The overlap between adult
literacy and ESOL
Anne McKeown
29 March 2011
Convergence
• UK context, reflected in other countries
• How and in what ways have literacy and ESOL
come together?
• Why?
• What is distinct to literacy or ESOL?
• What does it mean for practice?
Historical context
• Different literacy and ESOL (ESL) student
groups
• Taught separately and by different teachers
• Different aims / focus of provision
• Of little interest to policy makers
1960s / 70s onwards
Literacy
ESOL
“Native speakers”, first language users of
English or expert in spoken English
Migrants, refugees, asylum seekers,
coming to the UK with the intention to
settle
Some practitioners transformative,
inspired by Freire - reading and writing
“empowering” individuals
“survival English”, functional approach
Reliance on volunteers and casual part-time tutors
Self-expression and creativity
Communicative use of English in everyday
settings
1980s free writing and student publications
Critical discourse analysis – of power
relations in texts, authors/readers
Discourse analysis – linguistic and other
interactional features in spoken and
written texts
Genre approach
Language experience approach
Influence of EFL / international ELT
Over-simplified views
• Reality more complex
• Shared principles – language and literacy
practice in relevant and meaningful contexts
• Mediated by teacher beliefs, experience,
education
• Regional variation - urban/rural settings
Skills for Life strategy 2001
• Response to Moser report (1999) on low levels
of basic skills (literacy and numeracy)
• ESOL included in 2000
• Investment in literacy, numeracy and ESOL
provision
• New standards and qualifications for learners
• New standards and qualifications for teachers
Skills for Life strategy 2001
Learning infrastructure for literacy and ESOL
Literacy
ESOL
National adult literacy standards
Adult literacy core curriculum
Adult ESOL core curriculum
Certificate in Adult Literacy, Entry 1,
Entry 2, Entry 3, Level 1, Level 2
Units in Reading, Writing
Certificate in Adult ESOL, Entry 1,
Entry 2, Entry 3, Level 1, Level 2
Units in Reading, Writing, Speaking
and Listening
At Level 1 and 2, Multiple choice test
of Reading and some Spelling
At Level 1 and 2, test of Reading,
Writing and Speaking and Listening
Diploma in teaching English (literacy)
in the lifelong learning sector
Diploma in teaching English (ESOL) in
the lifelong learning sector
National qualifications framework
National levels
Literacy and ESOL
SfL levels
Schools
Higher education
Level 7
Post-graduate
Level 6
Undergraduate
degree
Level 5
Level 4
Level 3
A levels
Level 2
Level 2
GCSEs
Level 1
Level 1
Key stage 5
Entry 3
Entry 3
Entry 3
Entry 2
Entry 2
Entry 2
Entry 1
Entry 1
Entry 1
Skills for Life 2001- 2010
• Expansion of provision and providers
• FE, adult education, workplace, offender
learning, community settings
• Free tuition
• ESOL classes over-subscribed
• From 2007 removal of free tuition for ESOL,
except for those receiving identified benefits
• Increased emphasis on skills for employment
Skills for Life strategy 2009
Post-Skills for Life 2010 • Literacy and numeracy still a government priority
– economic imperative
• Proposed removal of free tuition for ESOL in 2011
for all but a few on “active job-seeking benefits”
• ESOL in the workplace not funded - employers
expected to cover full cost
• About 70% current ESOL students not eligible,
75% women http://hackneypost.co.uk/?p=4727
• ESOL linked negatively with integration, social
inclusion (or lack of inclusion)
Multiculturalism
Invisible ESOL and literacy?
• ESOL students taking literacy qualifications
• Introduction of new Functional English
qualifications, more rigorous assessment at L1
and L2, could be either literacy or ESOL,
measure competence on skills
• ESOL students on numeracy courses
• ESOL and literacy learners on employability
and other vocationally-focused courses
Literacy and ESOL learners
• Traditional distinctions challenged for quite
some time
• Bilingual learners with both literacy and
general language needs
• Placement in literacy or ESOL not a
comfortable fit
• Linguistic factors – oral fluency
• Non-linguistic – cultural and contextual
knowledge, education background
Ismail’s story
• Ismail is from Somalia and has been in the UK for 12 years,
since his early teens. His spoken English is fluent, and he
speaks with a Somali-London accent ... He mixes in a
multicultural multilingual group of young people, using
English as a lingua franca.
• Ismail had an interrupted education in Somalia due to the civil
war. He arrived in England speaking hardly any English and
writing none. However, within a year he was fluent and he left
school with 4 GCSEs, although the teachers had not been
optimistic about his chances:
Simpson and Cooke (2008)
Ismail
• Some of the teachers
…were predicting me
like I’m not going to
leave with no grades.
My head of year. For
the first of all they were
saying this guy is going
to leave with no grades.
And he was shocked.
Four GCSEs. (Laughs)
Placement in literacy or ESOL?
On leaving school, Ismail eventually got
voluntary work which required him to write a
report, so he decided to go back to study. He
was eventually enrolled in an Entry 3 ESOL
Literacy class in the ESOL department of a
further education college.
