Stephen Swisher

Comp.4

Annotated Bibliography

11.15.07

Annotated Bibliography: ESL Theories and Pedagogies and how they relate to Truman College’s ESL programs

My query that I wish to answer with this research paper is how to ESL theories and pedagogical ideas hold up in real life. My goal is to speak to actual ESL teachers at Truman, this was proving to be hard, but as soon as I donned my private eye hat I was able to line up some interviews. So what I wish to see is how helpful are ESL theories in a department where there are more differences than similarities in the student body. How can you have a successful teaching pedagogy in a classroom more almost as many different languages are spoken than there are people in the class. Also most teaching pedagogies rely on simple facts like all the students are the same age, have similar amounts of schooling or share same goals but ESL does not have that luxury.

The research I have come across has not been astounding or unexpected but it has raised some questions that hopefully will be answered by further reading and ESL Teachers. It seems to me there are two schools of thought on ESL theories, the one that think ESL pedagogy could be universal and the ones that believe that each ESL class is different and therefore demands different methods. Pretty much all of the articles I have read agree that ESL students are very diverse, but only some try to incorporate aspects of different ethnicities and cultural tendencies in the classroom. Shonde Nero argues in her article

“Language, Identities, and ESL Pedagogy” that teaching ESL can also force American morals on students, so she advices to teach other types of English as well like different dialects. But overall ESL is very broad topics which have many factors which need to be considered and I think my research has covered some of them and I am looking forward to writing a coherent research paper.

Do it yourself ESL: ESL that Evolves with the students

The Changing Role of ESL in Bilingual Education

Milk, Robert D. University of Texas at San Antonio, TESOL Quarterly, Vol.19, no.4 December 1989

http://www.jstor.org/jstor/gifcvtdir/ap005054/00398322/ap060076/06q00040_1.1gif?jstor

Milks’ article talks about the differences of teaching ESL, foreign languages and a bilingual classroom. He talks about how you can’t compare learning a foreign to ESL. The main factor states Milk is that one is taught in the speakers’ native country by a teacher who speaks the same language at the students and learning is part of a grade not life. ESL on the other hand is not taught in the students’ language or country and is a matter of survival. Whereas a foreign language student comes home to his native environment and is able to speak his mother tongue, the ESL student is always at odds with his environment and is focused on assimilation. Bilingualism comes into the equation from either schooling in the students native country or from being second or third generation but still not fluent in English, speaking a mish-mush of English and the native language. Milk adds that some cultures have mix language of English and Spanish because they feel alienated from both cultures.

This is a reliable source because it is written by a teacher of ESL who obviously has experience in both the teaching and the pedagogical sides of ESL. The only thing that would give me pause about this source is that it was written in 1989, but I think the topics and solutions talked about by Milk are still prevalent today and have also been touched on by Nero in her writings. I will use this source to make my argument stronger about needing a new approach to ESL and how this rings true at Truman.

Language, Identities, and ESL Pedagogy

Nero, Shonde J. School of Education, St. Johns University, 8000 Utopia Parkway, Queens, NY, 11439, USA, 2005

This academic paper argues that English Language Learners (ELL’s) are changing in both identity and in linguistics. Nero argues that ELL’s can no longer be put into simple categories like: native and non-native speaker, monolingual and bilingual, “which do not adequately capture the full range of students’ linguistic identities and repertoire.” Because of the huge numbers of immigrants coming to America each year, ESL pedagogy has to properly accommodate this. Nero tells the reader how the many differences in schooling and background can affect the ELL’s learning capability and “calls for pedagogical practices that recognize and respond to the similarities and differences in the backgrounds and needs of this diverse population.” This is an extremely helpful source in that in backs up facts I have gathered from Truman College. Facts like that 120 countries and over 50 languages are represented in Truman’s ESL courses.

By having read this article I can compare data from other states to that of Truman see if there are any similarities. This seems like a very authoritative journal because it was written by a professor who did a private study and survey of her ESL students compiling data on their backgrounds, ESL comprehension and ethnicities. I would say this paper has no biases and its goal is to start the ball rolling on updating ESL courses. The only thing that could hinder its relevance is that it was published in California and not Illinois but since her data agrees with that I have learned about Truman I am confident this is a reliable source.

