I just wanted to reply in defence of the ESOL Core Curriculum. Isn’t this document about identifying the skills and language systems needed at each level, rather than being prescriptive on context. In fact, the description of students working towards level 2 clearly says that students at this level will be writing in academic as well as general contexts.

An ESOL lecturer in charge of producing his/her own SOW can draw from the contexts relevant to the students in his/her class; as in any classroom situation.

I think it is the Skills for Life materials and exams that do not include academic contexts.

Luci

Hear, hear! Whilst survival English is important, we need to recognise that ESOL learners are not one homogeneous group and have individual differences in their language learning backgrounds, life experiences, education - just to name a few items. Neena, I would add to your list, the appropriate higher education courses. This may have been omitted because the ESOL core curriculum, as it presently stands, does not incorporate sufficient academic English content to prepare learners for higher education, but, this is certainly what some learners would like to do/would most benefit fro. I find it interesting that at least  some 'informal' English classes of which I am aware are attempting to fill this learning gap.


Theresa

>>> Neena Julka <[log in to unmask]> 05/15/12 10:11 PM >>>
This is indeed, a very interesting discussion. I agree with Philida and the
contributor before her, but the key thing to ask, in whatever context ESOL
is being taught, is if learners are learning language to, not just 'survive
in the Big society' but fulfil their potential and are impartially guided to
the appropriate emplyment or vocational courses.

Neena
----- Original Message -----
From: "ESOL-RESEARCH automatic digest system" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2012 11:14 PM
Subject: ESOL-RESEARCH Digest - 13 May 2012 to 14 May 2012 - Special issue
(#2012-119)


There are 4 messages totaling 139579 lines in this issue.

Topics in this special issue:

1. Informal ESOL classes (3)
2. London ESOL Research Network (LERN) March Seminar Presentations

***********************************
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
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----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 15:41:56 +0100
From: Martin Nickson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Informal ESOL classes

This is a rather lengthy contribution, but the Seminar gave me a lot to
think about. And as James mentioned, there are number of issues that the
Leeds seminar highlighted. I started to try to answer some of the questions
raised by James and the observations made by Helen and others, but it
rapidly turned into an essay! So I would just like to address two issue
which may be fundamental to many of the questions asked, and those issues
are

1. Are mainstream and non-mainstream ESOL fundamentally different?
2. Does non-mainstream ESOL offer a space for pedagogical innovation?

My response is not particularly short, but some issues are difficult to
address in a few paragraphs, ,even if convention says we should!

In short, I think that the non-mainstream does provide a space for
pedagogical innovation, but not because it is inherently distinct from
mainstream in some way but because I think that ESOL policy seeks to narrow
the scope of language pedagogy. My current understandings of ESOL teaching
and learning, and SLA acquisition research, lead me to believe that because
language learning is so context dependant across a huge range of variables,
a top-down approach to ESOL provision is not viable, nor effective. I
think that ESOL policy - with arbitrary legal requirements for attendance
and politically constructed barriers to access, and its dependance on
measurable outcomes (which are themselves predicated on fundamental
misunderstandings of frameworks such as the CEFR) – has imposed artificial
limits on pedagogy that often seem to fly in the face of the available
evidence, and act contrary to the essential nature of ESOL pedagogy which
has to be innovative.

I think its useful here to consider what ESOL would look like if it’s
direction was unconstrained by policy: I would imagine that a diversity of
teaching practices, strategies and approaches would emerge as principled,
informed practitioners responded to local context. I would also imagine that
a number of teaching practices imposed (ILP?) would disappear and approaches
more characteristic of some non-mainstream practice (Helen referred to
Teaching unplugged) would be more common. Because of this, I think that the
informal vs formal, mainstream vs non-mainstream discussion is not something
ESOL teachers should regard as a further possibility for fragmentation
within our community of practice, but a continuation of research and
practice within a cohesive whole. If ongoing research into the
non-mainstream does unearth (good) homogenous, or innovative practice that
is significantly situated there (and not in the mainstream), then this may
suggest not a different pedagogy is in operation, but (in cases where that
innovative practice arises from a principled informed base) that policy is
failing to support the full potentiality of ESOL. I would suggest that
approaches like Teaching Unplugged and the Reflect frameworks are
illustrative of this.

