Kevin Kudic
ENGL C0855
Teaching Adult Writers in Diverse Contexts
Professor
Barbara Gleason
5/19/15
A
peek into the diverse language community at American Language Community Center and the adult learning theories that
take place in the classrooms
The
experience that I have gained from teaching ESL was born from rocky beginnings.
I began teaching ESL 7 years ago and had no prior experience teaching in a
classroom. I knew little about the country that I was being sent to—South
Korea—and had vague inklings of what teaching English entailed. My initial
preconception was that teaching English meant that I had to be fluent in the
rules and logic of grammar. Even with all these anxieties in mind, I knew that
I had to take the plunge; my initial phase of learning would clearly be a trial
by fire ordeal. The only thing that I was armed with was my background in English
literature and my interest in learning languages.
Before
actually making the trip out to South Korea, I decided that I wanted to learn
Korean and immerse myself in the language; learning basic expressions and
learning how to read the Korean alphabet was immensely satisfying for me. I
realized from then on that I had a passion for languages. Moreover, and more
importantly so, I learned that this act of learning a language is not simply a
rote process of decoding letters and symbols; contained within those symbols
are cultural values and codes—an expressive mode of being—that is inextricable
from a person’s identity. This was the most important part of my experience
living abroad and learning a language. I learned that the grammar of a language
is only the form or shape of the container
of language but what gets filled in that container is the lived experience
itself.
My
reasons for learning Korean were twofold: to satisfy my intrinsic curiosity in
learning a language and to open myself up to the culture and gain insight using
the medium of language. I wanted to familiarize myself somewhat with South
Korean culture, customs and social practices and thought Korean would be the
gateway for this. Later on, when I became more comfortable living abroad, I
realized that my proficient language skills could be used as a bridge in the
classroom. My students never failed to be impressed by my Korean abilities
(partly because it was so rare to see a foreigner speak Korean) and this helped
as a way to break the ice.
Now,
because I don’t often get a chance to speak Korean, my language skills are
slowly dwindling; unlike my past experience living abroad where my motivation
for learning Korean was high, living in the U.S. has lessened the need to speak
it, therefore decreasing my motivation. Drawing from my own experience has made
me aware of the motivations and reasons for why my students learn English in my
classroom. Just like my reasons for learning Korean were specific and
applicable to my unique situation teaching and living abroad, my students’
needs for learning English is wholly based on their intrinsic and extrinsic
reasons.
Reflecting
on that experience of living abroad is something that I fall back on as a
graduate student in the Language and Literacy program of City College CUNY. As
part of the requirement of my Adult
Learners in Diverse Contexts class, I’ve been assigned to do an ethnographic
report on an adult learning site of our choice. I’m intrigued at the
possibility of learning about a site and playing the role of an ethnographer. A
look at the syllabus reveals the wide range of sites that will be looked at:
A
focus on specific adult education sites will include classes for English language learners,
community colleges, prison education programs, adult- oriented college degree programs,
union-sponsored education, adult basic education
(ABE), community centers, libraries, the military, and retirement communities/
senior centers. (1)
It’s an ambitious program and the possibility of
surveying a site of my own seemed like a great learning experience. I begin
making plans to do research at my current job where I work: American Language
Communication Center.
I
have been a teacher at ALCC for 8 months. The school is located on W. 36th street
between 7th and 8th avenue in the heart of the Garment district. It is one of
two branches, the other being located in Elmhurst, Queens. The location of the
Manhattan branch is propitious for students because it is located in such a
convenient area of the city. It’s close to hubs that operate all of the major
subway lines; The Empire State Building is a short distance away. It is the
perfect spot not only for the occasional tourist that is just passing by and
enrolling in the school to learn English, but also for the student that works (there
is convenient access to the subway) and the many students that commute from satellite
cities in New Jersey and Westchester.
There
are other interesting features of the geography of the school that are also
important. ALCC is nestled on a block that holds wholesale distributors of
jewelry, clothes, hats, and garment related accessories and paraphernalia. I remember
overhearing someone mentioning that the school had once been a zipper factory.
