I will be ready and eager to continue the discussion on all these topics. 
Point 3 is likely to drive me into retirement in another year or so, and not 
just the poor pay-to-work-done ratio.

Cheryl Thornett
ESOL tutor
Birmingham Adult Education



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Simpson" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2008 2:02 PM
Subject: ESOL hot topics


Hello all!

A while ago Karen Dudley asked us to suggest some of the hot topics of
ESOL, to feed into a discussion on 'visions and values of ESOL' at  the
forthcoming NATECLA conference in Warwick in July. Judging from recent
posts on the ESOL-Research email list, and aside from the contentious
debate over the spelling of 'devolved', I'd say that the current burning
issues are as follows. Please comment or add your thoughts to these:

1. Provision of ESOL classes at lower levels. It is a disgrace that
those most in need of ESOL tuition continue to have difficulty getting
anywhere near a beginner ESOL literacy, an E1 or an E2 class. The
imaginative efforts of some practitioners to channel provision mean that
they have to work against local and national policies. For this the
government and the management of some colleges can be accused of willful
neglect.

2. ESOL and citizenship. Shackling ESOL in policy to citizenship has
been a shambles from the start. Teachers have done their best to tailor
provision to the needs of students within citizenship classes through
the development and use of interesting and appropriate materials.
Nonetheless, widespread confusion about eligibility for ESOL and
citizenship provision, the difficulty students find in getting into
appropriate classes, the high stakes nature of the citizenship test, and
the absurd nature of its content all clearly affect ESOL practitioners
and pedagogy. In classes below E3, which students can follow as an
alternative to taking the electronic test, assessments such as Cambridge
ESOL Speaking and Listening have themselves also become extremely high
stakes tests - something which was never intended or predicted by the
exam boards. Citizenship and the 'community cohesion' agenda have led to
Government interference in ESOL, and the heavy-handed imposition of an
ideologically-laden New Labour version of Britishness, history and
citizenship goes against the grain for many. And entirely predictably,
given the shifts in policy and the confusion on the ground, students are
suffering exploitation and financial difficulty at the hands of sharp
operators when they sign up to spurious ESOL citizenship courses.

3. The status of ESOL. Our email discussion looked at this in relation
to other areas of ELT, and to EFL in particular. The low status of ESOL
is intimately connected to the casualised, part time, gendered
conditions of the ESOL workforce itself.  The focus on improving and
upgrading initial teacher training and CPD which has happened in recent
years has not been matched by an improvement in pay and conditions for
teachers. I also think that its status as a 'Skill for Life' should be
the topic of continued debate. What have been the consequences,
academically, pedagogically and professionally, of linking English
language learning to the adult basic skills agenda?

4. Funding of ESOL. The key issues are the devolving of funding; the
increased involvement of the private sector; and the future of funding
post-Skills for Life.

There are connections between these areas. The overarching themes as I
see them are
1. Funding: How should ESOL be funded? We await the results of the DIUS
consultation with interest, though with little hope that an 'ESOL for
all' solution will be reached. This will probably come down to a debate
about 'Where does the greatest need lie?' Personally, however, I  find
the idea of 'prioritising groups' for ESOL provision to be odious and
intellectually unsound.

2. English in the world: How has the changing role and importance of
English in the world at a time of mass movements of people and global
communication impacted on ESOL?

Most importantly of all is the response of the ESOL community to these
issues. Many practitioners wish to resist the role being ascribed to
ESOL by the current government, as the debates on this list testify. The
question is, how to get and keep a strong voice in public debate? Helen
Weir said a few days ago: "What happened to the Save ESOL campaign? I
don't think we should be sitting back and letting this happen. It's time
for action." Is the Save ESOL campaign moribund? I'd be happy to see it
re-ignited, particularly with reference to the first of the points above
(provision of ESOL at E1, E2 and beginner ESOL literacy), and to the
notion of prioritising. Personally, I see an active and influential role
for the UCU here.

Cheers
James

----------------
Dr James Simpson
School of Education
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
UK
[log in to unmask]
http://www.education.leeds.ac.uk/people/staff.php?staff=39
+44 (0)113 343 4687

Visit the ESOL Research home page:
http://www.personal.leeds.ac.uk/~edujsi/

Join the ESOL-Research discussion list:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html

***********************************
ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest 
in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by 
James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of 
Education, University of Leeds.
To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html
A quick guide to using Jiscmail lists can be found at:
http://jiscmail.ac.uk/help/using/quickuser.htm
To contact the list owner, send an email to
[log in to unmask]

***********************************
ESOL-Research is a forum for researchers and practitioners with an interest in research into teaching and learning ESOL. ESOL-Research is managed by James Simpson at the Centre for Language Education Research, School of Education, University of Leeds.
To join or leave ESOL-Research, visit
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/ESOL-RESEARCH.html
A quick guide to using Jiscmail lists can be found at:
http://jiscmail.ac.uk/help/using/quickuser.htm
To contact the list owner, send an email to
[log in to unmask]