I don’t think that considering what ESOL would look like if unconstrained by
policy is just a ‘thought experiment’. I think that current policy
direction is driving ESOL toward a re-fragmentation and that in the ‘real
world’ this may necessarily lead practitioners to the question of which
(type of) practice to support in an era of funding cuts. If practitioners
position themselves to support only mainstream classes staffed by paid
professionals (a legitimate and understandable principled position), are we
in danger of isolating good practice that occurs outside the mainstream and
possibly narrowing the potentiality for our own pedagogy ?? Conversely,
embracing the non-mainstream without criticality because of the potentials
for pedagogy it may offer or because it ‘does some good’, veers perilously
close to enabling the Big Society agendas of localism and cheap ESOL. For
me, the thought experiment I offered “Liberating Pedaggy or Teaching without
a theory” provides some antidote to this potential division because the key
to answering those questions over what practice is legitimate or not lies
not in whether a class is mainstream or non-mainstream, but in effective
practice - informed and principled - rather than how that practice is
funding supported (or how its outcomes are monitored by Government).

I initially said I did not have the space to address questions raised by
James, but if I may I would like to address one, which is whether the
non-mainstream is valid if not supported by experienced or trained
practitioners. As James indicated, the seminar seemed to be heading towards
supporting the position that the non-mainstream was only valid if supported
by experienced practitioners. But this raises a further question, which is
to ask what that experience and training is based on? Under current
conditions, policy agendas for ESOL are driving towards a narrow
economically deterministic model and it is within this model that future
ESOL practitioners will gain their experience and training. I would
therefore suggest a qualification to the conclusion that was emerging which
is that in addition to training and experience, criticality, even in its
broadest sense, is essential not only to validate non-mainstream, but
indeed any ESOL practice. Even in its most de-politicised, reduced form,
criticality leads us to ask “Is this working?” and it is apparent to me,
that by suppressing the inherent innovation required of language teachers,
current policy agendas for ESOL are not working. A critical approach,
informed by knowledge of good practice (wherever that practice may arise
including the non-mainstream) helps us answer the question “Is this
working?" and maybe the start of a liberating pedagogy.

***********************************
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]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 17:09:04 +0100
From: Philida Schellekens <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Informal ESOL classes

Hi Martin

I agree with a lot of what you say. I would add that, in addition to
looking at the needs of the learners, we should pay more attention to
research-based evidence on language learning, both in the ESOL context and
more widely in language teaching. There is so much out there that could
inform our practice, standards setting and exams.

Regards - Philida

-----Original Message-----
From: ESOL-Research discussion forum and message board [mailto:] On Behalf
Of Martin Nickson
Sent: 14 May 2012 15:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Informal ESOL classes

This is a rather lengthy contribution, but the Seminar gave me a lot to
think about. And as James mentioned, there are number of issues that the
Leeds seminar highlighted. I started to try to answer some of the questions
raised by James and the observations made by Helen and others, but it
rapidly turned into an essay! So I would just like to address two issue
which may be fundamental to many of the questions asked, and those issues
are

1. Are mainstream and non-mainstream ESOL fundamentally different?
2. Does non-mainstream ESOL offer a space for pedagogical innovation?

My response is not particularly short, but some issues are difficult to
address in a few paragraphs, ,even if convention says we should!

In short, I think that the non-mainstream does provide a space for
pedagogical innovation, but not because it is inherently distinct from
mainstream in some way but because I think that ESOL policy seeks to narrow
the scope of language pedagogy. My current understandings of ESOL teaching
and learning, and SLA acquisition research, lead me to believe that because
language learning is so context dependant across a huge range of variables,
a top-down approach to ESOL provision is not viable, nor effective. I
think that ESOL policy - with arbitrary legal requirements for attendance
and politically constructed barriers to access, and its dependance on
measurable outcomes (which are themselves predicated on fundamental
misunderstandings of frameworks such as the CEFR) – has imposed artificial
limits on pedagogy that often seem to fly in the face of the available
evidence, and act contrary to the essential nature of ESOL pedagogy which
has to be innovative.

I think its useful here to consider what ESOL would look like if it’s
direction was unconstrained by policy: I would imagine that a diversity of
teaching practices, strategies and approaches would emerge as principled,
informed practitioners responded to local context. I would also imagine that
a number of teaching practices imposed (ILP?) would disappear and approaches
more characteristic of some non-mainstream practice (Helen referred to
Teaching unplugged) would be more common. Because of this, I think that the
informal vs formal, mainstream vs non-mainstream discussion is not something
ESOL teachers should regard as a further possibility for fragmentation
within our community of practice, but a continuation of research and
practice within a cohesive whole. If ongoing research into the
non-mainstream does unearth (good) homogenous, or innovative practice that
is significantly situated there (and not in the mainstream), then this may
suggest not a different pedagogy is in operation, but (in cases where that
innovative practice arises from a principled informed base) that policy is
failing to support the full potentiality of ESOL. I would suggest that
approaches like Teaching Unplugged and the Reflect frameworks are
illustrative of this.

