1. ESOL in Adult Education Academic Session: Perspectives on the Adult Immigrant Experience Today Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Convention March 16, 2006 (8:30am – 11:15am) Research on Adult Immigrants Learning English: Issues, Examples, and Needs Miriam Burt Center for Adult English Language Acquisition

2. 1 Agenda Importance of Research What Constitutes Research Challenges with Research Selected Current Research Selected Agenda for Research References

3. 2 1. Why is research important? Practitioners want to know about their students and how to help them learn. Practitioners are asked to demonstrate that students are making gains in language proficiency. Practitioners are asked to demonstrate that they use evidence-based practice in their instruction.

4. 3 2. What is evidence-based instruction? “The integration of professional wisdom with the best available empirical evidence in making decisions about how to deliver instruction.” G. Whitehurst (Asst. Secretary of Education, Director of the Institute of Education Sciences). Available 3/08/06 at http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/whatworks/eb/edlit e-slide003.html

5. 4 3. What is professional wisdom? The judgment that individuals acquire through experience and consensus views of effective strategies and techniques to use in instruction. Professional wisdom can also be reflected in the effective identification and incorporation of local circumstances into instruction Available 3/8/06 at http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/whatworks/eb/edlit e-slide004.html http://www.ed.gov/nclb/methods/whatworks/eb/edlit e-slide004.html

6. 5 4. What is empirical evidence? Evidence that comes preferably from “scientifically based research,” defined in the no Child Left Behind Act as The application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs…uses experimental or quasi-experimental designs…with a preference for random assignment experiments… and has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts. (http://www.nps.k12.va.us/NCLB/NCLB_glossary.htm, http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg107.html)http://www.nps.k12.va.us/NCLB/NCLB_glossary.htm, http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/pg107.html

7. 6 5. What challenges are there with finding/doing scientifically-based research with adult English language learners:  Adult English language learners are not a captive audience – they move in and out of programs, don’t stay in programs for long  They often have few hours of instruction  Adults have many different goals and commitments on their time and attention  There is little funding for such research  Numbers in field not as large as with K-12 population  Reluctance of instructors to withhold intervention from students

8. 7 6. What other research can be consulted? Qualitative Research, Case studies Classroom-based research Ethnographic studies (community)

9. 8 7. What are some examples of current or recently completed research?

10. 9 What Works Study Who: 500 literacy students without strong literacy skills in native language without strong English skills new to English

11. 10 Key Findings Students learn more when: Make connection from life in classroom and life outside Judicious use of the native language Build on what students are interested in Lots of interaction, but some routine From: What works for Adult ESL Students: A Conversation with FOB http://www.ncsall.net/?id=771&pid=189 http://www.ncsall.net/?id=771&pid=189

12. 11 The Adult ESL Explicit Literacy Impact Study: Test the impact of a curriculum-based explicit literacy intervention for low-literacy adult ESL learners

13. 12 Explicit literacy intervention: developing bottom-up processing skills explicitly teaching (deliberately, planned, systematically)

14. 13 skills to develop: alphabetics (phonemic awareness, phonics, print concept) word attack, analysis and pronunciation spelling fluency vocabulary text comprehension skills

15. 14 Questions:  How effective is explicit literacy intervention in improving reading writing, and speaking skills of low-literate English language learners?  Does it have different effects on subgroups?  How well do instructors implement the intervention, and how does this affect learning?

16. 15 Experimental design 10 adult ESL programs with teachers and students randomly assigned 40 teachers 1,800 beginning literacy students 16 weeks/60 hours of instruction http://www.air.org/news/documents/AERA2005%20 ESL.pdf

17. 16 Evaluation: Reading, speaking, and writing Optional one-year follow-up

18. 17 National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) research The Lab School at Portland State University (PSU) Collaboration: Portland (OR) Community College and researchers at PSU Focus of Research: How beginning-level adult ESL students acquire English as a second language.

19. 18 Studies:  Dyadic Interaction (student pair work): focuses on promotion of student-student interaction in adult ESL classroom and how it is influenced by instruction and effect of teacher presence  Longitudinal Studies: focuses on second language development over time for beginning level adult ESL students (Reder, 2005)

20. 19 Research Needs: Individual differences in adult learners and their impact on learning, English language acquisition, and making gains that can be documented (e.g., education, first language literacy, age). This would include segmenting and describing the population of adult English learners into subpopulations that are relevant for program delivery. Then determining whether and in what ways instruction needs to be different for each sub-population, what instructional strategies work best with which populations, and in what ways instruction can be standardized across populations. Populations will include Late–entry students who come to the United States at ages 14 or 15 without English and without much education -- educational options,gains made

21. 20 Learners who have advanced listening and speaking skills but lag behind in their reading and writing skills and need to make the transition from ESL to ABE; The role and value of native language instruction in English language learning and other learner gains Patterns of second language acquisition in adults; how knowledge we have from SLA research applies to work with adults

22. 21 The role and effectiveness of technology in facilitating the acquisition of English and other skills that adult English learners need. Should we put resources into developing online and other technology-based learning opportunities? What types of learners are successful using technology to learning English and in what ways? What learner skills and technology offerings can we capitalize on? The role of adult participation in English language instruction on their children’s education and achievement Opportunities for adult learning outside of formal education programs -- options and models

23. 22 Teacher background and experience and its effect on learner development Teacher preparation and ongoing professional development - models

24. 23 References Cronen, S., Silver-Pacuilla, H., Condelli, L. (n.d.). Conducting large-scale research in adult ESL: Challenge and approaches for the explicit literacy impact study. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research. Available: www.air.org www.air.org Focus on Basics. (Volume 6, Issue C, September 2003). A Conversation with FOB...What works for adult ESL students. Available: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=189http://www.ncsall.net/?id=189 Reder, S. (2005). The Lab School. Focus on Basics, 8 (A), pp. 1-3. Available: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=987 http://www.ncsall.net/?id=987 Smith, C., Harris, K., & Reder, S. (2005). Applying research findings to instruction for adult English language students. http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/briefs/research.html http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/briefs/research.html

25. 24 Miriam Burt Center for Adult English Language Acquisition Center for Applied Linguistics miriam@cal.org