Literacy for Life 2014

I was honored to have been a presenter at yesterday's Literacy for Life conference at Monmouth Community College, in West Windsor, NJ.  It was quite a ride in quasi-hurricane conditions, at the crack of dawn, but worth every ounce of inconvenience presented by the long ride and uncooperative atmospherics.   The venue was just right for our event - enough room, but not so spread out that it was difficult to navigate.  The catering was great and participants were treated to great beverages, fruit and snacks throughout the day.  No one left hungry.

My workshop was during the first time slot, concurrent with several other workshops. iTeach ESL was well attended and I had a lively group that was engaged. They had enough questions to signal me that they were really listening and I retained their attention until the end of my talk.   Since it was a tech talk, the "notes" handout I offered attendees, was just a cover sheet with a QR code to a page on this blog where I have provided URLs and some other pertinent notes.  

After my 9:15 AM workshop, I attended the Naturalization Information Session.given by a Community Relations Officer from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigrations Services, a branch of U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  She was a delightful presenter and extremely informative.  She gave us an overview of the process those seeking citizenship encounter.  We were recipients of plenty of resources for our students or our own edification. None of the English learners I tutor are yet citizens.

Lunch was after the second session.  The caterer did a great job with mixed baby green  salad, fresh fruit, Italian bread and butter, stuffed shells, chicken marsala, spinach, and risotto.  Dessert didn't disappoint. There was pumpkin cheesecake, I think a chocolate cheesecake, a traditional chocolate cake, fresh fruit, cream puffs, chocolate chip cookies and coffees and teas.  Yum.

The after-lunch General Session was informative and inspiring.  Dr. Erik Jacobson was the guest speaker and gave a presentation,  Problem Solving in Technology Rich Environments.  I first me Dr. Jacobson in August, when we attended a meeting at Literacy NJ.  He's a brilliant and passionate advocate for Adult Education, as well as an Associate Professor in the Early Childhood,  Elemetary and Literacy Education Department at Montclair State University.  

After Dr. Jacobson, this year's awards were presented:

• The 2014 Award for Volunteer Excellence went to Josh Lucchesi, Literacy Volunteers Association Capre-Atlantic
• The 2014 Award for Tutor Excellence went to Daniel Keohlhoffer, Literacy Volunteers of Monmouth County
• The Alice M. Leppert Award for Outstanding Affiliate Achievement went to Literacy Volunteers of Somerset County
• The 2014 Award for Student Excellence went to the delightful  Carine Deye, Literacy NJ Union County Programs 

Following a short break, my third session workshop was Dr. Jacobson's Promises of Adult Education and Realities of the Workforce. He's a dynamic educator. I hope his university students appreciate his expertise and devotion to education. It was a great workshop.

I left the conference much richer in knowledge.  

Reader's Choice Fourth Edition

If you're reading this blog and you are an ESL tutor, Reader's Choice, by Sandra Silberstein, Barbara K. Dobson and Mark A. Clarke, published by The University of Michigan Press, may not be a new book to you, but this is the first week I have perused it.  The fourth edition has a publication date of 2005, so it's not a new book - just new to me. The copy I borrowed from my local municipal library, is in excellent condition. I don't know if the condition is owing to it being a new book to our library, or if it has been infrequently used.  I hope it's not the latter. 

My ESL Learners vary in level.  I could see this book being helpful for all of them in the future.  Clearly, it is aimed at elevating the reading skills of already advanced English Learners.  Its scope is wide, in that the variety of material and lessons presented requires the Learner to grow their vocabulary,  read and understand fiction as well as science, do work on the internet and decipher mixed graphic and text information.   It contains frequently used idioms, that native English speakers may not even think are idioms because they are so common and ordinary. The comprehension exercises are excellent and the nonprose reading is an essential skill in the day to day lives of most Learners.  There are plenty of critical reading passages and discussion prompts. The tome weighs in at over 400 pages.  This is a book that can be used in a class setting as well as  one-on-one tutoring sessions.  

If you have not used nor seen the Fourth Edition of Reader's Choice,  and you have advanced ESL Learners, this may be a resource that becomes indispensable to you. If your library has the newest iteration, Fifth Edition of Readers's Choice, you should take a look.  I'm going to see if any of the libraries in my area have it in their collections. 

Thank you, University of Michigan Press for such  comprehensive books!

Perfect Phrases for ESL Conversation Skills - book review

I teach 2 of my 3 English Learners at my local public library and I make as much use of their ESL collection, and that of the affiliated libraries as I can. Occasionally, a book I come across is so useful, I add it to my personal library because I don't want to risk needing it and having it out of the library with another tutor or learner.

Perfect Phrases for ESL Conversation Skills is one of those books. I have borrowed several books of idioms, that have been helpful, to a degree. The whole area of idioms and phrases is imperative to English Learners, because Americans speak in idioms incessantly.  One of my learners has an excellent vocabulary and can write well, but he can be confused when listening to Americans speak, because we don't speak in the formal way he was taught English in his native country.