I don’t think that considering what ESOL would look like if unconstrained by
policy is just a ‘thought experiment’. I think that current policy
direction is driving ESOL toward a re-fragmentation and that in the ‘real
world’ this may necessarily lead practitioners to the question of which
(type of) practice to support in an era of funding cuts. If practitioners
position themselves to support only mainstream classes staffed by paid
professionals (a legitimate and understandable principled position), are we
in danger of isolating good practice that occurs outside the mainstream and
possibly narrowing the potentiality for our own pedagogy ?? Conversely,
embracing the non-mainstream without criticality because of the potentials
for pedagogy it may offer or because it ‘does some good’, veers perilously
close to enabling the Big Society agendas of localism and cheap ESOL. For
me, the thought experiment I offered “Liberating Pedaggy or Teaching without
a theory” provides some antidote to this potential division because the key
to answering those questions over what practice is legitimate or not lies
not in whether a class is mainstream or non-mainstream, but in effective
practice - informed and principled - rather than how that practice is
funding supported (or how its outcomes are monitored by Government).

I initially said I did not have the space to address questions raised by
James, but if I may I would like to address one, which is whether the
non-mainstream is valid if not supported by experienced or trained
practitioners. As James indicated, the seminar seemed to be heading towards
supporting the position that the non-mainstream was only valid if supported
by experienced practitioners. But this raises a further question, which is
to ask what that experience and training is based on? Under current
conditions, policy agendas for ESOL are driving towards a narrow
economically deterministic model and it is within this model that future
ESOL practitioners will gain their experience and training. I would
therefore suggest a qualification to the conclusion that was emerging which
is that in addition to training and experience, criticality, even in its
broadest sense, is essential not only to validate non-mainstream, but
indeed any ESOL practice. Even in its most de-politicised, reduced form,
criticality leads us to ask “Is this working?” and it is apparent to me,
that by suppressing the inherent innovation required of language teachers,
current policy agendas for ESOL are not working. A critical approach,
informed by knowledge of good practice (wherever that practice may arise
including the non-mainstream) helps us answer the question “Is this
working?" and maybe the start of a liberating pedagogy.

***********************************
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]

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 13:46:54 -0700
From: dominic mccabe <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Informal ESOL classes

Hello All

I used to be a discussion list facilitator for an IATEFL group called the
global issues special interest group (GISIG) and the issues Martin appears
to be pointing towards were (and still are) dealt with on this list many
times. The concept of 'criticality' or a range of realisations of critical
linguistics or critical discourse analysis seems to tease out the political
elements of what we call education. Are political steers stopping good
teaching and learning? What is done about this in our classrooms?

I talk to all my classes about exams responding, really, to queries, and
inconsistencies the students themselves have raised. The discourse we engage
in with regard to formal external assessment mirrors how we, as teachers and
even some managers, talk about Ofsted and the inspection framework, i.e.
that it is a game, a kind of pretence that we all collude in. What can we do
(as teachers and students) to realise freer teaching and learning or is this
only possible in a non-mainstream setting?

Cheers Dominic McCabe
Derby ESOL tutor


________________________________
From: Philida Schellekens <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, 14 May 2012, 17:09
Subject: Re: Informal ESOL classes

Hi Martin

I agree with a lot of what you say. I would add that, in addition to looking
at the needs of the learners, we should pay more attention to research-based
evidence on language learning, both in the ESOL context and more widely in
language teaching. There is so much out there that could inform our
practice, standards setting and exams.

Regards - Philida

-----Original Message-----
From: ESOL-Research discussion forum and message board [mailto:] On Behalf
Of Martin Nickson
Sent: 14 May 2012 15:42
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Informal ESOL classes

This is a rather lengthy contribution, but the Seminar gave me a lot to
think about. And as James mentioned, there are number of issues that the
Leeds seminar highlighted. I started to try to answer some of the questions
raised by James and the observations made by Helen and others, but it
rapidly turned into an essay! So I would just like to address two issue
which may be fundamental to many of the questions asked, and those issues
are

1. Are mainstream and non-mainstream ESOL fundamentally different?
2. Does non-mainstream ESOL offer a space for pedagogical innovation?

