England: policy developments impacting on ESOL basic literacy

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England policy developments impacting on ESOL
basic literacy

• Pauline Moon
• Helen Sunderland
• LLU _at_ London South Bank University

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(No Transcript)
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Government departmentsconcerned with ESOL

• Innovation, Universities and Skills
• Children, Families and Schools
• Home Office
• Communities and local government
• Work and Pensions

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The invisible student
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Policy re LESLLA learners

• Provision
• Very little specific to learners with little ed.
• Funding
• Prioritises higher levels (targets)
• Teacher education
• No requirement to train to teach this level
• Curriculum
• Previously hidden, will be explicit
• Quality assurance
• Ofsted report doesnt mention this work

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Revised ESOL Adult Core Curriculum
follow a short narrative on a familiar topic or experience For basic literacy learners, who do not read in another language, and are starting to work towards Entry 1 follow a short narrative on a familiar topic or experience At Entry 1
respond to print as a source of meaning be aware that words on the page represent words that can be spoken read texts for information and enjoyment Example A language experience text the learner has composed themselves and the teacher has written down, a very simple notice or one simplified by the teacher. read texts for information and enjoyment Example A very simple book, notices, maps, biographies, e.g. Nelson Mandela is from a village in South Africa. He was president of South Africa for five years from 1994 to 1999.
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Current policy drivers

• Leitch review of skills (2006) and government
  response
• By 2020 95 adults functionally literate
• Social cohesion agenda consultation on ESOL
• Local areas decide priority groups
• Immigration fears and new regulations
• Difficult for unskilled migrants to enter UK

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High status literacy

• ancient Greek courses _at_ Oxford Cambridge
  Universities some for learners who dont read
  and write Greek

Classics, Greats
some learners fewer languages than English
language learners
prospectuses knowledge
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Low status literacy

• English language courses in post-16
  some courses are for learners who dont read and
  write English

basic literacy
some learners more languages than ancient Greek
learners
prospectuses skills
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Conceptualising courses

• ancient Greek an achievement
• English language to become ordinary
• issues status, prestige, ideology, discourses,
  hegemony, identity
• theory Gramsci, Foucault, Labov, Trudgill ...

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Naming practices
pre-beginners ?
illiterate ?
pre-entry ?
Identity did anyone ask us?
basic skills ?
Cant read, cant write (recent British TV
programme)
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Conceptualising the learners not
beginner thinkers

• two little four year old girls, one Arabic and
  the other American doing scribble writing.
  When asked what it said, the Arabic child replied
  you cant read it its in Arabic.
• Hall (1987) quoted in Spiegel and Sunderland
  (2006)

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Route to resolution what is literacy?

• social cultural practices involvement not
  solitary
• (New Literacy Studies Brice-Heath, Street,
  Barton, Hamilton ...)
• involvement in literacy practices not
  necessarily doing the reading and writing
• (Brice-Heath, Barton ...)

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ESOL Curriculum

• curriculum takes a position
• negotiate relevant learning contexts
• (not prescribed example contexts)
• integrate text, sentence word level
• (curriculum divides guidance for integration)
• teachers take positions
• may or may not contextualise learning
• may or may not integrate text, sentence word

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A policy for LESLLA learners?

• What are the pros and con?
• What could go in such a policy?
• Should LESLLA be lobbying for policy development?
• Should LESLLA be collecting information on
  policies in different countries?

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References

• Barton, D. Hamilton, M. and Ivanic, R. (2000)
  (eds) Situated Literacies. Routledge.
• Barton, D. (2007). Literacy an introduction to
  the ecology of written language. Blackwell.
• Brice Heath, S. (1983). Ways with words.
  Cambridge University Press.
• Coffield, F (2007) Running ever faster down the
  wrong road
• Labov, W. (2006). The social stratification of
  English in New York City. 2nd edition. Cambridge
  University Press.
• Street, B. (1985). Literacy in Theory and
  Practice. Cambridge University Press.
• Trudgill, P. (1975). Accent, dialect and the
  school. Hodder Arnold.
• Foucault on discourse, power and knowledge.
• Gramsci on hegemony.

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Contact us

• Pauline Moon
• p.moon_at_lsbu.ac.uk
• Helen Sunderland
• h.sunderland_at_lsbu.ac.uk