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Passage: A Journal of Refugee Education.Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, D.C.Department of State, Washington, DC. Bureau ofRefugee Programs.85/lp.Reports Descriptive (141) -- Guides Classroom Use- Guides (For Teachers) (052) -- Collected Works -General (020)Passage; vl n1 Win-Spr 1985

MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.*Acculturation; Classroom Techniques; CommunityServices; Cultural Education; Educational Strategies;Employment Potential; *English (Second Language);Language Teachers; Mental Health; Orientation;Perception; Program Descriptions; Pronunciation;*Refugees; *Second Language Instruction; *SecondLanguage Programs; Self Concept; Simulation

ABSTRACTThis inaugural issue of the journal concerning

eduCation programs for refugees in the United States contains 20articles dealing with teaching English as a second language (ESL) andcultural orientation. They include "The IESL/CO/PET Program" (AnneVorgan); "Studying Refugees' Languages: A New Approach in Stafiilevelopment" (John Duffy and Chad MacArthur); "As If a Bird" (PhamLoc); "The Medical Simulation: A'Confidence-Building Tool for RefugeeStudents" (Kathryn Munnell); "Conceptualizing Pre-EmploymentTraining" (Ann Dykstra); "A Hmong Soap Opera: The Invented Family asa Tool in Teaching Cultural Orientation" (Sally Quinn); "To CallYourself a Refugee" (Laurie Kuntz); "Picture Perception andInterpretation among Preliterate Adults" (Christina Hvitfeldt); "TheIntensive ESL/CO Program for Ethiopian Refugees" (Paula Kristofik andSteve Cook); "Scenes from Bataan" (Paul Tanedo); "Culture Quizzes:Training beyond the Curriculum" (Christina Herbert); "Teacher, It's,ice' to Meet You, Too" (Ruby Ibanez); "The MELT Project: A Link tothe Overseas Refugee Program" (Myrna Ann Adkins); "CulturalOrientation for Eastern European Refugees" (Katie Solon); "ICM's ESLProgram for Eastern European Refugees" (Roger West); "CommunityMental Health and Family Services" (Steven Muncy); "Silk Screening:Task-Based Learning in a Basic Job Skills Lesson" (Evelyn Mariman andKelly Stephens); "Refugees' Pronunciation of English--Can theClassroom Teacher Help?" (Douglas Gilzow); "How Not to Blow a Fluteinto a Buffalo's Ear" (Thelma Laguilles); and "A Quiet Revolution inLanguage Teaching at Bataan" (Robert Wachman). (MSE)

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The Intensive English as a Second Language, Cultural Orientation, and Pre-employmentTraining Program (TESL /CO /PET), which began in the fall of 1980, prepares refugees fromSoutheast Asia for life in the United States. The Bureau for Refugee Programs of the U.S.Department of State contracts with U.S.-based implementors for training three Southeast Asian

sites: Galang in Indonesia, Bt +awl in the Philippines, and Phanat Nikhom in Thailand. In addition,

the Bureau funds a Refugee Service Center in Manila. Implementors for the program are: aConsortium of Save 9.9 Children Federation and the Experiment in International Living in Galang;

the International CatholiL Migration Commission in Bataan; the Consortium of Save the Children

Federation, Experiment in International Living, and World Education in Phanat Nikhom; and the

Center for Applied Linguistics in Manila.

Although the training sites are located in different countries, with different physical surroundings,

and are operated by a number of different agencies, the essential program goals and specific curri-

culum objectives are consistent from one site to another. Instruction is provided for all refugees from

Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia ages 16-55. Students who enter the program with little prioreducation, no English la, guage ability, and little understanding of Western culture follow a course of

study which includes a minimum of 316 hours of English as a Second Language (ESL), 100-105 hours

of Cultural Orientation (CO), and 108 hours of Pre-employment Training (PET). Students with more

linguistic and cultural background are given 216 hours of ESL and 108 hours of CO. The Bureau for

Refugee Programs also funds a smaller-scale program of ESL and CO for Ethiopian refugees located

in the Sudan and a short CO program for Eastern European refugees departing for the U.S. fromAustria, Italy and Germany.

Teachers in the Southeast Asian Intensive Program are Indonesian, Filipino, and Thai host-country

nationals. Many are graduaies of teacher training colleges; all are very proficient in English. Most of

the supervisors, trainers, and curriculum developers in the program are American. All teachers are

given pre-service orientation and participate in ten hours of teacher training weekly.

Testing of a percentage of the students participating in the program shows that the refugees are

learning English language, cultural orientation, and pre-employment skills which will help them

toward self-sufficiency in the United States. Pilot projects test the efficacy of new materials and

teaching techniques in an effort to keep the program dynamic and able to meet effectively the needs

of refugees. At the end of FY 1984, 116,000 refugees had graduated from the State DepartmentlESL/CO/PET program. An estimated 30,000 more will receive training in 1985.

passagea journal of refugee education

Passage is a joint project of the agenciesimplementing the Intensive Englisl; as aSecond Language, Cultural Orientation,and Pre-employnivnt Training Program

Implementing Agencies

A Consortium: Experiment in Interna-tional Living, Save the Children Federa-tion

Galang, Indonesia

The International Catholic MigrationCommission

Bataan, Philippine&

The Consortium: Experiment in Interna-tional Living, Save the Children Feder-ation, World Education

Phanat Nikhom, Thailand

The Refugee Service Center, Center forApplied Linguistics

Manila, PhilippinesWashington, DC

Editorial Staff

Galang - David ArmstrongBataan - John DuffyPhanat Nikhom - Christina HerbertCAL Manila - Kathleen,Corey

- Douglas GilzowCAL D.C. - Donald A. Ranard

Passage has been developed and printedunder a cooperative agreement with the Bureaufor Refugee Programs of the U.S. Departmentof State. The material appearing herein doesnot necessarily represent the policy of thatagency, nor the endorsement of the FederalGovernment.

Passage is published three times a year anddistributed by the Center for Applied linguis-tics with offices located at 3520 Prospect St.,NAV., Washington, D.C. 20007 and TheVictoria Bldg., 8th Floor, 429 United NationsAve.. Ermita, Metro Manila, Philippines.

The contents of this publication are withinthe public domain and may be reproduced.

Passage is funded by the Buleau forRefugee Programs of the U.S. Depart-men'. of State.

Volume'', Number 1Winter/ Spring 1985

CONTENTS

FEATURES

The IESL/CO/PET Program by Ann Morgan 6

Studying Refugees' Lenguages: A New Approach in StaffDevelopment by John Duffy and Chad MacArthur 9

As if a Bird (Poem) by Pham Loc 12

The Medical Simulation: A Confidence- BLQding Toolfor Refugee Students by Kathryn Munnell 13

Conceptualizing Pre-Employment Training by Anne DyA stra 17

A Hmong Soap Opera: The Invented Family as a Toolin Teaching Cultural Orientation by Sally Quinn 23

To Call Yourself a Refugee (Poem) by Laurie Kuntz 26

Picture Perception and interpretation AmongPreliterate Adults by Christina Hvitfeldt 27

The intensive ESL/CO Program for Ethiopian Refugeesby Paula Kristofik and Steve Cook 31

Scenes from Bataan (Photo Essay) by Paul Tanedo. Center

Culture Quizzes: Training Beyond the Curriculumby Christina Herbert 13

Teacher, It's Nice to Meet You, Too by Ruby Ibanez 35

The MELT Project: A Link to the Overseas RefugeeProgram by Myrna Ann Adkins 36

Cultural Orientation for Eastern European Refugees by Katie Solon , 39

ICM'S ESL Program for Eastern European Ref ugeei by Roger West 40

Community Mental Health and Family Services by Steven Mune) 43

Silk Screening: Task-Based Learning In a Basic JobSkills Lesson by Evelyn Mariman and Kelly Stephens 46

Refugees' Pronunciation of English - Can the ClassroomTeacher Help? by Douglas Gilzow 51

How Not to Blow a Flute into a Butfelo's Ear by Thelma Laguilles 55

A Quiet Revolution in Language Teaching at Bataanby Robert Wachman 57

DEPARTMENTS

Editorial Statement 3

Letters 4

Update 5

ReviewsA Review by Jean Lewis of A Handbook for ESI. Literacy 60A Review by L. Robert Kohls of The American Way:An Introduction to American Culture 61

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Editorial Statement

Passage.' A Journal of Refugee Education is a publica-tion of the Intensive English as a Second Language /Cul-tural Orientation/ Pre-Employment-Training (1ESL/ CO/ PET) Program, supported by the Bureau for RefugeePrograms, U.S. Department of State. This publicationprovides an exchange of information .for those involved inrefugee education: the overseas program staffs and theservice providers in the U.S.

Passage succeeds the Resource Manuals which wereissued annually from 1981 to 1983. These manuals wereprimarily for the sharing of curricula, lesson plans, andteaching techniques between the overseas sites and withthe U.S. Because recent volumes of the Resource Manualswere especially thorough, program implementors felt thatthey now had a comprehensive resource for practicalteaching ideas. It was suggested that producing a profes-sional journal could be a means not only of sharingclassroom techniques, but also of exchanging informationand ideas on a wide range of topics related to refugeeeducation. During the four years of operation., theprogram staffs had developed a unique understanding ofrefugees' needs and how best to meet those needs. It wasfinally decided that there should be a journal of refugeeeducation to reflect this high degree of expertise. After aneditorial staff had been selected, a mewng was held inSeptember of 1984 ,to launch Passage: A Journal ofRefugee Education.

Each issue of Passage will contain theoretical articles

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related to refugee 'education, descriptions of relevantprojects and activities, and practical teaching and trainingarticles. In addition, reviews, letters, and informationupdates will'appear regularly. A few creative pieces may

ialso be included.The reader will note in Passage a variety of writing

sty:-s. This reflects the range of backgrounds of thewr;ters. These contributors, some of whom are non-nativeveakers of English, are all involved in refugee educa-ionan international, multicultural endeavor.

The variety of articles found in Passage is as diverse asthe fields of refugee education and the refugees them-selves. In a single issue, one article may be about anupper-level student v citing a detailed work history,another might describe a non-literate hilltribe refugeeholding a pencil for the first time. Contributions comefrom individuals in all three components of the IntensiveProgramESL, CO, and PETas well as from U.S.contributors. The articles are written for a wide range ofreadersfrom the volunteer ESL tutor in America to thesocial service professional in Southeast Asia.

We strongly encourage readers to contribute. A contri-bution could be a letter responding to an article or arequest for information about refugees or refugee pro-grams. Readers are also encouraged to contribute full-length articles and reviews. Passage: A Journal of RefugeeEducation aims to be a means of exchanging, and notmerely presenting, information.

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4 PASSAGE

Letters

From a public school ESL teacherin Richmond, Virginia:

As a public school ESL teacher, I am very interested inlearning about what kind of ESL training children underthe age of 16 receive in the refugee camps prior to theirarrival in the United States.

My school district has approximately 160 ESL stu-dents, K-I 2, most of whom come to us from the SoutheastAsian refugee camps. Many have little or no formaleducation, English, or computational skills. However, anumber of our students, while not formally educated,arrived with some English and math skills, which theypresumably learned in the camps. Not surpiisingly, thesestudents do significantly better than those who arrive withno previous instruction. These students, if young enough,will'be "mainstreamed" in a relatively short period of time.Unfortunately, they represent a minority of our ESLSoutheast Asian population.

We are currently redesigning our curriculum andtesting procedures to better serve the needs of ourstudents. Information concerning camp programs for theunder-I6-year-old population would be a great help toour efforts. Specifically, the following questions come tomind:

What is the length of the instructional program?What types of tests are used?What are the backgrounds of the teachers?What instructional materials are used?Is there any bilingual instruction?Is any math instruction included?

Thank you for any information you can provide.

Sincerely,Betty MarinerESL teacherChesterfield County Public SchoolsRichmond, Virginia

Editor's Reply:

There is no uniform program for refugees under 16 inthe three refugee processing centers in Southeast Asia.However, a pilot program for junior high- and highschool-bound students is now underway in the IntensiveProgram. Fufure issues of Passage will report on devel-opments in this area. Below is a brief description of theprograms which are now offered at each site.

Bataan

World Relief offers English as a Second Language(ESL) and Cultural Orientation (CO) classes to allchildren ages 7-15 in the Philippine Refugee ProcessingCenter. Classes are 14 weeks. All children are pretestedand then grouped for classes according to ESL level, age,and ethnic group. At the end of the I4-week cycle, or term,each student is tested again using the same test todetermine student progress. The ESL teachers have avariety of backgrounds. All are native English speakersand have undergraduate degrees, but some of the degreesare in fields other than education. The resources availableto the teachers include commercial ESL textbooks suchas The New Arrival, Side by Side, and Jazz Chants, aswell as materials; such as In Sight, developed for use in theIntensive Program. Necessary classroom supplies areprovided for each student, and teachers have access to avariety of visual aids. Teachers of lower-level classes areable to use English-proficient refugees as assistant teach-ers to explain concepts in cultural orientation and to helpclear up misunderstandings. The entire focus of thisprogram is on developing students' English languageskills. Other subjects are not taught, although teachers dointroduce vocabulary that might be used in a math orscience class, for example.

Galang

The educational needs of the under-16 population atthe Galang Refugee Processing Center are served throughthe United Nations High Commissioner for Refugeesgeneral educational program. General education provideselementary and junior high education for 6- to 15-year-olds. This schooling is compulsory for unaccompaniedminors and strongly recommended, but not mandatory,for accompanied minors. Teachers and administrativestaff are recruited from the refugee population. Many areformer teachers, all are well-educated, and ali must passan English proficiency exam. To meet the needs of atransient population, the instructional program operateson 7- or 10-week-long terms. The junior high curriculumconsists of English, Vietnamese, math, physics, andhistory, all contirgent upon the availability of suitableinstructors. Instruction is bilingual with an emphasis onEnglish. Students attend classes 4 hours a day. Textbooks(in English) are available as resources only for teachersand are used in planning specific course objectives.

Handouts and worksheets developed by the teachers areused extensively. The program administers a publiclibrary and listening center, which is open to all refugees.

Phanat Nikhom

There are two programs at Phanat Nikhom servingstudents between the ages of 6 and 16. These programs areadministered by Save the Children Federation ( SCF) andCOERR (Catholic Office for Emergency Relief of Re-fugees). The SCF program is not compulsory and is opento students going to any third country. The program isdesigned for students aged 6 to 12. The ethnic groupsinclude Cambodian, Lao, and Hmong, with the classesdivided by nationality the subjects taught include math,science (with an emohasis on health), native language(Lao and Khmer), and English. The Welcome to Englishseries is used in the English classes; other classes use texts

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written in the native languages for grades one to seven.COERR runs an English as a Second Language

program with 3-m^nth terms. A refugee can continue toenroll cycle after cycle. Students are tested and placed intoa class at the appropriate English proficiency level and canattend one or more of the one-hour class sessions daily.Students are generally 16 years or older, but because of alack of programs for people under 16, COERR hasrecently reduced the minimum age to 14., Because of theprogram's small budget in proportion to the size of thestudent body, textbooks cannot be provided for students.Teachers rely on instructional aids such as flashcards,dialogue grids, and games. As in the SCF program,teachers in this program are bilingual refugees and aregiven thorough training by educators from the UnitedStates and Australia. Also like the SCF program, noregular evaluation of student progress occurs since studentturnover is high.

Update

Roger Harmon

11,

Regional Consultant, intergovernmental Committee on Migration

In each issue of Passage this section will describe newinitiatives in the refugee program, and program directionsfor the coming months. In the fiscal year (FY) 1985 (Oct.I, 1984 - Sept. 1985), implementors will be emphasizingprogram improvement in the following three way:3: ( 1 )Continuing examination of program design and contentto insure a cost-effective program of high quality; (2)Improving staff performance and accountability; and (3)Promoting more effective communication of ideas andinnovations among field implementors and between thefield and the U.S.

In FY '84, refinements were made in the English as aSecond Language (ESL), Cultural Orientation (CO), andPre-Employment Training (PET) components, both incontent and in teaching methodology. In FY '85, this willcontinue and will include a more detailed look at the needsof C-D-f-level students, Orderly Departure Program(ODP) students, and adolescents. In addition, emphasis

will be placed on interrelating the instruction of the ESL.CO, and Pre-Employment components.

Training American ai:d host country staff aid refugeeaides continues to be a major task in the program in 1985.Each of the site implementors has developed plans fornew staff training and evaluation, which will be imple-mented this year. The roles of supervisors will be fullyreviewed during the year. In the evaluation of studentlearning, formative testing will be emphasized and re-gional summative testing will be reduceo to twice a year inFY '85.

Passage is one example of the third area of emphasissharing ideas and irnovations. Another activity in thisarea will be the oe, asional staff exchanges among thePhilippine, Thai, and Indonesian programs. In addition,there will he a number of consultancies and severalregional task force meetings. Further information aboutthese will be included in the next issue of Passage.

6,, PASSAGE

The !ESL/CO/PET Program: An Ovetview

Ann MorganChief of the Office of Training, Bureau for Refugee Programs,U.S.caepartment of State

In the fall of 1980, the Bureau for Refugee Programs ofthe U.S. Department of State launched what has becomethe largest residential language and cultural orientationtraining program in the world. The Intensive English as aSecond Language, Cultural Orientation, and Pre-Em-

,v ployment Training program (I ES L/ CO/ PET) preparesSoutheast Asian refugees for successful resettlement andself-sufficiency in their new communities in the UnitedStates. By the end of 1984, the program, which providesinstruction to refugees ages 16-55 from Vietnam, Laos,and Cambodia, had graduated 116,000 students, withanother 30,000 slated for graduation in 1985.

There are currently three sites for the 1ESL/ CO/ PETPrOgram. In Indonesia, the program operates on Galang,a small island approximately four hours by boat southeastof Singapore. The Galang Refugee Processing Center isthe most isolated of the training sites. Refugees are housedin long wooden barracks and attend classes in cementblock school buildings. About 7,000 refugees per yearare trained on Galang. The program is implemented by aconsortium of Save the Children Fe ration and theExperiment in International living.

