From Dependence to Independence: Culture Isn't Just About International Night

Teaching is listening.  Learning is speaking.  It's a paraphrase from my thick mental file labeled, Profound Things Debbie Meier Wrote.  In some iconic sense, teaching might seem to value what teachers have to tell and give.  For teaching adults, at least, I'd say it's more about learning how to ask and request. 

Last week I discussed how to help ESOL students move from dependence to independence through language acquisition.  What about culture?  It's not just about throwing an international night where everyone noshes on food from five continents.  You can help your students become more interdependent and independent by empowering them in the classroom.  Here's how:

• Buy-in about class norms:  Earlier I've made the case for infusing even adult classes with lessons on skills and behaviors to help students become better ... students.  Building efficiencies and norms in the classroom are part of that.  Smoother procedures and more minutes on task help everyone learn--not just kids.  But with adults, their buy-in must be part of the process.  So when you're setting up your class procedures, ask the class for input and use their ideas.  One example: Class Constitutions.  At the start of each course, I'd lay out a few things I needed from students (punctuality, 100 percent English use, and so on).  Then I'd ask for their rules.  I'd show them an exemplar constitution from a previous course.  I'd provide a few categories: How students help themselves learn.  How students help others learn.  How to organize materials on the desks.  I'd give my students 15-20 minutes to write their own rules.  We'd post them--and follow them.  Students became responsible for motivating (and sometimes policing!) each other.

• Buy-in about what to study: Ask your adults what they'd like to learn.  The answers may surprise you.  Here are some that surprised me: How to speak English at the RMV.  How to understand street signs.  Integrate what students need for everyday life into class!  It doesn't need to derail accepted ideas about the sequence of English grammar to be learned.  But content is moldable--you can shape almost any topic to almost any grammar theme.  It doesn't need to derail the level of language you're teaching either: give beginners simple statements for the RMV registration desk, advanced students more complex conversations.  Student buy-in for curriculum can be taken much further, though.  For one course, I convened a "curriculum committee" of students to meet before class, multiple times, to brainstorm with me how to make the most of ongoing class activities and what new things to try.  ESOL students aren't preparing for some pre-ordained high-stakes test.  They're trying to get around America.  For the most part, they have a good pulse on what they need.  Listen--then use your language-teaching expertise to help them get there.

• Realia: Two days before you give a lesson on filling out hospital forms, should you make a stop at a nearby medical clinic to pick up forms?  No need.  Assign students the homework of going and getting realia on their own.  Invariably this technique yields an interesting range of items that reflects where students actually go and what they actually need help with.  For instance, before a lesson on how to navigate the RMV, a student handed me an impenetrable accident report form.  We don't know how to fill this out.  Duh.  And I thought they just wanted to renew their licenses.  Show students an example of what you're looking for before they go find it.  And as I learned the hard way: make sure one student doesn't go get a form and photocopy it for the others!

• Students as each others' resources: So many of my students came from communities beset by violence, anonymity, and lack of social connections.  Many of them had strong family networks--but did they know their neighbors?  Visit their local community centers?  That was unclear.  As much as possible, I encouraged them to become their own network of support and resources.  Did I tell them about upcoming immigrant events and parenting workshops?  Yes.  But I also got them sharing.  One example: as my students prepared to leave my program and enroll in a higher-level English class, I had them go through a sequence of lessons on finding their "next step."  I provided materials so they could research other English programs.  I gave them very structured forms in which to write down addresses, phone numbers, and possible questions to ask a program when you called (is there a cost?  when are classes?).  For homework, I had them make calls.  A few days later, I'd have them share what they had learned with fellow students.  I called program X, and they have spaces.  Here's the number.  At this point, they were doing the hard work, and I was just facilitating it.   

These are some ideas--I'd love to hear more.  A few final points: all of these areas to develop student interdependence and independence are purposeful.  The actual structure of teaching language--from comprehensible input to student practice to performance and assessment--need not change.  You aren't handing over the keys to language skills delivery.  You're just finding areas to empower student voices and experiences and making the most of them.  These techniques are also modeled, guided, and scaffolded.  If I had said to my students only, "Write a class constitution," the activity might have taken twice as long, confused half the students, and yielded ten different ways of saying "listen to the teacher, dammit!" 

There's always a time to provide a resource or a piece of advice.  There's always a time to stand in front of the class and lead a listening lesson.  But find the right spots to ask and request, not just tell and give, and your students will get a lot more from the class, from each other, and from themselves.