Using data from a 9-month ethnography, this presentation explores how adult ESL learners may have different notions of effective pedagogical approaches than their ESL teachers. Reasons for these differences as well as strategies for dealing with them are explored. This demonstration presents videos of actual classes using and building language skills in thinking, writing, and interactive communication. It shows how language acquisition can be facilitated through the making of audition tapes, think tanks, story boards, and by developing concepts and productions. Meeting Room 122 Using data from a qualitative study of two newcomer programs for ESL students with limited formal education or literacy skills in their first languages, the role of discourses, identity and agency in second language acquisition is examined.
Findings reveal how identity serves as a site of struggle across instructional contexts.
The presenters will describe the itinerant ESOL program which has evolved in their district to meet the varied needs of students in grades Kindergarten to high school. The poster will present a system of language learning in small semi-autonomous teams and sample material used with engineering students over the last 8 years. The feedback from students highlights the team's role in increasing commitment to language learning, improving fluency and a high course-satisfaction level. This presentation describes a study with adult ESL students to understand how NNSs organize cultural input and what learner and instructional characteristics affect the cultural learning process. Using a variety of qualitative methods, the study identifies several important influences on the cultural learning process and implication for curriculum design.