In the Philippines, training is provided at the PhilippineRefugee Processing Center, which is located on a ridgeoverlooking the South China Sea on the western side ofthe Bataan peninsula, about four hones driving time fromManila. It is the largest of the training sites; som: 17,000refugees are housed at the center at any given time, livingin ten neighborhoods that stretch along the four-kilometerridge. The program implementor in the Philippines is theInternational Catholic Migration Commission.

In Thailand, training takes place at the Phanat NikhomRefugee Center, which is located approximately 120kilometers southeast of Bangkok. The camp is located ona highway outside the town of Phanat Nikhom, a smallThai farming community. Refugee housing and class.rooms are constructed of bamboo or asbestos-board withtin roofs. The program implementor there is the Con-sortium of Save the Children Federation, the Experimentin International I .iving, and World EducatHn.

In addition, the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL)operates a Refugee Service Center in Manila, providingthe programs with testing and technical and logistical

support. CAL also operates a liaison office in Wash-ington, D.C., with responsibility for facilitating linkagesbetween the overseas programs and refugee training andservice institutions in the United States.

When the program began in 1980, intensive trajpingwas provided at three other sites: Ban Vinai and NongKhai in Thailand, and in Hong Kong. These programswere closed by the spring of 1982 as the numbers ofstudents decreased. Implementing agencies involved inthese programs were respectively: The Consortium, Prag-matics International, and Lutheran Immigration and,Refugee Service/ American Council for Nationalities Ser-vice. As the need arose, a smaller ESL and CO programfor Ethiopian refugees was implemented in the summer of1982 by the International Catholic Migration Commis-sion in the Sudan, and a short Cultural Orientationprogram located in Austria, Italy, and Germany wasestablished for Eastern European refugees in 1984 by theInternational Committee on Migration.

Test results . . show that studentsare making significant gains.

Although the training sites in Southeast Asia arelocated in different countries with different physicalenvironments and are operated by a number of differentagencies, the program specifications, essential programgoals, and curriculum objectives are consistent from onesite to another. Choice of core materials, curricula, andother program specifications are a joint effort of all theimplementing agencies, past and present.

Program Specifications

At each site, all potential students are given a shrt,standardized placement' test before assignment to one offive class levels, designated A-.E. Students placed in theA-level are not literate in any language, and have nofacility in English. Students who have some literacyability in their native language, but no English, are placedin B-level. Students. who are literate and know some

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English are placed in C-level while levels D and E are forstudents with greater facility in English.. If students testabove fevel E, they are exempt from ESL classes but arerequired to take CO. (These students often work astranslators and Assistant Teachers.) An entering cohortof students, known as a cycle, is usually composed ofstudents at all levels, and often contains more than oneethnic group. All A- and B-level students follow a courseof study, or one cycle, for approximately 20 weeks. Thiscourse includes a minimum of 316 contact hours of ESLinstruction, 100-105 hours of CO, and 108 hours of PET.All other studeats study for 14 weeks, taking 216 hours ofESL and 108 hours of CO. ESL and PET class size islimited to a maximum of 20 students; CO classes have amaximum of 40 students. Classes for A- and B-levelstudents are usually considerably smaller. If a family hasmembers in .0qth the 14 and 20 week programs, alanguage maintenance course is given to the C, D, and Estudents while they wait for their A and B familymembers to finish their studies.

Teachers in the IESL/ CO/ PET program are Indo-nesian, Filipino, and Thai host country nationals. Manyare graduates of teacher training colleges; all are Veryproficient in English. All teachers participate in up tothree weeks of pre-service orientation, training, andpractice teaching before receiving their class assignments.They also participate in a mandatory ten hours of in-service training weekly, including workshops on teachingtechniques, curriculum/ materials development, andfin:illative testing, as well as information sessions aboutlife in the U.S.

Teacher training, supervision, and curriculum devel-opment are provided by a staff of Americans and somehost-country nationals. All are selected for their positionsbased on their teaching and training experience andprevious work in other cultures and with refugees orsimilar populations. In addition to presenting work-shops, supervisors work with teachers on a group andindividual basis, providing support with lesson planning,monitoring teachers' classes and' offering feedback, andproviding periodic evaluation of teacher performance.

Curricula

The curricula, as afire .J upon, are competency-based,focusing on linguistic, cultural, and employment tasksrefugees will need to perform upon arrival in the U.S. In acompetency-based curriculum, tasks are discrete andmeasurable, giving immediate feedback to the student.

For ESL, competency topics include housing, clothing,food, health, transportation, employment, banking, andpost office. Under each of these topics the curriculumspecifies behavioral objective::. For example, the topic

t'-"Health" includes objectives that students will be able torequest medical assistance, explain health problems, andfollow instructions about treatment. ESL instruction

Morgan/ An Overview 7

emphasizes listening and speaking practice aimed atdeveloping students' abilities to communicate in Englishin the variety of community, work, and social settings theywill encounter upon resettlement in the U.S. In addition,the broad goal in ESL is not only to develop,basic survivalproficiency in English, but also to develop the refugees'confidence in their own ability to learn and use English.

The CO component is designed to provide refugeeswith information about the United States and help themdevelop problem-solving and decision-making skills andstrategies for coping with life in a new culture. CO isprovided largely in the refugees' native languages throughthe use of bilingual refugee assistant teachers. Topic areasin CO include: timejnanagement, communicatim'hous-ing, consumerism and financ.., community services, healthand sanitation, social roles, resettlement, and sponsorship.Like ESL instruction, CO also competency- based, withspecific behavioral and educational objectives. For ex-ample, the topic of time management includes demon-strating ,that one understands the importance of punc-tuality, using a calendar, and making, keeping, andbreaking appointments. In CO, special emphasis is placedon topics which U.S. resettlement professionals have

Methodology for ESL, CO, and PET iseclectic. A ny and all methods foundappropriate to the needs of the refugeestudents are used in the program.

suggested require top priority in the instructional pro-gram, such as the importance of self-sufficiency, indepen-dence, and taking initiative.

While employment topics in the regular ESL and COcurricula focus on aspects of getting a job, such as lookingfor work, filling out forms, and interviewing, the PETcomponent emphasizes' skills needed to keep a job. Theoverall goals of this most recent addition to the trainingprogram are to enable refugees to communicate and tofunction more effectively on the job, to understand theexpectation and behavior of employers and co-workers,and to be able to learn from on-the-job training. Ratherthan providing training in a specific job, these goals areaimed toward enhancing the employability and train-ability of refugees in whatever entry-level position theyobtain. The Vocational ESL (VESL) section of the PETcurriculum focuses on language functions such as clarifi-cation, feed jack, giving and following directions, request-ing and providing assistance, and social interaction. Thecultural orientation part of PET emphasizes attitudes andbehaviors required for successful adjustment to U.S. workettirgs, such as the importance of speaking up when aninstruction is not understood, the necessity to informemployers of unavoidable lateness or absence, followingsafety rules, observing company policies, and getting

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8 PASSAGEse,

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along with co-workers. A basic skills component of PETincludes cognitive and computational skills such asunderstanding letter and number codes and basic mea-surements, following diagrams and patterns, and accom-plishing a task in a prescribed order.

Methods and Techniques

Methodology for ESL, CO; and PET is eclectic.. Anyand all methods founki appropriate to the needs of therefugee students are used in the program. As much aspossible, the refugees' own experiences and cultures arewoven into the teaching to bridge the gap between theirformer environment and that of the U.S. In ESL and PETthere is an emphasis on the use of simulations of commonU.S. settings such as the supermarket, medical clinic, orworkplace, and in CO, these are contrasted with settingsin their native countries. Information is imparted andlanguage is practiced, but attitudes and behavioral expec-tations are also emphasized.in the program. For example,in the PET component, teachers try to establish anemployer-employee or supervisor-employee relationshipwith their students. They simulate on-the-job environ-ments, complete with time clocks, sign-in sheets, as-sembly-line tasks, and breaks. Students are expected tolisten to and speak En,lish, and in general exhibitbehavior expected in an American work environment.

Testing

Pre- and post-testing in ESL, CO, and PET takes placetwo to three times a year at each camp. A series ofspecially developed valid and yelioble tests are admin-istered to a ten-percent sample of a given cycle to measuregain from the beginning to the end of the program. Testresults gathered over the last two years show that studentsare making significant gains. This is true at all of the sites,for ESL, CO, and PET, and for all ethnic groups at allinstructional levels. In addition, an independent study ofthe effect of pre-entry training on the resettlement ofIndochinese refugees conducted by the RMC ResearchCorporation concludes that the IESL / CO/ PET programis very effective. The RMC report states: "This studyconfirms that they [pre-entry training programs] areachieving their goals, and, in the areas of English languagetraining, are far exceeding what even the most optimisticadvocate of pre-entry training could have predicted.Based on the findings of this study, it is the opinion of theresearchers that ESL/ CO training is essential to theeffective resettlement of Indochinese refugees and shouldcontinue to be funded at whatever level necessary tomaintain its current level of highq lity instruction."

Linkages petweeNSE Asia and the.U.S.

The network and resource staff of CAL's WashingtonLiaison Office formg the major link between the overseasIESL/ CO/ PET program and refugee resettlement andeducation programs in the U.S. A two-way flow ofinformation between the overseas training sites and U.S.programs is maintained in a variety of ways. Among themare: workshops for U.S. service'providers on the IESL/CO/ PET program; two periodic newsletters. The Over-seas Refugee Training Update and The U.S. Update;distribution of curricula and teaching materials developedat the sites to U.S. institutions; collection and distributionof U.S.-deVeloped materials to the camp programs;collection and compilation of answers to questionsfrequently asked by training personnel; and, of course,this journal.

New Directions

New directions for the prograMare as hard to predict asrefugee flows, but, as has been 'ts practice, the programwill respond to the changing needs of the refugees. Pilotprojects underway include the developmpnt and testingofra youth curriculum for students ages 3-16; PET forC-E levels; and a native language literacy program as ameans of accelerating English acquisition for A-levelstudents. Whether these or other experiments are incor-porated into the regional program depends, in large part,on whether they prove to enhance learning for the refugeestudents, and (of course) the availability of funding. Themajor goal of the IESL/ CO/ PET program has been, andwill continue to be, that of helping refugees get a head-start toward succegsful resettlement, adaptation to a newlanguage and culture, attainment of self-sufficiency, andthe rebuilding of their lives in a new country. Whateverworks best toward this end will be incorporated into theoverseas training program wherever and whenever pos-sible. The Department of State and the implementingagencies' welcome your comments and suggestions.

Ann Morgan is Chief of theOffice of Training in theBureau for Refugee Pro-grams, U.S. Department ofState. In. this capacity, .themonitors the ESL/ CO/ PETprograms implemented by var-ious agencies under coopera-tive agreement with theBureau for Refugee Pro-grams. Ms. Morgan has beenassociated with pre-en:P:1' train-

ing programs for refugees since they were established in 1980.Prior to that time, she worked with the Peace Corps, serving inNigeria, Nepal, Micronesia, and as Country Director inThailand. She holds a B.A. in Communications and an M.A. inInternational Relations from the Fletcher School of Law acidDiplomacy.

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Studying Refugees' Languages:A New Approach in Staff Development

-4)

John M. Duffy and Chad MacArthur

Philippine ,Refugee Processing Ceier

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The Philippine Refugee Processing Center has recently established the Refugee LanguageProgram, a staff development project in which refugees teach Indochinese languages toprogram personnel. The purpose of this program is staff development, and teachers receiveprofessional training credit for 'participating in the courses. By studying -eh unfamiliarlanguage, teachers can gain a clearer notion of the needs of language learners and how torespond better to ktudents in their classes. This article discusses the-assumptions.and goalsof the program; and the selection and training ()tithe refugee teadhers. Following a brief

. section describing the design of the classes, the article reports participants' responses to theexperiences.

The frustration, fear, and sometimes joy inherent inlearning another language are all keenly felt by refugeesstudying English. A classroom can be an unpredictableplace, clear and instructive one day, incomprehensiblethe next. Like all learners of another language, refugeestudents risk their self-esteem each day in every lass.Moreover, these students have the added pressure ofknowing that E.,glish is crucial to their resettlement.

Language teachers can often empathize with theirstudents since most haye studied another language.themselves. At the Philippine Refugee Processing Center,(PRPC) in Bataan, teachers and supervisors are oftenmultilingual; many are fluent in a second language oreven a third. Yet for many it has been a long time sincethey studied a new language formally, as their studentsare now doing. It may be, then, that even speakers of twoor three languages cannot completely empathize with therefugee student' who is taking the first anxious steps inEnglish. Teachers and supervisors cannot truly know theconfusion caused by the complexities of English sincethey have already mastered them. Moreover, becausethey do not speak the language of their students, theycannot learn firithand what the students are feeling.

For these reasons, refugees and educators at Bataanhave initiated the Refugee Language PrOgram. The aimof the program is to open the doors of a new secondlanguage classroom to International Catholic MigrationCommission ( ICMC) personnel by giving them the

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opportunity to study a refugee language! Vietnamese,Cantonese, Lao, or Khmer. The teachers in the programare refugees.

Assumptions

The principal assumption of the program is thatunlessyou are engaged in the study of-a new and wholly.unfarr "i language, you will not. fully appreciate thepleasui 4nd difficulties your ow.n students encounter.The 'problems posed by a new language cannot beimagined: they must be experienced One goal of theRefugee Language Progre 1st° prOvioe 3.4c.h expefience.

A second assumption of the progrOtnis that the studyof a, language will lead to a ileeper understanding of thepeople who speak it Teachers studying Lao will gain, intime, insights into Lao culture that could only come froma shared language. These teachers will be introduced tothoughts and attitudes which were previously unknown tothem. They will understand and share more with thespeakers of the languages through their study. TheRefugee Language Program is a way to begin under-standing.

Another assumption of the program is that the teachingof refugee languages will lead to greater self:esteem on thepart of the refugees. Teachers studying a refugee languageare indirectly conferring a special value on it. They are

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affirming through their efforts that they esteem the cultureand people. Studying a language is not the only way ofexpressing this, but it is a persuasive one. Refugees aregiven the role of teacher, tutor, linguistic, and culturalresource. They are able, for once, to be the givers ratherthan the receiyers of help. Finally, it is assumed that thestudy of a refugee language will lead to improvedclassroom instruction.

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The Teachers*

The first step in organizing the classes was to findteachers for the four languages commonly spoken byrefugees in the PRPC. Though the center populationaverages about 17,000, this was not a simple task. Insearching for/refugees to serve as teachers, there wereseveral considerations.

. unkss you are engaged in the study ofa new and wholly unfamiliar language, youwill not fully appreckite the pleasuresand dfficulties your own students encounter.

The first was to.find refugees who would remain in thePRPC for the duration of the class. Refugees who wouldbe going to the U.S. before the end of the course could notbe considered. This limited the search to those who hadarrived within the previous two months or who. were'wailing for family members to complete their studies.

Another 'consideration ,was the English proficiency ofthe candidates for the teaching positions. Teacher trainingwould 1* conducted in English, so it was necessary to findpeople who could understand the.language well enough toprofit from the training.

It had been decided that there should be two teachersfor each class. This was done to minimize cancellationsdue to illness or other problems, but more importantly toallow teachers to plan together, exchange ideas, andgenerally support one another. This meant finding re-fugees who wanted to work together. The result of thesearch was one pair of sisters, two pairs c close friends,and only one pair of strangers. All worked out well

Yet another consideration was to find refugees willingto sacrifice a significant number of hours for littlecompensation. In exchange for teathing, they wouldreceive transportation. to and from classes, extra ESLclasses in the evening, and whatever satisfaction theymight find in their role as teachers of their own language.One of the refugees, wheh appremehed about teaching,

Throughout the remainder of this article the reader should note thatteachers refers to refugees and that students refers to ICMCinstructional staff.

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said he would need to consult his wife. He said he wasalready neglecting household duties, such as carrying thedaily water supply, because of his other work obligations.But when he explained to his wife that one goal of theprogram was to increase Filipino and American under-standing of the Vietnamese people, she gave him fullsupport. She would, she said, carry the water herself.

The Training

The training for refugee teachers involved demonstra-tion lessons, discussion, a practicum, and individualconferences with a supervisoreach pair of teachers hadan ICMC supervisor. The role of the supervisor was toassist in the training, help with lesson planning, attend theclasses as a student and observer, and to give feedback oneach lesson. The supervisors also taught the extra ESLclasses provided for the refugee teachers.

The training was for six sessions. It began with ademonstration lesson prepared and taught by supervisors...The lesson was conducted in a language unfamiliar to the'teachers, such as Spanish or Arabic, and was generallyfifteen to twenty minutes long. After each demonstration,the teachers analyzed what they had seen and describedhow they had felt during the lessons. Initially, the refugebteachers were reluctant to speak. By the third day,however, they had overcome their shyness and wereconfidently discussing their ideas and opinions.

The final demonstration lesson was deliberately con-tradictory. In it, the supervisors 'iolated most of theprinciples they had espoused throughout the training.Fifteen minutes into the lesson, they paused to ask therefugee teachers what they had understood so far. Therefugees were asked to give suggestions on how to re-teachthe class. The supervisors followed their suggestions to theletter. The resulting lesson was meaningful, eohtiPent, andsuccessful.

In the evenings, a practicum was offered to give therefugee teachers a chance: at their first "live" class.. Thepracticum students were ICMC personnel, who hadvolunteered for only these practice classes. To prepare,teachers were given the option of lesson planning inde-pendently or with the supervisor. In most cases, thecontent of the lesion was drawn from the morning'sdemonstration.

The practicum was a success. The teachers, after anearly bit of stage fright, proved to be decisive, intuitive,and playful. Their classes, which ran forty-five minutes toan hour, were conducted almost entirely in the targetlanguage, yet rarely left the students behind. During thesix practice lessons, the volunteer students learned a little.of their. new language.

Perhaps one of the most exciting moments was on thefinal night of a Vietnamese practicum class. A Vietnameseonlooker was invited into the class. He conversed brieflybut intelligibly with one of the students, much to that

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student's delight. At the end of the practicum, manyexpressed the desire to enroll and continue studying withtheir teachers in the scheduled classes.

