :RESPONSE
I think that the higher performing students will get the most out of this program. But I don't know how a 15/16 year old would adjust to college courses. Seeing high school students, there is a definite shift in attitude from 9th grade to 12th grade. Maybe these students are skilled enough to graduate earlier, but maybe not mature enough to take on college level classes. They may drop out of college for that reason.
I also think that letting students take tests earlier that they are not ready for can be discouraging, because they are spending 3 hours at a time to take these tests. Then what? They have to take these tests again? Maybe it could be a good situation for some, since they will be used to the format, and the next time they can do better. I believe that overall, it will leave most students behind, and would cause a a higher disparity between non college degree individuals and people who have college degrees.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Adult Biliteracy
Humaira Zakaria
Professor Gleason
ENGL C8031
Final Paper
May 11, 2010
Biliteracy and the issues of Basic Adult Education
Immigrants are faced with the issues of having to adapt to a new language so that they better aid their lives in a new environment. Immigrants bring with them their own culture, knowledge and language. But if they do not adapt, or are slowly adapting to the new target language of their new environment they are stigmatized as being illiterate. The process of biliteracy is socially and cognitively fueled based on an individual’s motivation to become literate in another language. Individuals do find ways to compensate so that they may begin the process of second language literacy; but lack of funding for programs necessary for individuals to become English literate is disproportionate to meet the needs of these English language learners.
There is a misconception that the United States is a monolingual English speaking nation. In 2000, the US Census data exemplifies that out of 262, 375, 152 people that data has been collected from, 215, 423, 557 individuals speak strictly English. 46, 951, 595 individuals speak another language (18% of the U.S population). With nearly 47 million people speaking another language other than English indicates that the nation is multilingual but English is still the dominant language (Wiley 11).
Zakaria 2
For the majority of immigrants to function within the United States, most will have to adapt to English and become literate on some level. Literacy serves three purposes: literacy as adaptation: literary as a state of grace: Literacy as power. Literacy as adaptation is a belief that “literacy is the key to social and economic access and provides a solution to the functional English problems or individuals” (Wiley 3). For immigrants to have literacy as adaptation means that they can greatly improve their livelihood because more opportunities will be accessible by becoming English literate. Literacy as a state of grace offers “a kind of salvation in which the literate or the literati are considered to have special virtues” (Wiley 4). People who are considered literate are held at a higher esteem than people who are nonliterate. There is a stigma that people who are nonliterate have lower cognitive abilities than people who are literate. With 47 million individuals speaking another language illiteracy is linked to immigrants, minorities, and non English and limited- English speakers who are in poverty. These “illiterates” supposedly spur crime, unemployment and lower the rates of global competitiveness. People will be labeled illiterate and will be attributed to all the negative stereotypes of illiteracy because they do not meet a level set by the expectations of the majority and in “a system of English- only instruction, the student is the target, and illiteracy in English is seen as the result of a personal, rather than systemic failure” (Wiley 99). Lastly, Literacy as power sees literacy as a “critical tool for transforming existing social relations” (Wiley 4). Literacy as power can bridge gaps between people so that a more equal and just society is established.
To become biliterate is a struggle for immigrants, especially ones that lack full
Zakaria 3
development of their own native language. There are two dimensions to developing language which are social language and academic language. Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) and Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (social language) are two dimensions of language development.
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) is formal academic learning. CALP is necessary for a students to succeed in an academic setting. CALP “is considered less contextualized, more abstract, and more cognitively demanding” (Wiley 158). Discourse functions in an academic setting “may also involve complex rhetorical functions, such as responding to requests for specific information… those required to understand and produce coherent, extended oral discourse or written texts” (Wiley 164). To achieve discourse function, there are skills centered approaches to language instruction. Grammar and vocabulary are part of academic instruction that are focused on CALP language skills. Grammar is viewed as necessary because students are mandated to “write formal papers that are grammatically correct and to demonstrate knowledge of formal grammar and word meaning on standardized achievement tests and, ultimately on college admonishing exams” (Wiley 165). But if language exists based on context, grammar can be a decontextualized perspective of language, in which grammar and vocabulary instruction can serve very little purpose for language learning. Formal education also focuses on listening comprehension. Some examples of listening skills based on listening comprehension instruction include but are not limited students having
the ability to
reconstruct or infer situations, goals, participants and procedures… use Zakaria 4
real-world knowledge and experience to work out purposes, goals, settings and procedures… infer links and connections to between events… reconstruct topics and coherent structures from ongoing discourse involving two or more speakers… adjust listening strategies to different kinds of listener purposes or goals… recognize instructional/ learner tasks… (Wiley 173).
