ELLs and the Culture of Healthcare in the US

Submitted by Julie McKinney on Thu, 11/14/2013 - 23:33
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I see that there is a nice discussion going on about the role of culture in the ESOL classroom! We have been having a discussion on the health literacy list about health literacy in ESOL intruction. In that context, we have been talking about a different kind of cultural situation: that of the US health care system, and how that meshes (or doesn't!) with the culture of healthcare from a person's home country.

We would really like to hear from some of you about your experiences with this in the classroom! We would also love to address any concerns you have about integrating health literacy into your ESOL instruction. It is a topic and set of skills that is hugely important for ELLs, especially now with the Affordable Care Act! And there is good evidence that ESOL classrooms can be very effective settings for improving health literacy while enhancing gains in language and literacy skills!

Please go to the Health Literacy Group and join, even for just next week, to participate in this discussion with us!

Here is the direct  to the Discussion:

https://community.lincs.ed.gov/discussion/welcome-our-guest-discussion-introduction-health-literacy-abe-and-esol#comment-4708

Thanks,

julie

Comments

Thanks, Julie, for hosting this very useful discussion. I urge members of the Adult ELL CoP to participate in the ongoing discussion. The guest discussion leader, Kate Singleton, MSW and ESL instructor both, has her feet in both camps and knows her stuff. Recently the discussion has been about resources for the ESL classroom.

I may have posted these links of Kate Singleton's resources before, but here they are again:

  1. First, a brief:

Singleton, K. (2002). Health literacy and adult English language learners. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/healthlit.html

  1. Then, some classroom materials in pdf for use with English language learners at all levels:

Singleton, K. (2002). Picture Stories for Adult ESL Health Literacy. http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/health/healthindex.html

I know Kate has developed and worked with additional resources as well – and they are being discussed there. So once again, I think  you'll find the discussion useful and your imput is useful, as well., as Julie said above.

Miriam