ESOL
Classes: A good survival tool for immigrants in New York
By
Amelia
Teresa Correa
ENGL
C0855
Professor
B. Gleason
May
16, 2015
ABSTRACT
ESOL
Classes: A good survival tool for immigrants in New York, the purpose of this paper
was to take a closer examination of one of the English for Speakers of Other
Languages (ESOL) classes within the New York Public Library organization,
namely level 1-2 at the Morris Park Library Branch. Contact was made with both site and hub
managers to request access to site. After this was conceded, I proceeded to
complete research by observing the class on several occasions. The approach used was note-taking during
class observations, conversations with English Language Learners and teacher;
there was also an interview completed with the hub manager. Ultimately, the information was organized
into a written report which consisted of an Introduction, a Background of the
program, an Approach which listed details of class observations and teaching strategies
used by the ESOL teacher, Analysis of the data and a Conclusion.
Introduction
When
immigrants come to this country for the first time, many feel as though they are
just moving from an old apartment into a new one with more perks and the state-of-the-art
amenities we always dreamed of. Never do
they immigrate over here thinking that learning the mores, folks, and customs
of a new country could be such a daunting task, until the first few days after
arrival go by, and now the person that showed us around the basic places in their
new neighborhood is no longer available.
It is at that very moment they realize that now they have to learn how
to ride on public transportation, how to go uptown or downtown, how to find a
job so they can simply survive, and all these they have to learn on their own.
At
first, they think they will find their dream jobs in a snap of a finger, until
they realize they are missing the most important piece of the puzzle, the
English skills anyone would need to simply be able to function in a diverse
place such a New York. No, they cannot
just get a job that pays us minimum wage, because that would mean sharing an
apartment with family members for a long time, to say the least. Now what?
Well, along comes someone who talk them into learning the language,
explaining that, in spite of the fact that there are a myriad of opportunities
in a place like New York, they must learn the most basic stuff of the American
culture, its language. Now they get it:
unless they have old money to live a decent life, they just have to find
English classes that will help them acquire at least the oral skills they need. It is that simple.
Learning
English will basically give immigrants the tools to achieve their goals of
making a better future. Luckily enough, a place like New York has one of the
most important organizations which historically has provided English to
Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes.
However, not all library branches have these services. For instance, the
Morris Park Library Branch launched its ESOL classes only in October of
2013. These classes not only provide an
opportunity to researchers and educators to add to the Language and Literacy
discourse, but they also help immigrants of the area acquire the language
skills necessary to survive and to move into more advanced courses.
ESOL
Program Background:
The
New York Public Library organization has an array of educational programs
scattered throughout its 756 libraries and 314 branches that serve the more
than eight million inhabitants in the city. The Library’ services go from arts
and craft classes for the little ones, to literacy and ESOL classes for both
native and non-native English speakers respectively, to help them hon their
reading and writing skills. The latter program
is one of the most sought-after mainly by relatively newcomers and others not
as new to the country, as English language acquisition is necessary to survive in
New York on a day-to-day basis, to acquire jobs and as gateway to more advanced
educational programs for English Language Learners (ELLs). Classes such as the ESOL at the Morris Park
Library Branch come to be very important to strengthen the local community.
The Morris Park Library launched its
ESOL program less than a year ago. This
program is comprised of two levels, beginner and intermediate. And they are arranged in a rather unique way:
The beginners’ level covers 1-2, whereas the intermediate level covers 3-4
together. The levels are arranged this way
to be able to accommodate those people whose English skills are very basic to
those whose skills are more advanced, but are not quite ready to make it into
the intermediate level.
Therefore,
once ELLs have reached a high intermediate level such as 5-6, they have to be
sent to other branches who host those classes, as Morris Park Library only
hostess levels
1-2
and 3-4. In fact, in my interview with the Hub Manager, he elaborated on the
fact that the way in which the levels are taught at Morris Park is not the most
effective for English students because of the mix of language skills in the
same classroom. He said, “This was so
[having levels 1-2 and so forth combined] because of the fact that Morris Park Library
is not large enough to house classes with levels other than 1-2 and 3-4” (Rosenbaum,
Eric. Personal interview. 13 May, 2015.Telephonic).
To be able to attend the Morris Park
ESOL program, ELLs first have to attend an information session at the
Kingsbridge Bronx Library Center –the largest in the Bronx, where they are given
an oral exam to assess their skills. Classes
are completely free, and students are able to repeat the same level as many
times as necessary unless he or she has an issue with attendance or tardiness. Classes
at Morris Park are taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm and
they run on a two and a half months cycle. Access
to the site is easy by some modes of public transportation: the Bx32 and the
Bx21 stop around there at least every ten minutes.