These skills based instruction is known as form-focused instruction in which “The Grammar Translation Method and the Audiolingual Method both involve attempts to teach learners grammar” (Ellis 79).
Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) are language skills needed in social context so that one may interact with other people. Social situations are imbedded with context, and English Language Learners demonstrate BICS in meaningful social context but it is assumed that BICS is less cognitively demanding (Wiley 158).
In Tomás Mario Kalmar’s Illegal Alphabets and Adult Biliteracy exemplified the development of BICS of Mexican migrant workers. Within the setting of Cobden Illinois, Mexican migrant workers and locals of Cobden gathered at a local grocery store. The goal of these meetings were mutual; the locals of Cobden wanted to learn some Spanish from the Mexican migrant workers in exchange for teaching them English (Kalmar 4). These encounters between two different groups of people lowered “the language barrier, in the “neutral territory” of the Mexican grocery store, people were, as the Mexicans put it, ganando confianzo: building trust across the social (and legal) gulf that divided locals and migrants” (Kalmar 5). Both Mexican migrant workers and locals
Zakaria 5
sang songs and played music together, participated in meals together, played sports with each other, and submerged themselves into each others languages through these various activities.
John Schumann’s acculturation model gives a view into the “role of social factors in L2 acquisition” (Ellis 39). The Migrant workers and the predominately white Anglo workers put little social distance between themselves. Social distance “concerns the extent to which individual learners become members of a target- language group and therefore achieve contact with them” (Ellis 40). Even though these meetings at the local grocery store was informal, it was still a setting where the learning of language took place because the “target language group and the L2 group view each other as socially equal, both groups wish the L2 group to assimilate the target- language group and the L2 group share the same social facilities” (Ellis 40). These people were making meaning out of the social context between each other, the barriers between the two groups came down which made way for more learning to take place.
In Illinois the
Illinois Migrant Council had been conducting Adult Basic Education classes (including English as a Second Language, GED, and Pre- Vocational Education) throughout the state of Illinois… Their stated goal was to help seasonal and migrant farm workers settle out into the mainstream of the U.S. economy… “Illegal aliens” were therefore not eligible to attend (Wiley 15).
The Mexican migrant workers did not have a formal academic setting, in which
Zakaria 6
they had instruction on grammar, vocabulary and listening comprehension because their were ill eligible for such services. Their social context set up a basis for them to become English language learners. Through dialogue the Mexican migrant workers were developing their interlanguage. Interlanguage is the “systematic knowledge of an L2 that is independent of both the target language and the learner’s L1” (Ellis 140). They needed a system of communication so that they were able to speak up for their needs, wants and against injustice. The migrant workers believed that they all should “work together to study primery la pronunciación, luego la escritura, first the pronunciation, the the [correct] spelling-system” (Kalmar 23). Spanish is a phonetically based language. English does not sound the way the words are spelled; so the migrant workers established their own hybrid- language to compensate their lack of formal education so that may be able to communicate with the locals of Cobden. Their hybrid- language is not recognizable as Spanish or English when written as text, but it takes Spanish phonetics and applies it to English terms. For example, the migrant workers needed to say that “The law doesn’t protect us.” They all worked together to come up with a Spanish phonemic equivalent to project this sentence, and they settled on “Doló dasn’t protect as” (Kalmar 26). The migrants workers focused on pronunciation for communicative purposes and communicative competence.
The migrant workers believed their problem was that they did not know how to communicate (Kalmar 49), and they created a three column “glossary” to help serve their purpose in communication. They wrote the English terms for one column, the pronunciation column, and the Spanish translation column. The following examples are
Zakaria 7
from Kalmar’s Illegal Alphabets and Adult Biliteracy excerpted from the migrant worker’s glossary titled The Cobden Glossaries.
ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION SPANISH TRANSLATION
I’ll be back Avivac Ahorita Regreso
Come back Camvak Volver
How much Jamach Cuanto
We can’t go Guikent Gou No Podemos Ir
Guilty Guiolty Culpable
Language Lenguech Idioma
(53-55).
For the migrant workers, setting up this type of glossary for them is comprehensible input. These ELL’s are successful in their hybrid-language system in building a road to literacy in English because they used “situational context to make messages clear… through the negotiation of meaning” (Ellis 47). The migrant workers compensated for the lack of education that was not available to them.
There is a strong need for Adult Basic Education so that BICS and CALP are incorporated to help ELL’s acquire literacy in English. Usually, language education is more readily available for children and adolescents and it fails to address the needs of adults. The main question asked for Basic Adult Education is “why would an adult want to go (back) to school and learn to read and write English?” (Wiley 175). For the following reasons adults want to becomes literate in English. These Adults want to “become more independent: to not have to rely on friends and family to translate…To
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better their own and their families’ economic and educational circumstances… To give something back to the community… To feel like “somebody” and get some respect… To be involved in education for its own sake” (Wiley 176).
Focusing strictly on CALP or BICS may prove ineffective for students over the grand scheme of literacy. Instructors will need to find a way to accommodate these learners by balancing both formal instruction and communicative competence because “learning grammar becomes more meaningful when it is learned in association with common notions and communicative functions. Grammatical forms are dealt with as they are needed in order to express the concepts and functions taught” (Wiley 161). But when there are other programs provided to help aid bilingualism for English language learners, these programs are attacked and labeled as inappropriate because it does not foster English only instruction (Wiley 99). For example, Kalmar had presented The Cobden Glossary to ESL teachers in a workshop. He had circulated the Cobden glossaries to these ESL teachers, and some responded negatively to the hybrid system the migrant workers had used. The teachers responded as if what the migrants workers had wrote is not English, that they could not read it, and the people who wrote the glossary are illiterate and cannot speak or write English, even though the migrants workers “claimed that knowing how to code English speech accurately was more use to them than trying to decode English spelling without being sure how it really sounds” (Kalmar 58). This was a meaningful learning exercise to these migrant workers, but since it did not follow standard academic form, it was ridiculed. Could a hybrid writing practice of L1 and L2 be proposed as legitimate instruction in an ESL classroom? Kalmar suggests that
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a “rapid course for adult learners can afford to put speaking first and writing last. It is presumably easier for an adult to learn to play with new values for letters of a familiar alphabet” (Kalmar 99). Terrence G. Wiley states that when “programs work with learners to develop a curriculum, the curriculum will better reflect the learner’s needs, goals, and interests, and learners can exercise language choices” (176). The ESL instructors needs to focus on and understand
which aspects of instruction reflect the autonomous orientation (focusing on learner characteristics), the social practices orientation (focusing on language in social and cultural contexts), and the ideological orientation (focusing on systemic inequities)… we need to concentrate on explicitly on those practices rather than on levels of proficiency that are not specific to any particular context (Wiley 176).
Wiley also suggests for “language minority children and adults, the native language usually provides the most immediate means for participating in school literacy practices” (178). When students develop their oral language skills in their target language “they can develop academic language skills in the second language, if they have practices parallel activities in their first language” (Wiley 178).
Language diversity is very prominent within The United States. Nearly 47 million people in The U.S. speak another language. Literacy serves as a way for ELL’s to better their lives by having access to opportunities, by having the negative stereotypes lifted off of them, and to create an equal and just environment. A Basic Adult Education program needs to take the students into account and contextualize its curriculum so that students
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can make meaning. Basic Adult Education should not to be treated as form-focused instruction, but it needs to negotiate with the learners of a new language. It is necessary for adults to have literacy programs so that they feel accomplished, more independent, and a contributor to their community.
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Works Cited
Ellis, Rod. Second Language Acquisition. New York: Oxford Press, 1997. Print.
Kalmar, Tomás Mario Kalmar. Illegal Alphabets and Adult Biliteracy: Latino Migrants Crossing the Linguistic Border. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. Print.
Wiley, Terrence G. Literacy and Language Diversity in The United States. District of Columbia: Center for Applied Linguistics, 2005. Print.
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