Upon mentioning this fact to my students and asking them to imagine what life
might have been like as a factory worker, one student sardonically replied that
there wasn’t much difference. This student had been having trouble adapting to
the school and joked in order to vent her frustration. I found the answer to be
funny, partly because my student had never said something that clever before,
but also funny in a reflective and pensive way.
It
made me ruminate on how location influences where your state of mind is. How
were the students’ learning affected by the architecture and design of this
place? Vestiges of the building’s former past become apparent as you walk up
the stairs. What did students think when they looked at the thick tubular
interior structures snaking their way up? How did the architecture and design
of the school affect their perception? Did it have any affect on their attitudes
towards learning at our school?
Questions
like these, I realized, are important to consider as an ethnographer. In order
to successfully complete my goals in doing ethnographic research, I was going
to have to step outside of my role as teacher of the school. My research
enabled me to take on the position of an objective observer in my profile of
the school. Although at first it was difficult to try to defamiliarize myself
with the school, I realized that it wasn’t as challenging as I had originally
thought and that it mainly required a sense of renewed curiosity and patience.
My motivations to study at my place of work
was driven by a need to know more intimately the community of students that
come into my classrooms and into our school. I knew from experience teaching
here that the student body is diverse nationally and ethnically; doing research
at the school would showcase the diverse groups of students that typically
enroll at ALCC. Another motivation I had for doing this research project was to
spotlight a private for-profit ESL school. While most studies and policy
reports tend to focus on specifically adult literacy centers or academic
pathway centers, there seems to be a dearth of research done on private ESL
schools such as Kaplan, Berlitz or a school like ALCC. My goal for this
ethnographic project was to paint a small portrait on what kinds of students
populate these schools and the communities they inhabit. I also wanted to show
some of the practices that teachers employ in their classrooms and how these
practices reflect core principles in adult learning.
The bulk of my research was done on Saturdays
where I had time to actually walk around and take notes of the site not as a
teacher but as an ethnographer. My first day observing was very liberating in a
sense because I had the unique access of objectively analyzing the daily
minutia of where I work. The result of this project is a testament to what I
have accomplished and what I didn’t accomplish. My ambitions were very high in
the beginning but because of the obligations of work and school, I realized
that I couldn’t do as extensive of an analysis as I would have hoped. Here,
presented in this report are my initial observations taken from field notes, on
a Saturday at American Language Communication Center.
Saturday
observation
I am walking down West 36th street and
as I enter building 229 I greet the security guard who nods and goes back to
listening to the radio. The main offices are located on the third floor. I go
upstairs to the 3rd floor and sit at one of the chairs that are lined up
against a partition that separates the I-20 department from the general
reception area. The 1-20 department refers to the forms that international
students must fill out in order to obtain a student F-1 visa and be able to
legally reside in the country as students. There are 217 students, which is a
total of 20.63% of the school that have F-1 visas (Students and Cards at ALCC).
A look at any of the teacher roster lists clearly indicate students as having
either I-20 or non I-20 status in a vertical column that is clearly displayed
for the instructor’s reference. This is due to the specific requirements that
F-1 student visa holders have in order to remain in status. According to
the F1 student visa information handout distributed to F1 students they must
maintain
full-time enrollment and normal progress toward a specific academic
objective. Full-time enrollment consists of at least 18 clock hours a week during
a quarter (10 consecutive weeks of full time study). A 70% attendance rate is required for each
schedule during a 10 week period.
(Responsibilities of F-1 students)
The workers that are in the I-20
department are the agents of the school. They take care of payment and handle
any issues that might pop up with regards to student visas. Teachers at ALCC
are not required to handle any of the payment or attendance issues that
students frequently have. The agent department is separated from the rest of
the floor by the partition and the floors and walls are painted with a light
pink color. The other half of the area is painted in blue. On the blue side are
small cubicle rooms that are lined up next to each other. There is one testing
area, which is enclosed in three walls and open to the rest of the floor followed
by 5 enclosed rooms. Towards the back is the cash register area.