Teaching ESL: A Note Against the Authorities

Pierstorff, Don K. The Language Game, Long State City College, California

http:/www.jstor.org/jstor/gifcvtdir/ap001814/00138274/ap030671/03a00300_1.3gif?jstor

Pierstorff is a City College teacher of ESL and writes in his essay about having just been to an ESL conference and how absolutely useless it was. He talks about how in the 60’s there was supposed to be this groundbreaking new way of teaching grammar to ELL’s called TG Grammar. But says Pierstorff it had one major flaw, its theories were conducted toward “ideal speakers and ideal listeners.” Having been a teacher for over four decades Pierstorff was pretty confident in saying that ESL has anything but “ideal” speakers. He gives examples of the many differences his students have and then ends his essay or rant by saying we can all learn from other ESL theories and pedagogies but in the end we’re the only ones that actually teach the class, so we do what’s best. “we may all listen to advice on how to carve up the whale, but it is, after all our whale.”

Once again I think this is a very helpful source to my paper because it is from a City College teacher which Truman is also and it gives the teachers perspective on ESL pedagogy which is what I’m hoping to ask ESL teachers at Truman. Although this essay reads like a rant, the author also has some examples of his students and teaching techniques that back them up.

Teaching Techniques and Updates

ESL Composition Tales: Reflections on Teaching

Lonon, Linda and Kroll, Barabara, Eds, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, Pp.vii+179, 2002

This is a book that reflects on the “short” history of ESL and how many of its pioneers of theory and pedagogy are still alive and teaching today. This collection of essays written in the early days of ESL is compared to the new ideas of ESL and many of the old ideas are revised by the original authors. The book tells how in the early days there was not real instruction for the teachers, so they put their students through “tedious exercises” and being overall too structured. This book tells how the teachers did not adapt like they do today.

This is probably the most reliable source that can be found on this topic because it is a composite of ten ESL theorists’ ideas and how they have revised them. This will be used in my paper as a background of ESL and the different theories in ESL and how they are used.

Teaching Adult ESL Learners

Yang, Yi Massachusetts Department of Education, The internet TESL Journal

http://itselj.org/techniques/yang-Adultlearners.html

This is a teaching tool for ESL teachers. This article was written by Yang who is a ESL teacher and has had experience teaching immigrants and wants to help other teachers by giving them some of her techniques. Yang starts her article out by telling the reader some of her and her student’s backgrounds, she stresses the fact that most of her ELL’s have had little to no schooling in their home country. Yang also talks about that most of her students were under finical and family stress that “prevented them from fully concentrating” on their work. Because of the varying degrees of schooling and home lives, her students had had, Yang wanted to develop a curriculum that attempted to envelop all of her students. In her article she gives tips on how to teach listening, reading and overall help and promoting higher expectations and language development.

This will prove to be very helpful when I get a chance to talk to actual ESL teachers and I can ask them if the tips given in this article would be helpful or not. This also could go with Pierstorff’s article who said it was ok to take advice but in the end it’s your whale.

Truman College (this will have more sources)

Darnton, Ann, Personal interview, November, 7^th

Ann Darnton, is the assistant dean of Adult Education at Truman College.

In my interview with her I got some good background on the ESL program at Truman Colleges, I also found out that Truman has the biggest ESL department in the State. WE disgust such issues as how the classes work (there are 9 levels), why enrollment has suddenly slowed down in the last couple of years, if there are payment plans for the students, the diversity of the student body and many more questions.

Mrs. Darnton was a very great source to get and she helped me get a better understanding for how the actual system works, how ESL looks like in practice and from an administrators point of view. Although she did not allow me to talk to her teachers I did find a way of contacting some Truman ESL teachers and am currently waiting for a response. Mrs. Darnton’s interview will be used to give a background of Truman and to give some answers as to why some students may choose to learn ESL else where.