A
committee of Hub Managers design a thematic curriculum for ESOL classes based
on the Ventures textbook, so there is no specific assigned textbook for the
class. However, Mr. Ivan Obregon,
beginner’s level 1-2 teacher, has a leeway to choose a lesson plan for the day
from that curriculum. He has over 20
years’ experience teaching ESL and English Composition. Of Latino descend, Mr. Obregon understands
how difficult and daunting acquiring English skills could be.
Furthermore,
Mr. Obregon’s teaching philosophy was evident when, while conversing with him, he
stated that the classroom should be student-centered. This he demonstrated by having ELLs work
first in collaboration with a partner to practice oral exercises. He also displayed another characteristic of
Student-centered Theory when stated that he “personalizes the class by using
real world examples to help students engage [in the learning process]”
(Obregon, Ivan. Personal interview. 26 March, 2015. In person). He also gave students directions and he
repeated the drills to ensure everyone understood them. Students, in return,
seemed very comfortable and respected, for they did not shy away from
participating in the lesson. He stated that part of his philosophy was to take
into consideration people’s learning styles, also a characteristic of Carl
Rogers’ Student-centered learning approach (teal.ed.gov).
During
our conversation, the teacher stated to never assume anything about people’s
learning styles”, as individuals learn in different ways and that “at this
beginner’s level, repetition is an essential tool” (Obregon, Ivan. Personal
interview. 26 March, 2015. In person). This
statement partly shows that Paulo Freire’s Theory of Learning has influenced Mr.
Obregon’s teaching tenets, for on his Teachers as Cultural Workers, Freire
ascertains that, “Comprehension needs to be worked forged by those who read and
study; as subjects of the action, they must seek to employ appropriate
instruments in order to carry out the task […] one requiring patience and
perseverance” (Freire 23). And this
indeed was what Mr. Obregon did with his student. He used all his available
resources to help them understand the exercise they were to do. He asked a
question, then he had students answering back to him in unison; he repeated the
drill several times to make sure everyone understood.
He
used Freire’s teaching elements concomitant with what Vygotsky called
Scaffolding element when referring to the teacher’s role as a support available
to students as they engage in realistic and complex tasks (Fleming and Garner
29). Mr. Obregon used many gestures to help ELLs whose skills were not as
advanced. At times, he also pointed to objects around
the room to assist them whenever they seemed lost. There was definitely
a cooperative effort both to teach and to learn. Even though it is not displayed anywhere in the
classroom, or formally written in any document, the ultimate goal of the Morris
Park ESOL class is to have ELLs achieve a level of comfort enough to move out
of level 1-2 into 3-4 or perhaps into 5-6.
Approach:
On an email to the Morris Park
Library Branch Manager, Ms. Dawn Holloway, I requested to be allowed to observe
their ESOL. She proceeded to forward my
request to the Hub Manager, Eric Rosenbaum, who gave me a positive answer in a
timely fashion. There were three visits to the ESOL level 1-2 class but only two observations directly inside the
classroom. The first observation happened on the 21st and the 31st
of March concurrently with casual conversation with Mr. Obregon. I was able to
take written notes of the most significant points during my conversation with
him as well. And I also interviewed
some of the students to learn about their educational goals.
The
first observation: I started from the very beginning of the session at 6:00 pm all
the way until the end at 8:00 pm. Plenty
of handwritten field notes were taken, and I also took handwritten notes of the
highlighted parts of my conversation with the teacher. In spite of the fact that he could not
provide me with a copy of the lesson plan for that day, I was able to annotate
what the exercise entailed: ELLs received
drills from the teacher which explained how to use negotiation questions with what, where, how, who, and when.
I
also highlighted on my field notes the classroom’s physical setting. The class was hosted on the library’s
basement. The classroom had three tables with their respective chairs forming a
U and a tripod with a paper pad utilized as a writing device. There was no projector, regular whiteboard or
technology device used in the classroom. I immediately observed the student’ sitting
arrangement: for the most part, those who spoke the same language sat together,
save for a few who did not have classmates who share their same mother tongue. The
classroom had the same aura of relaxation I perceived when I entered the Morris
Park neighborhood. In fact, the student
body in this class simply struck me as a friendly crowd eager to get the best
out of that beginner’s level.
Although
the description of the ESOL class at the NYPL website states clearly that it is
for adults over fifty years of age, I observed that this class was very
heterogeneous as students seemed to range between the ages of nineteen and
sixty. I was able to gather all this information through my interaction with students,
whom for the most part came from Africa, Latin American countries and Eastern
Europe. That night, over twenty-three
students attended the class. Upon announcing
that testing to gauge student’ skills was going to continue that night and that
I was visiting the class, the teacher began his lesson. He got from students nothing but their
undivided attention; they seemed highly motivated and eager to learn the
material presented to them.