The cash register are in the back is also filled with students.
Most of the time, teachers will send their students to the third floor cashier
in order to settle any payment issues. I start a conversation with one of the
cashiers: Maya is one of the first people you see when you reach the cashier
area. We talk about our neighborhoods and the fact that I am from Astoria makes
her remember an anecdote about former Greek neighbors that never paid rent in
her building. She also can speak a little Spanish, “Sometimes they don’t
understand, so I speak a little Spanish to help them.” This kind of learning
that develops from incidental situations that aren’t planned is a facet of an
adult education concept called incidental learning. Maya didn’t plan on picking
up Spanish but because of the lack of English skills that beginners have and
the number of Spanish speakers in the school, she decided that it would be
beneficial for her to learn some functional Spanish that would help students on
their first day of classes.
Students
at ALCC are also engaged in this kind of unplanned learning. Living in New York
City requires knowledge on how to navigate through the city and students need
to depend on sources to help them get accustomed to living in the city. For
many students, New York can be quite a culture shock. Such cultural norms such
as tipping, daily interactions with people, anything that we normally take for
granted is something that students must try to learn. Students end up learning
the “hidden agenda of an organization’s culture or a teacher’s class…”
(Marsick, Watkins 26). Incidental learning is important in adult education and
because students at ALCC come from all over the world they inevitably end up
learning about the culture of New York City informally outside of the
classroom.
Looking
at the diversity of the cashiers is a reflection of the kinds of students we
get at the school. There are many Russian and Central Asian students at ALCC.
There are many students from former Soviet Union era bloc countries such as
Georgia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. One of my former students from Ukraine, Olena,
referred to those students jokingly as “children of the Soviet Union.”
A
look at the student nationality pie chart provided by ALCC breaks down the
demographic numbers. The population of students that are “Spanish” is 32
percent, reflecting the large population of Latinos in New York City. The rest
of the 68 percent of students are from diverse nationalities, which include
Russia, Brazil India, Japan, Korea, Thailand and China. African students make
up a total of 5 percent of the population of the student body (ALCC Nationality
Breakdown). Even looking at the African student body reveals an astounding
diversity of languages, customs and traditions. Many of the African students,
because of the colonial legacy speak French. Commingling with French are the
thousands of regional and ethnic languages, such as Bambara from Mali, and the
multi-lingual society of Burkina Faso.
Many
of our students come from a wide range of backgrounds and have different
motivations and reasons for learning English. Some are clear enough, i.e. for
economic reasons or academic reasons. Other students have a more complex web of
reasons that filter how they experience the classroom setting and the world
around them. ALCC offers a variety of classes. The most popular classes taken
at ALCC are Master Speaking. These classes are broken up into 8 levels. Level
one is for beginners and level 8 is the highest advanced class that is offered.
I currently teach two classes: Level 4 and Level 5. The students that I have
interviewed come from my level 4 and level 6 classes.
A look at the
community of students and teachers at ALCC
One
of the students in my level 4 class, Amandeep, talks about the rocky road he
had experienced in his life. Interestingly, his situation reflects a large
percentage of the population that were affected by the financial crisis:
I
was working for a few banks like Visa and Credit Suisse. There I was a systems analyst and
system support. But the recession, the pressure that I had because of working the bank took a heavy
toll on me. And because of the
recession, I had to move back. I was under too much pressure and I had to take medical
help after moving back from here…(Personal interview)
Another student, who is in my level 6 class,
Gisele, describes the change of heart she had while studying English.
I
decided to study English actually in Brazil. Because my college, always when I was looking
for a job they always ask me, “Do you speak English?”
I said, “no.” So, you’re out. You can’t work with us because you need English.
