University of Southern Maine

The focus of individual and group work is custom-designed for each ten-week class session. The tools that are commonly and routinely used in my teaching practice will be the presented in the three parts: 

1. customized teaching-learning curriculum 
2. tools of the teaching trade 
3. student work

The curriculum is designed in response to the needs and stated desires of the women. A handful of teaching strategies and practices from the core of the curriculum base. Tools I use include dialogue journals, language experience approach, k-w-l (know, want to know, what I learned, dictated story writing and reading, cloze, children’s literature). In each part a description of the the tool is given and samples of student work demonstrate the outcome of such activities in a holistic sort of way. The majority of students in this class are Literacy-level students; individuals who are not able to read and write in English. The majority of these students have had little or no schooling in their home countries. Others attended school, but learned to read a non-Roman script. Special materials, techniques and approaches are required for these students.

Selecting appropriate materials for the students is essential. The approach begins with the communication of meaning, with reading growing out of that meaning. Books for the beginning reader integrate listening and speaking with reading and writing. The content is intended to be of interest and relevance to the adult students.

The curriculum incorporates certain principles, principles that are part of my teaching and that filter through all that is undertaken in this English as a Second Language class. At the heart of my instructional beliefs are the following:

With L2 students, what is often overlooked is not the fact that

L2 students need grammar instruction to be readers, they need

countless hours of exposure to print (that they are capable of

comprehending successfully) if they are to develop automaticaty

in using information from grammatical structures to assist them

in reading.

(GRABE & STOLLER, 2002)

TEACHING VOCABULARY

EXPLICIT APPROACH

1. Key Principles
2. Build a large sight vocabulary
3. Integrate new words with old
4. Provide a number of encounters with a word
5. Promote a deeper level of processing
6. Facilitate imaging
7. Make new words “real” by connecting to student’s world
8. Use a variety of techniques
9. Encourage independent learning strategies
10. Avoid cross-association
11. Teach underlying meaning concept
12. Be aware of interlexical factors

HOW WE RETAIN L2 VOCABULARY THROUGH ASSOCIATION:

1. By linking the L2 word to the sound of a word in the native language;
2. By attending to the meaning of a part of several parts of the word;
3. By noting the structure of the word;
4. By placing the word in a topic group;
5. By visualizing the word in isolation for in a written context;
6. By linking the word to the situation in which it appeared;
7. By creating a mental image of the word;
8. By associating some physical sensation to the word; and/or
9. By associating the word to a key word.

EFFECTIVE PRACTICES FOR L2 VOCABULARY ACQUISITION 

1. Schema Elaboration (to invoke background knowledge and access semantic fields)

• Brainstorming
• Semantic Mapping
• Hierarchical Arrays
• Semantic Feature Analysis
• Graphic Organizers
• Visuals

1. Narrow reading
   -confining reading to same author or the same subject
   
2. Multicultural Literature
   -perspectives of many cultures
   
3. Sustained Silent Reading
   -increasing the volume of reading increases vocabulary acquisition
   
4. Context Strategies
   -inferring meaning from context
   
5. Personal Vocabulary Building Programs
   -individualized record keeping of troublesome words.
   
6. Games
   
7. Life-work skill development

Job readiness topics:

1. Fill out job applications
2. Interview skills
3. Introduce training programs – (customer skills training, office skills, truck driving, food service).
4. Introduce idea of career choice - - interest inventories
5. Go over steps to career…learn steps to future goal…fill out career plan
6. Visit workplaces: Goodwill Industries, Eastland/Regency Hotel, Maine Medical Center, bakery, restaurant, store, factory). 

Speakers:

1. Geneva Meserve – Career Planning
2. Maine Center for Women, Work, and Community
3. Somalian women in Lewiston who started women’s group
4. StartSmart
5. Women Unlimited
6. FVP/Rape Crisis/Shawna Oum/Portland Police Department
7. Coastal Enterprises Inc. – Family Development Accounts
8. Asian Taskforce
9. Migrant Even Start

Field Trips:

1. Delgado exhibit at USM (African Immigration) and MECA 
2. Portland Public Library
3. Portland Adult Education, Portland Arts and Technology (PATHS)
4. Visit workplaces

General topics:

• Volunteering as a group (clean up, gardening, EECW, read their stories to high school group/history class, nursing home).
• Question/Answer/Discussion: things they would like to know about our culture, Portland, etc. Each write out questions or topics.

Furthering ESL skills:

1. Arrange for tutors through Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA) or Migrant Even Start.
2. Testing for ESL level at Portland Adult Education
3. Visit Portland Adult Education