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ESOLEFFECTIVE TEACHINGAND LEARNING

SUMMARY REPORT

Mike Baynham, Celia Roberts

Melanie Cooke, James Simpson, Katerina Ananiadou

John Callaghan, James McGoldrick and Catherine Wallace

ESOL Summary Report LIVE 20/1/07 17:17

Published by the National Research and

Development Centre for Adult Literacy and

Numeracy

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5 Introduction

6 The Effective Practice Studies

8 Main findings and recommendations

10 Background to the study

12 The learners

17 The teachers

21 The ten case studies

25 Conclusions and implications

29 References

ESOLSUMMARY REPORT

RESEARCH TEAM

Mike Baynham, Celia Roberts

Melanie Cooke, James Simpson, Katerina Ananiadou

John Callaghan, James McGoldrick and Catherine Wallace

SERIES EDITOR

John Vorhaus

EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING


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■ The Skills for Life Strategy in Englandhas led to unprecedented investment inadult literacy, language and numeracy(LLN), major reforms of teacher educationand training, and the introduction ofnational standards, core curricula andassessment to inform teaching andlearning. We have a unique opportunity tomake a step change in improving levels ofadult skills. But until recently too little wasknown about effective teaching andlearning practices, and reports from Ofstedand the Adult Learning Inspectoraterepeatedly drew attention to the quality ofteaching, and the need for standards toimprove.

It has been a strategic priority at theNational Research and DevelopmentCentre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy(NRDC) to investigate teaching andlearning practices in all the subject areasand settings in Skills for Life: to report onthe most promising and effective practices,and to provide teachers and trainers, alongwith policy-makers and researchers, withan unparalleled evidence base on which tobuild on the progress already made.

Our findings and recommendations arereported here, and in the four companionreports covering reading, writing,

numeracy and ICT. The five studies, whichhave been co-ordinated by NRDC AssociateDirector John Vorhaus, provide material forimproving the quality of teaching andlearning, and for informing developmentsin initial teacher education and continuingprofessional development (CPD). We arealso preparing a range of practitionerguides and development materials, as amajor new resource for teachers andteacher educators. They will explore anddevelop the examples of good andpromising practice documented in thesepages.

The dynamism and large-scale funding ofthe Skills for Life programme have enabledrapid growth of ESOL provision in England.Yet the demand for ESOL far outstripssupply in many regions. The country’sdemography is changing, partly as a resultof migration from EU accession countries,and with it the profile of ESOL learners.What remains constant in ESOLclassrooms is the wide range ofbackgrounds, life experiences and levels ofeducation of the learners. This researchsheds light on the challenges practitionersface and will help them improve teachingand learning.

Ursula Howard, Director, NRDC


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Introduction


■ The five NRDC Effective PracticeStudies explore teaching and learningin reading, writing, numeracy, ESOLand ICT, and they set out to answer twoquestions: • how can teaching, learning and

assessing literacy, numeracy, ESOLand ICT be improved?

• which factors contribute to successfullearning?

Even before NRDC was set up it wasapparent from reviews of the field thatthere was little reliable research-basedevidence to answer these questions.Various NRDC reviews showed thatprogress in amassing such evidence,though welcome where it wasoccurring, was slow. Four preliminarystudies on reading, writing, ESOL andICT were undertaken between 2002 and2004. However, we recognised theurgent need to build on these in ordergreatly to increase the research basefor the practice of teaching thesesubjects.

The inspiration for the design of thefive projects was a study in the UnitedStates of the teaching of literacy andEnglish language to adult learners forwhom English is an additionallanguage (Condelli et al., 2003). Thisstudy was the first of its kind, and thelead author, Larry Condelli, has actedas an expert adviser on all five NRDCprojects.

Our research began in July 2003 andwas completed in March 2006. We setout to recruit and gather informationon 500 learners in each study, assesstheir attainment at two points duringthe year in which they wereparticipating in the study, interviewboth learners and teachers, observethe strategies their teachers used, andcorrelate those strategies withchanges in the learners’ attainmentand attitudes. The ICT study differedfrom the others in that its first phasewas developmental, its sample sizewas smaller, and it had a shortertimescale, completing in March 2005.

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The Effective Practice Studies



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■ The ESOL Effective Practice Projectaimed to examine what factors impacton learners’ achievement and toestablish links between pedagogicalpractices and learners’ progress. Thestudy draws on observational data of 40classes that reflect the demographicdiversity of adult ESOL provision,including urban and rural, metropolitanand regional sites. These classesprovided an initial cohort of just over500 students.

Learners and their progress

• Virtually all learners made progress atthe levels researched (Entry 1, 2 and3). This progress is clear both fromtest scores and learner interviews.

• Most learners appear hungry for moreprovision, and more opportunities tolearn English outside the ESOLclassroom and for employment.Colleges could encourage learners tojoin other classes, make informallinks with other students and provideemployment advice and inter-agencysupport within mainstream provision.

• Teachers need more help and trainingto support traumatised refugees andasylum-seekers. Bilingualcounsellors could help in this respect.

• Relative newcomers have a differentprofile and rate of learning from long-term residents and this should be

taken into account in designingprovision. The newer arrivals,including asylum-seekers, needadequate provision now so that theydo not become the future long-termresidents facing more barriers tolearning. This would be an efficientuse of resources.

• Long-term residents also needappropriate provision, includingliteracy where necessary. For theselearners, ESOL classes are often theirfirst chance to learn English becausecommitments and constraints haveprevented them from doing so in thepast.

ESOL provision

• Classes held in community centres,often predominantly attended bylong-term residents, should be bettersupported, with improved facilities,more experienced teachers who canoffer specialist literacy teaching, anda greater range of provision. Collegescould strengthen links between off-site and main-site provision withvisits and exchanges. Better crèchefacilities on main sites would alsoenable learners to switch fromcommunity centres.

• The superdiversity of ESOL learners(Vertovec, 2006) cannot be fullycatered for by differentiation in the

Main findings and recommendations



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classroom alone. Pathways need tobe developed that cater forspecialisations, including more fast-tracking for those with skills, highquality careers advice and morespecialist literacy provision. Thesepathways are more specialised butshould not be shorter. They must beflexible enough to ensure that thelearning is not reductive, and torespond to changing ESOLpopulations. The pedagogicdistinction between English as aForeign Language and ESOL hasincreasingly less credibility.

Pedagogy and quality enhancement

• Talk is work in the ESOL classroomand these classes are largely madeup of talk. The effective practitionerhas to be flexible and needs to beable to turn talk into learning by on-the-spot analysis and responsivenessto learner talk. This requires athorough understanding of secondlanguage learning and pedagogy.

• There were significant correlationsbetween classroom strategiespromoting balance and variety andgains on learners’ test scores. Thisgroup of strategies can be seen ascore teaching approaches becausethey balance fluency and accuracywith a variety of activities andmaterials that engage learners.

• The case study teachers show thateffective ESOL practice involves high-level teacher strategies and qualities.They can plan on the spot and, like abricoleur1, can pull together whatever

is at hand to make the class work.These ‘bricoleur teachers’ areeclectic in using and designingmaterials and activities to be highlylearner responsive, and thiseclecticism is underpinned by theirclear professional vision.

• Teacher interview data suggest thatsome policy initiatives are not ESOL-friendly, and their implementationshows insufficient understanding oflanguage learning processes andlearner needs. In particular, a focuson individual learning can be at theexpense of group processes andclassroom talk and is extremelydifficult to negotiate with low-levellanguage learners.

Conclusion

There is no magic bullet for effectiveESOL practice. The major resource thatcan make or mar the most promisingmethodology or initiative is theexpertise and professionalism of ESOLteachers. This professionalism drawson both subject knowledge and subject-specific pedagogy and CPD thatencourages an interpretive andreflective stance on teaching andlearning. Initial teacher training andCPD need to reflect this by puttingteaching and learning processes at theheart of teacher education policydevelopment. More subject knowledgeand subject-specific pedagogy need tobe built into teacher training and morereflective practice built into CPD.

1 A ‘bricoleur’ is aFrench handymanwho uses whateveris at hand to do thejob. The term isused widely incultural studies toindicate a fusion ofdisparate ideas,materials ormethods.


Contexts of ESOL

The socio-economic and politicalcontexts of ESOL are complex, andimpact on all aspects of effectiveteaching and learning. Thesuperdiversity amongst migrantpopulations, caused by globalisation andmigration (both voluntary and forced),means that ESOL learners vary hugelyin terms of their immigration status,education, background and experiencesof war and other strife. For many,learning English is a matter of urgency.They recognise the need tocommunicate with local populations andare over-represented amongst theunemployed and low paid. However, thedemand for ESOL far outstrips supply inmany regions.

Scope and methodology

Although the first large study of its kindin England, this project still represents arelatively small group of learners andfocuses on spoken language. It cannot,therefore, encompass the wide varietyof ESOL learners and classes inEngland (and has not attempted to lookat the rest of the UK). The focus onspoken language means that key issuessuch as ESOL literacy and theexperience and progress of ESOLlearners on non-ESOL-designatedcourses have only been incidentallyaddressed.

Most classes on the project wereprovided by further education colleges,at their main sites or in communitycentres of various kinds. They sharedsimilarities in terms of thecharacteristics common to the FEsector as a whole, such as auditregimes and inspection standards.Where there were constraints of somekind in the centre, such as poorfacilities, the classes were more likely tobe mixed-level. Such constraints weremore likely to occur in communitycentres. Difficulties in these centresincluded: a perception of community-based provision as separate and ‘other’;poor student support; lack ofopportunities for student progression;and inadequate management structuresand support. While experienced tutorswould be better equipped to work insuch centres, given the teachingconditions and constraints, community-based tutors were often the mostinexperienced.

Classes were, on average, larger thanthose for literacy and numeracy andwere enormously varied in terms ofstudent background. It is very unlikelytherefore that a ‘one-size-fits-all’approach would be the key to effectivepractice. The extraordinaryheterogeneity of learners in the majorityof classes reflects the range of ESOL

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Background to the study


student backgrounds generally, andstems from a number of historical,political, social and economic factors.The implication for teachers is that theyhave to cater for large, heterogeneousclasses.

We observed and audio-recorded 40classes on three occasions acrossdiverse sites. All the classes were atEntry Level on the nationalqualifications framework, with 17 E1classes, 11 E2 classes, three E3 classes,and nine mixed-level classes. Theseclasses comprised an initial cohort of509 students, of whom 256 completedboth pre- and post-assessments usingan adapted version of the CambridgeKey English Test. Of these, 76 students,on average two from each class, were

interviewed using a bilingualmethodology. Ethnographic interviewswere also carried out with the 40teachers. As well as statistical analysis,preliminary analysis was carried out onthe 40 classes, combining quantitativeand qualitative data and ten casestudies were selected from these.

For a more detailed discussion of themethodology of the project and adescription of the observation toolsused, please refer to the researchreport on this study, also published inFebruary 2007, or the full report, whichis to be published on the NRDC websitewww.nrdc.org.uk. See also Roberts andBaynham, 2006.


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It is very unlikely thata ‘one-size-fits-all’approach would bethe key to effective

practice


■ The learners in the study are notablefor their diversity. As a group, theydisplay most of the features ofsuperdiversity. Some share a place ofbirth or first language, but there arehuge differences in terms of socialclass, previous education, level ofliteracy, gender, age, political andregional affiliation and immigrationstatus.

Countries of birth

The learners came from 58 countriesof birth, especially Pakistan, Somalia,Turkey and Bangladesh. The highnumber of people from Pakistanreflects the population in the Yorkshiretowns we researched. This picturewould be different in other parts ofEngland. In fact, it is notable that nosingle group dominated, because ofchanging immigration patterns, thepolicies of dispersal and ever-changingESOL classrooms.

Languages

The learners reported 50 ‘first’languages but the full picture oflanguage use is even more complexthan this figure suggests. For example,the entry for Kurdish includes thevarieties spoken in Turkey, Iraq andIran. Multilingualism and multi-literacyis taken for granted by many of ourinformants. A student from Angola, for

example, initially reported on hislearner information form that he spokeonly Portuguese but his interviewrevealed that he also uses French,Lingala and Kicongo.

Educational background and literacy

levels

The statistics indicate the amount ofschooling that learners received beforecoming to the UK but they do notenable us to compare the quality ortype of education. The average lengthof schooling was between eight andnine years but around 160 peoplereported less than eight, includingmore than 40 who went to school forless than four years. By contrast, 12per cent have had a universityeducation. Unsurprisingly, the picturein terms of literacy skills was alsomixed; over 10 per cent said they couldnot read and write in their firstlanguage.

Gender

Around 63 per cent of the learnerswere women. The availability ofchildcare was a prime concern forparents – usually mothers – who wereresponsible for young children andwished to study ESOL. Many womensaid they had been unable to attendclasses because they did not haveaccess to adequate and appropriate

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The learners


childcare during lesson time. Someinformants talked about not being ableto come to class when their childrenwere young: ‘Maybe if I had studiedwhen I arrived, if the kids hadn’t been solittle I would speak good English. Ialways liked studying, yes. It wasbecause of the kids.’(Ecuadorianwoman, London). This meant that theirlearning happened in a piecemeal wayover a longer period of time.

Migration and settlement

A central issue for ESOL is asylum.Several learners were waiting for adecision on their claims while theydealt with the aftermath of war andother strife. This combined stress islikely to have a detrimental effect onlearning (Murray, 2005; Pitt, 2005).Haxhi, an asylum-seeker from Kosovo,had been waiting for a decision on hisasylum claim for five years. Meanwhile,despite being a qualified plumber, hehad no right to work, could not choosewhere he lived and received a reducedlevel of state benefits. He had alsosuffered harassment from local people.All this was compounded by Haxhi’sfear that he might be deported, anunderstandable anxiety as twomembers of his class had their asylumapplications refused during the courseof this study (see Bloch and Shuster,2005):

‘I don’t know what is going to happen. Ihave a family here and I want a betterlife for them but it does not depend onme. Today I am here in college and atmidnight the police might knock on my

door and tell me to leave this countryand go back to Kosovo.’ (Haxhi, Bradford)

Employment

One of the most pressing motives forpeople to invest in learning English isemployment. In line with the averageage of current new migrants to the UK(Kyambi, 2005), most of the learners(just under 80 per cent) were below theage of 40 and therefore of primaryworking age. They had a wide range ofqualifications, skills, knowledge andprior experience and included skilledtradespeople and professionals, suchas doctors, teachers and accountants,as well as those with lower levels ofskills.

Unlike other Skills for Life learners,many ESOL learners are employedbelow their professional level and mayremain in this position for years. Manyof them appeared to know what theywanted to do in terms of work but hadno clear idea what might be required ofthem in the modern UK workplace. Ourinterview data suggest that generalESOL classes, although effective inthemselves, are at present unable tocater for all the complex needs ofpeople wishing to compete for jobs andtraining in the UK.

Speaking English

The classroom is the only place in mostlearners’ daily lives where theycommunicate in English; probably forthis reason they place a high value onspeaking in class. They tend to like


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small group and pair work becausethey can learn from and with eachother. As well as the cognitive benefitsof learning in a group, ESOL classesfulfil a very important social function;learners form friendships that extendoutside the classroom.

Many ESOL learners are marginalisedbecause of their status as ethnic andlinguistic minorities and/or becausethey are prohibited from employmentand full citizenship. Their lack ofaccess to the target language adds totheir difficulties. The learners gavevarious reasons why their access toEnglish speakers was so problematic,and why people might not acquireEnglish, even after long periods ofresidency in the UK:• Being employed in ethnic work units

or in jobs in which they only have tospeak their dominant language: ‘I hadworked in a take-away which is alsoowned by our people. There I could notspeak English which I think was a greatdisadvantage to me.’ (Pakistani man,Leeds).

• Working in a job where they do nothave to speak much at all in anylanguage: In housekeeping, it’s quiteboring: you come to work, take yourmops and go up to clean withoutseeing almost anyone.’ (Lithuanianhotel worker, London).

• Being unemployed: ‘Without working,I feel useless, not worth anything. I amdoing nothing but housework.’ (Turkishwoman, London).

• Having no contact at all withspeakers of English, because of

isolation or because of living in acommunity big enough to get all theirneeds met: ‘I do not use any English atall. I do not talk in English with mychildren because they do not like myEnglish. Maybe I say “Good morning” tomy neighbours. I do not use when I amshopping because I do my shoppingfrom Turkish shops.’ (Turkish woman,London).

• Local people are unfriendly,unavailable or unapproachable: ‘Idon’t avoid or do it on purpose; it is thatI don’t live around English speakers;there are no ways to mingle withpeople, you have to know them, mostpeople in this country are normallyconservative.’ (Somali woman,London).

Individualised learning, ‘needs’ and

differentiation

Colleges have various ways of dealingwith the issue of mixed levels and‘spiky profiles2’. Teachers are oftenexpected to show on their lesson plansthat they are ‘differentiating’ betweenlearners of different levels, and to caterfor each student’s needs through anindividual learning plan (ILP). Theseplans are intended to help learnersmeet their language learning goalsthrough a series of SMART3 targets.Coping with a high degree of diversityis part of the expertise of the skilledteacher and helps to make ESOL anenjoyable subject for many teachers.

However, the practice of relying onwithin-group differentiation, whichplaces the onus on teachers, might be

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2 Spiky profile is theterm used todescribe thedifferent levels inlistening, speaking,reading and writingthat one student mayhave. 3 SMART stands forspecific, measurable,achievable, realistic,time-related (fromwww.standards.dfes.gov.uk)


allowing planners to avoid looking atmore rigorous and effective ways ofcatering for learners’ different needs.The most obvious and seriouschallenge of the mixed-level class iswhen people with low levels of literacy,or none, are placed in classes withpeople who are literate. Many non-literate learners are still put in classeswithout literacy support, or without ateacher trained in literacy instruction,and spend years making little or noprogress.

Long-term residents

Several combinations of characteristicswere tested, including gender, age,employment status, ability to read orwrite in the first language, and years ofschooling to try to identify which ofthese made a difference to progress.The factor that was found to be mostsignificant was the length of timelearners had spent in the UK. Mostlearners in the study had been in theUK for between one and six years, themean average being just under fiveyears. However, the 103 long-termresidents (more than five years) hadmade less progress, according to thetest, than the more recent arrivals.

There are salient and statisticallysignificant differences between thesetwo groups. There were proportionallymore men and young students in therecently settled group. A higherproportion of long-term-residentlearners reported that they could notread or write in their first language.The groups also differed significantly in

terms of mean years of schoolingreported, with an average of 9.15 yearsfor the recently settled group and 7.13years for longer-term residents. Thelatter group were also significantlymore likely to be attending non-intensive courses of eight hours perweek or less. These differences pointto reasons why levels of progress varybetween the groups.

The implications are that both recentarrivals and long-term residents needto have their ESOL learning supported,but in different ways. A largeproportion of ESOL learners are recentarrivals making fast progress.Continued support in terms ofaccessible and appropriate ESOLprovision is needed if they are to learnenough English to progress into othereducation and training and intoemployment, with the attendant socialand economic benefits this mightbring. Long-term residents with littleschooling would benefit from literacyprovision tailored to meet their needs.Improvements in the facilities andquality of provision at communityvenues where a high proportion oflearners are long-term residents wouldalso be helpful.


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Work: people were able to

communicate with customers or talk

to their managers:

‘Before when [non-Chinese] customerscome I would say ”Just a minute” and runto my wife and tell her…but now I dare. Istand there and ask what he wants…blah blah.’(Chinese man, Leeds)

Training: some had been able to find

out what they needed to do to retrain

in their professions:

‘There is a course…they assess thebusiness that you want to start and soon, what you have to do, what tax youhave to pay, what type of business youwant, they orient you more or less.’(Colombian woman, London)

Dealing with health professionals,

bureaucrats and banks, thus no longer

needing the help of interpreters, which

many found uncomfortable and

intrusive, especially in health-care

settings:

‘If it something simple, I go alone. I go,I go alone and I say to the doctor whereit hurts, and for how long, yes, I defendmyself.’ (Ecuadorian woman, London)

Dealing with Home Office

communiqués and lawyers:

‘Whenever I received letters, I just tookthem to the [community] association andthey helped me do everything… I used togo there every day but now I don’t go thatoften.’(Chinese woman, Leeds)

Speaking to teachers at children’s

schools:

‘Often I didn’t go to meetings at school orI asked somebody else if they couldspeak for me. It is difficult when youcome here and don’t know how to speak.Now that I know a little it is good and Iam happy.’(Madeiran woman, London)

Making friends and participating in

local communities:

‘My neighbours are mainly Englishpeople. We go shopping together. I usemy husband’s car to drive them towholesale shops to buy cheaper things.’(Chinese woman, Leeds)

Communicating with their own

children:

‘Since I have learned English and I cantalk broken English, they sit and talk withme and look happy.’(Pakistani man, Bradford)

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Progress

Most of the learners articulated their sense of progress and achievement bydescribing situations that they could now cope with which had been impossible forthem before. This seemed to give a sense of confidence that motivated them tolearn more.


Facts and figures

The 40 teachers had a diverse range ofexperience and duties. Fifty-six percent of them were part-time, somebeing hourly-paid. On average, theyhad just over ten years’ teachingexperience, ranging from under a yearto 30 years. The average number ofyears that teachers had been at theircurrent institution was just over four,ranging from under a year to over 20.Over 70 per cent had completed theAdult ESOL Core Curriculum (AECC)training and 60 per cent hadundertaken other LLN training. Somehad spent a lot of time teachingEnglish overseas while others hadalways worked in a British ESOLsetting.

Significantly, over half of the teachersdid not have permanent and/or full-time contracts. This situation needs tobe addressed if the recommendedfurther professional development is tobe fully effective.

Changing contexts for ESOL teaching

and learning

The interviews showed a constanttension between teachers’understandings of their learners, onthe one hand, and their perceptions ofthe policy demands and audit culture ofFE and ESOL on the other. The

teachers reported an enormousincrease in paperwork – ILPs beingparticularly contentious. While theywere seen as a good idea by some,because they ensure learners get one-to-one attention in tutorial time,opposition centred on the amount ofextra work they involve and the factthat at lower levels they are verydifficult to implement, especially withstudents at Entry Levels 1 and 2. It wasalso clear that many teachers felt thatuse of ILPs was not consistent with thepredominance of group work in theESOL classroom.

ESOL teachers’ stance

We use the term ‘stance’ to refer tohow teachers position themselves inrelation to the policy context andinstitutional structures within whichthey work, as well as in relation to theirstudents, their teaching, and the ESOLprofession itself. The teachers in ourstudy adopted a range of stances inrelation to different aspects of thepolicy environment. They also took upvarying stances in relation to learners,teaching and learning and their senseof control in their working lives.

Stance is affected by life experiencesand formations, which varied widelyamongst the teachers. Salima’s lifestory shapes and informs the way she


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The teachers


approaches her work and responds tostudents, influencing and shaping her‘theory of practice’.

‘See, I look at my own experience … Istarted in primary school and workedmy way through. Now, I never workedbefore I was married because, youknow, women didn’t so much. Andalthough I had my education andeverything, it was never takenseriously. With the Asian culture,women are protected by parents first.Fathers then husbands. In a lot ofcultures, it happens. And you know he(her husband) was always promotinglearning. Everything he did he involvedme. Even if it was basic things such astaking out insurance for the house orwhatever. And I’m glad he did becausehe died at a very early stage of ourmarriage. Well, not very early but wewere only together about 15/16 years.And I had to pick up the pieces. Bothmy children were in private school.And I didn’t want to disrupt theireducation so I carried on with mywork. I had to cope with everything.Keep the children going. And I alwayssay to them “Well fine, you don’t wanta job now but you don’t know whatsituation you’re going to be in in thefuture”.’

Her whole pedagogical strategy isbased on alignment with her students.She sees herself as a role-model andbelieves her learners can do what shehas done.

Vanessa, a well-travelled teacher with

an EFL background working in Hull,uses an ‘ethnographic’ strategy oftrying to get inside students’ heads ‘Iended up imagining how people wouldfeel when they went along the street andcouldn’t read’. She worries aboutimposing her own perspective onstudents, but taking an ethnographicstance: ‘…opens up a whole new worldfor you’. Other teachers have a moreinstrumental stance towards thelearner: ‘I look at the class and I think “Ican teach you what you need to know”’(Carl, a teacher in Leeds). WhereVanessa’s approach is cautious andheuristic, Carl is more confident in hisprofessional ability to know better thanhis students.

Another aspect of a teacher’s stancerelates to the level of self-disclosureand personal narrative that they bringinto their teaching. Some, such as Carl,maintain a friendly distance from theirlearners, while Carol, a teacher inLondon, weaves in stories aboutherself, her childhood, her family andher personal life with those of herstudents, so there is very little divisionbetween them. Some teachers areopen about their lives and beliefs, andencourage their students to be thesame. Sarah talks about her politicalbeliefs in class and is happy for herstudents to do so too. Michael makes apoint each year of telling his class he isgay, partly because he expects them tobe open with him, and partly becausehe believes that they may not often getthe chance to meet gay people.

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Training

Professional training and teachingexperience are important influences.Many people with an EFL training havea strong linguistic and pedagogicbackground. Paul has an EFLbackground but also worked withhomeless people and so relates to hislearners’ disadvantages and needs,which informs his ESOL teaching.Newer teachers highly value thechance to learn from colleagues:Hema, a new teacher in Yorkshire,talked of benefiting very much frominformal observation, team teachingand borrowing ideas from colleagues.

A safe environment for learning

Each classroom creates its ownenvironment, partly based on theteachers’ stance, the range of students,the physical and other characteristicsof the setting and its wider socialenvironment. A common theme iscreating a safe environment forlearning, especially for those teachinglarge numbers of refugees andasylum-seekers. We recorded a lot ofcomments on the importance of thegroup ‘gelling’. This is true for anygroup of learners, but perhaps more sowith groups of people from very diversebackgrounds who may all havesuffered some level of trauma ordifficulty. We found a range ofcontrasting perspectives on how toengage with issues brought into theclassroom by students. Some teacherssee the life experiences of students asforming an essential part – perhaps theessential part – of the curriculum while

others prefer to leave studentexperiences and issues at theclassroom door and focus on languageas the organising principle of the ESOLclassroom, striving to create a safe andproductive space for learning.

Planning and sequencing

Approaches to planning andsequencing are strongly influenced bypolicy requirements. Other influencesare stance and professional life history,as well as materials and theories oflearning. Most teachers typically drawup a scheme of work, though hereagain practices differ. Sometimes theydo this before they meet the students(thus as a document primarily formanagers). Some are responsible fordoing this themselves and some use anin-house model. Some equate lessonplanning with what worksheets areavailable, others with the unit they areup to in the AECC Skills for Lifematerials. Some plan because they feelthey ought to, but make it clear thatthey can teach just as easily without aplan. Others only write a plan atinspection time, while some over-planbecause they lack experience orconfidence.

Martin, an experienced teacher, talkedof picking up topics and running withthem. He is an ‘improviser’, pragmaticabout starting lessons on time, andwas happy to be ‘…fielding people whenthey come in’. He was open to learnersand made use of their contributions.Jenny, a less experienced teacher,described herself as a planner,


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although she realised that this wasvery time-consuming: ‘I’m quitepedantic with the planning and I don’tthink it’s always a good thing.’ The resultwas highly structured teaching,although she wondered if she wouldeventually become more relaxed aboutit.

Methodologies and materials

The teachers commonly used aneclectic ‘bricolage’ approach tomaterials, adapting, picking-and-mixing and cutting and pasting andcreating their own. Some used EFLtextbooks to help them presentgrammar (seen as lacking in rigour inthe AECC Skills for Life materials),while being concerned about theirover-representation of people withmiddle-class lifestyles. The mostexperienced and effective teachersseemed to use what might be called a‘principled eclecticism’.

Professional vision

A consistent theme in this section hasbeen the professional expertise ofESOL teachers, ranging from therelatively inexperienced and novice,struggling to ‘get their balance’ in theclassroom, to highly qualified andexperienced practitioners. CharlesGoodwin (1994) talks usefully of‘professional vision’, describing howthrough participation:

‘…actors become competent members

of the group, and also acquire the

distinctive ways of seeing, the

professional vision, the stance toward

a consequential environment that

both defines membership in a group,

such as a profession, and

differentiates it from other groups.’

(Goodwin, 1994)

ESOL teachers with professional visionare reflective about their practices andwork in a responsive way. They areself-critical, resistant to demands thatundermine their professional practice,and confident in trying out potentiallyrisky activities in the classroom. They‘know’ their students and can ‘see’ howmaterials can be selected andexploited because they are confident inclassifying and highlighting a particularphenomenon or issue as it arises.Teachers with the clearest professionalvision are able to code, categorise andcritically highlight issues in a complexfield. The development of professionalvision seems to involve developinginsights that go beyond ‘the classroomscene’ into the college system andwider context in which ESOL teachingand learning are embedded. Learningthe practices that constituteprofessional vision takes time.Accordingly, professional vision ischaracteristic of the experienced,expert practitioner.

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■ This section, based on ten casestudies of classes, illustratesdimensions of effective practice thatshed light both on how expert teachersused particular strategies and whatother stances, or qualities, contributedto their effectiveness.

Effective classroom strategies

The case study classes were chosenpartly on the basis of quantitativeanalysis of the observation datacollected from the 40 classes. Duringthe classroom observations theresearchers described what theteachers did using three protocols:general teaching strategies, strategiesfor learner involvement and specificteaching strategies. Our mainquantitative criteria for judgingeffectiveness in ESOL teaching andlearning were high scores on the firsttwo of these scales.

There were modest but significantcorrelations between strategies

promoting balance and variety in theclassrooms and gains on learners’ testscores. This group of strategies can beseen as core teaching approachesbecause they balance fluency andaccuracy with a variety of activities andmaterials that engage learners. Theimportance of balance and variety isfurther evidenced in the finding thatlearners performed best on thegrammar and vocabulary sub-component of the test when they weretaught neither too much nor too little ofthem. It is possible both to overdo andunderdo the teaching of grammar andvocabulary. Of the four groups ofteaching strategies and learnerinvolvement strategies, those thatpromoted balance and variety andplanning and explicitness weresignificantly more in evidence thanthose promoting a collaborativelearning environment and connectingthe classroom with learners’ outsidelives.


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3

Ten classroom case studies

There were modest but significantcorrelations between strategies

promoting balance and variety inthe classrooms and gains on

learners’ test scores


As well as the quantitative analysis wealso considered qualitative data frominterpretive field notes and ‘telling’extracts from teacher and learnerinterviews. These analyses were usedin combination in the selection of theten case studies, a close interpretivereading of which produced theoverarching themes described below:

Balancing often conflicting demands

One frequently observed quality ofeffective practice was teachers’ abilityto juggle internal and external demandswith their own professional decisionson teaching and learning. Pressuresstemmed from learners’ oftenvulnerable situations and thefragmentation produced by fluctuatingattendance, late arrivals, interruptions,intrusions and urgent problems thathad to be dealt with as part of the class.Learners often had to be elsewhere, so,although attendance was high overall,teachers created continuity with anoften incomplete class, smoothlyintegrating latecomers andinterruptions into the flow of the lesson.The teachers managed difficult learningenvironments, such as classes havingno ‘home’ classroom, children in theclass because the crèche was full, and‘open-plan’ classrooms shared withanother class. Also, the extraordinaryheterogeneity of ESOL classes meantthat the teachers were juggling with thetask of class cohesion andgroup/individual differences.

Effective practice requires balancingthese conflicting demands and

maintaining pedagogic and emotionalcoherence in the class. This requiresqualities from teachers, not just goodteaching strategies.

Classroom ecology

Each classroom, and indeed eachsession, creates its own environmentand relationships – the classroomecology. Sometimes, the lessons werecharacterised by flexibility andresponsiveness in the moment-by-moment unfolding of the lesson. Atother times, lessons went to plan withfew digressions. Both types lead to highlevels of learner engagement. Teachersintegrated any learner-initiated topicsinto group learning and gave highlyplanned lessons an elasticity to respondto unexpected moments. Despite thefocus on individual learning from Skillsfor Life, the overriding orientation wastowards the group.

Learners’ voices and classroom talk

Talk was both the topic and theresource in the ESOL classroom.‘Speaking English’ was the goal, but theadults in the classroom were alsosocial actors struggling to get thingsdone and move on in terms of theirsocial world and work opportunities.So, classroom talk was not only aboutpractising and producing fluent andaccurate forms of English, but alsolearning about the social and pragmaticknowledge that would enable them touse the language in realcommunication.

Learners’ limited opportunities to

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speak English outside the classroommeant that it was important toencourage extended output. While role-plays and other structured contexts canprovide these opportunities, they wereoften observed as less effective thansupporting learners’ ‘speaking fromwithin’. These were times whenlearners had a (sometimes urgent)need to communicate: to deal withoutrage, frustrations or sadness; toexplain or ask for advice aboutunfamiliar or upsetting issues; or toargue their case in a personal matter orover more abstract and analyticalpoints. They had to assemble whateverresources they had to convey intent andwere pushed to extend theircommunicative ability in ways thatmore tightly controlled and lesspersonally engaging elements of thelesson were observed to do less often.

Planning, sequencing and continuity

Two types of planning widely used tomodel speech production in secondlanguage learning (van Lier, 1996; Yuanand Ellis, 2003), ‘strategic planning’ and‘online planning’, can also be appliedusefully to teachers. Although teachersare institutionally required andprofessionally motivated to planindividual lessons and schemes of work(strategic planning), the ability torespond to the new and unexpected inthe classroom in coherent andimmediately useful ways (onlineplanning) is equally important. Toachieve this teachers have to beconfident in their understanding oflanguage and pedagogy.

Much of the strategic planning ineffective ESOL practice mirrors currentthinking on connectionist accounts ofsecond-language learning (Ellis, 2002).Rather than the ‘building blocks’ or‘jigsaw puzzle’ approach to languagelearning, in which one block or piece isplaced after the other, languagedevelopment is the result of graduallybuilding up an elaborate network ofconnections. This is achieved throughthe ‘constant restructuring’ oflanguage. So repetition and recyclingover a considerable period is built intoteachers’ strategic planning. Cutting uplearning into short, bite-size modules,as required on some courses, shows nounderstanding of these secondlanguage-learning processes.

Planning was also evident in carefulsequencing and continuity acrosslessons, and in explicit links betweenlessons presented to learners bothorally and in materials. Goals wererevisited at the end of lessons. Giventhe inevitable fluctuation in attendance,these explicit recaps and links, forwardand back, were essential to maintain acohesive learning environment (as wellas meeting institutional requirements).They also acted as motivators andappetisers, encouraging students tofeel that they would be missingsomething if they did not attend. Withineach lesson, each activity was stronglyframed, with explicit goal-setting andstaging of activities.


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3


Materials, activities and

contextualisation

Language, even the most form-focuseddrill, cannot be learnt without a context.Even where a lesson was not organisedaround a large topic such as ‘health’,language work was contextualised.

All teachers used some of the AECCSkills for Life materials, although few ofthe case-study teachers used themextensively. Most were bricoleurs, usingand adapting various types of materials,including those they had producedthemselves, course books, realia4, themedia and the internet. All of thesewere used in creative ways, tuned to theparticular group and their interests.

EFL textbooks and other publishedmaterials were often mined for morelinguistic form practice throughactivities and games. Effective teachersused these strategically where thefaster pace, range of topics, challengeand ‘fun’ element suited the particulargroup. This raises questions about howfar ESOL pedagogy and materialsshould be seen as distinctive fromthose of EFL.

Another of the bricoleur teachers’ skillswas to use the shared experiences ofindividuals and learners as a group togenerate materials. Many of theactivities were learner-initiated or,where the topic was teacher-initiated,rapidly handed over to learners todevelop and comment on from theirown experiences.

Case-study teachers also used a lot ofrealia, such as media texts, particularlynewspapers and material downloadedfrom the internet, brochures, and audioand video recordings from the radio andTV. In this way, current topics anddebates could be aired and learnerswere also encouraged to use theEnglish-speaking media to developtheir skills outside the classroom.

‘Professional vision’

The professional ESOL teacher canhighlight and classify a particularelement of learner talk and turn it intoa learning point. Categorising andhighlighting are central to the ESOLteacher’s capacity to react to and workwith the mass of learner talk generatedin the classroom and turn it intolearning. The case-study teachers, whoworked with this learner-generated talkand who reflected on their practice,displayed professional vision, which setthem apart from apprentices. Thosewho were untrained or under-trained inteaching ESOL had learnt to managethe teaching and learning but had notyet developed a professional vision.

This vision is not only necessary for anyclassroom practitioner but also for anyevaluator/inspector of an ESOLclassroom, since so much classroomwork is concerned with the rapidresponse and classification of learnerlanguage into teachable and noticeablelearning moments.

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4 In education,'realia' are objectsfrom real life usedin classroominstruction. Thus toteach thevocabulary of food ateacher may bringreal foodstuffs intothe classroom.


The learners

1. The progress that the learnersmade (whether they were E1, E2 orE3) is clear both from test scoresand learner interviews.

2. The learners reflect the increasingsuperdiversity of British cities: interms of country of birth (58),languages (50); educationalbackground (12 per cent withuniversity qualifications, 10 per centilliterate in their expert language),employment experience and skills,and immigration status. Thecultural and linguistic landscape isconstantly changing; the profiles in2004, when fieldwork for the projectbegan, are different from those oftoday, particularly due to theaccession of new member states tothe EU. Broad categorisations oflearners do not easily account forthis degree of diversity and change.

3. There were also common factors:relative youth (over 80 per cent areunder the age of 40); constraintsbecause of lack of childcare; and,for many, the stresses of beingasylum-seekers, living with fear,uncertainty and recent trauma.

4. The average length of time in theUK was below five years, which

suggests that newcomers andrelative newcomers were keen tolearn English on arrival. But about20 per cent were long-termresidents, who had been preventedfrom learning earlier for family andwork reasons.

5. The interviews show that thelearners had complex, often difficultlives, yet they were highlymotivated, and most werefrustrated by the lack ofopportunities to use English outsidethe classroom. Accordingly, theywere very positive about grouplearning – the opportunities to talkin English that these offered, andthe social, communal nature ofESOL classrooms. This strongsocial function was a crucialelement in helping relativenewcomers to ‘belong’.Individualised learning in the formof ILPs was not mentioned asrelevant to their development asEnglish speakers.

6. Although many learners found‘survival English’ a good startingpoint, most got along well without itor wished to move on from simpledialogues about obtaining servicesor going shopping. They hadconsiderable experience,


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3

Conclusions and implications


knowledge, skills and social andcultural capital. They neededinteractional competence forobtaining (better) employment, andtechnical and academic literaciesfor further training, as well aslanguage for furthering personaldevelopment.

7. Learners’ different goals andbackgrounds suggest the need formore specialised teaching for somegroups, rather than assuming thatclassroom differentiation can dealwith ‘spiky profiles’.

8. The less time the students in ourstudy had been in the UK, thegreater progress they made. Therewas a significant difference in profilebetween the recently arrived group(up to five years) in our learnersample and the long-term residentgroup (more than five years) whowere older, had less schooling,lower literacy levels in their expertlanguage and were more likely to beattending less intensive courses.Any of these factors could contributetowards slower progress.

9. The majority of the learners wererelatively young and learned fast.This year’s keen new arrivals, if notoffered adequate provision, could bethe future’s long-term residentsfacing more barriers to learning andwould benefit from some of thefaster-paced approaches associatedwith EFL. This suggests that thepedagogic distinctions between EFL

and ESOL are now less relevant.Provision for long-term residents isalso essential. ESOL classes areoften the first chance to learnEnglish for people who have beenunable to do so in the past becauseof other commitments andconstraints.

ESOL provision

10. Most learners are hungry for moreopportunities to learn English in,and outside the ESOL classroom.Many are also hungry foremployment. Colleges couldencourage learners to join otherclasses, make informal links withother students and provideemployment advice and inter-agency support within mainstreamprovision.

11. ESOL classes are distinctive fromliteracy, numeracy and ICT classesin several ways: the focus on talk asan end as well as a means; thefocus on group processes; thediversity of the learners, who rangefrom those with no formaleducation to highly qualifiedprofessionals; the experiences ofthe learners, many of whom areliving with trauma and greatuncertainty about their life in theUK. All these have implications forthe learning structure, theinspection framework andmanagement of ESOL provision.

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12. Our learner interviews suggest thatteachers need more help to supporttraumatised refugees and asylum-seekers, including trainingthemselves and support frombilingual counsellors.

13. There are major differencesbetween main-site FE provision andcommunity centres. Goodcommunity provision does exist, andcommunity-based classes can bean invaluable stepping stone.However, they need to be bettersupported, with improved facilitiesand more experienced teacherswho can offer specialist teaching inliteracy. Colleges could strengthenlinks between off-site and main-siteprovision with visits and exchanges.Better crèche facilities on mainsites would enable learners toswitch from community centres.

Outside factors

14. The majority of teachers in ourstudy were critical of ILPs, believingthat the focus on individuallanguage learning goals can be atthe expense of group processes andclassroom interaction. Teachersconsidered that such strategiesshow insufficient understanding ofhow language is used and learntand are not suitable for Entry Levellearners (certainly at E1 and E2)because they cannot share ananalytic language with teachers innegotiating them.

15. More than half of the 40 ESOLteachers interviewed were part-time and often hourly-paid, with theconsequent insecurity this creates.Low status and insecurity can addto feelings of lack of control, which,combined with relativeinexperience, can undermineprofessionalism.

What ESOL classes look like

16. ESOL classrooms areextraordinarily heterogeneous andare largely made up of talk. As wellas being the main medium oflearning, talk is what is beinglearnt. Talk is work. Effectivepractitioners, therefore, have to beflexible. They must sustain learnerinvolvement by differentiatingthrough their own spoken languagechoices and on-the-spot analysisand responsiveness to learner talk.Turning talk into learning and(classroom) learning into talk (foroutside) requires a thoroughunderstanding of second languagelearning and pedagogy.

17. As well as the top-downrequirements that can affectclassroom environments, teachers’stance and, where it is articulated,‘professional vision’, are the mostimportant influences on teachers’effective practice. The teacherinterviews shed light on significantdifferences in stance: somerelatively engaged with learners,others more detached; some


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language-orientated, otherslifeworld-orientated. These differentstances can be equally effective,provided they are supported by aclear professional vision.

18. The difference between novice andexperienced ESOL teachers (in theirstance and practice) is crucial inunderstanding effective teachingand learning. From classobservations and teacherinterviews, it is clear that lessexperienced teachers are over-reliant on the core curriculum andits associated materials, and tend toteach scripted classes which arenot sufficiently attuned toclassroom diversity. They are fluentin the language of Skills for Lifepolicy, but cannot articulate a clearprofessional vision from which tomake professional decisions.

ESOL pedagogy and quality

19. Effective practice can be seen whenteachers are able to balance theconflicting demands, both externaland internal, arising from policy andmanagement requirements withlearners’ lives and goals. Managingthe potentially fragile classroomecology, where so many diversepeople are gathered together,requires exceptional and flexibleteacher qualities as well as soundteaching strategies.

20. Elements of effective ESOL practiceobserved include: • Clear planning, both strategic

and ‘online’ (ie responsive), andexplicit framing andmetalanguage.

• The bricoleur teacher, whocreatively and inventively and inprincipled ways assemblesmaterials and activities.

• Encouraging and supportingextended ‘talk from within’,combined with planned and on-the-spot, form-focused work.

• Collaborative group work wheredistributed knowledge ismanaged and exploited.

• Using the classroom as a placeto learn from and for the outsideworld, including languagesocialisation as well as languageacquisition.

• Constant re-visiting and re-working of linguistic items indifferent contexts.

• Safe and enjoyable learning.

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Bloch, A and L Schuster (2005). ‘At theextremes of exclusion: Deportation,detention and dispersal’ in Ethnic andRacial Studies 28:3, pp 491–512.

Condelli, L, H S Wrigley, K Yoon, MSeburn and S Cronen (2003). Whatworks study for adult ESL literacystudents. Washington, DC: USDepartment of Education.

Ellis, N C (2002). ‘Frequency effects inlanguage acquisition: A review withimplications for theories of implicit andexplicit language acquisition’ in Studiesin Second Language Acquisition 24, pp143–188.

Goodwin, C (1994). ‘Professional vision’in American Anthropologist 96:3, pp606–633.

Kyambi, S (2005). Beyond black andwhite: Mapping new immigrantcommunities. London: Institute ofPublic Policy Research.

Murray, D E (2005). ‘ESL in adulteducation’ in E Hinkel (ed) (2005),Handbook of research in secondlanguage teaching and learning. NewJersey: Erlbaum.

Pitt, K (2005). Debates in ESOL teachingand learning. London: Routledge.

van Lier, L (2001). ‘Constraints andresources in classroom talk: Issues ofequality and symmetry’ in C Candlinand N Mercer (eds) English languageteaching in its social context. London:Routledge.

Roberts C and Baynham M (eds.) (2006)‘Where talk is work: The socialcontexts of adult ESOL classrooms’.Special Issue Linguistics and Education17/1.

Vertovec, S (2006). The emergence ofsuper-diversity in Britain. WorkingPaper No 25. Centre on Migration,Policy and Society, University of Oxford.

Yuan, F and R Ellis (2003). ‘The effectsof pre-task planning and on-lineplanning on fluency, complexity andaccuracy in L2 and oral production’ inApplied Linguistics 24:1, pp 1–27.


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References


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