So I started to study there. But after, my dreams, my goals changed a little. Not to just study
English. (Personal interview)
Most of the students that come into the school have
a desire to learn English in an environment that is more linguistically
diverse. One student, Marcus, who is from Newark mentioned that there were many
Brazilian students where he lived so he came to American Language Communication
Center to meet students from diverse countries. Because of the diversity of the
school, compared to the area where he lived in Newark, he would inevitably have to speak English. Enrolling at ALCC
and being surrounded in a multicultural environment was insurance so that he
wouldn’t slip up and start talking in Portuguese during class time.
One
of the strengths of ALCC is that it has done its job of responding to the task
of cultural awareness by hiring culturally sensitive teachers, many of whom
have traveled abroad and have had plenty of experience understanding and
adapting to different cultures. Many of the teachers also come from a bilingual
background and can speak two or three languages. One of the teachers, Dennis,
talks a little about his background as an ESL teacher and how that has informed
his teaching.
At some point I was an
ESL teacher as well. So, that’s why when I was very
young, I was 19. I took a lot of ESL classes. So, then I decided to teach ESL. It wasn’t
my main priority in the beginning. Because I was an ex-ESL, I know how to target the students.
Pretty much my strategies are, based
on their needs. I especially look at pronunciation and enunciate the words.
I focus on pronunciation and correction. (Personal interview)
Student correction is also a big facet of
methodology at ALCC. Interestingly enough, Dennis was also very explicit about
how he would handle corrections and made sure to tell them that he would be
correcting them throughout the course of the class. Dennis is able to empathize
with his students and because of his background learning in an ESL environment
he is able to display understanding and connection that resonates with his
students. This seems to result in a safe and secure environment for the
classroom and is one of the reasons why his class in particular is so
successful.
As
life-long learners, adult students have a wide range of abilities and skills
that should be taken into account into any lesson plan. ALCC’s biggest strength
is its teachers and instructors that have cultivated a milieu of cultural
awareness and sensitivity in the classroom. In the midst of many formalized
conventions that the school has codified, a few glimpses of creativity and
ingenuity have developed taking into account students’ interests and abilities.
Yvette is a teacher at ALCC who has extensive experience teaching adults and
children as well. She took into account the fact that one of her students was
interested in poetry. For each Master Speaking class, the instructor gives
dictation listening tasks once or twice a week. The dictations can come from
the book or they can be generated from student-teacher discussion. Yvette used
one of her student’s poems as a dictation in the classroom. This is just one of
the many ways that she keeps her classroom student-centered.
When
asked about her general atmosphere of her class she responds, “I think my classes are very
student-centered. Like the poetry, you see he wrote the poem. He wanted me to
correct it and I did correct it. And from there it was all about him” (Personal
interview). Strategies like this are encouraged in the ALCC methodology
handbook given to teachers. “Expansion techniques” are used for students to
“practice generating full sentences, forming questions engaging in meaningful
exchanges with classmates” (16). This type of strategy is meant to encourage
active participation from students using what they already know about the
language. A student’s interest in poetry can be used to generate specific
structural language concepts. For example, using simile in the form of “like.”
Utilizing students’ interests can create more engaged classrooms. It also keeps
on the focus on the students and less emphasis on the teacher resulting in
“less teacher talk” as is advertised on their posters displayed on the
walls.
We know that adult learners respond best when
we take into consideration their needs. Yvette was making the lesson
student-centered and student-driven, which is a recipe for a great classroom
setting. It is also one of the core components of adult learning theory proposed
by Malcolm Knowles. Adults have a distinct drive to learn based on intrinsic
reasons and are one of the fundamental tenets that govern adult learning
(Merriam 5). Knowles also proposed that adults are life-long learners and that
what they learn encompasses the breadth and scope of the life experiences that
they have accumulated. The core principle of andragogy is “that adults have a
psychological need to be self-directing; that their richest resource for
learning is the analysis of their own experience” (87). Keeping this in mind is
important in looking at the student population at ALCC. The students have
diverse needs and interests and trying to maximize this in the classroom by incorporating
different forms of language usage and seeing how it is manipulated will
contribute to success in the classroom.
