Colleagues,
Miriam Burt wrote on the Adult English Language Learners CoP:
The international TESOL conference is a huge event for anyone working with English language learners. It's the place to hear the latest research on learning English as a second language and to connect the research to practice. It also has a huge exhibition hall to find the resources that connect to the research. Mostly it's a great place to learn about and share evidence-based strategies to help you in your classroom.
That said, I know that many (most) community members will not have the funds or time to attend. I would like to suggest that those who can attend think about sharing what they learn and see there.
Also, I'd like to recommend that prior to that time, we use this space to suggest topics we want to find more information about.
For example, I have the following question that I will try to research while there:
What is the latest information/research on teaching writing to adults learning English?
What are your questions?
Miram (SME, Adult English Language Learners CoP)
It's a terrific idea, Miriam, to ask people to post their questions in advance of a conference so that those who attend might seek answers to the questions to post here during or after the conference, especially for those who cannot attend. I hope that those here who plan to attend the TESOL conference will pick (a) question(s) posted here that they are also interested in, and post a response from or after the conference indicating what they learn, from whom, and if there are digital handouts available, the web addressed.
It would also be great to do this for other conferences, for example, for the upcoming Families Learning Summit in D.C. and the March 2014 COABE Conference in Philadelphia, so I am cross-posting this to other CoPs.
Here are my two questions for the TESOL Conference:
1. In light of the results of the PIAAC Survey of Adult Skills, and the poor U.S. performance on Problem Solving in Technlogy-Rich Environments (PSTRE), what digital literacy and PSTRE skills should we be teaching adult ELL learners?
2. Specifically, how should we be teaching them? As a separate course? Integrated in reading and writing language learning activities? In the classroom? In the computer lab? Online for students to access at home, work or a library? In a blended learning model? Something else?
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com