Tag Archives: ESL

Fun Ways to Use Voicethread with ESL Students

June 7, 2013, 8:05 am • Posted by ESL Insights
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voicethread

By Denise Maduli-Williams

CCSF ESL class- Introduction to Reading Voicethread

Voicethread’s tagline is “Conversations in the cloud” and that pretty much sums it up.  I love using Voicethread activities with my ESL students at City College of San Francisco and have been doing so for years now.  It is a great tool to encourage students to talk to each other, listen and think about each others’ ideas.

The way Voicethread works is to allow students to comment on a document, image, or video right on the page.  They can comment by recording audio, video or typing and then their comment pops up right on the same page.  They can even doodle on the document or image with the drawing tool while they are recording comments.

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Work Voices 13: Eve Olimpo, Sustainable Interior Designer

June 3, 2013, 7:54 am • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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Eve Olimpo

Transcript (English)

Eve Olimpo is a native French speaker from Montreal, Canada, and has lived in the US for 12 years. She is an interior designer working at Inhabiture in Palo Alto, a retail outlet for an architectural company which specializes in sustainable design and construction - “ we create beautiful and healthy residential and commercial spaces.” Eve works with clients to explain options in terms of green design and advises them on sustainable furniture and furnishing, products that are selected for natural eco-friendly qualities.

As a mother with four children, Eve went to community college to learn English and describes how scared she felt not being able to understand the language. She took ESL classes at West Valley College and then joined the certificate program in the Interior Design Department followed by the LEED Internship Program.

Eve firmly believes it is never too late to learn and that there are many training programs on offer in her field. She is inspiring, having found a path which is not just about aesthetics, but also provides customers with products that are good for their health as well as for the environment. Clearly she is doing something she loves and feels passionate about.

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A Collaborative Vision for Serving Adult Learners

May 24, 2013, 10:45 am • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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Redshirts
Photo by Tom Jung, San Mateo Adult School

Round table discussion report from CATESOL Northern Regional Conference.

The 2013 Northern Regional CATESOL Conference on Saturday May 4th gave us a wonderful opportunity to bring together a panel of ESL educators from community colleges and adult schools to talk about A Collaborative Vision for Serving Adult Learners. It was a chance to share ways of thinking about the two systems, how they differ, what they share and how they both strive to serve adult learners through the different historic filters that have shaped them.

The session was moderated by KQED Education and the panel brought considerable experience and expertise from both sectors to the table. Dr Bob Harper, Director of Campbell Adult School and Kristen Pursley, Lead Teacher from West Contra Costa Adult Education, presented their vision for adult education and Greg Keech, elected Chair of ESL at CCSF and Sonja Franeta, former Chair of ESL at Laney College, spoke to issues confronting noncredit ESL provision in community colleges. Both sectors addressed ways to work together towards a fair and equitable system that meets the needs of non native speakers in Northern Californian communities.

Greg Keech laid out the context for this discussion in his post on KQED ESL Insights blog - What is Noncredit? “What is known as "adult education" in the K-12 system is generally known as noncredit in Community Colleges. In the ESL realm, there have been two separate entities delivering instruction: some districts have adult ESL classes under their local K-12 district, while credit instruction is provided by the community college; in other areas, the community college district provides both credit and noncredit ESL, though not always under the same roof.” Our panelists offered examples of the differing systems - City College of San Francisco provides both credit and noncredit ESL classes, whereas Laney College offers only credit ESL courses.

The discussion was further set against the backdrop of Governor Brown's recent proposal to move adult education into the community college sphere, which was unanimously rejected on March 19th by the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. However the subcommittee voted to approve it "without prejudice," which means they did not disagree with the principle. As such the idea is likely to come back in the May budget revise.

To summarize the points discussed:

  • Both systems are based on principles of social justice.
  • The community college system is more driven by standards and outcomes that frame their work.
  • Colleges privilege credit courses in terms of funding, with more funding allocated to courses where students matriculate. Many ESL students do not seek to go to college but look for other outcomes that may be vocational. Their right to language provision should be protected, as should the rights of seniors to attend lifelong learning classes, and classes for adults with disabilities. CCSF also offers non-credit Parent Education classes – all of this provision could be under threat if the Governor’s plan goes though.
  • Both sectors stressed the importance of open access, fluidity in terms of access and achievement, with clearly delineated pathways for students to navigate systems whether in terms of progression or reentry.
  • Participants in the session talked about the importance of solidarity between sectors in terms of defending provision. Adult schools are clearly in a more vulnerable position and face considerable uncertainties in terms of jobs and program survival if they are absorbed into the community college system.

To understand the impact on adult education under K-12 in California, please visit http://a4cas.blogspot.com/2013/03/weekly-update-33113.html.

It was agreed that setting up a working group between adult education and noncredit ESL sectors would be a positive way forward to collaborate on issues discussed. Participants from the group signed up to stay involved.

Resources

For KQED ESL Educator resources, visit www.kqed.org/esl

Edsource 5/14/2013 - Governor tries to fix adult ed plan, but controversy remains

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Our Learners' Voices

May 14, 2013, 9:12 am • Posted by ESL Insights
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SV ALLIES Initiative ESL students

SV ALLIES Initiative ESL students

by Usha Narayanan

The video footage below was taken at Campbell Adult and Community Education (CUHSD) in Campbell, California and highlights the experience of adult English as a Second Language learners.  The video was made possible by the ALLIES initiative.  This initiative in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties is engaged in forming a multi-sector alliance that brings adult education schools, community colleges, non-profit agencies, businesses, Workforce Investment Boards etc. to support better integration of immigrants and enhance their contribution to the economy through education and training.

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Work Voices 11: Elizabeth Sarmiento, Environmental Coordinator

May 3, 2013, 7:43 am • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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Elizabeth Sarmiento

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Transcript (English)

Transcript (Spanish)

Elizabeth Sarmiento is from Honduras and works as a project manager with Valley Verde, a non profit company based in San Jose. The company provides gardens and supplies to low income families, and Elizabeth and her colleagues teach the families about nutrition and growing their own food in a way that yields healthy food while having minimal impact on the environment.

Elizabeth describes her journey working odd jobs and attending evening classes to learn English. She transferred to Foothill College and joined the ESL program, eventually moving to De Anza College to study in the Environmental Studies Department.

She describes all the different employment options in the environmental studies field. For example, she talks about opportunities in water conservation and water resource management and in landscaping which is a huge field in itself. There is also the option to become an educator in any of these fields.

Elizabeth emphasizes that almost any job can promote sustainability and awareness of environmental impact.

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What is Noncredit?

May 1, 2013, 7:00 am • Posted by ESL Insights
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City College of San Francisco ESL class

City College of San Francisco ESL class

Two part series by Gregory Keech

Part 2

The Pedagogy and Funding of Noncredit

The pedagogy of noncredit is quite different from credit. Because students' attendance may be intermittent, teaching requires lot of repetition and "spiraling up," which can be described as repetition with a slight refocus or increase in difficulty each time a teaching point is covered. In ESL, repetition is not a problem - in fact it's a benefit. Language acquisition must involve repetition, and lots of it. All learning, to be clear, involves repetition, but noncredit builds the concept in. Students are not expected to acquire knowledge after one presentation and then reproduce it on a test. How many times would it take you to learn the correct endings of a Spanish verb? Voy, vas, va, vamos, vais, van. Got that? Or would you need to practice it many times in order to add it to your store of knowledge and experience?

Noncredit instruction fits in nicely with what Diane Larsen-Freeman calls Language as a Dynamic System. The adult human brain is not a vessel to be filled with knowledge; it is a living, changing organism which constantly adjusts and readjusts to new experiences and information (well, maybe not in current American politics, but certainly in language acquisition). Another way of describing it is that language learning is not linear. We are trapped into thinking of learning as linear by the time-focused framing of our traditional educational format, which we know as credit in community colleges and elsewhere. But in fact learning happens fitfully, in leaps and bounds, with fallow periods and moments of revelation (Oh, that's how to conjugate that verb!).

Noncredit lends itself to this non-linear reality in learning by allowing students to sip at the cup of knowledge at their own rate. And now that I've used that metaphor, I hasten to add that they are also acquiring experience and "tools" if you will, which they then incorporate into their own dynamic system. Measurements of this type of complex, highly personal and individual progress baffle folks charged with making education "accountable." How do you measure the student who leaves at Literacy and comes back at Level 3? Credit the school for giving him those tools. But not so fast.

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Is Technology Changing Your Brain?

April 23, 2013, 9:04 am • Posted by ESL Insights
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photo by by dotheygandalf/Flickr

photo by by dotheygandalf/Flickr

By Stephanie Levin

Digital technology may well be the darling of the 21st Century, but is it good for your brain? When I ask college students if the onslaught of information affects their brains, or how they learn, there is a digital divide in responses. The 20 year-olds and under grew up connected, yet will admit that focusing on one thing for any length of time is problematic. Wedded to their phones, they glance at them numerous times in class, jump when it jiggles and bolt out of the class to answer it; and as for critical thinking...humm, is it necessary?  

Half of my students sleep with their phones, and have separation anxiety at the thought of being disconnected from them. In contrast, students in their late 20s and upward tend not to be connected all the time. They are certainly not connected 24/7, tend to ask questions and generally are more engaged in class. This age group reads both online and printed text. About 80% of the 20 under group didn’t read on or offline. Everyone used social networking.