Mr.
Obregon had students sitting in groups to practice conversation in which they
had to ask quotidian questions by using words taken from a handout he provided
them with. On the second part of the exercise, which occurred around forty-five
minutes into the class, students were paired up with a partner to continue
practicing. Some students worked more than once on a
one-on-one
basis with their classmates, because of the fact that their skills were more
advanced and consequently they were able to guide those who needed more help.
The instructor went from table to table making sure students were formulating
the questions correctly or helping those who could not understand their
partner’s questions altogether, until students were able to grasp the concept.
About
forty-five minutes into the class a female student requested a five-minute
break to pray, and Mr. Obregon agreed to it and explained to me that teachers
have to make sure students’ needs are fulfilled so that they can learn more
effectively. Shortly thereafter, he announced a ten-minute break for the entire
class. In the meantime, some students were also being pulled out of the class
into another room every fifteen to twenty minutes by the Hub Manager and a Language
and Literacy (L & L) student to be tested orally. The main purpose of the test was to gauge
whether or not ELLs could be promoted to 3-4, the next level up, or to assess
if they were to repeat level
1-2.
After
the break, the teacher allowed students to see the ending product of the
exercise they had started in the beginning of the class by calling upon
students to volunteer to sit in the middle of the classroom to be asked
questions by their peers. Richard Orem’s
Total Physical Response was the pedagogical tool Mr. Obregon used throughout
the entire exercise, for “[he] the teacher act[ed] out a series of commands. The students, in turn, demonstrate[d] comprehension
by acting out the verbal command, thus the term Total Physical Response” (52). At no point did students vacillate to answer
their peers’ questions out of embarrassment to be sitting there.
Therefore,
it was evident the teacher was fostering a safe learning environment, a
strategy suggested to teachers and educators by Richard Orem on his Teaching
Adult English Language Learners (14).
Also, the ELLs who were asking the questions showed an appropriate level
of comfort when doing so. The different teaching strategies unfolded in a very
cohesive manner throughout Mr. Obregon’s entire lesson. Those strategies were still present at the
culmination of the exercise when students volunteered to act out the questions
they formulated with words from the provided handout.
The
second observation: I was able to talk to some of the students of the ESOL
level 1-2 class. It became very obvious to me that skills among students ranged
completely from very basic to basic advanced.
For instance, I spoke with a student in his sixties who was able to
carry on a conversation fluidly with no major issues. He happened to be one of the students who was
tested orally on my first day of observation.
Although this gentleman made it to the next level, he expressed to me he
was not sure if he was going to take the next level of English at Morris Park
or if he was going to continue on to college.
Interestingly enough, he conveyed all this in English.
Furthermore,
I conversed with other students as well, some of which could not carry on an
entire conversation due to their basic level of English. So they spoke to me
using the help of some of their classmates who interpreted for them. I noticed and annotated the fact that
students came from different walks of life: there was a businessman, a young woman
in her late twenties with a medical degree from her native country, an Asian
gentleman who was an engineer, some others had completed high school in their
countries, and yet others were receiving GED instruction elsewhere and in
Spanish. This cohort was definitely a
very heterogeneous one whose main goal was acquiring English skills to then
move on to higher level classes.
Telephonic
Interview: I contacted the Hub Manager, Mr. Rosenbaum who conceded me an
interview on Wednesday the 13th of May. He elaborated on how the ESOL program was
implemented at Morris Park Library Branch by the end of 2013. He provided me with information on the
requirements that staff members must have to teach in the program: They must be
holders of at least a Master in TESOL, ESOL, or Language and Literacy to name a
few, along with years of teaching experience.
The hub also elaborated on the reasons why the ESOL program at Morris
Park only hostess levels 1-2 through 3-2: this is a satellite site and also
because of its physical space limitation.
Mr. Rosenbaum believes that having the levels mixed as they have them at
Morris Park is not that effective for students learning. I concurred.
Analysis
As
many of other ESOL classes all over New York City, the purpose of the level 1-2
at Morris Park Library is to
introduce students to the basics of functional English language skills. The
main focus is to teach students the practical vocabulary that they can use in
real life situations they will encounter outside of the classroom. This class is beneficial to both newcomers
and those that have been living in the country for some time already, as it is
never late to try to acculturate by using the most effective and most pervasive
tool of all –language.
Learning
either a new language or any other subject matter does not have to happen only
during childhood. In fact, adults might
show more eagerness and enthusiasm to learn than children. Their drive stems
from within; they do not just take on to learn a subject matter because they
are told to, but because they might have underlying personal reasons for it. As Malcolm S. Knowles explains it on his Adult Education: New Dimensions, these
ESOL students “need to learn in order to confront developmental tasks; and that
their orientation toward learning is one of concern for immediate application”
(87). Such is the case of the adult
students at this program.