The Classes

The classes are open to all 1CMC teachers, supervisors,trainers, and administrators. Classes are offered threetimes a week, with morM j afternoon, and eveningsessions;vach session is 80 minutes. The classes run fortwo months. 1CMC staff who sign up, for the classes areable through their study to fulfill some of their professional training requirements. One training session every.two weeks is set aside for 1CMC educators to reflectupontheir experience as studeilo.

The teachers proved to be decisive, intuitive,and playful.

The focus of the class is conversational. Students are,taught sufficient language to ask and answer simplequestions, to give basic autobiographical information,and to order food and drinks in one of the neighborhoodcoffee shops. Some teachers also cover days of the week,months, and years; others teach colors and numbers; thechoice is based on each teacher's perception of what thestudents need., The classes are run completely by the refugee teachers

They take attendance, obtain needed visuals from the1CMC resource library, and write practice Worksheets forthe students. At the end of the week, an audiotape of thelessons is made and placed in the library, where thestudents may borrow it. The curriculum for each clans isdeveloped by the teachers, their students, and the super-visors.

Student Perceptions

The ICMC participants are asked to attend a biweeklysession to reflect upon their experience as languagelearners. These sessions are moderated by the supervisorwho is working with that class. The refugee teachers arenot usually present.

One of the main objectives of these sessions is to helpthe students make cons9fous associations between theirlanguage learning and their language teaching. By assess-ing their own needs, feelings, and attitudes in a secondlanguage classroom, they are able to renew their under-standing of what it is like to learn a new language.

In the sessions whit followed the first series of theseclasses, the students commented on a variety of percep-tions. Many mentioned how threatening it was to studyanother language. For some, this was especially true if

Duffy & MacArthur/ Refugee Languages II

they had to talk in front of the class:6 "It's frightening to have to speak in front of

everyone.""I never realized what a long walk it is from my seatto the front of the room."

Students also made observations regarding classroomplanning. Based on what they needed as students, theyconfirmed the need for visuals, gestures, review, andcontact with native speakers. One class arranged to have anative speaker visit them once a week for conversation.

Many students were struck by the importance oflistening and writing in their classes:

"We really need to haN)e things repeated three times.I'm repeating more often for my students now.""I realize how important listening is and how much Iwant to understand. In the future, I'll be more liberalin allowing my students to coach and help oneanother. I've found I need to do the same thing."

Students noted that they needed to see words written, andfrequently found themselves writing phonetic equivalentsof vocabulary itemssomething most had discouragedtheir own students from doing. One student reported, "Ineed to write it in order to remember it. Now I understandthat my students probably need,the same thing." Studentsconcluded that there were many learning styles in theclassroom, and what is work for one person may be playfor another.

"I saw myself among my students."iI1IMinMI1IL

The students were very positive about their refugeeteachers. Most felt that their teachers had been gentle andextremely patient:

"She doesn't rush ine. She waits for me to find thewords.""They're very polite and gentle.""They laugh a lot and it makes class fun."

Students also remarked on the bond of affection andtrust that grows between teacher and student. Somestudents felt surprised by their deep feelings for theirteachers after only a few classes. For one student, heraffection for her teacher helped her to understand thefeelings of her own students. "We always discourage ourstudents from giving us gifts. Now 1 understand why theydo." Another student in summing up her first weeks ofclass said simply, "1 saw myself among my students."

Conclusion

Although the program is still new, some of its effects arealready apparent. Participating ICMC teachers andsupervisors report that they enjoy the classes and have adeeper appreciation for the integrity of their students'daily struggle with English. Confronted by languages

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radically different from their own, they now understandthe way English must sound and look to the refugees.They are also learning much about their own classrooms.They are rediscovering the importance of such basic

classroom practices as writing new items on the board andchecking for understanding. Classroom instruction in theIntensive Program at Bataan has clearly benefited fromthis experiment.

John M. Duffy is the BataanSite Editor of Passage: A Jour-nal of Refugee Education. Heis an ESL supervisor at thePhilippine Refugee ProcessingCenter at Bataan. He hasworked with Indochinese refu-gees in the Philippines, NewYork, and Boston. His poetryhas been published in severalJournals. ../0!=

Chad MacArthur is an ESLsupervisor at Bataan. He hasalso taught in Spain and theUnited States. Before enteringthe world of ESL. he workedas a clown and Juggler and asa commercial fisherman.

As If A BirdTo my mother

Mother, as if a bird, I am flying farSeeking a new home, a new lifeAway from my old home and the sweet landTo find a place of good fellowshipTo live without fear, without distress

The farther I go, the more I missOur green bamboo treesOur thatched roofs, our bamboo doorsOur flocks of chickens at sunsetCalling one another to back pensOur country girls in black pantsCarrying baskets of rice

Mother, I am flying awayAs i f a bird going far with weary wingsAlone day and nightAlone in the sun, alone in the rainBuilding a nest in the far-reaching land

Lonely I am whenThinking of youThinking of the new landWhere I grew up amid the eventful timeSorrowful, leaving you behindLying in the grave underground.

Pham Loc

Wham Loc, a Vietnamese refugee now resettled in the U.S.. wasan assistant teacher at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center.]

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the doctor's name and telephone number. Aides watchedwhen the student dialed the number to see that it had beendone correctly. Teachers or aides behind a screen answeredthe telephone, gave the name of the doctor's office, andasked if they could help the caller. The students thenstated their names, telephone number, and described their

illness. They were then told the appointment time andwrote it down. The doctor's name and the appointmenttime was forwarded to the receptionist at Station Two.

Station Two: The Receptionist's Desk

The students gave the following information to thereceptionist: name, appohitment information, aad doc-tor's name. The receptionist then checked to see if theinformation was correct and noted this on the student'sfeedback sheet. Finally, the receptionist told the studentsto go to Station Three to see the nurse.

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Station Three: Seeing the Nurse

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A teacher or aide gave each student a simple medical,history form to complete while sitting around a largetable. A translated form was posted on the wall for thestudents to refer to when necessary and an aide wasavailable to answer questions. Next, a nurse/ teacher took

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each student's height in feet and inches. The nurse thendirected the students to take a seat outside one of the fivedoctors' cubicles (Station Four) to wait to be called. Atthis point, each student was carrying a completed medicalhistory form, money, and the feedback sheet marked bythe nurse and the receptionist.

Station Four: The Doctor's Office

At this station, the doctor, an American teacher, askedthe student to enter the office, submit the forms and take aseat. The student was then asked in simplified Englishabout the type, duration, and severity of illness. (Eachstudent had been requested to invent an illness beforebeginning the simulation.) Doctors were provided with achecklist of questions and an activity schedule to follow(see Feedback Sheet).

The doctors used a stethoscope, tongue depressor, andthermometer with each student. Some doctors/ teachersasked the patients to read the thermometer aloud, butothers did not insist on this. Some doctors also had toremind students to bathe before coming to the doctor'soffice and to wear clean clothes. Doctors explained topatients what medicines they wereprescribing, how oftenand how much to take, and whether to take it before,during, or after meals. The doctors wrote a prescriptionfor the patient and noted the cost of the visit.($20-$30) onthe prescription sheet. The students took the prescriptionand their owP forms to Station Five.

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13

The Medical Simulation:A Confidence Building Tool for Refugee Students

Kathryn Munnell with Mary Ayre, Poonsook Karnshanapee, Teerapon Trairatana

Phanat Whom Refugee Camp Q1

Rationale and Assumptions

If we assume that adults learn best by doing, thensimulations are ideal for both orienting and evaluatingrefugee students. Because most have had little or noexperience with Western medical facilities and practices,we believed that a medical simulation would acquaintstudents with the basic procedure. It would build con-fidence in their ability to use a Western medical facility inspite of their limited English proficiency. It would alsoserve as a means to evaluate what the students had learnedin their classes about medical services and as a review ofthe lessons on using the telephone and completing forms.

We wanted the students to use thelanguage they had learned in ESL rele'antto medical procedures and waking

. appointments.

We wanted the students to use the language they hadlearned in ESL relevant to medical procedures andmaking appointments. We hoped they would experienceand demonstrate understanding of several aspects of theU.S. medical system, i.e., filling out medical history forms,undergoing a Western medical examination from aWester: doctor, going to a pharmacy, and paying amedical bill.

Design

To these ends, the CO component designed a six-station simulation for 277 B- and C-level Khmer students.It would take each student about 45 minutes to completethe simulation. It lasted five hours; students arrived every45 minutes in groups of 30, two classes at a time. Nineteachers, ten aides (interpreters), and one supervisor

participated. The simulation was held in a very large openroom.

An important feature of the simulation was thefeedback sheet, which was used to evaluate studentperformance. At each station the teacher or aide wouldrate the student's performance. The students would carrythe feedback sheet with them to each station as theyprogressed through the simulation. At the end of thesimulation the feedback sheet was returned to the studentto take to class the following day. Teachers then could usethe information on the sheets when designing follow-upactivities or in student-teacher conferences.

Ell

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Station One: Signing Inand Making an Appointment

As students entered the main door of the building, ateacher gave each one the feedback sheet and imitationdollars, usually between $30 and $60. An aide instructedthe students to wait until it was time to line up for thetelephones which students were to use to make ana ointment. On each telephone table was a card stating5

Munnell/The Medical Simulation 15

Name of Student

Class

Period

FEEDBACK SHEETfor

MEDICAL SIMULATION

Station I: Setting the Appointment1. Student can dial the phone number of doctor correctly. Yes No2. Student can use proper greetings on the telephone. Yes No3. Student can ask for an appointment correctly. Yes No4. Student can tell what is wrong with himself/herself. Yes No

Stations II & III: Seeing the Receptionist and Nurse1. Student can introduce himself/herself to the receptionist. Yes No2. Student can correctly tell when the appointment is. Yes No3. Student can write the time and day down correctly.

Yes No

Yes No

Time

Day

4. Student can complete the medical history form correctly.

Top half

Bottom half

Yes No

Yes No,..-. 5. Did the student get help on the top half of the form? Yes No

6. Did the student get help on the bottom hal of the form?

Station :V: Doctor's Office1. Student can introduce himself/herself correctly. Yes No

2. Student can give the medical history form to the doctor. Yes No3. Student can answer the question 'What is wrong?" Yes No4. Student can answer the question 'What hurts?" Yes No5. Student can answer the question "How long has hurt?" Yes No

6. Student can follow these directions:

1. Sit down.. Yes No2. Stick out your tongue. Yes No3. Say "ah." Yes ' No4. Cough.

5. Look here/there. Yes No6. Breathe out/in. Yes No7. Lie down. Yes No

7. Student can weigh himself/herself and correctly tell the doctor the weight. Yes No

Station V: Pharmacy1. Student can tell yOu what a prescription is. Yes No2. Student can under:Aana what signs on the bottle and packet mean. Yes No3. Student can take medicine (dosages) correctly. Yes No

Station VI: Cashier1. Student can pay the right amount. Yes No2. Student can count tie change correctly. Yes No

Yes No

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Station Five: The Pharmacy

At the pharmacy, students were asked to read theprescription and to demonstrate comprehension by count-ing out the correct number of pills or by measuring theliquid medicines. The teacher asked the students if theycould give this medicine to their children, spouse, orfriends if they had the same symptoms. The pharmacistmarked the cost of the medicine on the prescription formand the student-then moved to-the last-station to pay thebill.

Station Six: The Cashier

The patient was told the total cost of the visit and askedto pay the bill. Students counted out the correct amountof play money and handed it to the cashier/ teacher. Thenthey had to count their change to see that the cashier hadnot made a mistake. The teacher completed the feedbackform for that station and told the student to bring it toclass the next day.

Suggestions for a Successful Simulation

Some problems arose during the simulation. Somecould have been avoided had the students been betterprepared in the preceding clages. Others could have beenprevented by training the teachers more thoroughly andby pre-testing the simulation. Our experience leads us tomake the following suggestions:

1. It is wise to do this simulation jointly with CO andESL. In this way the language points can be reviewed withthe students together with the CO points before thesimulation.

2. Teachers should spend some time the day before the

simulation preparing the students by explaining andemphasizing its purpose. Teachers could draw a flooF planillustrating the route the patients will be following fromstation to station. A rehearsal for the routine required ateach station might also be done in class. Classroompreparation would also eliminate some cultural andlanguage problems encountered: forgetting how to dial aphone and handle money or giving inappropriate re-sponses (e.g. "May I help you?" was answered by "Yes, Iwill help you"). Students should review such sight wordsas name, address, and telephone number. Some studentsfroze and had a very difficult time completing the medicalhistory form even though there was an English/ Khmerone on the wall. The students can practice filling out thisform before the simulation or bring a completed one withthem.

3. The simulation should, have been staged before thestudents arrived. Had we done this we would have learnedthat the telephones were hard to hear through, and thatthe teachers should have talked louder and more slowly.

4. The training should have been more thorough.Teachers and aides would have done a better job ofcompleting the feedback sheets, and the follow-up pro-cessing of the simulation in the clases the next day wouldhave been more effective.

Despite the problems, the simulation was an overallsuccess. It succeeded in showing the students just what. amedical appointment is; it permitted them to practice in acontrolled situation, and it showed them that with very,limited English and a lot of sign language they could getthrough this complicated but necessary process.

Kathryn Manna!! has been aCO supervisorfor over a yearat the refugee camp at PhanatNikhom, Thailand. Previ-ously, she worked in theUnited States for the Office ofWomen in Development atMichigan State University(MS U). She has also taughtcollege-level courses in litera-ture and communication.From 1977 to 1979, Ms.

Munnell was director ofa girls'secondary school in Kenya. Shehas a master's degree in communication from MSU and one inEnglish from Morgan State University. Ms. Munnell hasrecently been involved in organizing special classes for womenIn Phanat Nikhom.

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Conceptualizing Pre-Employment Tra Ming

Anne Dykstra

Refugee Service Center, Washington, D.C.

.. ,

The Pre-Employinent Training program has been considered in several different ways: as avehicle for teaching English, as another facet of Cultural Orientation, or as a mini-vocational course.-Thit article suggests the uscof a broader conceptual modelone whichincorporates English, Cultural Orientation, and Basic Skills into a framework ofcommonideas and knowledge held by both the U.S. employers and their workers. The author alsoidentifies ways in which educators can examine and build upon their students' former workexperience in order to help them prepare for work in their new country.

Background

During th° week of March 26, 1984, fifteen educators'actively involved in designing and implementing the Pre-Employment Training component of the training programat the three refugee processing centers in Southeast Asiamet in Pattaya, Thailand. Their purpose was twofold: to,review the development of the Pre-Employment Trainingcurriculum which had been regionally adopted in August1982 and to discuss the ways in which A/ B level refugeeslearn within the program model.

The discussions during the week focused on therelationships between ESL, CO, and Basic Skills. Theideas presented below were introduced, discussed, andrefined at the conference but have been expanded andaugmented for this article. This topic is a small portion ofthe total agenda which was documented in the papertitled "Pre-Employment Task Force, Dialogue andConceptual Models, Pattaya, Thailand, March 26-30,1984."2

The Purpose of this Article

Within Pre-Employment Training, ESL, CO, andBasic Skills are the three components around whichdiscrete activities are designed to teach a variety of core

oft

I Bataan: Lou Atencio, Kevin Lind; Linda Nelson, Joyce Stadnick;Galang Mark Bishop, Mike DiGregorio,-Chuck Schumacher; PhanatNikhom: Marilyn Gillespie, Fred Ligon, Jeff Nelhaus, Julie Paloma,"Udi" Werapong Paranone, Mark Preslan, Mark Swiekhart;Center for Applied Linguistics: Anne Dykstral.

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competencies as they apply to work in the U.S. Eachcomponent is complex both in conceptualization andimplementation. The focus of this article addresses theconceptualization of Basic Skills within the Pre-Em-ployment Program rather than ESL or COnot becauseBasic Skills is more or less important for the refugee tolearn than the other two skill areas (indeed, they shareequal importance) but rather because traditionally it hasbeen less defined than either ESL or CO.

Within Pre-Employment Training, a clearer concept ofBasic Skills will aid in determining the content of the ESLand CO components, Therefore, the discussion whichfollows will attempt to clarify these points:

1. The concepts underlying the activities inPre-Employment Training

2...The differences between Basic Skills andVocational Education

3. The relationship of ESL and CO to BasicSkills

4. The need for further definition,

Basic Skiis: A Conceptual Model

Basic Skills is most easily defined in terms of theoutcome f.lf a lessonfor example, the student canaccurately measure half-inch intervals using a ruler threeout of four times, or, ising a recipe, students are able toProduce eatable pancakes during the coffee shop simu-

2 Available through the Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington,D.C.

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lation. However, the ease of identifying the tangibleoutcome of the basic skills activity masks the underlyingconcepts being taught. These concepts comprise thecommon core of knowledge shared by U.:S. workers andtheir employers which shapes the expectations thatemployers have of any worker filling an entry-level job inthe United States. What is taught in Basictherefore, stems from this shared body of knowledge andsubsequent expectations. The conceptual areas are:

1. Analysis2. Classification3. Quantification4. Representation5. Standardization6. MechanizationIt is important to distinguish between the idea of

copcept vs. skills as the above six areas are defined.Students rnay demonstrate a grasp of these concepts bymeasuring, using an electric drill, or tinning wire. How-ever, these skills are incidental to the concept itself. Tounderstand how ideas are represented on paper graph-ically, dimensionally, abstractly, or symbolically, and whyrepresentation is important does not require that theworker possess the skills of a draftsman. It is not thepurpose of pre-employment instruction to run mini-vocational classes with expected outcomes, such as themastery of the soldering iron, production of the perfectPVC lamp, or the ability to take an impeccable order forFrench toast and coffee. Training is not being given inpreparation for a specific occupation.

Nor is it accurate to say that activities are used only as avehicle for language or as a context for cultural informa-tion. Though basic skills activities can be used for all ofthese, it is the introduction of students to concepts thatapply to any job within the U.S. -workforce that isimportant. These are crucial ideas which shape the way inwhich work is done throughout the country. Within eachof these concepts there are varying levels of language,skills, and cultural information that can be taughtdepending upon the purpose of the lesson. One way ofexamining the broader basis of Basic Skills is to define thesix concepts listed above and examine their application inentry-level jobs in the U.S. workplace.

