Debates in ESOL Teaching and Learning Cultures, communities and classrooms (New Approaches to Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy)

176 Pages·2005·0.69 MB·English

by  Kathy Pitt

Debates in ESOL Teaching and
Learning
Debates in ESOL Teaching and Learningprovides a lively introduction to the field of
theory and research surrounding adult learning of English by speakers of other
languages. Offering an accessible discussion of contemporary debates and research,
this book examines a wide geographical and social spread of issues, such as:
• How to understand the universal characteristics of learning an additional
language
• What makes a ‘good’ language learner
• Multilingualism and the taken-for-granted assumptions about monolingualism
• Learning the written language
• Learners coping with oral communication outside the ESOL classroom
• The effect of recent Government immigration policy on language learning
processes.
As a majority of adults learning ESOL is made up of communities of immigrants,
refugees and asylum seekers, the diversity of social and personal histories of the
learners is a critical dimension of this unique book. The question ‘What is the
relationship between the mental processes of language learning and the social and
cultural contexts of learning?’ is one that threads through the entire text, bringing
in discussion of types of classroom and language teaching methodologies.
Full of practical activities and case studies, this book will be essential reading for
any basic skills teacher undertaking a course of professional development, from
GNVQ through to postgraduate level.
New Approaches to Adult Language, Literacy and
Numeracy
Series Editors: Mary Hamilton and David Barton,
Lancaster University
This ground-breaking new series provides a coherent framework within which both
new, and experienced, adult basic skills practitioners can develop their expertise.
Titles in this series offer key texts for adult basic skills practitioners taking
professional development courses. Using a multidisciplinary approach, the theories
of adult basic skills are firmly grounded in everyday practice, making the material
accessible to a wide readership. The books are united by a cutting-edge approach
to literacy, numeracy and ESOL, and locate this material in practical contexts,
rather than purely academic debates. As well as gathering together the most
important national and international research in adult literacy from the past three
decades, each title also features:
• guided reading exercises
• references and further resources
• a practical research activity, linked to the topic of each book
These books are essential reading for practitioners and trainers in adult language,
literacy and numeracy, covering both initial training and continuing professional
development. They address curriculum and subject specifications and offer reflec-
tive and research dimensions to these topics.
Titles in the series
Adult Literacy as Social Practice: More than skills
Uta Papen
Debates in ESOL Teaching and Learning: Cultures,
communities and classrooms
Kathy Pitt
Debates in ESOL Teaching
and Learning
Culture, communities and
classrooms
Kathy Pitt
First published 2005 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2005 Kathy Pitt
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Pitt, Kathy.
Debates in ESOL teaching and learning : culture, communities, and
classrooms / Kathy Pitt.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English language–Study and teaching–Foreign speakers. 2. English
teachers–Training of. 3. Education, Bilingual–Teacher training. I. Title.
PE1128.A2P53 2005
428′.0071′1–dc22
2005002948
ISBN 0-203-34708-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0–415–35374–2 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–35375–0 (pbk)
Contents
Series Editors’ Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
What this book is about 1
How to use this book 3
References 3
Some useful journals 3
Some useful websites 4
1 Learning an additional language: looking for universal
characteristics 5
Readings
1 ‘Learner awareness of recasts in classroom interaction’
T. NABEI AND M. SWAIN (2002) 14
2 ‘The social context for language learning’
M. BREEN (2001) 22
Discussion 38
Research 39
Additional reading 39
2 The good language learner: changing definitions? 40
Readings
1 ‘Changing perspectives on good language learners’
B. NORTON AND K. TOOHEY (2001) 42
2 ‘The role of learning strategies in second language acquisition’
A. CHAMOT (2001) 55
Activity: discussion 64
Discussion 65
vi Contents
Research 65
Additional reading 66
3 From mono- to multilingualism: language use across
settings and identities 67
Readings
1 ‘Literacies among the Panjabis in Southall (Britain)’
M. SAXENA (1994) 69
2 ‘The future of Englishes’
D. CRYSTAL (2001) 75
3 ‘Developing writing in English from mother-tongue storytelling’
J. MCLAUGHLIN (1986) 84
Discussion 94
Research 94
Additional reading 95
4 Learning the written language: cultures, communities
and classrooms 96
Readings
1 ‘Linguistic resources’
R. KERN (2000) 98
2 ‘The relationship between L1 and L2 literacy: some complicating
factors’
J. S. BELL (1995) 104
3 From the Community to the Community
E. AUERBACH (1996) 118
Discussion 126
Research 127
5 Learning the spoken language: from ideal to
asymmetrical interaction 128
Readings
1 ‘Orders of reality’
R. CARTER (1998) 129
2 ‘Case studies’
K. BREMER et al. (1996) 144
Discussion 159
Research 160
References 161
Index 165
Series Editors’ Preface
The books in this series are aimed mainly at teachers, trainers, researchers and
postgraduate students concerned with the education of adults in the field of
language, literacy and numeracy. They address people working and training
teachers in the many contexts in which teaching and learning takes place: including
colleges, family and community-based settings, workplaces and prisons. We expect
the books to be useful within both initial and continuing professional development
