Adult ESOL Learners and Special Needs : BE CAREFUL

1. Adult ESOL Learners and Special Needs : BE CAREFUL Robin Lovrien Schwarz, M. SpEd; LD, Consultant in Adult ESOL Rschwarz@lesley.edu

2. First Challenge: It is an invisible population –except in numbers • English learners are more than 60 % of the adult ed enrollment* --many places they are 80 or 90 % of programs (does not include NNSE in ABE or GED) • If we include CLD, the% is much higher • % of special needs averages the same as in English speaking population –maybe higher • ESOL is 5% (maybe?) of the conversation • How many sessions on ESOL at COABE? AAACE? CEA? LDA? IDA? ( On adult ESOL, none) • Bridges to Practice has not yet included ESOL in the training • Special needs are even more marginalized • Virtually NO statistics on what % of NNSE have disabilities * National Family Literacy Act, Report to Congress 2004 • 0

3. Second Challenge: The ESOL Population is Extremely Varied • Language and culture backgrounds • Literacy levels/educational backgrounds • Health/ mental health • Socio-economic status • Reasons for coming to adult education • Age • Family situations • Stability

4. Third Challenge: Cultural Differences are Significant • Generally speaking, cultural attitudes towards special learning needs differ significantly: Adult ESOL learners mostly • Will not expect or seek out accommodations for any special need—and therefore frequently do not self-identify • Are not familiar with the concept of LD • May not be comfortable with accommodation– feel it is unfair, (high context cultures) or unnatural, or will taint family • May leave if focus on special need is uncomfortable—will not tell anyone • Some will not be able to frame learning differences even linguistically—( no words for this idea)

5. Fourth Challenge: 7 sources of Learning Difficulties in ESOL Learners 1. Health/mental health issues may get in the way of learning • Vision function issues (near/far vision acuity) • Visual stress syndrome (sensitivity to light) • Hearing loss/diminution • Stress • Culture shock • Depression • Illness • Medication problems

6. Fourth Challenge: 7 Sources of Learning Difficulties, continued 2.Adult language learning needs not met • Language teachers–need LANGUAGE TEACHERS • Normal language learning causes difficulties often mistaken for LD--- • Order in which language is learned dictates what learner can learn cognitively about new language • Adult language learners learn differently than children do • When methods for children are used, adults do not learn as well

7. Fourth Challenge: 7 Sources of Learning Difficulties, continued 2.Language learning needs, cont. • Adult language learners have much harder time hearing sounds of new language-must have direct instruction of sound system of English—not phonics • Oral language (referred to as BICS) and literacy language (referred to as CALPS) develop in different ways, different speeds– normal lag between two is poorly recognized in adult ESOL • Language skills develop separately—yet placement is largely by oral ability

8. Fourth Challenge: 7 Sources of Learning Difficulties, continued 3.First language influences not taken sufficiently into account: • Phonological structure of L1 can make learning English difficult • Sounds very different • L1 tones, different stress & intonation patters • Grammatical/syntactical differences may be significant • L1 may not have tenses, prepositions, articles, etc. • If unwritten, L1 may lack terminology of literacy, writing conventions etc.

9. Fourth Challenge: 7 Sources of Learning Difficulties, continued 4.Cultural Background Factors Get in the Way of Learning • Cultural differences impact learning/educational/training situations • Expectations of teachers/class • Understanding of learning/study • Classroom/training interactions • Understanding/interpretation of materials • Adults—especially those who are not very educated and out of their country for the first time– have a hard time adjusting to new culture– Culture shock estimated to last up to 3 years– for some longer.

10. Fourth Challenge: 7 Sources of Learning Difficulties, continued 5. Educational Background Not Sufficiently Regarded • Extent and nature of previous education misunderstood/not known • What is equivalent duration of learning? • Nature of educational approach- authoritarian, rote learning vs. participatory, analytic learning • World knowledge—geography, history, basic science, numeracy– if lacking, many materials will be meaningless

11. Fourth Challenge: 7 Sources of Learning Difficulties, continued 5. Educational Background Factors, cont. • Impact of low or no literacy underestimated • Brain has developed differently • Visual information processed differently • Language information processed differently • Phonological skills are necessarily underdeveloped

12. Fourth Challenge: 7 Sources of Learning Difficulties, continued 6. Phonological skills may be weak • Phonological awareness- • Needed for literacy skills/reading in English • Phonological memory - • Needed for oral/aural skills development • Skills may be weak because of • Low education • Incomplete/inadequate transfer from L1

