2B: What is 'success' in teaching, training and learning?

Effective lessons have collective goals as well as goals for individual learners. They are planned so that they operate at a number of different levels, for example, teaching learners a feature of language and how it works, while at the same time introducing them to a new concept. Learners benefit from the experience of being able to work together, as in the example below.

In a community centre in a former mining community, a group of women learning ESOL were working on contemporary dramatic texts. They had sought out the tutor and asked him to run a course of this kind for them. They clearly saw it as a way of finding their own voice and broadening their horizons. They worked in pairs, offering each other support, for example, to complete sentences or by supplying adjectives. Once learners had grasped the role of adjectives as a part of speech, the tutor explained how adjectives might be used by a playwright to enhance the quality of his or her writing. The group then considered the difference between plays that are scripted and plays that are devised through improvisation. They went on to read from a script by the film-maker Mike Leigh. Although learners’ skills in writing ranged from Entry Level 2 to Level 2, they gave a powerful reading of the text. They had each been allocated a part the week before, and had prepared for the lesson. Their concentration was total.

The learners were interested in the moral issues they had debated in a previous lesson after reading another text. Some pointed out that what they were learning made them feel connected with the rest of the world, and that it had an impact not just on them, but on their families, because they went home and discussed what they had been talking about in lessons.

Although this appears at first glance to be a lesson that does not meet the criterion of ‘relevance’, it was successful on a number of levels:

• the learners (not just the tutor) perceived it as a vehicle for furthering their own interests
• the learners were acquiring some basic knowledge about how the English language works
• the learners were acquiring knowledge about literary and dramatic convention
• they were learning how to work collaboratively
• they were developing a critical framework for analysing concepts. In other words, they were engaged in ‘critical literacy’.

It all goes to show: never underestimate learners.

 

In an inner-city centre where learners come from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds, the tutor has bookmarked a number of news sites on the Internet in learners' own first languages.

This means that at the start of each day, they can check what's going on in their country of origin.

This is reassuring in more sense than one.

Importantly, it gives learners the positive experience of starting the day's studies by reading something they can understand.

One provider has produced a range of study packs referenced to the adult core curriculum. Some of these relate to health issues, and have been written by practising ESOL and literacy tutors in collaboration with health education staff. The materials are also made available commercially.

In one local authority evening class, learners were working at various Entry levels. There were three volunteers to assist learners, as well as the paid tutor. The lesson had been thoroughly planned and the volunteers had been carefully briefed about their roles prior to the arrival of the students.

As a result, the lesson ran extremely smoothly. Learners experienced a high level of support and had the opportunity to work on activities that had been tailored especially for them. However, volunteers were never obtrusive. They worked sensitively, allowing space and time for learners to experiment and hypothesise before offering guidance or instruction. There was definitely a sense of everything running like clockwork.

Some providers have given a great deal of thought to administering assessment tests sensitively and without creating an examination environment, as in the example below.

At one provider, a pleasant room is dedicated to assessment purposes – flowers on the table, sweets to eat and so on. Groups of learners take the test together with a tutor on hand to give reassurance.

This provider has developed its own initial assessment materials for ESOL learners, mapped to the national standards. These include oral activities and reading passages. The experience has been that learners like knowing their current skills level. It gives them a sense of what they have to work towards next.

The use of the initial screening tests has helped providers place learners more accurately by level, though in some cases, the geographical spread of provision means that this is not always feasible.

 

‘I will be working with children after I have finished this crèche worker course. This is the first time I have been on a course, before I learned English.

‘I have my own children so I know how to work with children. I need more help with more English. I need more time to learn the language. I did not know any English when I came. I could not communicate with people very well.

‘Children speak their own language so I can’t learn from them. I learn best mixing with people. Now speaking is OK, writing is more difficult.

‘My greatest achievement on this course has been my self-confidence. Children come to me because I am confident and they trust me.’

Gillian is studying on a basic maths course. She told us about her progress.

 

‘I really enjoy maths and I never thought I would ever say that. I’m a lot happier and a lot more confident as a result of coming to the classes. I was terrified of maths, I felt people would laugh because I didn’t know basic things.

‘But it’s a nice relaxing environment and the tutors are brilliant. They’re happy to sit with you until you’re not stuck any more.

‘I would advise anyone who has doubts about their English or maths to come along. It’s individualised learning. You’re under no pressure to learn something in a given time. There’s no one standing at the front telling you. You can learn go at your own pace. And apart from building your confidence, it opens doors in the jobs world as well.’

‘I am Jan Pike, the class teacher. When the students come in at the beginning, we give them an assessment. There is no ESOL assessment available yet so we give them the literacy assessment. It’s like a booklet of questions, from the Basic Skills Agency.

‘Once the women have learned English, some want to use it to get a job. For the professional crèche workers course, learners need to achieve an NVQ at Level 2 and be able to write. There are at least two Somali speakers below that level on the course but why let them fail when they have the skills to do the job? Putting them on the course, as it was set up, was inviting them to fail. For example, they are required to write an essay on different types of play and to include points about setting up play activities and points about supervision. These students know all this and can put it into action but they cannot write an essay. You do not need high levels of written English to be a crèche worker. You do need to be able to accurately complete an accident form and when children come in to be able to register them. So to give these women a fair opportunity to succeed, I have taken the materials and resources and hugely simplified them for people whose first language is not English. To achieve the NVQ they still have to produce evidence, but I have changed the way the evidence is produced. So instead of writing an essay, they demonstrate their knowledge and skills by making lists of the play activities required and list how to set these up with bullet points to note on supervision. The same in ESOL, I change the worksheet on punctuation to make it subject specific to the crèche course workers. This is how to succeed in ESOL!’

An ESOL tutor describes how she and her students, a group of asylum seekers, mark and celebrate distance travelled.

‘This is a group of 11 students who meet twice a week for a total of four hours. They all started in September. Four learners were complete beginners, and the rest were assessed as being at Entry Level. Four learners had no literacy at all.

‘Students are aged between 30 and 60 years, and there’s also one 16-year-old student who is profoundly deaf. He has one-to-one support. The others have learned to communicate with him using eye contact, some hand signs and lots of general goodwill.

‘A major issue for the group was confidence and being able to cope on a day-to-day basis in the community. All the students have made such good progress in their social skills that, to celebrate, we are going on a class trip to Oxford tomorrow. Students will ask for a return ticket on the bus, order food and drink in a café, vist the Botanic Garden and speak in English all morning! This would have been an impossible dream back in September.’