Multilingual Britain
Learner Profile – ESOL landscape in London 2009
170 languages spoken
610,000 Londoners with no qualifications
1 in 5 Londoners literacy levels below that expected of 11 year
old
(employment rate 45%)
Refugee employment rate 33%
Heterogeneous group with complex needs and
barriers to progression
Huge need at pre-entry level – generally
From London Development Agency data 2009
Research study of learners attending
adult literacy classes
Classes across England
• 341 learners participated
• 30% did not have English as a first language
• 85 learners reported 44 different first languages
between them
• Found many learners in literacy classes who might have
been better placed in ESOL
Grief, S., Meyer, B., Burgess, A. (2007) Effective Teaching and Learning:
Writing. London: NRDC
Placement challenges
•
•
•
•
Geographical location or time availability
Self-identified literacy or ESOL
Progression from ESOL to literacy?
Teacher and learner attitudes to literacy and
ESOL
• Literacy is more “mainstream”
• Funding issues - need for vertical progression
through the SfL levels, ESOL not free
ESOL learners with low levels of
literacy in their first language
• Very diverse backgrounds and learning needs
of people in ESOL provision
• ESOL Effective Practice Project – data from 40
ESOL classes and 509 learners countries
• More than 10% reported they could not read
or write in their first language
Baynham et al 2007 Effective Teaching and Learning ESOL, London: NRDC
ESOL basic literacy
• Generally placed in low level ESOL classes
• ESOL teachers may / may not have trained in
supporting basic literacy
• Learners may have specific needs
“…learners of basic literacy in ESOL face different
challenges to those of English born or schooled adult
literacy learners, Though they may speak some English,
they will not have the instinctive knowledge of English
syntax, vocabulary or idiom that people reading their
mothertongue would have and will not always have the
cultural awareness needed to understand texts.”
Spiegel and Sunderland p.17
Example from ESOL curriculum with low level literacy breakdown
For ESOL basic literacy learners, starting to
work towards Entry 1
For ESOL learners, literate in another
language, at Entry 1
Follow a short narrative on a familiar topic or Follow a short narrative on a familiar topic or
experience
experience
• Respond to print as a source of meaning
• Read texts for information ands
• Be aware that words on the page
enjoyment
represent words that can be spoken
• Read texts for information and enjoyment
Example
A language experience text the learner has
composed themselves and the teacher has
written down, a very simple notice, or one
simplified by the teacher
Example
A very simple book, notices, maps,
biographies,
e.g.
Nelson Mandela is from a village in South
Africa. He was president of South Africa for
five years – from 1994 to 1999
From Helen Sunderland and Pauline Moon presentation at NATECLA Conference 2009 “Not beginner thinkers, towards
a policy for ESOL basic literacy http://www.natecla.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=490
Pedagogical approaches in literacy and
ESOL
From the curriculum documents:
Relevant learning contexts
Integrate text, sentence and word level
Practice varies.
Professional development
Guidance on application of the teaching standards
to literacy and ESOL, produced by Lifelong Learning
UK (LLUK), Sector skills council for lifelong learning
Understand how language varies and changes and
how this influences language and literacy use.
Analyse the phonological features of language
Understand how language varies and changes and how
this influences language and literacy use
Both literacy and ESOL teachers understand that English is a dynamic and
constantly changing language and that changes in language, texts and
conventions impact on language use
Literacy teachers understand that
literacy learners may not value their
own variety of English or understand
that it is systematic, and perceive
their difficulties with reading and
writing to stem from the fact that
they do not “speak properly”
LLUK p.34
ESOL teachers understand that ESOL
learners may have difficulty
distinguishing between forms which
are features of particular accents and
dialects and varieties of English and
those which are features of Standard
English,. They also recognise that
ESOL learners may hold a range of
attitudes to English, depending on
their experience of it as a global
language
Analyse the phonological features of language
Both literacy and ESOL teachers understand how individual sounds are produced and
the relevance of this to their practice.
Both literacy and ESOL teachers understand how the phonemes of English relate to its
graphology.
Literacy teachers understand the debate
about the role of phonics in teaching
people to read and write …
ESOL teachers understand the benefits
and limitations of using a phonics
approach of using a phonics approach
with ESOL learners …
ESOL teachers understand how the
relationship between sentence stress and
rhythm in English differs from other
languages, and …features of connected
speech…
ESOL teachers … intonation for …
conveying attitude, highlighting new
information…
LLUK p.45
ESOL teachers … concept of comfortable
intelligibility…
References
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DfES (1999) A Fresh Start: The Moser report. DfES
DfES (2001) Adult Literacy Core Curriculum. DfES
DfES (2001) Adult ESOL Core Curriculum. DfES
Simpson, J., Cooke, M., Baynham, M. (2008) The Right Course
London NRDC
Grief, S., Meyer, B., Burgess, A. (2007) Effective Teaching and
Learning Writing London NRDC
Baynham,M., Roberts, C., Cooke, M., Simpson, J., Ananiadou, K.,
Callaghan, J., McGoldrick, J., Wallace, C. (2007) Effective Teaching
and Learning ESOL London NRDC
Spiegel,M. and Sunderland, H. (2006) Teaching basic literacy to
ESOL learners LLU+
LLUK (2009) Literacy and ESOL: shared and distinctive knowledge,
understanding and professional practice London LLUK
Questions
• How far is there overlap between literacy and
ESOL?
• What are the issues for learners’ placement /
funding
• What are the issues for teacher education?