13. Fourth Challenge: 7 Sources of Learning Difficulties, continued 7. “Pedagogically induced learning problems” • Teachers/tutors have little or no awareness/training in first four factors • Low expectations of learners • Setting up for failure, not success: Poorly delivered instruction, confusing directions, vague goals, no indication of progress, failure to teach to mastery, • Inappropriate materials—not ESOL, too high, too low, not relevant • Learner goals ignored for/overridden by curriculum needs

14. Fifth Challenge: Limited means of identification Testing for LD/ Learning problems directly is impossible for NNES (except for Spanish): • Learning problems stemming from LD cannot—SHOULD NOT—be directly identified • NO CURRENT testing tools—including screening tools– are fully valid; • they can be misleading and harmful, even in the extreme, because of:

15. Fifth Challenge: Limited means of identification • Language difficulties– CALPS not sufficient for testing in English—even those who have lived here and gone to school here must be tested with great caution and skill • Cultural differences—format, content, purpose of testing • Literacy limitations--Testing tools intended to determine learning problems in literate learners will give skewed results for low literate learners

16. Fifth Challenge: Limited means of identification • Tests for other kinds of difficulties —e.g for degree to which a physically handicapped person is self –sufficient– are biased for similar reasons—cultural differences/language • Most tools for ESOL learners are NOT looking at key issues of learning difficulties in foreign language learning: phonological skills– • Phonological awareness– awareness of the sound chunks of a language and how they are manipulated– key to literacy in first or second language—weakness cause of phonological dyslexia • Phonological memory—how we remember new/unfamiliar sounds and process them– oral/aural skills

17. Fifth Challenge: Limited means of identification • Testing tools for ESOL do not differentiate problems • Language development (BICS/CALPS)? • Phonological skills? • Cultural barriers? • Physical problems? • They just tell you that English is low

18. Fifth Challenge: Limited means of identification • Though the paradigm for identification of LD is changing dramatically, many states still require a discrepancy • Not possible to obtain a valid intelligence score across cultures and languages—user’s manuals ALL say that…. • Intelligence not conceived of the same way across cultures • Accurate achievement testing not possible for factors already mentioned

19. Fifth Challenge: Limited means of identification • Who will test them?? • Few diagnosticians are well versed in evaluation of learning problems in adults • Even fewer have any notion of challenges of evaluating a person from another culture/language background • Normal language acquisition patterns • Awareness of cultural differences and impact of cultural differences • Impact of low literacy, etc.

20. Sixth Challenge: Lack of Informed Teachers and Tutors • Teachers and Tutors • Tend to assume learning problems are the same as in the Eng. Spkg population– and refer ESOL learners for the same reasons • Are not well versed in normal language acquisition issues— • Mistake them for LD • Wait too long to do anything • Not versed in the needs of very low literate persons– learners can’t do what teachers are asking of them

21. Teachers and tutors, cont. • Not trained in language instruction– • Not aware of language challenges of materials; • Do not know how to explain language issues; • Do not know grammar of English to explain it to someone with little English • Have little sense of impact of nature and impact of cultural differences or low/no literacy

22. Teachers and tutors, cont. • Have few useful resources to help them • ONE (two?) manual has appeared in US– Three in Canada,--one in Britain--about adult ESOL learners with learning problems • No courses, textbooks • 2ND Lang. acq. lit. still not addressing issues • TESOL as a profession has ignored special needs– Bilingual Special Ed addresses them– at K-12 • Special needs professions generally do not address needs of ESOL learners • K-12 models of special needs in ESOL do not work well for adults as for ALL Adult ED

23. ESOL LEARNERS AND LD: Bottom line? • DO NOT ASSUME LEARNING DIFFICULTIES ARE CAUSED BY LD • FORMAL IDENTIFICATION IS IMPOSSIBLE--CAN BE HARMFUL • NO SERVICES ARE IN PLACE FOR LD/SPED DESIGNAGTION • LEARNERS AND TEACHERS MUST LEARN TO LEARN IN DIFFERENT WAYS

24. A few QUICK resources to support this: • http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/mental.html • http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/beginQA.html • http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/pdQA.html • http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/natlit2.html • http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/reading.html • http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/litQA.html • http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/SLA.html • FOR ACADEMIC REFERENCES, EMAIL RSCHWARZ@LESLEY.EDU