Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 7-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

ESL for Action: Problem Posing at Work

ESL for Action: Problem Posing at Work five levels of questions for discussion, thinking activities, and action activities. This sequence of activities is a realization of the problem-posing methodology: identifying the issues related to work, analyzing the causes of the problems, and developing strategies for change. Completion of the whole process can be said to be a journey of critical thinking. In fact, by answering the questions and exploring the activities provided in a lesson, I seemed to better understand myself, as a foreign student in the United States, and the world of immigrant working people. Competency instruction is integrated throughout each lesson. This may sound antithetical to genuine problem posing in that the text is giving “solutions” to its users—both the teacher and the learners. This kind of problem solving, however, differs from a typical competency-based adult ESL text. Questions for discussion encouraging critical thinking still prevail, even in sections teaching specific competencies. As a user of this book, I liked this somewhat directive, but not dominating, way of introducing competencies. As a foreigner in this country, I sometimes would prefer to be told directly, rather than to learn a lesson from painstaking mistakes resulting from my ignorance of the social and cultural expectations of American society. When I was participating in the lessons, an inner voice asked, “Why didn’t I have a textbook like this before?” As an ESL learner, I like ESL for Action and believe that many other learners would also like it. SU-KUEI LAI University of Massachusetts at Boston English at Work: A Tool Kit for Teachers. Deborah Barndt (Coordinator). North York, Ontario: CORE Foundation. (Available from CORE Foundation, 5050 Yonge Street, North York, Ontario, Canada M2N 5N8) More than a text, English at Work is a multimedia package of learning materials centered on workplace issues for immigrants. As such, it requires active engagement on the part of the teacher in becoming familiar with its contents and possible uses. It is by no means a “teacher-proof” curriculum, and therein lies its strength. The range of tools in the kit encourages a flexible, participatory approach to adult ESL that can be used in a variety of contexts. Because it is not a traditional, linearly sequenced, bound volume, but rather a collection of stories, photos, tapes, cartoons, and a poster, accompanied by a 150-page teacher’s manual to guide their use, teachers can select and adapt materials to fit the particular needs and interests of different groups. Activities are centered around five themes: Histories of Immigrant Workers, Jobs Within the Industrial and Service Sectors (including six kinds of workplaces), Work Relationships, Working Conditions and Work, and Home and Community Life. Because workers are seen as whole people with lives that go beyond the doors of the workplace, many of the 322 TESOL QUARTERLY http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Tesol Quarterly Wiley

ESL for Action: Problem Posing at Work

LAI, SU‐KUEI
Tesol Quarterly , Volume 23 (2) – Jan 1, 1989
Download PDF
1 page

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/esl-for-action-problem-posing-at-work-epoGv80idl

References (0)

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 Wiley Subscription Services
ISSN
0039-8322
eISSN
1545-7249
DOI
10.2307/3587341
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

five levels of questions for discussion, thinking activities, and action activities. This sequence of activities is a realization of the problem-posing methodology: identifying the issues related to work, analyzing the causes of the problems, and developing strategies for change. Completion of the whole process can be said to be a journey of critical thinking. In fact, by answering the questions and exploring the activities provided in a lesson, I seemed to better understand myself, as a foreign student in the United States, and the world of immigrant working people. Competency instruction is integrated throughout each lesson. This may sound antithetical to genuine problem posing in that the text is giving “solutions” to its users—both the teacher and the learners. This kind of problem solving, however, differs from a typical competency-based adult ESL text. Questions for discussion encouraging critical thinking still prevail, even in sections teaching specific competencies. As a user of this book, I liked this somewhat directive, but not dominating, way of introducing competencies. As a foreigner in this country, I sometimes would prefer to be told directly, rather than to learn a lesson from painstaking mistakes resulting from my ignorance of the social and cultural expectations of American society. When I was participating in the lessons, an inner voice asked, “Why didn’t I have a textbook like this before?” As an ESL learner, I like ESL for Action and believe that many other learners would also like it. SU-KUEI LAI University of Massachusetts at Boston English at Work: A Tool Kit for Teachers. Deborah Barndt (Coordinator). North York, Ontario: CORE Foundation. (Available from CORE Foundation, 5050 Yonge Street, North York, Ontario, Canada M2N 5N8) More than a text, English at Work is a multimedia package of learning materials centered on workplace issues for immigrants. As such, it requires active engagement on the part of the teacher in becoming familiar with its contents and possible uses. It is by no means a “teacher-proof” curriculum, and therein lies its strength. The range of tools in the kit encourages a flexible, participatory approach to adult ESL that can be used in a variety of contexts. Because it is not a traditional, linearly sequenced, bound volume, but rather a collection of stories, photos, tapes, cartoons, and a poster, accompanied by a 150-page teacher’s manual to guide their use, teachers can select and adapt materials to fit the particular needs and interests of different groups. Activities are centered around five themes: Histories of Immigrant Workers, Jobs Within the Industrial and Service Sectors (including six kinds of workplaces), Work Relationships, Working Conditions and Work, and Home and Community Life. Because workers are seen as whole people with lives that go beyond the doors of the workplace, many of the 322 TESOL QUARTERLY

Journal

Tesol Quarterly – Wiley

Published: Jan 1, 1989

There are no references for this article.