Definitions of Pre-Employment Concepts

Analysis

Analysis is often thought of only in its more sophisti-cated applications, such as the laboratory research tech-nician gathering data or the engineer performing amathematical computation which will be used to ordergirders of specific strength. However, analysis applies tothe simplest job and is assumed to be a skill and mind setpossessed by workers hired by employers. For example,efficient dishwashers, janitors, or assembly personnel

must analyze the separate tasks which comprise their job,structure them in a logical sequence, and be able toorganize their time, tools, and approach to the job in away that maximizes their production. Efficiency is a resultof being able to analyze a job. Further, the ability toanalyze is reflected in the ability to evaluate progressagainst a given standard. The ability to analyze manifestsitself when an empldyee notices a procedure or machinethat does not work and figures out a way to correct theproblem or ask for help to right what is wrong. Analysis isexhibited when an employee notice- :0-worker doing atask well and copies him or, when a new task is presented,the employee applies old knowledge in a new way. It is the"common sense" or "figuring out" skill that is so highlyprized in the workplace, In the broadest sense, usinganalysis in even a simple job leads employees to realizewhy their job is important to their co-workers, the projectas a whole, and to the organization.

Training [for students] is, not being given inpreparation for a specific occupation . . . itis the introduction of students to conceptsthat apply to any job within the U.S.workforce that is important.

Language used in the U.S. workplace to describe theability to perform in an analytical way in an entry-level jobreflects American cultural values. Some of these descrip=tors are: shows initiative, is efficient, works well withoutextensive supervision, works well in a team effort, values,time, is well organized, is flexible.

These phrases describe industry's view of an employeewho is able to analyze and perform a job in the culturalcontext of the U.S. workplace. It assumes the ability toanalyze and, as a result of analysis, to act to bring aboutchange. This is the opposite of using analysis in order tomaintain traditional ways and systems of accomplishingwork. It is important to teach the ways in which U.S.workers are expected to analyze and view a job and theways by whiclian employer knows that the employee cananalyze.

Of the six concepts discussed in this article, analysis,applied within a cultural context, undergirds each of theother five areas; the reverse is not true. For instance, it isnecessary to analyze in order to classify; it is not necessaryto mechanize in order to analyze.

Quantification

Quantification is easier to grasp as a concept because itis automatically linked to arithmetic skills. However, thesubtlety of furnishing a mind with a way to view the worldas quantifiable is often rapidly glossed over. This too is a

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concept with specific cultural bias and application which'must be bridged as students leave familiar ways of earninga living to enter a new workplace.

A/ B level students have knowledge of lesser or greater,-bigger or smaller, and some know measurements andbasic arithmetic. Others, while manifesting a slow under-standing of classroom lessons in counting money orrecognizing numbers, were skilled traders, farmers, andmerchants in their own society. However, the farmer whoplants a crop according to tradition, who expects to growenough to feed only his family, and perhaps trade somesurplus for needed supplies, views time differently fromthe manufacturer who knows that each lost man hour ofwork costs hundreds of dollars (worker's sick leave +substitute's wages + lost production time + increasedsupervision of substitute worker + higher error rate ofsubstitute worker + ripple effect of fewer pdrts supplied tothe production line = less output per day). It is a leap inunderstanding for many students to realize that they mustuse money to buy necessities instead of growing food andtrading for everythingeven land, ready-made houses,and food grown by someone else.

It is not in the specific acquisition of arithmetic skillsthat quantification as a concept is hard to understand. It isin helping students to learn and understand the scope,breadth, and precision in which numbers are used torepresent so many facets of life in the U.S. in general andin the workplace in particular. It is in helping students tohear the' steady ticking of the internal clock that Amer-icans hear throughout the day and which has been missingin the lives of most of our students most of their lives. It isin the measuring of the minutes of their lives against theidea that time has monetary or personal value. It isknowing that time is tangible, can be managed, and can beeither saved or lost.

It is a leap in understanding for manystudents to realize that they must usemoney to buy necessities instead of growingfood and trading for everything . . .

To list but a few ways that the quantification of timemay differ from the student's past work experience: thetracking of age; using numbers to identify a person.breaking a day into minutes and hours, and a year intmonths and days; keeping track of time on a continuumas opposed to cyclical (seasonal) time; and having aconcept of the progression of the past and a way tostructure thinking about the future. This bears on makingappointmer its; striving for promotions within a givenperformance period; figuring take-home pay, vacation,sick leave, breaks, and overtime; understanding that

21

Dykstra/Pm-Employment Training 19

time is money"; and understandint that in the U.S. agiven age must be reached before it is permissible to bepaid for certain kinds of work.

When applied to objects, quantification includes adegree of precision that is foreign to the A/ B level student.While gross number applications may be understood, it Isquite different to measure precisely in decimals, pourexactly one cup of a liquid, make one hundred hamburgerpatties each using I /4 pound ofmeat, or to know that onefoot is always a given lengthit does r A vary, nor doesone quart, 5 pounds, 1 / 8", sixty minutes nor any othernumber in and of itself. Numbers are not intrinsicallyvariable though they are used tomeasure variance.

Activities such as weighing, measuring, following direc-tions to make 5 samples, and filling out time cards begin tofurnish students with the view and language of quantifi-cation that exists in the U.S. workplace. It is more difficultto teach students to begin to value time and precision.However, it is worthwhile for students to begin torestructure their thinking about both of these to moreclosely match the attitudes found in the. U.S. workplace.Activities should address the cultural gap between thestudents' view of quantification and the view and applica-tion of quantification in an entry-level job in the U.S.

Some of the ways workers in the :LS. are expected toexhibit their understanding of quantification in theworkplace are by: low absenteeism; working swiftly;working accurately; being on time; being able to performsimple arithmetic; being able to respond to directions orrequests using numbers; keeping busy; using tools whichmeasure or weigh accurately; not interrupting othersneedlessly (wasting time); notifying employers of absences;returning from vacations and holidays on the appointedday; and working safely.

n

Standardization

Standardization links closely with quantification.Aswe all know, mass production in manufacturing is basedon standardization. The U.S. housing industry depettdson architects who design houses based on the 4' x 8' sheetof plywood or dry wall. The idea that interchangeableparts can be ordered for autos and .many other kinds ofmachines is counted on throughout the world as is thestandardization of pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, and seed.More recently, fast foods, personal services such asmedical and dental care, and maid service have becomestandardized, packaged, and franchized.

In essence, the production line not only standardizedobjects but standardized a particular view of workers.Workers too Wwame interchangeable parts costing a setsum per hou , r unit of work, and their output per daywas set at a standard number of widgets, papers handled,or meals served. In the U.S. we speak of the standardwage, the standard work week, the standard coffeebreak, and standard qualifications. Even for the A/ Blevel students who may have come from an urban area

20 PASSAGE

where they were exposed to Western technology orwhere they may have worked on an assembly line or dealtwith items which are mass produced, the extent to whichthe concept of standardization is applied in the U.S. will

probably be new.In most instances, . however, ;be A/B level student

comes from a small village divorced from the industrialworld. Houses, clothing, tools, and equipment have beenhand-fashioned and are one of a kind. The goods wl_;chsupport everyday life may follow a traditional shape, use,or pattern, but the product itself is worthy in directrelation to the skill and conception of the maker. Theseitems may be intricately fashioned with a delicacy andpreeisioiffhat is hard-to-imagine for-those-of us-usedmass-produced goods but they are not standard. Areplacemeht part must be handmade specifically to fit thebroken item. The brand name in the industrialized worldis the substitute for the reputation of the craftsperson in

the village.Within each village, those who have a craft are known

to everyone. Neighbors know how one another works andthe goodness of their product. The processes of produc-tion are seen from the beginning to the end. This is incontrast to the common practice in the U.S. of producinghandles for a cooking pot in New Jersey, knobs in Utah,and the body and final assembly in Colorado.

In an entry-level job, some of the ways workers showtheir grasp of the concept of standardization are by:

following directions, procedures or plans carefully; know-ing when and when not to improvise; asking for theirsupervisor's apptoval before a new part is substituted forone that is missing; realizing that color, shape, size, andcode delineate a specific use for which there are nosubstitutes; understanding that pouring an extra 1 / 2

ounce of strawberry shake in the cup each time they servea customer diminishes profits; asking that a supervisorwatch them perform a new task to be sure it is done theright way; and by comparing their work to that of anexample, drawing, or given standard.

Classification

Not only must those working in the U.S. use classifi-cation systems daily but they themselves are classified.Workers become social security numbers, insurancenumbers, last names, worker classifications, job titles,work grades, and badge numbers. They work in plant 1, 2.

or 3 and in buildings, sections,. or on floors with numbersor addresses; use parking lot spates, lockers, uniforms,tools, and tool boxes all of which may be classified oridentified according to number, letter, or a combinationof the two.

Classification is carried to a fine art in the U.S. (or afine madness depending upon your point of view). Everysmall child in the U.S. begins learning its intricaciesbefore entering school, if in no other way than byreferring or watching others refer to the T.V. schedule.

Classification is a view of the world that may be strangeto the A/ 13 level student; certainly the intensity of theapplication of this concept will be new, as it is to mostimmigrants entering the U.S. It is safe to assume thatalmost every product, person, or system that is known byanyone in the U.S. has either a name, function, orphysical attribute that permits it to be classified, and thatit has indeed been classified somewhere by someone. Thesophisticated ways in which the concept of classificationis used has been responsible, along with other technol-ogies, for the information explosion. It is the base for thecollection, organization, and dissemination of informa-tion. Classification allows many people in various geo-_gra** locations to understand common references tostandard parts, systents, addresses, servicesogoods,-and,most importantly, ideas.

Within each village . . . The processes ofproduction are seen from beginning to end. a . in contrast to the common practice inthe U.S. of producing handles for acooking pot in New Jersey, knobs in Utah,and the body and final assembly inColorado.

As with the other concepts described above, classifi-cation is a skill that most A/ B level students have usedalready during the course of their adult lives. Sortingvarious goods or farm produce; ranking people orsometimes spirits; judging the worth of animals, crafts,tools, or land; identifying certain natural resources as themost appropriate for making tools, houses, food, medi-cine, or clothing ale all ways in which students have usedtheir skill to classify. If they come from urban back-grounds, they have used many other systems of classifi-cation. What is needed is a way to help students realizethat they have already been using some form of classifi-cation, and that there is a way to expand and refine thisskill for use in their new work environment.

Some of the ways in which classification is used inentry-level jobs are: finding a name or item on analphabetized list; asking for tools or supplies by theircode; being able to report for work at a specific placewithin a large plant or across town; comparing two itemsidentical in physical appearance and choosing the correctone according to an identifying code; consistent*/ usingpersonal identification numbers correctly and in a num-ber of different circumstances, being able to ask for orretrieve specification sheets, blue prints, or other instruc-tion sheets; returning items to their correct place; beingable to sort by attribute or function; sequencing itemsaccording to an assigned system; being able to identify

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the correct person to ask for help by rank or position; andbeing able to give directions using codes and classificationsystems as reference points ("The c-20 goes to the left, thec-22 to the right").

Representation

Plans, signs, pictorial directions, cartoons, and direc-tional arrows are all examples of representation. So aremock-ups, models, and maps. The idea that a drawingcan represent scale and show an object from variousangles, from the outside in, or from the inside out, takesan educated eye. To begin to see and be able to usetwo-dimensional or three-dimensional drawings requiresa different way of looking at reality.

Students who are beginning to work are often facedwith drawings that represent parts of a whole item theymay never have seenfor example, a schematic drawingof a circuit board for the controls of a dishwasher or theassembly of a hood fora weed wacker. Their reference isthe drawing only. Not only do drawings show thesequence of parts that are to he ..Jembled but they oftenrefer to the part number, color, function, or size. The

'scale of a drawing lets a part as big as the tire of an earthmover be illustrated in detail on a standard-size sheet ofpaper, while a part assembled with tweezers is also drawnon the same size paper.

To begin to see and be able to use two-dimensional or three-dimensional drawings

. requires a different way of looking atreality.

Often, what A/ B level students see when they look at a;technical drawing, simple directions for assembling a,product to be used at home, or even a cartoon, is notwhat a person educated in U.S. schools would see.Students may see the negative spaCes as a patternwhereas we look only at the lines which define a shapethat is familiar to us. The person educated in the Westernworld is usually able to distinguish between a linedrawing and a schematic, aocale drawing and an artisticrendition. The experiences which exist in our mindsenable us to see the lines and accurately imagine a three-dimensional image of the object which is represented on'the paper. For the student who has never worked withpencil and paper or for the craftsperson who has alwayssewn or carved patterns on a plane, this ability may belacking. The lines of a drawing may not be expected tohold content or information other than their decorativevalue. Also, students may not distinguish between colorsor shapes as we assume they would; their education mayhave taught them a different way to perceive both ofthese.

Dykstra/ Pre-Employment Training 21

Entry-level jobs gequire that workers ask for drawings,refer to drawings when discussing their work with aco-worker or supervisor, interpret drawings correctly inorder to perform their job, and, in some instances, be ableto draw a simple line drawing. They must be able tofollow directional arrows both on drawings and thosethat are posted at their place of work. They shouldunderstand and respond appropriately to the fact thatcertain colors, shapes, or symbols represent danger,caution, or permission. They should understand thatone, two, or three dimensional drawings may representthree-dimensional objectsthough not always. It isimportant that workers are able to ask ouestions about adrawing that they do not understand and that .thedrawing be followed exactly with no substitution of partswith different codes or colors without asking. Theyshould understand that a black and white drawing or ablueprint does not indicate color or material; only theparts' code differentiates these attributes.

Mechanization

Mechanization refers to the sources of power, multi-plied by electricity and the application of mechanics, "thebranch of physics that deals with motion and thephenomena of the action of forces on bodies."( Webster'sTwentieth Century Dictionary: 1967.) Mechanization isthe means by which the productivity of a labor force ismultiplied; it is the power which is often hidden and notunderstood by most workers but is applied in almostevery facet of daily life in the United States and which iscertainly the basis of industrialization.

Mechanization is the most visible contrast betweenvillage life and the U.S. Many A/ B level students havenot personally been exposed to technology on such amassive scale. Of course, it is an error to assume that they-Ire totally naive; many have fought with sophisticatedweaponi and they have all been exposed to electricity,cars, and often large cities if only in the course of transitfrom first asylum camps to processing centers. However,the exposure is often just thata peek at an industrializedworld. It is a vast gap between growing up withmotorized toys, riding everyday in cars, experiencingelectricity from birth, touring factories during first grade,and working in the basement with power tools atd thelife in a small village where food, clothing and shelter areproduced by hand, where water is carried in buckets,where horses, feet, bicycles and an occasional motor

. scooter are the means of transportation, and where lightcomes from the sun, candles, or the fire.

The use of mechanized tools and equipment, whetherin the home or at work, shifts the concept of time andhuman labor in a very concrete manner. Speed can bethought of in new ways after students have used electricdrills, saws, or sandersas can the elements of massproduction, quality control, and the need for claritybefore a task is started. Not only does production of

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22 PASSAGE

products speed up with mechanization but so 'does thereplication of mistakes.

Empioyers assume workers know about electricalpower in the generic sense. They assume that workershave used common hand and electrical tools, that theyare familiar with small appliances, and that they candrive. They assume that this knowledge also means thatemployees can conduct themselves in a generally safemanner around moving equipment, when using plugs,outlets, or cords, and that they will ask questions if theydal not know how to operate a machine.

Pre- Employment Training cannot fill the gap for thosestudents who have little or no exposure to technology butit can provide a foundation for further learning.

The Need for Further DefinitionFurther definition of several areas is needed in order to

'continue the work that has been started in Pre-Employ-ment Training. Some of these are as follows:

1. Are there conceptual areas we have not identifiedwhich are essential in our view of the U.S.. workplace?

2. What are the common concepts and skills thatstudents share with U.S. workers?

3. Are there better ways to teach basic skills, culturalorientation, and language so pat thq student learns in themost efficient and integrated manner?

4. In what ways does the current curriculuM andteacher training address the conceptual content well andin what ways is it lacking? How can the gaps be filled?

ConclusionGraphically, the Basic Skills Conceptual Model might

appear as follows:

SortingSequencingCategorizing

MeasuringWeighingUsing Time

QUANTIFICATION

O

Using MapsUsing DiagramsSymbolizing

Redefine

SolvingProblemsEvaluatingPlanningSynthesizing

Using a StandardTiming a ProcessMaking thingsct.alike

9,

Expansion

MECHANIZATION

Using electric machinesUsing hand tools

YA

Note: Adapted from a drawing by Fred Ligon and Marilyn Gillespie.

6

BEST-6;YBasic Skills activities, then, not only provide a context

for language instruction or cultural orientation, but theyform a way to illustrate larger concepts which underpinthe way in which work is organized in the U. They helpthe students compare their current knowledge of workingwith the assumptions of knowledge that (heir futureemployers hold about U.S. workers. As educators, wecan organize the lessons taught in Pre-EmploymentTraining in ways which integrate the acquisition oflanguage, basic skills, and cultural behavior in the mostrealistic way possible. We can help students expand andredefine their present ideas about the concepts presentedabove by using the basic skills tasks to demonstrateconcepts in a concrete manner.

REFERENCES

Webster's twentieth century dictionary, unabridged, 2nd edition, s.v."mechanics."

Anne Dykstra is on the net-work staff of the Center forApplied Linguistics. Ms.Dykstra has worked as an ad-ministrator and founder ofprograms that combine lang-uage and occupational train-ing, and has worked withrefugees since 1975, both inthe U.S. and in SoutheastAsia. She was graduated fromthe University of Colorado

with majors in anthropology and botany. She holds an M.S.and Ph. D in vocational and adult education from ColoradoState University.

