RE: Do the students tell you what they want?
Jimena teaches a lower ability group than most English Cafe classes. Her class is an Advanced Beginnner class that was formed in 2007 from a large class of 25 students. She has seven learners on average, half of whom have been with her since she started in 2007.
She says that her students are really not capable of telling her what they need (lines 316-323). She says that what they want is to advance from book to book. But they are not ready to move that quickly. She finds that they do come in with questions about words their English speaking co-workers have used as well as questions about word meanings and how to use the words (See Nancy and Lisa). Jimena also has two students who do want the conversation (330-331), but the rest need and want grammar and writing practice..
In a learner interview with Elida, she commented that teachers need to model first before asking students to read aloud. Correlate this to what Jimena said about teaching Spanish-speakers English (lines 108-113), which is that they need extra help with the pronunciation of the vowels. In fact, when I observed Ann Kearny's class today, I let the teachers know that modeling first before asking students to read aloud is very important for their pronunciation practice.
When asked, What types of resources are available to the learners through the library to help them with their language learning? and What about referring them to the library computer classes? Jimena responded that the teacher who teaches the computer classes now is not even a teacher, nor is his background in computers. He is a former real estate agent and yet he was hired through this grant to teach computers...She says that her students are aware of the U.S. Citizenship classes, but that, for example, she has privately tutored one of her students (who has a learning problem) for the exam and she passed.
She also talked about the lack of accessible dictionaries, thesauri and current idiom books available for teachers. There used to be books she could access up at the Reference desk where she signs in as a volunteer, but now those books are no longer there b/c the librarians have put many of them into circulation. Two years ago, those books were there and she had no problem accessing them. (Suggest that these materials be made available to volunteers in a place that is accessible to them--either in the classroom where they teach or at the volunteer sign-in area.)
For the past three years, she has been telling her students about the CDs and DVDs that they can check out. Except for one student (Rosa who has a learning problem and who Jimena hand holds), no others haibitually take them out.
Learning Supports:
Jimena's experience as a Spanish-speaker who has lived in Brazil, Venezuela and Chile have enabled and empowered her to help her students (lines 298-301). I will recommend that a future study research the assets and liabilities of Native English speaking teachers verses Non-native English speaking teachers.
Jimena says that she learned to master English by listening to English on the radio and TV. She says that her learners need to listen to the radio and to watch TV in English to "really open their ear" to the language. This coincides with what Janine said about what it took for her to master English.
Jimena is an assiduous teacher. She meets with two of her learners individually on a weekly basis to provide them with extra tutoring. Reina has some learning difficulties and Jimena has been coaching her on many things over the past three years, including phonics and the U.S. Citizenship exam, which she has now passed. "For example, Reina. I think she's kind of illiterate or dyslexic or both. I would take tapes or CDs for children, or for Spanish people learning Basic English. And I would spend the time--I would go through that once. And then, she would take it home for a couple of weeks. So she would get extra reinforcement. As I said, I don't want you to run behind the other students. I want you to be...So I try to help them stay on the same level."
"And then one of my students (Filipe) wants me to come here on Wednesday and meet with him one-on-one just to speak because he wants to learn, to communicate better in English. He's pretty good, but it's the same thing with most of the students. He does not listen to any television or radio in English. And I don't think he communicates with too many people in English."
She says that not only do her younger students need English to help them function on their jobs, but her older learners do as well.
Using children's materials (lines 132; 176-182) was also spoken about by Jimena on a couple of occasions. This coincides with Janine and Nancy's interviews.
She also uses Rock 'N Learn Phonics CDs and booklets to teach her learners phonics through catchy songs and rhymes. There are also DVDs that have an on-screen mouth to enable learners to check their progress as well as delayed answers so students have time to respond.
Motivators for learning:
Jimena says that she thinks it is very personal for each of them. But for half of them, they are working with English-speaking co-workers so they need English for functioning on the job (191; 196-197).
Since about half of the learners she began with in 2007 are still with her, she believes it is attributable to the cultural similarities she and her students share. Having lived in Chile, Venezuela and Brazil, Jimena can be that " intercultural bridge" for her students, spoken about by Han (2009).
Barriers to learning:
J. talks about the lack of value that the students place on the classes. If they were fee-based, she believes their attendance would improve. She says lack of motivation, lack of interest, laziness and tiredness also contribute to students' attendance problems.
She also talks about one of her older learners, Maria, who left class to help with her daughter's wedding. Then her daughter had a baby and Maria continued to stay away from class b/c she was taking care of her granddaughter now. There was also Ana, who stopped coming to class. According to Jimena, Ana said, "I'm tired of coming here for the past two and a half years. So I am going to take some time off." Jimena continued, "So she became a citizen. And she hasn't come back. Because for some reason, I guess she thinks that because she already got her papers, that she doesn't need to learn English. She doesn't need to apply herself anymore. I think it's being lazy--period. That's the way I see it. That they're not as interested in learning as they were before."
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