Hi, Barbara and all

I'm weaving in and out of the discussion so forgive me but here are my thoughts on VESL

Ah, yes - definitions. Trying to come up with a definition of VESL brings to mind the exchange between Humpty Dumpty and Alice in Wonderland
Humpty Dumpty: When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less.
Alice: The question is, whether you can make words mean so many different things.
Humpty Dumpty: The question is: which is to be master - that's all.

Through the years, I've seen VESL (Vocational English as a Second Language) defined in various ways, including the following

# 1. An ESL support class that is attached to a vocational or occupational skills class and where the ESL instructor and the vocational skills instructor coordinate to some extent. Quite often, the major burden is on the ESL instructor, and the vocational skills instructor may pass on vocabulary lists or lesson plans, but as a rule the occupational skills instructor does not change his/her curriculum or teaching approach very much.

# 2.  An integrated class where ESL and job skills are well coordinated and both the ESL teacher and the occupational skills instructor are expected to work closely together either in an I-BEST model where the classes are team taught or in a coordinated model where the classes are taught separately but the curriculum is jointly developed. This model is often called "embedded training" in the UK or in Australia or New Zealand,

# 3. An occupation or industry specific ESL class that serves as a bridge class to training - sometimes called "cluster VESL"

# 4. An employment general (or employment-oriented) class that teaches English for Work focusing on the kind of English communication and literacy skills that students are likely to need in any job (e.g., explaining a problem; understanding or giving instructions; dealing with difficult people, working in teams; dealing with forms; understanding how workplaces tend to work; advocating for self and others; etc. Such a class may or may not have an employability and career exploration component (as might the other models)

# 5. Any form of ESL taught in a workplace or union hall.
I tend to use definition (1) or (2) when talking about VESL but I increasingly hear employers refer to workplace ESL classes (# 5) as VESL classes

Heide

Heide Spruck Wrigley
Mesilla, NM



From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Barbara Tondre
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 8:29 AM
To: agallup at essentiallanguage.com; 'The Workplace Literacy Discussion List'
Subject: [Workplace 1536] VESL

Amber's use of the term VESL caught my attention.  Business and industry is beginning to use this term but I'm not sure what they mean by it.  Do we dare include defining this term in our discussion?

Barbara Tondre

________________________________
From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:workplace-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Amber Gallup
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 3:05 PM
To: The Workplace Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [Workplace 1531] Managing expectations

In response to Pat Sawyer's last message -

Several posters have alluded to the challenge of managing the client's expectations.  It's common to hear questions like that which Pat mentioned, "How many weeks is this going to take?"  I have found that it will take much more than one conversation before my clients really begin to understand  what I'm saying regarding the process and time commitment of language learning and the goals of the course (which we develop together as much as possible through the needs analysis process.)

I have found that the needs analysis itself is useful not only to identify students' and workplace needs, but also to bring out into the light of day the stakeholders' expectations....which are often unrealistic and/or conflicting with other stakeholders' expectations.  The needs analysis process provides an opportunity to do the very important work of getting all stakeholders on the same page...it's a little teachable moment.  If important stakeholders have different ideas of why we're doing this (say, union and management) and  how it will impact them....that can deal a death blow to a program!

I always use an example from a electricans' union for which I once put together a VESL program when I first began this work:  In the needs analysis, I did my language task analysis and I interviewed some workers, the union leaders, the apprentice coordinator, the organizer, and the contractor (the "big boss").  I felt good that this part of the needs analysis had been thorough and everybody shared an understanding of our goals.  Yet, by the end of the semester, the otherwise very successful class was almost done away with!....why?  Because the workers' foremen (who were not getting jobs finished on time because they lost some of their crew for a few hours each week) were angry and refusing to let their workers leave for the class.  I had neglected to make them part of the process, and their differing expectations and needs led to revolt.  We modified the course schedule and luckily continued on, but I learned some lessons about needs analysis.

Also, I liked Miriam's description of how she did her observations (language task analysis) BEFORE she interviewed the various stakeholders.  I'll be using that tip...it's a great idea - because it gives us more information on which to base our questions to stakeholders, and as Pat already mentioned, often the management (or HR, or union leader, etc.) will just say, "I want them to learn English," and not be able to go much farther than that.

Amber

Amber Gallup
Director, Essential Language
(202) 234-4565
www.essentiallanguage.com




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