23

A Hmong Soap Opera: The Invented Familyas a Tool in Teaching Cultural Orientation

Sally Quinn

Phenol Whom Refugee Camp

The family project started with a seed sown at aCultural Orientation (CO) conference in Bataan in Jutleof 1984. On their return to Phanat Nikhom, Thailand,conference participants reported on the proceedings. Onediscussion g oup focused on the idea of a storyline to livenup CO classes. Consequently, a team of teachers decidedto implement the idea in a teaching cycle of non-literateHmong students.

The conference in Bataan suggested the invention of arefugee family of the same ethnic group as the studentsbeing taught. This family, already resettled in the USA,would serve as a daily guide for the cultural orientation ofthe U.S.-bound refugees. Refugees who are newlyenrolled in the Intensive English as a Second Language/Cultural Ode' Program have little understandingof the USA, ige country 12,000 miles away. Bycreating a st, lout a refugee family actually livingthere, we hc America and her customs wouldbecome cask asp.

In many ways, o vented family project is compar-able to a TV soap era. It is a serialized story of humanmistakes and victories. Most days our students are heldspellbound while the teacher unfolds another chapter inthe "Hmong Meets America" saga. When the familycharacters, are developed fully enough, they bring a senseof realism into an otherwise abstract discussion.

Another value of this technique is that it providescontinuity throughout the curriculum, a common threadtying the.lessons together. Previously, teaching CO wassometimes a fragmented process, a series of sessionspresenting discdnnected bits of information. However, byusing the same family characters for five to ten minuteseach day, many different subjects can be linked together.The students can follow the family members as theystruggle through the process of acculturation.

Cultural Orientation deals with many personal prob-lems and issuessuch as role changes, family planning,and spouse abusethat refugees may experience duringthe resettlement process. Personal issues like these areoften difficult for a refugee or anyone else to discuss. It is

J

easier to talk about unrelated third persons and to exploretheir problems from an outsider% point of view. Just aswhen a frightened sixteen-year-old girl at a clinic says, "Ihave this friend who thinks she may be pregnant," theagony of identification is taken away. A woman studentmay have difficulty in talking about her husband's opiumaddiction or his brutality; however, when these arepresented as problems confronted by our fictitious family,a more honest discussion may take place.

By creating a storyline about a refugeefamily actually living [in the U.S.1, we hopedthat America and her customs would becomeeasier to grasp.

The inventing of a relevant family is the critical factor.The aim is for students to have a family member withwhom they can identify, so a range of ages should beincluded. For the first two weeks of classes, we gatheredinformation from our students about a credible familystructure and size. Then the teaching team met andcompared notes. Slowly a prototype family evolved, Thisfamily included an old Hmong couple, Chong Ma Chaand See Thao; their eon, Pha Cha and his family; and anunmarried daughter, Souatha. These eight people, then,were to x our core family. Our invented family wassimilar e nough to our students for them to identify with,but we ok care 0.4: the fictional Hmong family didn'tresemble any particular Hmong students. Names, forinstance, were carefully chosen to be different from thoseof our students.

It is important to be detailed in the 'description of thefamily in order to make them plausible to the students.Thus, we introduce them as having studied in ourprogram before leaving for America a year and a half ago.The first day, we referred to them as "a family we would

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24 PASSAGE

a

HMONG FAMILY TREE AND PORTRAITGRANDPARENTS

(very traditional Hmong)

CHONG MA CHA51 years old.In U.S.Not workingand notinterested infinding work.

SEE THAO49 years old:'In U.S.Does chirdcare in herhouse andcleans aneighbor's

'apartmenttwice a week.

BEST COPY

SON SON33 years old. Killed in war.In U.S.Sponsor forthe corefamilYVas asqdier forUS. soresettlWast.Lives in sametown, differenthouse. SpeaksEnglish well:Has a good job.

DAUGHTER30 years old.Lives withhusband'sfamily inLaos. Neverhear fromher.

SONPHA CHAIn U.SHas a jobwashingdishes and'hates it.Makes lessmoney thanhis wife.

DAUGHTER DAUGHTER DAUGHTERSON'S WIFEPHIA VANG 28 years old. 24 year old:' SOUA CHA25 years old. In U.S. With her 16 years old.In U.S. 3 years with husband's In thigh schoolPregnant.Solders partsin an

husband's .

relatives inanther state.

family in BanVinai Camp,Thailand. Not

in tl.S. VeryAmericanized.Calls herself

electronics sure if going "Susie" andfactory. to U.S. or not. has American

boyfriend.

MOUA CHA9 years old.4th gradein U.S.

I. A CHA7 years old.2nd gradein U.S. ,

JOU:4 CHA2 years old.Stays homewith hergrandmother.

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like you to meet," If anyone asked whether or not theywere real people,, we would certainly tell them the truth.Meanwhile, we developed them to seem as if they were aliving, breathing group of refugees.

To facilitate training sessions, we opted for team-wideagreement on names and characters. In this way, we couldshare in the creation of posters of a family tree and familyportrait. These hang in the classroom whenever we em-ploy the family as .a teaching aid. Each individual has anage and personality, and each has a starring role onappropriate lesson days. If the personalities are developedfully, students can try to guess what each person would doin a given situation, In this way, students become moreinvolved in the unraveling story.

Personal issues . . . are often d' :cult for arefugee., . . to discuss. It is easier to talk aboutunrelated third persons and to exp:ore theirproblems from an outsider's pbint of view.

We also introduced, but not by name, the rest of ChongMa and Sees family. Although some of them live with ourcore family, they illustrate the common lifestyles andwhereabouts of Hmong families in the post-war era. Theremaining gupporting cast for the Cha family is limitedonly by the teacher's imagination. Possible entrantsinclude an unmarried American couple living next door; asympathetic (or unsympathetic) policeman who arrivesafter a break-in; the children's American schoolmates;voluntary agency workers; a friendly neighborhoodgrocer; and some neighborhood troublemakers whohares the grandfather. Each CO lesson may include

, different supporting characters who show up only once orrer itedly. Thus, whenever there is a special point to betr it can be illustrated with these people.

Quipn/ A Hmong Soap Opera 25

Logistically, our teaching team has been unable to keepthose tangential roles uniform for each class. Although wehold weekly discussions to brainstorm how to use thefamily, embellishments will vary from class to class. Thislack of agreement has been a problem only whensubstitutes teach a class; they may not know exactly whatescapades have befallen the family. When measuredagainst the usefulness of the storyline as a teaching aid,though, this seems insignificant.

The storyline is an idea still in its infancy. Not yethalfway through a teaching cycle, our team is developingit as we go along. We are still uncertain. as to whether or 'not it is possible to standardize it for fornil adoption intoour curriculum. Certainly much of the liveliness ofdescription would fade if every teacher had a lesson planusing the characters in a prescribed fashion. However, abroad outline and set of core characters could beinstitutionalized. This may involve creating a fictitious.family for each refugee ethnic group.

Having used this technique with great success, I wouldstrongly recommend its exploration at other sites, as wellas in the U.S. The storyline is an excellent method formaking America come alive in the CO class. Its spon-taneous aid realistic nature keeps the students involved asthey look back on their past and forward to their future.

Sally Quinn has been with theConsortium PrograM in Pha-nat Nikhom, Thailand, sinceMay 1981. She is a CO andPET teacher. Ms. Quinn de-veloped the Hmong soapopera with her team: ThirapitLauhahanbhu, Gary Buck.Peto Munyard, Suphavinee'Charoensook, and SarawaneeJinayon, who did the illustra-tion.

27,

26 PASSAGE

To Call Yourself a Refugee.(for the hundreds of thousands that do)

Ebony hair down to the waistmatted in sweat on your dark clothescamouflaged for escapea ba, of gold cuts the connectionsto country and home.

Crouched down (ow in a crowded boatyou lift your head just high enoughto see the sunset in the Saigon harbourfor the last time bombing redthe shadows it formed on the mountainsprofiled the face of your father.

You left the rice fieldsyoung stalks wavinggreen flags of surrenderto taste life from the saltyspray of waves whippingat your sixteen years.

The pirates you came io knowdid not jump out at youfrom pages of fairy taleswith gold teeth and handsmade from hooks of shining steelbut were live with real hands,raw and rough.

Your typhooned journey of foodless dayswon you no medals, no honoursjust the minimal rightto call yourself a refugeea severed limb, from an ancient, rooted tree.

Laurie KuntzTeacher TrainerPhilippine Refugee Processing Center

28

BEST COPYPicture Perception and Interpretationamong Preliterate Adults*

Christina Hvitteldtinternational Studies and Programs, University of Wisconsin

Adults from traditional preliterate societies often perceive and interpret drawings,pictures, and symbols differently from individuals socialized into modern literatesocieties. When language and literacy programs for traditional peoplesare developed, theneed for instruction in the learner's second language often results in heavy reliance ondrawings, pictures, and symbols to communicate important concepts. This article presentsa discussion of some of the difficulties which arise when the symbolic conventions of amodern literate society are used to communicate with traditional groups of people.

In many parts of the world, illiteracy is still the norm intraditional tribal societies removed both geographicallyand socially from majority cultures. In Thailand. forexample, many of the Hmong, Lahu, Lisu, and Akhahilltribe peoples continue to live in traditional preliteratesocieties in remote mountain areas.

Inaccessibility is not the only barrier to the literacy..education of these groups, however. Even when govern-ment and private agencies manage to overcome geo-graphical problems or when large numbers of traditionalpeople, such as the Hmong, become part of a reftigeeresettlement prograni, differences in both language andculture often inhibit the success of functional literacyprograms.

Differences in perception and learning between tradi-tional preliterate peoples and those socialized intomodern literate cultures have long been the subject ofinvestigation by anthropologists and psychologists. Red-field (1962) describes what he terms "primitive" cultures asboth holistic and concrete, perceiving the world aroundthem in terms of general patterns and specific knownobjects and events. "Modern" cultures, he contends, differin that they tend to be analytic rather than holistic andabstract rather than concretr.

Witkin, Dyk, Faterson, Goodenough, and Karp (1962)interpret these differences between traditional andmodern societies in terms of perceptual style. Individuals

An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the InternationalSymposium on Language and Linguistics held at Chiang MaiUniversity, Thailand, January 11.13, 1984.

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socialized into traditional societies tend toward percep-tion which is strongly dominated by the overall organi-zation of the surrounding field, the different parts ofwhich are experienced as if they were fused together.hndividuals socialized into more modern societies tend toperceive component parts Is discrete from the organiza-tion of the whole. Witkin and his associates contend thatthe development of perceptual style is influenced by bothsociocultural and environmental factors.

With more specific reference to processes of learping intraditional and modern societies, Bruner t1965)iuggeststhree modes of information processing. The enactivemode involves learning through direct experience; theiconic mode involves learning through observation andmodeling; the symbolic mode involves learning throughsymbolically coded experience. Enactive learning is aidedby the use of tools such as hammers, wheels, and levers,while tt.e iconic mode makes primary use of the fivesenses. The symbolic mode, clearly more abstract, is aidedby language, logic, and mathematics. While traditionalpreliterate societies emphasize learning through the enac-tive and iconic modes, modern literate societies emphasizethat which takes place through the symbolic mode.

If traditional preliterate societies make use of per-ceptual and learning strategies which differ significantlyfrc m those common to modern literate societies, suchdifferences must obviously be taken into account whenliteracy programs aimed at traditional peoples are de-veloped. Often, the success of such programs is compli-cated by the fact that traditional tribal groups often do notspeak the language of the majority culture competently,

28 PASSAGE'BEST COPY

This results in heavy reliance upon drawings, pictures, andother symbols to communicate important concepts. Thispaper will outline some of the difficulties which arise whenthe symbolic conventions of a modern literate culture areused to communicate with traditional preliterate people.

Central to this discussion is the fact that pictures can beeither iconic or symbolic. Iconic pictures attempt to depictreality directly; symbolic pictures make use of arbitraryconventions which must be learned. An example of each isfound in the international sign which indicates thatsmoking is not alloweda red circle enclosing a picture ofa lighted cigarette bisected with a slanting line. The pictureof the cigarette is an iconic representation; the slanted lineindicating that smoking is not permitted is a culturallylearned symbolic representation.

Iconic pictures and drawings can be used successfullywith preliterate groups once some familiarity with the useof pictures is established. Symbolic pictures, however, arelikely to be misinterpreted unless attempts are made toexplain the meanings of the arbitrary pictorial con-ventions which are used. Learning to interpret symbolicpictures is in this way analogous to interpreting writtenlanguage and, in some cases, involves as high a degree ofabstraction.

The functions of pictorial communication parallelthose of language in significant, yet limited, ways. Likenouns, pictures can depict concrete objects; .unlike lang-uage, they cannot depict directly such abstract concepts as"freedom." Like adjectives, pictures can communicatequalities such as "tall" which can be seen directly; unlikelanguage, they cannot de ict abstract qualities such as"intelligent." Like verbs, pictures can depict states ofbeing, such as in "The man is sleeping." Actions, however,are difficult to depict. Lines of motion and direction areoften used to indicate action, but these are arbitraryconventions which are likely to be misinterpreted bypreliterate people who have had little experience with theinterpretation of symbols. 'In the same way, verb tensesand negation are difficult to depict pictorially withoutrecourse to arbitrary symbols.

Like prepositions, pictures can depict relational con..cepts such as "above," "below," "inside," and "outside,"but cues of depth, including overlap, perspective, andrelative size, must often be provided. Such cues arecommonly misinterpreted or ignored by people with littleexperience in picture interpretation.

Pictures, whether drawings or photographs, can beconsidered on a continuum from ;conic to symbolic.Pictures which lie at the iconic end of the continuum cangenerally be perceived directly; those which lie toward thesymbolic end require interpretation that goes beyondwhat can be directly perceived and demand a higher levelof abstraction.

Hudson (1960), in an attempt to determine whether theperception of depth in pictures is spontaneous or learned,used outline drawings of familiar scenes to test the depthperception of literate and nonliterate groups of subjects in

South Africa. Hudson's results revealed that nonliterateadult subjects tended to interpret the pictures as flat ratherthan three dimensional, perceiving the outline of a hill as apath or a river and horizon lines as poles or elephant traps.This seems to suggest that the subjects used their ownexperience and cultural knowledge to help them makesense of the pictures.

Symbolic pictures . . are likely to bemisinterpreted unless attempts are made toexplain the meanings of the arbitrarypictorial conventions which are used

Clearly, pictures which can be directly perceived ''bypreliterate adults can be used to great advantage inliteracy and development programs. Pictures which re-quire perceptual skills that are beyond the experience andcompetence of participants, however, can actually under-mine effective communication.

In many parts of the developing world, language andliteracy materials aimed specifically at traditional pre-literate peoples in remote areas are still at the planningstage. Thailand's Department of Nonformal Educationhas devised a series of Thai readers for hilltribe adultswhich use black and white photographs that can generallybe perceived directly, although the qualif:, of the photo-graphy and printing sometimes interferes with interpre-tation. Other materials, particularly those produced forhealth and nutrition education, make liberal use ofunrealistic cartoons and symbolic conventions.

A lesson on dishwashing (Figitre 1), used with pre-literate villagers, uses a chef's hat to indicate kitchen work,a disembodied hand to illustrate that directions will

Figure 1

from Anaanay Chaawbaan (People's Health). Lampang, Thailand:Department of Nonformal Education, 1983. p. 8.

30

BEST COPYshatling to indicate that the pan is filled with water,

curved lines and circles to suggest soap bubbles, arrows toshow progression through a series of steps, and a smilingcartoon sun to show that the plates should be dried in thesunshineall of which are likely to cause interpretiveproblems.

In addition to some government efforts aimed at tribalgroups within national boundaries, teaching materialsgeared specifically to the needs of preliterate adultspreparing for resettlement in modern literate societies arebeing developed in Indochinese refugee camps in Thai-land, tht, Philippines, and Indonesia. Produced by privateagencies, international organizations, aid programs, andindividual instructors, such materials often attempt toprepare participants for a new lifestyle by presenting theobjects and activities of modern literate culture throughpictures.

Figure 2 is from a series of pictures depicting the use ofa vending machine. Although first-language explanationsmay help to clarify the machine's purpose, many of thesymbolic conventions used in the illustrations are likely tobe misinterpreted or ignored. The dotted bubble repre-senting thought, the straight dotted line indicating line ofvision, and the circle representing a solid coin will need tobe explained. Clearly, decisions need to be made as to howmuch time should be devoted to explanations of picturesthat cannot be directly perceived. Although some of the

Figure 2

From America, In Sight. Fred Ligon and Herman S.K. TheExperiment in International Living, 1982, p. 17. Reprinted bypermission.

31

I4vitfeldt/ Picture Perception 29

more basic pictorial conventions might well be taught,time spent helping preliterate adults to interpret highlyabstract representations might be better spent in basicreading and writing instruction.

Even such simple drawing techniques as the use of stickfigures to represent people may cause problems ininterpretation for preliterate adults. A group of Hmong inone refugee camp, having worked with cultural orienta-tion materials in which cartoon stick figures were used,announced that they were no longer interested in beingresettled in the United States. Subsequent discussionrevealed that they were unwilling to go to a country wherethe people were obviously starving.

The resettlement of many preliterate Indochinese adultsin North America has resulted in a profusion of publi-cations intended for use in basic language and literacyclasses. This writer's study of Hmong classroom behavior(1982) indicates that many' of the illustrations featured inthese basic-level materials make use of abstractions whicl,preliterate adults are unable to interpret.

Figure 3 is an illustration from a beginning-levellanguage and literacy text marketed specifically forIndochinese refugee adults. The drawing is intended toconvey the idea that distance from the speaker determinesthe choice of the word "this" or "that." Hmong adults,however, perceived only that the coffee cup was large andthe tea cup was small. None of the students perceived thetea cup as further away than the coffee cup, making theillustration val"eless as an explanation of the conceptualbasis for the choice of the word "this" or "that."

Figure 3

This Is a cup of coffee. That's a cup of tea.

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,

This Is a hamburger. That's a hot dog.

From English for the 21st Century, Classroom Visuals, ArlingtonHeights, IL: Delta Systems, Inc., 1975, p. (6X6). Reprinted bypermission.

In a picture text widely used with preliterate adults, alesson on opposites makes use of paired drawings such asthose in Figure 4. When asked to tell how the pictureswere opposite, Hmong adults suggested that the glass in

30 PIVAGE

drawing (a) was white and the glass in drawing (b) wasblack. When it was pointed out that there might beanother way in which the drawings were opposite, one ofthe students suggested that the glass in (a) was clean andthe glass in (b) was dirty. Th." use of shading to indicatecontents is clearly an abstract convention that is notperceived directly.

Figure 4

(a) (b)

Another text indicated for use with adult refugeesmakes use of a series of drawings in a lesson on illness(Figure 5). Hmong adults, unfamiliar with the conven-tions used to indicate pain and movement, were unable tointerpret many of the drawings. The lesson is only one ofmany where iconic drawings, easily understood by pre-literate adults, are made uninterpretable through the useof symbolic conventions with which the students are

. unfamiliar.Like the acquisition of literacy skills, the interpretation

of symbolic pictures and drawings requires a kind ofperception that goes beyond what can be seen directly.Although iconic picturei can be used effectively tofacilitate the learning of both language and literacy,arbitrary symbolic representations may in fact be asabstract as print itself and may only serve to complicate analready difficult task.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author would like to thank Ms. Evelyn Knapp of SillpakornUniversity, Thailand, for her contributionsboth pictorial and anec-dotalto the revision of this paper.

REFERENCES

Bruner, J. 1965. The growth of mind. American Psychologist 20 (12):h:07-1017.

Hudson. W. 1960. Pictorial depth perception in sub-cultural groups inAfrica. Journal of Social Psychology, 52: 183-208.

Hvitfeldt, C. 1982. Learning language and literacy: a microethno-graphic study of Hmong classroom behavior. Unpublished doctoraldissertation, University of Wisconsin.

Redfield, R. 1962. Human nature and the study of society: the papersof Robert Reeffkld. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Witkin. H.. R.B. Dyk, H.F. Paterson. D.R. Goodenough & S.A.Karp. 1962. Psychological dfferentiation. New York: John Wileyand Sons.

Figure 5

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From English for Adult Competency, Book I. Leann Howard,Autumn Keltner, and Frances Lee. Englewood Cliffs. New Jersey.Prentice Hall, Inc., 1981. p. 54. Reprinted by permission.

17

Christina Hvideldt has taughtESL and done teacher train-ing in the United States, Af-rica, and Asia. She receivedan MA in English linguisticsand a PhD in adult educationfrom the University of Wis-consin at Madison, where shedeveloped a special interest inthe learning strategies ofadults from preliterate soci-eties. She was able to pursue

this interest during a two-year appointment at Chiang MaiUniversity in Thailand, where she visited hilltribe villages andrefugee centers throughout the country. This article stems fromher experience with preliterate adults in both the United States

and Asia.

BEST COPY

The Intensive ESL/CO Programfor Ethiopian Refugees

Paula Kristotlk and Steven CookSudan

The Intensive English as a Second Language/ CulturalOrientation (IESL/ CO) Program for Ethiopian Refugeesin the Sudan, East Africa, is operated by InternationalCatholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and began inMay of 1982. Two cycles of students attend each year,one group from October to March and the other fromMarch to July. As of March 1985, 3,735 students will havecompleted the program.

Although the Sudan Program has many unique fea-tures, it also has much in common with the SoutheastAsian Intensive Program. Our students are refugees whohave registered with the United Nations High Commis-sioner for Refugees (UNHCR), interviewed with JointVoluntary Agency (JVA), and have then been accepted byImmigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for reset-tlement in the United States. They study 192 hours ofEnglish and 96 hours of CO for sixteen weeks. Thecurriculum is based on the standardized ESL compe-tencies and CO content standards which are used in theSoutheast Asian program. Teacher training is held twohours every day and includes workshops, consultations,and classroom preparation. Weuse the same textbooks asthose in Southeast Asia, and they have proven to be quitepopular. Our resource library contains a full complementof rods, cubes, model houses, calendars, clocks, maps,telephones, and doctor kits. CO is taught in the students'native language. Students receive the Center for AppliedLinguistics (CAL) placement test, and some teachingcycles have received the CAL Proficiency Test, which testsa random sample of refugees pre- and post-course tomeasure student prc,gress. And as in the Southeast Asianprogram, consultants come out, administrators getblamed for everything, coordinators have too much to do,teacher trainers get caught in the middle, and teacherswork hard and take a personal interest in their students.And it is very, very hot.

Still, there are significant differences between the twoprograms. Instead of being housed at one large processingcenter as they are in Thailand, Indonesia, and thePhilippines, refugees in the Sudan live and work in thecommunity and attend the IESL/ CO classes in theevenings. When the Sudan program began, th Ire werethree training sites located in Khartoum, Gedaref, andPort Sudan. When refugee processing was consolidated in

33

31

Khartoum in 1984, the Gedaref and Port Sudan trainingprograms y ere closed. When in operation, the program inthe agricultural community of Gedaref not only providedclassroom instruction to refugees living in town, but alsosent teachers to as many as eight settlements.of refugees,some of which were three Land Rover hours away. Theprogram in Port Sudan, a busy trade center on the RedSea, served refugees who had gone there to work andshare housing in areas of lean-tos with poor Sudanese.

In Khartoum, the capital, refugees are dispersed through-out the city. Although Sudan offers asylum to almost 1million refugees (over two-thirds of whom are Ethio-pians), the government limits the number permitted inurban areas. Despite these restrictions, Ethiopians con-tinue to enter the city. Occasionally ESL/ CO students aredetained by authorities enforcing these restrictions.

Two conditions that have had a significant impact onthe design and implementation ofour IESL/ CO Programare that public transportation in the Sudan is very limitedand that refugees must support themselves. Althoughthere is some public transportation available, the fares arefar beyond our students' means. It is necessary, therefore,for the program to supply buses to transport students toand from school. The busing is costly both in time andmoney because students live on the furthest outskirts ofKhartoum. Transportation costs consume such a sub-stantial portion of the total program budget that littleremains for other educational support items.

Unlike in the processing centers in Southeast Asia, therefugees' food and housing are not provided to them, sorefugees must work full time to meet this basic need. As aresult, program administrators spend a great deal of theirtime meeting with employers to request that work hoursbe changed or that some kind of accommodation be madeso that refugees cats attend classes. Occasionally, despitethese efforts, no alternative arrangement can be made. Inthese cases, students are granted a "humanitarian exemp-tion" from the training requirement. When students arrivefor class they are often exhausted, not only from thecrushing heat, but also because they have already workedfrom 7 AM to 2 PM.

The fact that refugees work full-time has had severaleffects on program design. Classes must be held in theevenings, six nights a week in classrooms (graciously

BEST COPY32 PASSAGE

donated by the Catholic Church) which are occupied inthe mornings by Sudanese primary and secondary stu-dents. Borrowed facilities, in turn, impose limits on manyaspects of the programfrom putting nails in walls forhanging visuals and the amount of storage space availableto the scheduling of educational activities suoh as airplanesimulations.

While the program employs teachers from the Sudan,Great Britain, and Australia, the majority of the teachersare refugees, all of whom are very proficient in English.This adds an interesting dimension to the program. Only afew CO classes require assistant teacher translators.Teachers' identification with their students is absolute.Many of the problems which students raise in theclassroom are problems which teachers themselves havehad to face and overcome. Although they share a

'common language with their students, teachers seldomresort to translation in the ESL lessons. This is largely dueto the rigorous teacher training program which empha-sizes the benefits of a monolingual ESL classroom.

A teacher is assigned one class for each subject and isresponsible for both ESL and CO. Though the hours andlesson plans for each subject are distinct, the opportunitiesfor reinforcement and addressing similar objectives areplentiful. ESL competencies on a given topic are cPrefullymatched with corresponding CO teaching points so thatdaily lessons reinforce one another. Thus there is no needto form committees to ensure that ESL instruction . iscoordinated with CO.

Affecting both ESL and CO is the Ethiopian cultureand language or, rather, cultures and languages, asEthiopia contains eighteen separate ethnic groups. For-tunately (from a programmatic perspective), the vastmajority of students come from the Northeast and AddisAbbaba regions and speak either Tigrinya or Amharic.These two languages share a written alphabet and manylinguistic features. There are 44 consonant sounds andseven vowel sounds. As a result, most of the pronunci-ation problems revolve around vowel discrimination. Aclassic example is that it and eat are said the same way.

Some topics are included which address the uniqrneeds of Ethiopian refugees. Ethiopians need to beprepared to be perceived as members of a black minority.Therefore, dealing with racial attitudes is an importantpart of the CO class. Another example is the need todiscuss the consequences in America of continuing thepractice, common in the area, of female circumcision.

Both ESL and CO must address the delicate area ofEthiopian attitudes toward their future adaptation toAmerican society. Measured against the Indochinese,whom resettlement agencies have been dealing withlonger and in greater numbers, the Ethiopian is sometimesperceived as demanding and aggressive. If the job of theteacher of Indochinese refugees is to get students to speakup and ask questions, then the job of the Sudan Programis to get students to know when it is appropriate to speakup and when it is not and to know when and how to ask

questions. Roleplays and realistic language practice try toemphasize these points.

The most important distinction is apparent uponexamining the profile of the Ethiopian refugee student.The typical student is a young, single urban male who hasbeen at least to primary school and usually to secondaryschool. Since English has been a standard subject inEthiopian schools, the students' level of English correlatesdirectly to the number of years of education. Most areintent. upon pursuing higher education and finding re-spected, high-paying work when they reach the UnitedStates. Expectations of a prosperous, intellectually satis-fying life in America are high. There is a greaterpercentage than in Southeast Asia of students at the D/ Elevels. This is not to say that in an A-level class there are nonursing mothers or middle-aged men who can't speakEnglish. There certainly are. But the salient contrastbetween the Sudan and Southeast Asia is the predomi-nance of advanced-level English language students.

There are other contrasts with the Southeast Asiaprograms. The Sudan program has no pre - employmenttraining component because of the refugees' higherEnglish proficiency level. Space limitations have ruled outthe possibility of having a language laboratory, and thevideo equipment we use is whatever can be borrowed. Inshort supply are rain and color. Yet despite the difficultiesimposed by operating in a harsh environment, we feel thatthe Sudan program has met the challenge and that itoffers valuable training and education to very deservingrefugee students.

Paula Kristoflk has workedwith refugees for five years.Ms. Kristolik has Worked asan ESL teacher at ProjectPersona in Providence. RI: asa supervisor in Phanat Mk-hom and Galang: and as anESL Coordinator in the Su-dan.

Steve Cook was Director ofthe Intensive Program in Su-dan, East Africa, from April1982 to December 1984. Hecurrently is Deputy Directorfor Operations for ICMC atthe Philippine Refugee Pro-cessing Center at Bataan. Hisrefugee-related work experi-ence includes one year as theUnited States Catholic Con-

ference (USCC) Senior Pro-gram Specialist from Region IV, one year as the CommunityResource Liaison to the California governor's Office RefugeeProgram, and three and one-half years in the San Diego USCCResettlement Office. He has a BA in sociology from theUniversity of California at Berkeley, California.

34

BEST COPY

Scenes from

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About the PhotographerThe photographs on these four pages depict refugee life

at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC).They are all the work of Paul Tailed°.

Mr. Tahedo is a professional photographer currentlyserving as Productions Specialist for the CommunityAttion, Social Services Development Group (CASSDEG)at the PR PC in Bataan. He studied fine arts at theUniversity of Santo Tomas in Metro Manila, Mr.Taftedo's photographs have been published in trinyperiodicals and newspapers.

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33

Culture Quizzes: Training Beyond the Curriculum

Christina HerbertPhanat Whom Refugee Camp

In preparing a lesson, English as a Second Languageteachers are usually faced with the double task of studyingboth the language and the cultural points fora particularlesson. Teachers who have never been to the United Statesmay not understand the cultural context of a lesson andthere ore inadvertently misinform their students. Forsupe isors, the challenge is to prepare trainings whichcon ey accurate cultural information in a way that is bothac sible and interesting to the teachers. In addition,sup rvisors must work on creating an awareness of theint rdependency of language and culture. Clearly, astr fight lecture format during teacher training is inappro-pri te. At the end of a long day of instruction, teachers cange bored quickly, so a different approach should be used.

s.I searched for a successful training format for theT ai teachers a: Phanat Nikhom, I set several generalg (1) Teachers should go beyond the curriculum inle rning about America, the refugees' backgrounds, andt eir own culture; (2) Every teacher should be activelyi volved in the training; and (3) I should do a minimum ofI cturing.

As I thought this through, it occurred to me to fall backon a standard approach, giving a quiz. At the time, wewere teaching about banking in the U.S., so I wrote aSeries of true and false statements about banking, includ-ing some which went beyond the curriculum. When theeteachers arrived for the training session, I asked them tot. e the quiz, and explained that we would later discuss itas oup. They eagerly worked through the exercise. I/hen ked the teachers to read each statement aloud anddiscus why they thought it true or false. Wheneverteacher had differing viewpoints or cOmments, theycould a to the discussion. An hour after they hadbegun, the teachers were still discussing the quiz, oftenadding information about their own culture to arrive at anagreement. At only one or two points was I asked toconfirm or clarify an opinion. I played an active listeningrole, making sure that the teachers were processing theinformation correctly on their own. After the training,several teachers approached me to say that they hadenjoyed this pre-test and hoped to take more in the future.

Throughout the four-month term, I wrote quizzes toaccompany each corripetency-based unit in our curri-culum, e.g., housing, medical problems, and banking. Itried to include items which refIr cted the common

't..4

misconceptions or questions my teachers had. The quizzeswere formulated to generate conversation and evencontroversy. As a result, there were often no definiteanswers. After I had finished writing the thirty quizzes, Iset to work compiling a key for teachers and othersupervisors. I accomplished this by giving a quiz for eachunit to three different Americans. I asked them to writenotes in the margins on any points that they felt neededelaboration. Another supervisor also wrote extensivecomments to be placed in the library along with each quiz.

Each time I wrote a quiz, I tried to vary the format. Inthis way, teachers were exposed to different kinds of testitems such as'multiple choice, true or false, doze, andmatching. I also added a blank section at the bottom ofeach one headed "Notes," so that the teachers could jotdown information during discussion.

Since the quizzes were written, they have been used in avariety of ways. Many teachers take them to evaluate theirown knowledge of a subject. Some of the quizzes are alsosuitable for advanced students. I also hope that thesepre-tests will generate additional ones, and that super-visors will expand on and revise this first attempt.

In effect, besides meeting my original goals, this simpledevice for clarifying and conveying cultural informationhas enabled teachers to do the following: (1) Take a.pre-test to determine areas of weakness or misunder-standing; (2) Practice listening, speaking, reading, andwriting skills; (3) Compare several cultures, includingAmerica, their own, and their students'; (4) Prepare anongoing notebook of cultural notes to accompany eachunit.

Christina Herbert is thePhanat Nikhom Site Editorof Passage: A Journal ofRefugee Education. Ms. Her-bert has been an ESL super-visor at Phanat NikhomRefugee Camp since January1984. She received her BA inliterature from Reed College,and from 1981 to 1982, shetaught EFL in Japan. She hasalso taught Indochinese re-

fugees in Bostdn. In 1983, she received her Master of Arts inTeaching in ESL from the School for International Training.

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34' PASSAGE

c

I. BANKING

True or False1, Most places (businesses) will acc..-pi check for payment.2. Banks are usually open on Saturdays.3. There is usually a fee to get a money order.4. To open an account, you must pay a fee.5. Savings and checking accounts earn the same interest.6. When you open a checking account, you get free checks.7. Two people can share one account.8. Deposits and withdrawalsare made by filling out forms which are submitted to a teller.9. If you bounce a check, the bank will pay for the check and charge you tor. it.

10. A money order is the same as a check.11. Whoever gets to the teller firiis served first.12. Many bills are paid directly to business by the bank. For example, the phone company may be paid the amount due

each month directly from your account.

What are some differences between banking in your country and*the-US ?

SAIVII-E FROM QUIZZES

II. SPONSOR

Please mark the following: Usually (U) Sometimes (S) Maybe (M) or Never (N)

A sponsor:1. is the first person to meet the refugees when they arrive.,2. belongs to a church group.3. gives the refugee a job.4. provides household furnishings.5. enrolls the children in school.6. shows the refugees around their new community.7 knows about the refugees' culture.8. is paid to be a sponsor.9. must pay to be a sporwor.

10. is on call for the refugee in case of an emerge*.11. is a member of the refugee's family or a friend.12. is an American citizen.13. is over thirty years old.

What do you think are some of the biggest fears a refugee may have about his or her sponsor?

-M. EMERGENCIES

Wh6m should you call in the following emergencies? Police/Ambulance/Poison Center/Fire Department/None

1.. Your wife is going into labor.ft. Your son just drank poison.3. The couple downstairs is arguing loudly.4. A robber is in the bedroom.5. You see a bad car accidentin front of your house.6. Your baby swallows a bottle of aspirin.7. You have a bad headache.8. Your gas stove has just blown up.9. You see smoke billowing from a nearby apE. .3

10. Your pet cat is stuck at the top of a twertiy-toot

What are some emergency symbols?,

o Teacher, It's Nice to Meet You, Too

Ruby Ibanez

Philippine Refugee Processing Center

Hello! I'm one of the 20 students in your class. I comeeveryday. I sit here and I smile and I laugh and I try to talkyour English which you always say will be "my" language.

As I sit here I wonder if you, my teacher, are able to tellwhen I am sinking in spirit and ready to quit thisincredible task. I walked a thousand miles, dear teacher,before met you. Sitting here listening to you andstruggling to hold this pencil seems to be my "present." Iwant to tell you though that I, too, am a person of thepast.

When I say my name is Sombath I want to tell you alsothat back in my village, I had a mind of my own. I couldreason. I could argue. I could lead. My neighborsrespected me. There was much value to my name, teacher,no matter how strange it may sound to your ears.

You ask, "Where are you from?" I was born in a land offields and rivers and hills where people lived in a richtradition of life and oneness. My heart overflows withpride and possession of that beautiful land, that place ofmy ancestors. Yet, with all this that I want to share withyou, all I can mutter is I came from Cambodia. I'mKhmer. I'm not even sure I can say these vords right ormake you understand that inside, deep inside, I knowwhat you are ,asking.

"How old are you?" I want to cry and laugh wheneveryou go around asking that. I want so very much to say,I'm, old,. older than all the dying faces I have left behind,older than the hungry hands I have pushed aside, olderthan the shouts of fear and terror I have closed my ears to,older than the world, maybe. And certainly much olderthan you. Help me, my teacher, I have yet to know thedays of the week or the twelve months of the year.

Now I see you smiling. I know you are thinking of mygroans and sighs whenever I have to say "house" and itcomes out "how" instead. I think many times, that maybeI was born with the wrong tongue and the wrong set ofteeth. Back in my village, I was smarter ,than most of myneighbors. Teacher, I tremble with fear now over wordslike "chicken" and "kitchen." -

Now you laugh. I know why. I do not make sense withthe few English words I try to say. I seem like a childbecause I only say childlike things in your English. But Iam an adult, and I know muclythat I cannot yet express.This I think is funny and sad at the same time. Many timesthe confusion is painful. But do not feel sad, dear teacher.

41

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I wish very much to learn all the things that you areoffering me, to keep them in my heart, and to make them apart of me. However, there was this life I have livedthrough and now the thoughts Of days I have yet to face.Between my efforts to say "How are you?"and "I am fine,thank you" come uncontrollable emotions of loneliness,anger, and uncertainty. So have patience with me, myteacher, when you see me sulking and frowning, lookingoutside the classroom or near to crying.

Please go on with your enthusiasm, your eagerness, andyour high spirit. Deep inside me, I am moved thatsomeone will still give me so much importance. Keep thatsmile when I keep forgetting the Words you taught meyesterday and cannot remember those I learned last week.

Give ine a gentle voice to case the frustration, humili-ation, and shame when I just cannot communicate"refrigerator," "emergency, or "appointment." For you,my teacher, they are little words, but for me they are likemonsters to fight. Pat me on shoulder once in a whileand help my tense body and trembling hands to write A BC and I 23.

Continue to reward me with a warm "good" or "verygood" when I have finally pronounced "church" correctlyafter one hundred "shurfthes." Flatter me by attempting tospeak a phrase or two from my language and I will end uplaughing with you.

I am one of the students in your class. I came today andtomorrow I will come again. I smile and laugh and try totalk your English which you say will become my language.

1.

Ruby Ibanez was a teacher ofTagalog to American PeaceCorps volunteers in the Philip-pines before Joining the Inter-national Catholic MigrationCommission. At the Philip-pine Refugee ProcessingCenter, she taught ESL forone year and worked as asupervisor of the MaterialsDevelopment Department be-

fore becoming a supervisor oflitteachers I the Integrated Program. At present, she is a teacher

trainer wt h the Training Department.,

36 PASSAGE

Training For Self-Sufficiency: the MELT Project,*A Link to the Overseas Refugee Program

Myrna Ann Adkins

Spring institute for international Studies, Wheat Ridge, Coloradoo

This article discusses the Mainstream English Language Training (MELT) project. Theoverall objective of the project, funded by tit; Office of Refugee Resettlement of the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services, was to develop consistency among ESLprograms for refugees across the U.S. and to establish linkages with the overseas trainingprogram for refugees. Toward this end, the primary goals of the project were to design aCore Curriculum Guide, to develop a set of levels to describe language performance, and tofield test three new versions of the Basic English Skills Test (B.E.S.T.).

Background

Although there are many paths taken by refugees toreach self-sufficiency in the United States, the ability toeffectively use English is usually identified as one of themost important skills for advancing along any path. TheMainstream English Language Training (M ELT) project,conceived and funded by the Office of Refugee Reset-tlement (ORR) of the U.S. Department of Health andHuman Services, is an attempt to provide guidelines fortesting, leveling, and curriculum in English languagetraining programs for refugees in the U.S. These objectivessupport the overall project goals of establishing greaterconsistency among training programs in the U.S. andproviding enhanced continuity between U.S. programsand the overseas training program.

The project began in the fall of 1983 and continued tothe end of September 1984. There were seven MELTgrantees: International Institute Boston, Boston, MA;Northwest Educational Cooperative, Arlington Heights,IL; International Institute of Rhode Island, Inc./ ProjectPersona, Providence, RI; Refugee Education and Em-ployment Program, Arlington, VA; San Diego Com-munity College District, San Diego, CA; San FranciscoCommunity College District, San Francisco, CA; SpringInstitute for International Studies, Denver, CO. Theyrepresented a variety of refugee programs in terms of

Information in the article was provided by the Office of RefugeeResettlement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

p

location, size, program esign, type of administrativeinstitution, and staffing patterns. Two of the projects weremulti-site, providing the added dimension of more ruraland smaller programs. Nineteen program sites in all wereinvolved in the project. Coordination, data collection,analysis, and training for the project were provided byRMC Research Corporation, the American Council forNationalities Service, and the Center for Applied Lin-guistics. About 1,400 students participated in the project.The average class size was about 20 students, with classesranging from 4 to 41 students. Although the overseas ESLlevel was not known for all of the MELT students, thelevels were represented fairly evenly in the project. Themajority of the participants had been residents in the U.S.for one to eighteen months.

Goals and Activities of the MELT Project

The primary goals of the MELT project were to testand refine a set of levels to describe student languageperformance, to design a Core Curriculum Guide, and tofield-test three new forms of the Basic English Skills Test(B.E.S.T.). Toward this end, the Center for AppliedLinguistics, under contract with ORR, Region 1, de-veloped three new versions of the B.E.S.T. and conveneda group of refugee educators and administrat rs fromacross the U.S. to draft the Student Performance Levelsand a core curriculum outline. These became the workingdocuments for the MELT project.

42

The Student Performance Levels describe a student'slanguage ability at a given level in terms of: listening,speaking, reading, and writing skills; the ability tocommunicate with a native speaker; and readiness foremployment. Ten Student Performance Levels weredesignated: levels I-V correspond to the overseas programlevels A-E; levels VI-X describe higher levels of languageability. Performance at level X is equivalent to that of anative speaker of English. As part of the project, estimateswere made of the number of hours required to move fromone level to another. Levels were equated to the ESL levelsused in the overseas program, and. each site compared theMELT levels to program levels being used by that site.

The MELT Core Curriculum Guide lists competenciesin various topic areas that students should be able toperform at each level. (For example, under the topic"Health," a level I competency is "Indicate where a pain islocated," while a level, VI competency is "Read warn-ings/ directions on over-the-counter drugs.") Sites alsonoted the grammar used in each topic area, culturalinformation considered essential, and methods and ma-terials used for teaching each competency. Each sitedescribed how the Curriculum Guide was adapted to thecurriculum in use at that site.

Project participants preferred to develop ap oduct that would . . . be adapta5le tolocal needs . . .

, A third responsibility of the project sites was to field-test three new forms of the B.E.S.T., a competency-basedESL test consisting of listening/speaking and reading/writing sections. The test can be used as a placement,diagnostic, and progress evaluation instrument by ESLprograms. As part of the project, the "Ild-test versions ofthe B.E.S.T. were used as pre- and post-tests for MELTstudents. Part of the task was to relate a range of scores onthe B.E.S.T. to each Student Performance Level. By alsorelating scores to the levels used in the overseas program,continuity between overseas and stateside programs canbe enhanced.

MELT Project Outcomes

Specific products which will be available as a result ofthe MELT project include: the Student PerformanceLevels (SPL), the competency-based MELT Core Cur-riculum Guide, and three forms of the B.E.S.T.

The MELT products provide a basis for programdesign and operation, but are intended to be adapted to fitindividual program needs. The Curriculum Guide is alisting of competencies to be used for curriculum devel-opment; it is not a curriculum itseif. Project participants

Adkins/ The M ELT Project 37

preferred to develop a product that would serve as a guideand be adaptable to local needs rather than issuestandards for all programs. There was similar concern'about attempting to designate a certain number of hoursrequired for a student to move from one level to the next.A range of hours was considered in the MELT project,and these of course vary depending on such factors as astudent's previous education, health, attendance, employ-ment, age, and general resettlement experience. There wasrecognition that local needs and conditions vary fromstate to state and program to program. Certain keycompetencies were identified as those needed by refugeesin most resettlement situations; others are suggested andcan be taught as needs require and time permits.

In addition, MELT project participants grappled withthe issue of how to acknowledge the importance ofgrammar within the English-teaching framework. Theintent was to suggest how grammar fits into the teachingof the competencies while leaving the final selection ofwhere and when to teach specific grammatical structuresto individual programs. The MELT package is intendedto stimulate ideas and suggest ways to better serve refugeelanguage needs in meeting (he goal of self-sufficiency; it isnot a ready-made, complete design for any program.

The MELT package should be viewed as a flexible,adaptable guide to assist programs in their attempts tobecome competency-based and make decisions regardingthe content of ESL lessons. If the levels become anaccepted measure of student performance at specific stepsin the learning process, refugee service providers willunderstand better the skills of the peoplethey are helpingto become self-sufficient. The testing portion of thepackage should assist programs in developingand improv-ing methods of assessing and evaluating student per-foraaance. For the many programs that are not compe-tency-based, the MELT package will serve as a foun-dation for designing a program that meets ORR goals andobjectives. (ORR is in the process of revising the goals,objectives, and priorities in English language training forprograms receiving ORR funding. These revisions areexpected to be issued in the Spring of 1985 and will specifythat ELT programs funded by ORR are to be competency-based.)

Establishing more continuity between the overseastraining program and stateside programs should save timeand encourage effective curriculum development as thestages of resettlement are more closely linked. Because thecurriculum in the camp programs is competency-based,use of that model in statesi6e programs further helpsstudents build on previous experience. Curriculum in theoverseas training program is continually being developed,and this is a process which occurs stateside as well. Nogood curriculum is static; continual adaptation of theMELT curriculum is essential based on changing refugeeneeds, new developments in the overseas training pro-gram, and the needs of individual programs. Continuedassessment of both overseas and qateside programs is

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desirable and assumes a constant process of curriculummodification.

Training In the Use of the MELT Package

The need for on-going teacher training and curriculumdevelopment is assumed by the MELT project, andtraining in the use of the MELT package will be madeavailable by ORR beginning in the Spring of 1985. It isanticipated that technical assistance and training will beprovided to English language trainers, vocational English

. . . each program is part of the continuumof the resettlement effort that begins in theoverseas program and continues stateside.

language trainers, and to state refugee coordinatorsthrough a contract from ORR. Although an attempt hasbeen made to make the components of the packagesuccinct, and explanations and instructions are included,technical assistance and training will assist programs tounderstand and use the testing, leveling, and curriculumcomponents more efficiently. Training needs will, ofcourse, vary depend; ig on whether or not a program isalready competency-based and has experience with theB.E.S.T. Examples of curriculum formats and lessonplans are included in the package to help programs meetindividual program needs.

Conclusion

The overall purpose of the MELT project was toprovide a tool for programs to use in meeting ORR goalsand objectives within the broader framework of assistingrefugees to become self-sufficient as quickly as possible.The MELT package will be useful to the extent that thoseinvolved in programs adapt it to meet local needs andcapabilities with an awareness of how each program ispart of the continuum of the resettlement effort thatbegins in the overseas program and continues stateside.There is a continuing need for the exchange of informa-tion between the overseas and the stateside programs.With the MELT project, an important step has beentaken toward meeting this need.

Myrna Ann Adkins is Directorof Training at the Spring Institutefor International Studies, WheatRidge, Coloradd, and served asProject Director of the SpringInstitute MELT Project. For thelast three years, Ms. Adkins hasbeen Project Director of theSpring Institute Program undercontract with ORR Region VIIIto provide technical assistance inten owes to refugee ESL pro-

grams. She is also Project Director of the Mental HealthTechnical Assistance Program in Region VIII. Formerly, shewas on the staff of three Peace Corps training programs atStanford University and San Jose State University, and taughtESL and did teacher training for three years in the Philippines.She has an M.A. from the University of Michigan in FarEastern Studies. \

Cultural Orientationfor Eastern European Refugees

Katie Solon

Intergovernmental Committee for Migration, Austria

Refugees and immigrants from Eastern Europe havebeen coming to the United States for over a hundredyears, and there are well-established Polish, Romanian,Hungarian, and Czechoslovak communities in the U.S.Yet Eastern European refugees suffer unique adjustmentproblems in the United States. Difficulties seem to beconnected with their extremely high expectations regard-ing employment, housing, and education and with cultureshock. Living in a society of great cultural and racialdiversity and accepting the new responsibilities thataccompany new choices in America have also provedproblematic.

Recent surveys of U.S. service providers conducted bythe American Council of. Voluntary Agencies and theCenter for Applied Linguistics have pinpointed distin-guishing problems for Eastern European refugees.

Because of shared heritage, refugees expect the U.S.to be as they pictured it. Sponsors and serviceproviders, in turn, expect Eastern European refugeesto be like Americans and to readily adjust to the U.S.Both sides expect resettlement to be no problem.Though Eastern European refugees may have hadmore exposure to the West than other refugees, theirimage of the U.S. is often a blurry picturesomewhere between the propaganda of the com-munist countries they have fled and Hollywoodmovies.Most Eastern European refugees have lived theirentire lives under a totalitarian system and aretherefore unaccustomed to much of the decisionmaking, responsibility, and competition they face inthe U.S. They differ from earlier immigrants of thesame ethnic groups in subtle, but important, ways.

The resettlement process for Eastern Europeans is noteasy. Yet when their adjustment is not as rapid as expectedby both refugees and sponsors, there is disappointment,impatience, and resentment on both sides.

To help Eastern Europeans prepare for their resettle-ment, the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration(ICM), under contract with the Bureau for RefugeePrograms of the U.S. Department of State, has organized

39

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a Cultural Orientation program for refugees immediatelyprior to their departure to the U.S. In the past year,selected groups of U.S.-approved refugees have beenattending CO courses in three sites: Bad Soden, WestGermany; Rome, Italy; and Maria Schutz, Austria.

The students, 16 and older, vary in nationality, lengthof processing, education and employment background,level of English competency, and religion. In Bad Soden,West Germany, the students are Polish ex-detainees, amixture of professionals and skilled workers sharingstrong Solidarnok (Solidarity) ties and a sense of identitywith the U.S. Most are young families; all come directlyfrom Warsaw, transiting in Germany only a few weeks.

In Rome, Italy, the majority of students are Romanianswho come to Italy directly from Bucharest after waitingup to ten years for government permission to leave. Theygenerally have lower educational and skill levels and havehad less exposure to the West. A smaller number of Poles,Czechoslovaks, and Romanian% who have been awaitingprocessing for months in camps in Latina and Capua arealso trained.

Most Eastern European refugees have livedtheir entire lives under a totalitarian systemand are therefore unaccustomed to much ofthe decision making, responsibility, andcompetition they face in the U.S.

In Maria Schutz, Austria, students are Polish, Roman-ian, Czechoslovak, and Hungarian refugees from CampTraiskirchen near Vienna. Most are workers, skilled orunskilled, some with technical education. These "campcases" usually entered Austria alone on tourist or studentvisas, then registered as refugees, and have waited up totwo years for approval.

The Cultural Orientation program in Europe wasmodeled after the program in Southeast Asia and stillresembles it in some aspects: adult students, mandatory

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attendance, courses taught in native language, majorcurriculum topics, and methodologies. As in the South-east Asian program, common teaching methods includebrainstorming, problem solving, role-playing, and dis-cussing the known as an introduction to the unknown.Refugee experience in the processing country is oftenreferred to in class as a stepping stone to the U.S.

CO topics are for the most part the same as those taughtin Southeast Asia. There are twelve topical areas; thesame core curriculum is used at all three sites withpresentation adjusted to each ethnic group and individu-alized for each class. The topical areas are:

Introduction/ Classroom OrientationTransit ProcessResettlement and SponsorshipGeography, History, Government, and LawCommunity and Social Services

Family and Social RelationsEconomy/ ConsumerismEmploymentEducationHousingCommunicationTransportation

Of these, the most important is the topic of Employment,to which one-fourth of class time is devoted.

While there are similarities between the programs inSoutheast Asia and Europe, there are significant differ-encesdiff=nces due both to divergent student groupsand logistical considerations. Most noticeable are theelements of time, scheduling, and curriculum focus.

Generally, Eastern European students are available fortraining only ten days before their departure for the U.S.

ICM's ESL Program for Eastern European Refugees

Roger J. Westintergovernmental Committee for Migration, Geneva

The Intergovernmental Committee for Migration(1CM) is known primarily for its work in the assistanceand transportation it provides to migrants and refugeesin their movement from one country or continent toanother. But that is only part of the story. Besidesoccupying itself with the physical mechanics of movingpeople, ICM has always been concerned with theirintegration into the destination country. This concernled ICM to institute language training programs whichhave benefited almost 300,000 people since the organi-zation came into being in 1952.

At present, language-training courses for refugeesorganized by 1CM are held in refugee camps andholding centers in Austria, Greece, Italy, Turkey, andYugoslavia, while in a few large European citiesAthens, Paris, and Viennatraining takes place incentrally-located installations. It is estimated that in1985 1CM will train some 7,090 refugees in ESL classesin Europe.

ICM's language training program Offers from therefugee training program in Southeast Asia in reveralways. The first difference between the two programs isthat the students in ICM's training program are seldomall bound for the same destination and, since themajority enter training at a pre-approval stage ofprocessing, the destination country is usually not

known at the time they enroll. Although most refugeesare eventually resettled in English-speaking countries(principally, the United States, Canada, and Australia),the diversity of their destinations raises the question ofwhich variety of English to teachAmerican, Cana-dian, or Australian. The answer ideally all three butwith no strong emphasis on any one. 1CM teachers areencouraged to highlight differences in language usagein the three countries, but the extent to which this isdone, and done effectively, depends on the degree oftheir exposure to the three dialects.