This book, Perfect Phrases for ESL Conversation Skills by Diane Engelhardt, is not brand new, but I hadn't seen it in my library before.  It was published last year.  She has brilliantly blended idioms and commonly used phrases and classified them in such chapters as:

• Small Talk
• Past Experiences
• Likes, Dislikes and Interests
• Objects and Processes
• Problems and Advice
• Decisions and Goals

The above topics comprise Part 1 of the book.  Part 2 consists of:

• Opinions
• Group Discussions
• Serious Subjects

And Part 3 is entitled

• Afterthoughts

The best aspect of this book is its contemporaneousness.  Several other idiomatic resources I have consulted are a bit outdated.  Language is not static, it evolves and we need to keep our students understanding how American English speakers actually talk. Perfect Phrases for ESL Conversation Skills by Diane Engelhardt has captured current speech in the kinds of phrases we use and has classified them in a user friendly way.  

As I indicated above, this book is going to become part of my personal library.

I Am Observing

(It's been quite a while since I last blogged.  I have had and am still having a less than optimum recovery from a fractured wrist, but I'm doing my best to resume my usual activities.  Thanks for your forbearance over the long pause.)

I am observing, with all of my adult English learners, that -ing verbs are commonly used, but often without their auxiliaries.  Frequently, a student says, "I going to the store."  Of course I know what they are saying, I'm just a little unsure of when their trip will or did take place. I know that for the most basic skill level, that statement communicates enough.  However, all of my learners, already had varying levels of skill in English and desire to speak more properly.

I have been creating some tense sheets to help them.  There are several ways to say something in the present, but sometimes the present tense is more like a description of what one does routinely or for a living, and not what one is doing at that instant.  For example:

I play golf.    Well, that can be the answer to, What do you do to relax?  or What do you do for a living?

I am (or I'm) playing golf.  That can be the answer to, Hi, Dad!  Just wanted to call to see what's going on,  or What are you doing next Saturday morning?

The same goes for the other auxiliaries like is, are, was, were.

I have found it helpful to compare:

I play golf

to

I am playing golf

and

I played golf

to

I was playing golf

and so on.

Once the understanding of the progressive nature of the auxiliary word and the -ing verb are understood with simple repetition and description of the progressive aspect of the word combination, my students improved in their comprehension (because we frequently speak in this progressive action manner) and in their conversational usage.

If you or your English Learners are stumbling with this, and want to improve their accuracy, perhaps using these kinds of examples will be helpful.

Playing Hardball

Not really, but you had an interest in and imagined some things about what you might read, didn't you? That's because you know what playing hardball means, besides baseball.

Last week, while working with one of my students, who has very good vocabulary within a limited scope (primarily his vocation) but not so much when it comes to real life conversations, I used a book in the Slangman series: Slangman Guide to Street Speak 3, by Slangman David Burke. I chose this particular book because there are 2 chapters on slang derived from sports, and my student, who is male, is completely unfamiliar with sports as well as the slang we use that are sports allusions.

I went with my gut for my lesson plan.  I knew the topic was necessary and would be useful, but I wasn't sure if my very serious student would realize that although we would be dealing with slang, that slang is a part of most conversations, whether the boardroom or the coffee shop.  My student studied a lot of British English in school in his native country. Very British English.

You can't imagine my delight, after convincing him that the slang is part of everyday life (not gutter talk), when he lit up with enthusiasm for hearing, reading and then understanding what occurrence in what sport inspired  each expression we learned.  The cherry on top (we will have to use food slang in the future!) was when he said to his wife, who is also a student of mine, "This is why I can't understand what anybody is saying when they speak English!"  He was eager to learn and understand how to use the terms we covered.  

Although the learning of slang expressions came out of left field, he liked it right off the bat. I'm sure  he's going to tackle this new aspect of English and be much more comfortable with the English speakers around which he finds himself. (I think my gut knocked it out of the park.)

Check out the Slangman series.

Easy English News

In my local public library, I picked up a copy of Elizabeth Claire's Easy English News for the month of November.  I think it's going to be a great resource for both of my ESL students, which is great, considering their English levels are disparate.

The articles are adult, and by that I mean, they are in simple language but on topics that matter to adults, such as holidays during the month of November, the recent government shut down, the anniversary of the JFK assassination, unusual pronunciation of "t" between 2 vowels (which may confuse a new English listener), consumer scams, how insurance premiums and coverage generally work, idioms and some humor.  There are also articles on shopping for food (whether bought by the pound, or some other unit) and kitchen measure. 

This small newspaper is going to be a staple in my tutoring.  It will stimulate discussion as well as inform my students.  I'm thankful for such a handy and useful aid. If it, or something like it, is available in your local public library,  check it out.  You may find it as useful as I do.

Survival Skills Resources

Today, while working with one of my ESL learners, medical office terminology was one of the topics we discussed.  I used a new patient information sheet that I downloaded last year from my endocrinologist's web site. The medical history lists and questions offered us plenty of vocabulary and discussions.  We want to continue discussing medical situations. 

I have requested a book from a network library, on the topic but in the mean time, I have found 3 books in my local branch, that will we will use both for medical terminology/scenarios as well as other life circumstances.  That's Life is a series by New Readers Press. In 2 of them (Introductory and Low Beginner), I found chapters about doctor visits.  I also borrowed a book called English Interplay, Surviving,  which I will use in addition to the aforementioned ones, in preparation for next week's meeting.

I like these books because the crucial words are contained in the short, simple. realistic stories. There are pictures and very short workbook style pages. They're perfect for a learner who wants to be prepared for medical encounters.