Through
conversation with students I noticed that they had an almost instantaneous need
to learn the language for both social and economic reasons. Some ELLs in Mr.
Obregon’s class were there because the financial help they received from family
members upon arrival was no longer available.
Such was the case of a mother and a daughter whom I had the opportunity
to converse. The daughter saw the need
to learn English as a Second Language because of the fact that she needed to
register for a home attendant course taught in English. She also had another compelling reason: she
needed to help her six year old daughter with homework, whereas the mother of
this young lady needed to learn English to function better at her job as a
cashier.
Even
though not everyone was trying to pursue a higher degree at this program, there
seemed to be a social need to learn. For instance, a newcomer needs at least
basic language skills to access public services such as applying for a dwelling
for low or moderate income at the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)
office, especially if there are no interpretation services from English into
the person’s native language. In fact, during
my observation I learned that Myrna (pseudonym is used here), a student in this
class, was going through the hardship of being evicted from her apartment along
with her husband and children and it seemed she did not know about the NYCHA
services. Having enough English skills
would have actually meant for a person like Myrna that she could have either gone
to speake in person with a Housing representative to explain her need for
emergency housing, or that she could have accessed the NYCHA website by using its
Self-service Portal. Classes like Mr. Obregon’s ESOL provide ELLs with basic
skills to learn how to navigate services available in the community.
Students
in Mr. Obregon’s class were previously given an entrance test at the Bronx
Library Center, the borough’s main library, to determine the level they need to
be placed on. Once they are placed into
Mr. Obregon’s class, at the end of the cycle they have to test out of the class
by taking an oral exam given by the Hub Manager, Mr. Rosenbaum. This test might yield a few results: First, the
English Language Learner might have to repeat level 1-2. He or she might be promoted to level 3-4 –the
next level up, or he or she might even go more than one level higher, in which
case they would have to go to a different site which offers a higher level of
ESOL classes.
Although
Mr. Obregon’ students like to gravitate with those who speak their own language,
he engages them in a succinct way and make them rotate in the class so that
everyone can learn from each other. His
doing so help students feel safe.
Indeed, he used one of the twelve principles for effective adult
learning that Jane Vella alludes to when she ascertains that, “You will see
physical manifestations of a feeling of safety appear after such a review of
the whole design: people relax, smile, talk more freely to one another” (9). On
my first day of observation, initially students seemed to not want to rotate in
the classroom. However, the teacher used
Vella’s effective principles and they became very cooperative and completely
engaged in the activity about twenty minutes into the session.
The
teacher shared part of his teaching philosophy with me. He stated that using students native language
is not an option, for that would make the class a bilingual one and not an
English as a Second Language one. He
also mentioned the fact that he personalizes the class by using real world
examples to help students engage in the class faster and deeply. Not only is his teaching philosophy good for
students’ success, but students are also able to use those examples provided
during class by the teacher to deal with real life situations they encounter
outside of the classroom.
In
Mr. Obregon’s class, students’ learning is not happening in a vacuum; on the
contrary, their classroom experiences are completely intertwined with those
quotidian events in which they happen to be participants. Nonetheless, ESOL classes at Morris Park
would be much more effective if, instead of having the levels mixed as 1-2 and
3-4, they had basic levels 1 and 2 and intermediate levels 3 and 4 as four separate
classes as opposed to just two. Although
the teacher Mr. Obregon is highly skilled and aware of the best teaching
practices, it was evident that some students were too advanced to receive
instruction at that basic level. This, I
believe poses some implications for the advancement of those students who are
at the right level as well as for those who possess higher skills. Hopefully,
expanding the ESOL program at Morris Park is already part of the NYPL’s agenda
for the immediate future.
Conclusion:
The ESOL level 1-2 at Morris Park Library was
closely examined with the purpose of learning how to complete field research.
The site was visited on several occasions.
Basic tools such as note-taking and interviewing were used, visits to
the site was done and observations of the class was completed. The final product of this research was a
written report which included an abstract of the paper, an introduction to what
the subject at hand was, a background of the ESOL program, a methodology as to
how the research was completed, with examples of best teaching practices
displayed by the class teacher and an analysis which worked itself out in a way
that it yielded the unexpected conclusion that: Morris Park TESOL
classes might need to expand into single levels 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 separately, as opposed
to 1-2 and 3-4 together. Furthermore, English learning is not divorced from students’
quotidian life; quite the opposite, in order for an English lesson to be effective, it must have a
story behind it, an anecdote to be told, a reason, an object and a subject, a
context, a teacher that’s willing and able to step in and step out to
understand where his students come from, so that he or she can provide the
proper learning environment for them.
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