My response is not particularly short, but some issues are difficult to
address in a few paragraphs, ,even if convention says we should!

In short, I think that the non-mainstream does provide a space for
pedagogical innovation, but not because it is inherently distinct from
mainstream in some way but because I think that ESOL policy seeks to narrow
the scope of language pedagogy. My current understandings of ESOL teaching
and learning, and SLA acquisition research, lead me to believe that because
language learning is so context dependant across a huge range of variables,
a top-down approach to ESOL provision is not viable, nor effective. I
think that ESOL policy - with arbitrary legal requirements for attendance
and politically constructed barriers to access, and its dependance on
measurable outcomes (which are themselves predicated on fundamental
misunderstandings of frameworks such as the CEFR) – has imposed artificial
limits on pedagogy that often seem to fly in the face of the available
evidence, and act contrary to the essential nature of ESOL pedagogy which
has
to be innovative.

I think its useful here to consider what ESOL would look like if it’s
direction was unconstrained by policy: I would imagine that a diversity of
teaching practices, strategies and approaches would emerge as principled,
informed practitioners responded to local context. I would also imagine that
a number of teaching practices imposed (ILP?) would disappear and approaches
more characteristic of some non-mainstream practice (Helen referred to
Teaching unplugged) would be more common. Because of this, I think that the
informal vs formal, mainstream vs non-mainstream discussion is not something
ESOL teachers should regard as a further possibility for fragmentation
within our community of practice, but a continuation of research and
practice within a cohesive whole. If ongoing research into the
non-mainstream does unearth (good) homogenous, or innovative practice that
is significantly situated there (and not in the mainstream), then this may
suggest
not a different pedagogy is in operation, but (in cases where that
innovative practice arises from a principled informed base) that policy is
failing to support the full potentiality of ESOL. I would suggest that
approaches like Teaching Unplugged and the Reflect frameworks are
illustrative of this.

I don’t think that considering what ESOL would look like if unconstrained by
policy is just a ‘thought experiment’. I think that current policy direction
is driving ESOL toward a re-fragmentation and that in the ‘real world’ this
may necessarily lead practitioners to the question of which (type of)
practice to support in an era of funding cuts. If practitioners position
themselves to support only mainstream classes staffed by paid professionals
(a legitimate and understandable principled position), are we in danger of
isolating good practice that occurs outside the mainstream and possibly
narrowing the potentiality for our own pedagogy ?? Conversely, embracing the
non-mainstream without criticality because of the potentials for pedagogy it
may offer or because it ‘does some good’, veers perilously close to enabling
the Big Society agendas of localism and cheap ESOL. For me, the thought
experiment I offered “Liberating Pedaggy or
Teaching without a theory” provides some antidote to this potential
division because the key to answering those questions over what practice is
legitimate or not lies not in whether a class is mainstream or
non-mainstream, but in effective practice - informed and principled - rather
than how that practice is funding supported (or how its outcomes are
monitored by Government).

I initially said I did not have the space to address questions raised by
James, but if I may I would like to address one, which is whether the
non-mainstream is valid if not supported by experienced or trained
practitioners. As James indicated, the seminar seemed to be heading towards
supporting the position that the non-mainstream was only valid if supported
by experienced practitioners. But this raises a further question, which is
to ask what that experience and training is based on? Under current
conditions, policy agendas for ESOL are driving towards a narrow
economically deterministic model and it is within this model that future
ESOL practitioners will gain their experience and training. I would
therefore suggest a qualification to the conclusion that was emerging which
is that in addition to training and experience, criticality, even in its
broadest sense, is essential not only to validate non-mainstream, but
indeed any ESOL practice.
Even in its most de-politicised, reduced form, criticality leads us to ask
“Is this working?” and it is apparent to me, that by suppressing the
inherent innovation required of language teachers, current policy agendas
for ESOL are not working. A critical approach, informed by knowledge of good
practice (wherever that practice may arise including the non-mainstream)
helps us answer the question “Is this working?" and maybe the start of a
liberating pedagogy.

***********************************
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]

***********************************
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]



------------------------------

Date: Mon, 14 May 2012 23:13:35 +0100
From: Elaine Williamson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: London ESOL Research Network (LERN) March Seminar Presentations





***********************************
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
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------------------------------

End of ESOL-RESEARCH Digest - 13 May 2012 to 14 May 2012 - Special issue
(#2012-119)
************************************************************************************

***********************************
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
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*********************************** 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]