No one could tell me if being wired all the time takes a toll on the brain or if multitasking hampers attention or interferes with information assimilation.  But, I could tell them that research bears out that the brain is, indeed, affected by the constant barrage of technology, and that the brain needs a break; after all, it’s a muscle for  thinking, not a machine.

Is there too much technology? There’s no question that technology has yielded stupendous results in our lives, our jobs and communication.  But studies continue to show that over-dependence on technology, multitasking and constant connectivity is creating a distracted generation with a short attention span. Studies out of Stanford, MIT and UCSD find growing evidence that multitasking frazzles the brain making it less productive.  Heavy multitaskers have trouble paying attention and filtering out irrelevant information. The failure to filter suggests that they’re slowed down by that irrelevant information, according to a 2009 study from Stanford, or in other words their cognitive ability is impaired.  While multitaskers think they are accomplishing more, studies show the opposite to be true.  Their performance suffers, greatly. The brain is not wired to multitask efficiently and effectively.

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Restarting Your Career with Upwardly Global – Monica’s Story

April 12, 2013, 7:26 am • Posted by ESL Insights
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Immigrant professionals

Immigrant professionals

By Mary Voelbel

Monica came to the US in 2006 from Columbia with a Masters degree in Child Abuse Prevention and years of experience in public health. Originally an ESL student, she spent 5 years working minimum wage jobs until she learned about Upwardly Global and how to rebuild her career.

“El que persevera alcanza”

My father told me this when I was a child: “el que persevera alcanza.”  In Colombia, my home, this phrase means that if one has the courage to do something and believes they can do it, they will. From when I was young, I always wanted to help people especially children. I studied dentistry because I wanted to work with children and, in Bogota dentists have the advantage of seeing patients more often than physicians. So, I spent seven years studying at Pontifical Javeriana University to earn my Doctor of Dentistry and Masters in Child Abuse Prevention. 

“Helping families was always the goal. I wanted to help people and it didn’t matter the angle. With my education, I designed a program to teach dentists how to diagnose and prevent child abuse.”

I came to the US with years of experience in public health, health education, and clinical practice.  I moved here to study English, then met my future husband and decided to stay in the US to be with him. I had no idea getting back into my field would be so hard.  When I settled here, back in 2006, my first thought was to go to dental school. But, then you start finding out about all the obstacles – the cost, the years of study, the fact that you have go to University all over again.

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The Listening and Speaking Center at De Anza College - We Help You Lower Your “Affective Filter”!

April 8, 2013, 11:38 am • Posted by ESL Insights
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De Anza College Listening & Speaking Center

De Anza College Listening & Speaking Center

By Kanako Valencia Suda

If you are an ESL/EFL educator, you must remember the Affective Filter Hypothesis … right? It is one of the five hypotheses about second language acquisition proposed by Stephen Krashen. It refers to a psychological barrier that can hinder or promote progress in learning a second language. The Affective Filter can be raised or lowered as a result of the quality of the learning environment - and low anxiety facilitates success in practicing and learning a second language.

College ESL students experience these barriers all the time even if they cannot exactly identify the causes. At De Anza College’s Listening and Speaking Center (LSC), we try to ensure that ESL students can practice English in a safe environment, where they don’t feel judged based on their “nonstandard” English. Every quarter, about 500 students use the LSC, many coming because their ESL instructors require them to participate in activities outside the classroom. After joining a few workshops and tutoring sessions, they discover that here they can freely express their opinions without being afraid of making mistakes – they feel at home.

Our most popular program is the Conversation and Specialty Workshop program. The workshops cover a variety of topics from idioms and vocabulary to pronunciation and presentation. Whatever the topic, our main goal is to have students speak as much as possible.

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Work Voices 10: Marjan Javanmard, Building Auditor in Energy Conservation

April 3, 2013, 2:20 pm • Posted by Maxine Einhorn
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Marjan Javonmard

Download Educators' Activities Here

Transcript (English)

Transcript (Spanish)

Marjan Javanmard came to the US from Iran 12 years ago and now works in energy conservation for Solar City as a building auditor. She attended San Mateo Adult School for ESL classes and trained at Skyline College on the HERO Program (Home Energy Retrofit Occupations) – a training program in building systems for residential energy efficiency. Check out programs in the Energy Systems Technology Management (ESTM) Department at Skyline College.

Marjan describes the training course at Skyline College which offers “an overview of residential building science. Foundational principles in general residential construction and energy aspects of building envelopes, mechanical systems, appliances, water heating, lighting and more.” She recommends it for anyone with a basic knowledge of construction and a real interest in sustainability and conserving energy.

Marjan talks of the growing number of jobs in this area of green industry which, with government support, offers retrofit solutions to promote energy conservation. She stresses the importance of sustainable applications for future of the built environment.

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