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I use language experience with reflect and I find them both very powerful tools among other approaches too. With reflect and language experience students are able to reveal their rich experiences in an integrated way so speaking is the source of writing which is the reading and the listening (to reading aloud and guessing who the author was). We do speaky listening 'grammar', hearing the language and its meaning and contrasting a lot too (e.g. I grow vegetables in the allotment, but I have grown a mango tree, listen swim, swam swum, are they the same or different, etc. ) and then getting words down through conversations between the T or the volunteer and the students.

 

Just today:

 

I have swum in the South China Sea. The water was warm and salty. I used tools to collect oysters. I caught a whole bucket of oysters. We ate them - really nice.

 

I have climbed a mango tree. It was a big tree. I picked the mangoes. We made mango juice and we ate rice and mango, with milk and chicken.

 

My class is E2/3 for learners with little or no formal schooling (LLNFS).

 

I think one needs to be eclectic. Experiment, try out stuff, and if it is meaningful  and it grabs learners and works, students usually progress. I have a few students that I've taught from scratch and they can read texts like the above, not memorising, real reading, and they can read some funny stories I've written that are longer - and the proof is in the laughter.  

 

Ann Macdonald

 

 

From: ESOL-Research discussion forum and message board [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of John Sutter [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 08 May 2013 08:34
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: What happens in pre-entry and E1 ESOL classes?

Hi all,
 
At LLU+,  when the new ESOL curriculum arrived on the scene,  we fought something of a rearguard, but ultimately doomed battle against the term ‘pre-entry’ being used as shorthand for E1 learners with ‘ limited or no’ literacy in English, so it’s great to see this topic rearing up again. I agree with many of the points made, and I’d add that I see part of the problem is to do with the way we sometimes think of ‘literacy’ to begin with….. it’s still viewed - certainly in mainstream education- as something of a neutral monolithic thing which somehow confers cognitive privileges upon users (as opposed to social advantage). Yet at the same time, this monolithic entity is apparently made of ‘skills’ and sub-skills which in turn are related to the traditional ‘four skills’, esp reading and writing. This seems to me to be increasingly dubious -  and the research Philida mentions is interesting in this regard, raising the possibility that the idea that ‘skills’ can be unproblematically ‘transferable’ is itself deeply problematic. (E.g. functional skills!).
 
Part of the reason the ‘language experience’ and ‘reflect’ approaches seem to be (in my experience certainly) so helpful with early literacy/beginner learners is that they are very much an integrated, social practice approach to language – not so much the ‘four skills’ made up of ‘subskills’ but highly contextualized communicative exchanges where meaning is paramount, and as a consequence, the learner must be personally involved (or have a stake) in making meanings that are in the broadest sense important to them, through whatever resources they can draw on. (And notably both these approaches will involve lots of 'speaking/listening'  - possibly in more than one language - integrated into any 'reading/writing ' work)
 
A ‘social practice’ view of communication does raise a lot of awkward questions for the traditional ELT ‘four skills’ view of language/literacy learning, especially around the ways in which speaking/listening/reading/writing and  increasingly, gesture/visuals/sounds/technologies etc interweave in real communication, as opposed to being conveniently segmented. A further series of awkward questions for ELT are raised by traditional perspectives of ‘languages’ as a whole- Mel touches on this with her points about bilingual teaching and the potential brutality of L2 literacy teaching to learners non-literate in L1 ;  I’m increasingly unconvinced that any such thing as ‘English’ (or any other language) actually exists, or that classrooms ought to be anything other than highly ‘mulitilingual’ places, where the object of learning is not ‘English’, ‘literacy’ or any other language for that matter, but simply communication in highly localized, practice oriented forms (for more on this see  Pennycook, A, 2010 Language as a Local Practice 2010)
 
So, yes, it would be great to move away from ‘pre-entry’ as a terms for these sorts of learners, but we should perhaps also be trying to move away from the ‘four skills’ construction of language/literacy that itself is part of the educational structure that places these learners in such a compromised and disadvantaged position…
 
All best
 
John
John Sutter, Director
Learning Unlimited
Institute of Education
20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
Tel: 020 7911 5561 /  07813836559
Skype name: jssutter

On 7 May 2013, at 12:51, Philida Schellekens wrote:

Just picking up on your thinking on how we teach language, and whether teaching speaking and listening up front is feasible.  I agree that you would want to teach a mix of the skills, including developing motoric control to hold a pen and form shapes/letters can be taught early on, spelling your own name etc as you say. But what I see in many beginner classes is that teachers spend lots of time on reading and writing. It is almost as if they see these skills as the priority rather than help learners develop their language skills.  Having read the recent research on developing reading skills that I wrote about earlier, I question whether this is the most effective use of teaching and learning time.  What would be good is do a controlled study, to see what works best.  

Regards - Philida

-----Original Message-----
From: ESOL-Research discussion forum and message board [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Julia Paillier
Sent: 07 May 2013 12:36
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: What happens in pre-entry and E1 ESOL classes?

Dot's point about 'all-round' beginners - I think most providers have to try and split E1 down to cater for the fact that some people with a very early starting point take longer to get there.  I've seen all sorts of names for this -

pre-entry/E1
Steps 1, 2, 3
ESOL Start, ESOL 1
ESOL a, b, c

and so on, but it all means 'working towards E1'.

On Literacy, I think that where possible that dedicated provision needs to be set up for learners with literacy needs as they are often not beginners.  Many have already developed understanding (listening) and speaking to some extent, even in E1 basic literacy - that acquisition is already happening.   These learners don't need to see a lot of print, whereas learners with transferable skills need to see print to help them learn.  I find teaching mixed E1 classes  where some learners can't read,painful for this reason.

The questioning on approaches to literacy is good.  I think that learners can progress where the literacy learning is delivered methodically (incrementally, with lots of revision, small core print vocab etc), in small groups and in dedicated settings, as in the kind of approach advocated by Lisa Karlsen.    But, as Philida says, to what extent ultimately?  Sometimes there are barriers which prevent progress.  And there is an issue over expectations - I remember getting very frustrated with one learners 'lack of progress' years ago, but then she told me how good it was for her to finally be able to sort out post that was for previous occupants of her flat and not for her.  

Mel's point on a bilingual approach is very interesting... it would be good if that could be explored and supported.

But I don't think that it is realistic to try to teach speaking and listening first and leave literacy until later.  Often these learners identify reading and writing as their prime need and it is a need, in terms of life skill.  And they have usually started to develop other language skills and want some intervention and help now, even with what many would see as very small things like spelling a name or a child's name, or recognising an address.

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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.
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[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] 
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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]