courses. They address the curriculum and subject specifications, as well as offering
reflective and research dimensions for those whose interest has been sparked to
probe deeper into the absorbing issues thrown up in the field. While recent national
government strategies in the UK and some other countries have boosted research
in the field and opportunities for professional development, as yet there are few
easily available resources of the kind offered by the books in this series.
Each book in the series offers an up-to-date introduction to theory and research
evidence in some aspect of the field, reviews the debates and issues and discusses
how they apply to educational practice. The books are designed to be accessible
to interested but non-specialist readers and each can be read independently as well
as in relation to the series as a whole. The key readings and research evidence on
which the books draw are international in origin and scope. Because of this and
because they focus on topical debates and issues that are central to the field, the
books will have wide appeal to the international research and practice community
for adult literacy, language and numeracy. Development workers in a range of
international contexts may also find them of interest.
These books draw on the authors’ varied experience of teaching, researching
and working with practitioners in short courses, summer schools, continuing
professional development and networks. Each book reflects the approach of
an individual author, and contains specially written discussion papers giving an
overview of issues and debates, along with key readings brought together from
a wide range of specialist sources. Each chapter has suggestions for exploring the
material further, through reading, research activities and reflection. Key terms are
explained throughout. These features, together with the access offered to key
research articles in the field, make these books a unique, engaging, topic focussed
resource for professional development.
viii Series Editors’ Preface
As a whole, the series presents a coherent approach to literacy, numeracy and
language as part of social and situated practice, seeing them as broader than simply
skills to be acquired. In brief, the idea behind this approach is that literacy, numer-
acy and language are shaped by the social and cultural context within which they
are embedded, the social relationships within which they happen, the meanings
they have for users and the purposes they serve. This approach emphasises the
importance of understanding the diversity of experience and knowledge that adults
bring into formal learning situations and suggests ways of working in partnership
with them to reflect and build on these resources in the curriculum. Over the last
15 years or so, this approach has produced some of the most exciting, leading edge
thinking and research in the field and we are proud to be able to introduce this
work to a wider audience and to demonstrate its relevance to policy and practice.
Debates in ESOL Teaching and Learning: Cultures, Communities and Classroomsaddresses
ESOL practitioners, teacher trainers and others who may be working with adult
ESOL learners in their classes or who wish to gain a better understanding of what
is known about adults learning a second or additional language. It offers an entry
into the theory and research in the learning of English by speakers of other lan-
guages (ESOL) and offers an accessible discussion of contemporary and recent
debates and research in this field.
The readings gathered together here reflect the diverse dimensions of adult
additional language learning, ranging from work on cognitive processes, through
the social contexts of language learning to issues connected with classroom cultures.
This is a wide area, both geographically and socially. The research discussed in
this book has been carried out in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia. This
research is about the learning by adult language learners in foreign language
classrooms, by refugees and asylum seekers in ESOL classrooms and bilingual
programmes and by migrant workers informally acquiring the dominant language
of their new country.
The author, Kathy Pitt, writes from a broad experience of teaching English to
speakers of other languages in a range of countries around the world. She brings
her insights from this experience to bear on her discussion of the research presented
here, ensuring that this book will have wide appeal internationally.
Acknowledgements
The author and the publishers wish to thank the following for permission to use
copyright material. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright holders,
but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to
make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.
Chapter 1
Reading 1 Multilingual Matters Ltd for extracts from Toshiyo Nabei Toshiyo and
Merril Swain (2002) ‘Learner awareness of recasts in classroom interaction: a case
study of an adult EFL student’s second language learning’, Language Awareness, II,
1, pp. 47–50, 56–59
Reading 2 Routledge for extracts from Michael Breen (2001) ‘The social context
for language learning: a neglected situation?’, in C. Candlin and N. Mercer (eds)
English Language Teaching in its Social Context: A Reader, pp. 122–134
Chapter 2
Reading 1 TESOL Inc. for extracts from B. Norton and K. Toohey (2001)
‘Changing perspectives on good language learners’, TESOL Quarterly 35:2,
pp. 307–310, 313–318
Reading 2 Longman for extracts from A. Chamot (2001) ‘The role of learning
strategies in second language acquisition’, in M. Breen (ed.) Learner Contributions to
Language Learning: New Directions in Research, pp. 25–35, 40–41
Chapter 3
Reading 1 Multilingual Matters Ltd for extracts from Mukul Saxena (1994)
‘Literacies among the Panjabis in Southall (Britain)’ in M. Hamilton, R. Barton
and R. Ivanic (eds) Worlds of Literacy, section 1, pp. 195–200.