Hello colleagues, For many years, I have overseen graduate students' Action Research projects that are required to complete a master's degree in education at a university in my community. Almost all the grad students I've worked with are K12 teachers. I'd like to share an Action Research project that was conducted by a high school ESL teacher that had some really interesting outcomes. I think this Action Research study may have relevance to those of us in adult education who are considering different models of instruction that support English learners transitioning to post secondary education or training,
At this teacher's high school, students could choose a career track. Many English learners were interested in health careers. Students in the health careers track were required to take a medical terminology course. The ESL teacher decided to focus her Action Research on the medical terminology course, which was taught by a nurse educator. The class included both English learners and fluent English speakers. The ESL teacher collaborated with the nurse educator to design a plan to support the English learners in the course.
Previous to this Action Research project, students studied medical vocabulary through traditional methods on their own. Although the ESL teacher did her best to support them, the English learners had not been very successful in the class. The intervention for this Action Research was to form heterogeneous cooperative groups of 4-6 students to study medical terminology.
Each study group included:
- one low-level English learner
- at least one higher-level English learner (with the same first language as the low level learner)
- at least two fluent English speakers
All the students involved in this study improved on their vocabulary quizzes compared to their performance earlier in the course. The lowest level English learner showed the most improvement. The teacher surmised that cooperative learning helped everyone. The lowest level student benefited greatly from the bilingual support provided by one of her/his classmates. All the English learners gained a great deal from the intensive interactions with fluent English speakers while studying together.
What questions do you have about this Action Research study? What might the possibilities be for adapting this model to adult education course offerings?
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition
Comments
Susan,
Thanks for sharing this student's action research project. I agree that this is important work, especially at the secondary level, where students need to learn to work in teams, in part because it's valued by employers. You mention the benefits to the English language learners gained from the experience, but I'm also wondering if this student looked at any benefits to the native English speakers? It's important to consider how these students feel about the experience, and what benefits they gain as well.
Perhaps these could include improving their patient communication skills with non-native speakers, or being able to recognize potential patient misinterpretations of medical information by some language groups? For example, I have heard some Spanish speaking patients have incorrectly interpreted a written prescription, "take once per day", to mean take (eleven) per day, because the word 'once' in Spanish is the number eleven. This can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Whatever the benefits to native speakers, I think they would need to be explicit from the start for each group - moreso than it is for secondary students, who are used to completing projects without as much context for understanding their learning, until asked to reflect on it afterwards.
Mike Cruse
Career Pathways Moderator
michaelcruse74@gmail.com
Hi Mike, Thanks for your message and for bringing up the potential benefit to fluent (or native) English speakers working collaboratively with English learners. While this particular study did not examine that issue, there is no doubt that there are many benefits to all the students that go beyond simply learning medical terminology. As you note, cross cultural understanding and communication are critical to health care providers and their patients. Plus, learning to work as an effective part of a team is valuable in many aspects of our work life.
I'm eager to hear from members who are looking at career pathways models on the issues raised by this teacher action research.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition