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K. Lynn Savage , City College of San Francisco (retired), trains teachers for adult education programs around the country. She chaired the committee that developed the ESL Model Standards for Adult Education Programs (California 1992) and is the author, co-author and editor of many ESL materials including Parenting for Academic Success: A Curriculum for Families Learning English, Crossroads Cafe, Building Life Skills, May I Help You?, Picture Stories, and English That Works. |
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VENTURES IN ADULT EDUCATION: Evolving Teaching Methodologies BACKGROUND: Approaches/Methodologies  Audio-Lingual Method (ALM) is an approach that focuses on accuracy, both for grammar and
for pronunciation. Teachers model the language and students practice by repeating the model
in a variety of drills.
Communicative competence impacted the language teaching field in the mid-seventies. It
emphasized the importance of being able to communicate and introduced the concept of register;
that is, messages are communicated differently depending on whom you are talking to (e.g., boss
or coworker) as well as your emotions when you are talking (e.g., angry or pleased).
Task-based learning (TBL) emphasizes what learners can do with the language, for example,
make a shopping list or describe a process such as making something. It does not require that
students work together.
The Freirean approach is named after a Brazilian educator who emphasized looking at learners
and their environment, then developing the learnersí skills in (1) analyzing a problem relevant
to their own lives, (2) identifying solutions and (3) acting. In adult education this may mean
identifying community issues and addressing them.
Competency-Based Education (CBE), or outcome-based learning, impacted adult education
in the mid- to late seventies and early eighties. It has resulted in incorporating life skills
contexts when teaching basic skills. The life skills that learners need are identified in order
to determine which basic skills are needed to accomplish those life skills.
Cooperative learning emerged in the mid eighties. It emphasizes activities in which learners
work together. It is especially important in work-related programs, as the SCANS (Secretary's
Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) report identifies working together as one skill
necessary for success in the work place.
Project-based learning (PBL) builds on cooperative learning, in that learners work together.
However, it applies only to cooperative work that produces a product.
CHALLENGES AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CLASSROOM MATERIALS Incorporating sufficient reading and writing materials so that they develop at the same rate
as the listening and speaking skills.
Recognizing that the building blocks -- grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary -- are a means
to an end, not an end in themselves.
Providing sufficient ALM type exercises so that adult learners develop confidence and become
willing to take risks.
Providing for development of grammatical structures, but emphasizing communicative competence.
Placing all activities within contexts that are meaningful to learners outside the classroom, including
the three major roles identified by Equipped for the Future (EFF): home, work and community.
Recognizing that NES and LES adults already have higher order thinking skills and providing
activities -- such as task-based, problem solving and problem posing -- that allow learners
to use those skills.
Providing activities that require cooperation with classmates, so that learners develop the
English language skills needed when interacting with colleagues (and identified in the report
for the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS).
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REFERENCES Bowen, Tim. Task-Based Learning (n.d.). Retrieved on 3/14/05 from
Buck Institute for Education. Project Based Learning Handbook (1002). Retrieved on 3/14/05 from
Celce-Murcia, Marianne. Teaching English as Second or Foreign Language, 3rd edition
Holt, Daniel D. Cooperative Learning: A Response to Linguistic and Cultural Diversity
LinguaLinks Library. The Audio-Lingual Method (1999). Retrieved 3/14/05 from
Littlwood, William. Communicative Language Teaching: an introduction. Melbourne, Australia:
Savage, K. Lynn Literacy Through a Competency-Based Education Approach in Crandall,
Spener, David. The Freirean Approach to Adult Literacy Education (n.d.). Retrieved 3/14/05 from
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Ventures Community
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