Methodology
and practice implemented at ALCC
The main method of instruction at ALCC is the
audio-lingual method. This is combined with participatory activities that
invite the student to use the language acquired and to generate meaningful
responses in a classroom. In an email exchange with Lorl Van Zorge, one of the
directors at ALCC the curriculum is described as
…a
combination of models including general survival language and academic pathway. Our programs are communicative, participatory
and conventional. Much of the methods we
employ depends on the level of the course or elective in which the student is engaged (E-mail
interview)
The audio-lingual method is used as a method to
maximize language potential for all students in the classroom. Choral
repetition is especially stressed in the classroom. In the ALCC Methodology
Handbook, choral repetition is meant to “give everyone more opportunities for
generation of language” and “provides energy in the room” (8).
ALCC applies many different kinds of learning
styles into their programs. I didn’t get a chance to observe any other classes
except for the Master Speaking courses but I know from working there that there
are other elective courses that students can take. This is important for the
requirement of F-1 visa-holding students who need a maximum of 18 hours per
week in order to be compliant with the requirements of the student visa. ALCC’s
efforts at creating a focused and disciplined classroom have certainly paid off
and there have been many positive comments. Students have consistently spoken
very highly on classroom practices that teacher have used.
Conclusions
and final thoughts
I have always believed that language is
an important marker of identity and therefore everyone has a natural right to
express that language in a safe environment free from reproach or prejudice. In
a country that is increasingly becoming multilingual, we find our classrooms
being occupied by a diverse group of language speakers who can learn and
benefit from each other’s language. Activities in the classroom that encourage
this type of sharing and cultural exchange should be valued. ALCC is doing this
by encouraging respect and not tolerating any kind of prejudice or bigotry. It
also has a teaching staff that is culturally aware and sensitive to their
learners’ backgrounds.
In my personal experience as a
language learner, I have tried to always connect with my students the passion
that I have for learning and the specific reasons why I chose to learn Korean.
Tying in my experience of learning the language and giving clear and explicit
reasons on why I learned the language, I believe, has contributed to higher
student motivation in the classroom. In communicating my reasons for learning
Korean, my students in turn have recognized the reasons why they want to learn
the language. I believe that strategies like this and a knowledge of adult
learning theory can better equip a teacher to be a better facilitator in the
classroom and can prepare adult learners of a second language for success in
whatever endeavor they choose to pursue.
Works Cited
Amandeep.
Personal interview. April 28th 2015.
American
Language Communication Center. Methodology
Handbook. New York City: American
Language Communication Center, 2015. Print.
American
Language Communication Center. Responsibilities
of F-1 Students. New York City:
American Language Communication Center, 2015. Print.
American
Language Communication Center. ALCC
Nationality Breakdown as of Dec 4, 2014.
Pie Chart. New York City: American Language Communication Center, 2015. Print
American
Language Communication Center. Total
number of Students and Cards at ALCC
branches in Manhattan and Queens. Chart. New York City: American Language Communication Center, 2015. Print.
Dennis.
Personal interview. May 7th 2015.
Giselle.
Personal interview. May 1st
Gleason, Barbara. ENGL C0855 Teaching Adult Writers in Diverse Contexts Syllabus. Spring 2015. Language and Literacy
Department, City College CUNY, Harlem, NY.
Microsoft Word File
Knowles, Malcolm S. "Adult
Education: New Dimensions." Educational Leadership 33.2 (1975): 85. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 24 May 2015.
Marsick, Victoria J., and Karen E.
Watkins. "Informal And Incidental Learning." New Directions For Adult & Continuing Education
2001.89 (2001): 25. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 24 May 2015.
Merriam, Sharan B. "Andragogy And
Self-Directed Learning: Pillars Of Adult Learning
Theory." New Directions For Adult & Continuing Education
2001.89 (2001): Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 May
2015.
Yvette.
Personal interview. May 8th 2015.
Zorge,
Van Lorl. E-mail interview. May 6th 2015.
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