The diversity of the group in terms of destination hasother didactic implications. It means that in theselection of ESL texts and materials preference is givento those which are minimally culture-bound. It alsomeans that no attempt is made in the 1CM class tocombine the teaching of ESL with Cultural Orienta-tion.

A second difference is that in contrast to theSoutheast Asian program, students in the Europeanprogram neither enroll at the same time nor leavesimultaneously. One can easily imagine the kind oforganizational problems, particularly in class schedul-ing, which have to be faced in an open entry/ exitprogram. These are obviously more complex than theyare in a situation where the inflow and outflow of

46

Thus, the CO "preview of the U.S." is limited to anintensive twenty-four hour course in four to six days. Inaddition to this, two sites schedule ESL classes in theevening on a voluntary basis. (For an overview of the ESLprogram in Europe, see box on page 40 and 41.)

While the curriculum topical areas are largely the sameas those taught in Southeast Asia, the focus of presenta-tion is different. Because the program in Eastern Europe isconsiderably shorter, less time is spent on details. Andbecause of the particular nature of the adjustmentproblems Eastern European refugees face in the U.S., theemphasis is on attitudes and expectations, witha focus onchoice and responsibility. Nearly all students are literate;therefore, detailed cultural orientation guides in nativelanguagc are distributed, used in class, and taken to theU.S. by the refugees for use as reference.

Staffing arrangements vary from site to site. In Bad

Solon/ CO for Eastern European Refugees 41

Soden, courses were first taught by an American teacherwith the help of a bilingual assistant, a native Polishspeaker. After five months, the assistant teacher assumedfull responsibility. In Rome, American teachers workwith bilingual assistants, while in Maria Schutz, nativeEastern European teachers are supported by an Americansupervisor. The director of t program works out of1CM headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

All three sites confer with each other and headquarterson matters of logistics and pedagogy. Ongoing contactwith the Immigration and Naturalization Service and theRefugee Coordinator at the U.S. Embassies and ICMtransport operations staff in each country is critical. InRome and Maria Schutz, ICM/ CO staff also cooperatewith the various voluntary agencies concerned.

In one year of life, CO in Europe has seen manychanges. The major change has been the growth 'away

refugees follow a more regular and predictable pattern.A third difference between the two programs is that

in the 'European program class attendance is notmandatory. In Europe, where visa issuance is notconditional on participation in the program, refugeesmay decide for themselves whether or not to show upfor class. In areas where, and seasons when, employ-ment such as fruit-picking or factory work is readilyavailable, the class option is frequently passed over infavor of earning a little extra money. Unlike the teacherin Southeast Asia, the language teacher in Europe doesnot have a captive audience. The effect of this onattendance has been mentioned. It also has implica-tions for syllabus content and methodology andexplains, in part, the use of the more popular teachingaids, such as video.

A final difference between the two programs has todo with program rationale. .ESL course objectives inSoutheast Asia are viewed largely in terms of theirfunction as a preparation for resettlement. The pro-gram aims to teach communicative language in orderto help the refugees adjust to life in the United Statesand to facilitate the role of sponsors and serviceproviders.

By way of contrast, the ESL program for refugees inEurope concerns itself somewhat less with the resettle-ment aspect and somewhat more with the problemsinherent in the refugees' sojourn in the camp. Theprogram realizes that refugees need at least a rudi-mentary knowledge of the language of the host countryand never loses sight of that. But the refugees have

I im IN 1 I I Viln I I at

more immediate weds which ICM's ESL programsattempt to address. Life in a European camp, as inany camp, is never pleasant. The waiting period is oftenlong and can be punctuated with frustration, parti-cularly when refugees do not yet know if they havebeen accepted for resettlement. In their uprootedcondition, the in-camp refugees are easy prey to boutsof depression and worry which are frequently broughton by a state of idleness and sense of ennui. The ICMprogram serves as an antidote to this, offering refugeesan opportunity to use their time productively.

Roger Wed has been work-ing with 1CM in Europesince 1967first in Ger-many (1967-1968), then inItaly (1968-1978), and forthe past 6 years at GenevaHeadquarters. At present,Mr. West supervises all of1CM's language trainingand cultural activitiesworld-wide. He has taughtEnglish to migrants and

refugees in and out of Australia. He holds a degree in lawfrom Melbourne University and an ESL qualification frontTrinity College. London.

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from the Southeast Asian program model that was firstused to one that is more appropriate to the needs of theEuropean program. Other areas of program development,either planned or underway, include: informal post-testing of students; a system to distribute questionnaires tofollow up graduates after resettlement in the U.S.; revisionof the cultural orientation guides to correspond withcurriculum revisions; and improving communication withrefugee training staff in Southeast Asia, Africa, and theU.S. It is hoped that these developments will enable theprogram to better meet the particular needs of EasternEuropean refugees and U.S service providers.

Katie Solon has been with theICM Orientation programfrom the initial stages, Begin-ning in January 1984, Ms,Solon taught the pilot courses,in Bad Soden, West Germany,and in March of that year.helped open the Italian pro-gram. Since July 1984, she hasbeen coordinating the CO activities in Maria Schutz. Shehal also served as curriculum

developer since the beginning of the Eastern European program.Before Joining IC M, Ms. Solon worked for two years as a COand Integrated Supervisor at the Philippine Refugee ProcessingCenter, and prior to that, for one and a half years as a resettle-Ment worker with USCC in Oregon. She has a B.S. from theSchool of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

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Editor's note.% In response to inquiries about the mental health facilities and services at the refugee processing centers inSoutheast Asia, we asked Steven Muncy to describe the services provided by his organization at the Philippine RefugeeProcessing Center. The following program description was written in response to that request.

Community Mental Healthand Family Services, Inc.: A Program Description

Steven Muncy

Philippine Refugee Processing Center

The Community Mental Health an4_Family Services, Inc. (CMHS) provides compre-hensive, personal, social, and mental -health services for Indochinese refugees at thePhi pine Reftigee_Prowsks_Center. This article is a general overview of the major tasksan functions of that agency. The aTee has been prepared so that educators and otherref gee assistance workers may develop a better understanding of this service deliverysystem and how it meets the needs of Indochinese refugees.

Community Mental Health and Family Services, Inc.(CMHS) was established in 1981 and is principallyfunded by the Royal Norwegian Government and theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR). Its predominantly Filipino staff consists of 25professional social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists,and administrative support workers. They are assisted by65 trained Vietnamese, Khmer, and Lao volunteer work-ers. Although most of the agency's work is in thePhilippine Refugee Processing Center (PRPC), servicesare also provided at the Vietnamese Refugee Center inPuerto Princesa, Palawan, and at the Philippine RefugeeTransit Center in Paranaque, Metro Manila. This articledescribes the agency's work at the PRPC.

CMHS's comprehensive community mental healthcenter model is consistent with the unique needs andstructures of the refugee camp setting. This professionalmodel is best described as a combination of a familyservices agency and a community mental health center.Individuals, couples, and families experiencing personaladjustment problems, marital discord, interpersonal con-flict, and other difficulties related to the traumas andstress of refugee life are provided with various forms offamily service intervention: social casework on an indi-vidual, marital, or family basis; groupwork; supportiveservices; home visits; and information about othercommunity resources. Those forms of assistance usually

found in community mental health centerscrisis inter-vention, psychological/ psychiatric diagnostic evalua-tions, psychiatric treatment, and various measures forprevention, as well as training and researchare alsointegral elements of the CM HS model. The practice ofusing refugees trained as paraprofessional social serviceaides from within the refugee community as members ofthe service delivery system is a unique characteristic ofthis model.

The practice of using refugees trained asparaprofessional social service aides . . . is aunique characteristic of this [program].

Direct Services

Guidance Counseling

CM HS provides direct services to individuals, couples,families, and groups through its Guidance and Counsel-ing Program. It is not unusual to find among a highlystressed population such as refugees (or victims ofvirtually any disaster situation), individuals with certainbehaviors that are atypical or inappropriate in the eyes ofthe community. In most cases, these behaviors are simply

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the predictable, short-term reactions to trauma andsituational stress. Only in a very few cases are suchbehaviors, associated with longer-term difficulties infunctioning. Refugees experiencing personal difficultiessuch as depression and anxiety come to the staff of theGuidance and Counseling Program voluntarily or throughreferrals made by other groups and agencies. Professionalsocial workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists, assistedby trained refugee social service aides, provide directservices to those with identified needs.

One feeling shared by all .refugees is the sense of losscaused by leaving behind homeland, friends, family, andpersonal belongings. When 'other family members areunable to join the escape effort, or die in the process, thesense of loss for those left behind is overwhelming. Whenpsycho social functioning is adversely affected, CM HS isrequested to provide casework services. The following isan example of such a case:

Mr. N. was referred to CM HS because of his obviousstate of depression and deep grief. Married for six years,Mr. N. left Vietnam by boat with his wife and son. Thejourney was very difficult, with several attacks by pirateswho raped and abducted most of the women. Mr. N.'swife and son were abducted and had not been heard fromfor more than one year.

After the abduction of his wife and son, Mr. N.experienced frequent headaches, insomnia, a sense ofnervousness, and a general feeling of apathy. Recurrentdreams about his wife, and the lack of information as towhether she was dead, or alive, left him in a state of greatdistress.

The CM HS caseworker gave Mr. N. the opportunityto talk about his physical complaints. This eventually ledto discussion of the grief he was experiencing. Attentionto his emotional needs, and support of his efforts toaddress them, resulted in fewer physical symptoms andimproved psychosocial functioning. With the case-worker's support and referral assistance, Mr. N. enrolledin a vocational training course, accepted a leadershipposition in the refugee community, and began preparinghimself for resettlement in the United States.

Casework services are provided in conjunction withother camp-based groups. The agency's linkage withthose responsible for resettlement processing, with health-care providers, with education personnel, and , withcommunity-based social workers has led to a well-coordinated service delivery.

Crisis intervention

There are very few days or nights when CM HS is notcalled upon to provide zrisis intervention services. This isone of the cornerstones of the agency's service deliverysystem. Crises may involve newly rescued boat people,unexpected tragedies and accidents within the camps,physical injuries as a result of violent altercations orspouse abuse, as well as attempted suicides. The follow-ing case illustrates the role CM HS plays in crisis

intervention:

Mrs. K., a Vietnamese refugee, was rushed to thehospital when she fell unconscious as a result of adeliberate overdose of several medications. After pump-ing her stomach, hospital personnel requested the crisisintervention services of CMHS.

The caseworker joined Mrs. K. in the hospital and inthe course of the discussion learned that Mrs. K. wantedto die because she felt her husband was no longersatisfied with her as a wife and mother of their fourchildren. Marital problems had begun shortly after Mrs.K. was repeatedly raped by pirates during the boat tripfrom Vietnam. Since their arrival in Thailand andthroughout their stay in the Philippines, Mr. K. had beenbeating his wife, spending more time with his malefriends, and growing more distant. None of this behaviorhad been exhibited in Vietnam, and Mrs. K. confided thatshe felt her husband would be happier with a new wife.Hence, her desire to die.

The caseworker spent a gieat deal of time outliningother alternatives for dealing with tr.. unhappy situationand convincing Mrs. of-the responsibility she had interms of caring for the small children. After several hoursof conversation, the caseworker felt that the desire tocommit suicide had been at least temporarily replaced bya willingness' to look for other solutions.

One feeling shared by all refugees is thesense of loss caused by leaving behindhomeland, friends, family and personalbelongings.

Preventive Services

The refugees' ethnic community can and should playan important therapeutic and preventive menial healthrole. CM HS has therefore implemented several com-munity-based prevention strategies through two majorprograms: Mental Health Education and Paraprofes-sional Training.

The Mental Health Education Program

This program is designed to be a two-way learningprocess. CM HS conducts surveys and holds discussionswith its own refugee staff and with representatives of therefugee communities. In this way, staff members learnabout refugees' needs, their traditional ways of dealingwith problems, and resources available in their ownneighborhoods. In return, CM HS works to make servicesmore accessible by increasing community awareness ofthe needs and services available. For example, all newlyarrived refugees between the ages of 16 and 55 are given abrief orientation to the tasks, functions, and officelocations of CMHS. This orientation is done by the

refugee paraprofessional staff of CM HS in the languageof the ethnic group. In addition, public address systems,posters, and other media are employed to ensure that therefugee community has adequate information aboutCMHS.

CMHS carries out community-based leadership train-ing efforts so that the neighborhood leaders may fullyune,n-stand the role of 'CMHS and the procedures forreferring community residents to the agency. The le4ders'endorsement of the agency has proven most helAul ingaining community acceptance.

. . . Indochinese refugees, when properlyraine4 at:: be effective bridges between

service providers and beneficiaries, as wellas caregivers in their own communities.

The Intensive English as a Second Language/ CulturalOrientation Program provides the opportunity for CM HSto make presentations on' specific mental health issuessuch as stresi,, depression, and cultural adjustmentdifficulties. These presentations reinforce understandingof the role of CM HS and provide a forum for discussingimportant mental health concerns.

Training the professional staff of other groups andagencies serving the PRPC is another important pre-ventive task of the Mental Health Education Program.Health care providers, social service workers, leachers,and case processing personnel are taught how to decidewhen a person is at risk or in need, how to refer thatperson, and what support measures can be taken towardthe enhancement of psychosocial functioning. Specialissues-oriented workshops are also conducted by CMHSupon request.

The Paraprofessional Training Program

This component of the CM HS model is' ba sed on 'thepremise that Indochinese refugees, when properly trained,can be effective bridges between service providers andbeneficiaries, as well as caregivers in their own commun-ities. Such bridges are absolutely essential when serviceproviders belong to language and cultural groups thatdiffer from those of the refugee. We believe that the abilityof refugees to care for their own people builds self-esteemand self-sufficiency, whether in al refugee camp or aresettlement community.

The paraprofessionals at CM HS are trained to serve ascase-finders, translators, outreach aides, caseworker as-sistants, and supportive service workers. Task assign-

Muncy/ Community Mental Health 45

ment is based on demonstrated abilities. For examplc,-aparaprofessional may be asked to escort a client to thehospital for medical arention and then serve as atranslator for the physician. Another paraprofessional isgiven the responsibility of conducting CM HS orienta-tions for newly arrived refugees. And yet another win beasked to assist in individual casework.

The paraprofessionals play an important preventiverole by referring needy refugees to the appropriatecommunity resources. Their sensitivity to. and under-standing of, the needs of their people, and their awarenessof existing resource: and procedures give them the abilityto address personal, social, and mental health needsbefore they reach the difficult-to-manage crisis stage.

Conclusion

EffectiVe provision of mental health care services at thePRPC is the result of the unique design of the Com-munity Mental Health Services. Refugees experiencingpsychological or emotional difficulties are assistedthrough the direct services of crisis intervention andguidance counseling. In addition, preventive services areoffered to the entire refugee community through mentalhealth education and the use of paraprofessional refugeestaff. To date, hundreds of refugees have benefited fromthe services of CMHS. The success of the agency is duelargely to the efforts of numerous social service providers,educators, and refugees involved in the design andimplementation of its programs.

Steven Malley has been theExecutive Director of Com-munity Mental Health andFamily Services, Me. sincethe agency was formed inJune of 1981. Mr. Muncy hasserved at the Philippine Re-fugee Processing Center sinceAugust 1980. Previously, heworked in the residential treat-ment of offenders in theUnited States. He earned hisbachelor's degree in socialwork at James MadisonUniversity, in Harrisonburg,Virginia, and pursued grad-uate studies in clinical social

work at Barry University in Miami, Florida. He is nowstudying for his Ph.D. in sucial development at the Center forAdvanced Studies on Social Development in Asia in MetroManila..11111111

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Silk-Screening: Task-Based Learningin a Basic Job Skills Lesson

Evelyn Madman and Kelly Stephens

Galang Refugee Processing Center

J.

This article discusses task-based learning as it is used to teach low-level adult learners in theBasic Job Skills sub-component of the Pre-Employment 1 raining Program at Galang. Theauthors give a brief introduction to the Pre-Employment Training Program on Galang andexplain the philosophy behind the use of task-based activities to help students develop basicjob skills and learn English. A lesson in which students manufacture greeting cards ispresented as an example of task-based learning.

Introduction to the Pre-EmploymentTraining Program

The Pre-Employment Training (PET) Program at theGalang Refugee Processing Center in Indonesia began inFebruary of 1983 and was designed to prepare low-leveladult studentsliterate and non-literate Khmer andVietnameseto enter the American workplace. Aftercompleting the standard I2 -week intensive English as aSecond Language/ Cultural Orientation Program, thesestudents spend an additional six weeks in the PETProgram. There they study work-related ESL and CO aswell as Basic Skills. The PET Program is based on thetheory that the low-level adult learner acquires skills andlanguage more efficiently when actively involved inperforming a task. Classes are set up to simulate theAmerican workplace as closely as possible.

As one sub-component of the PET Program, BasicJob Skills covers the following areas: measuring ac-curately, sorting, and using power tools, developingwork habits such as cleanliness, efficiency, and qualitycontrol; and mastering survival English needed on thejob, such as asking for clarification and followingdirections. Work activities are presented in an American,on-the-job training style. Students are given a task or

project to complete under he direct training and super-vision of the teacher. The English used directly relates tothe task being done. Spontaneous use of English occursin the classroom just as it does when a need arises in anactual workplace. For example, students must ask forassistance, follow oral and written instructions, andrespond to feedback.

To give a clearer picture of what Baiic Skills is, we willpresent a lessonientitled "Mixing Liquids." In this lessonstudents become acquainted with American units ofmeasure. They learn how to read aid interpret directionsfor mixing solids and liquids, and how to use measuringcups and measuring spoons. The lesson is presented insteps progressing from simple to more complex, begin-ning with a discussion of the differences between U.S.and Vietnamese measuring systems. This is followed bymixing solutions according to the teacher's oral direc-tions and making more complicated solutions by increas-ing the proportions. The final steps involve mixing inkaccording to a written recipe and then printing cardsusing the ink in a silk-screening process.

fr

52

Lesson Rationale

When refugees resettle in America, they need to havethe skill of measuring. Food service and janitorial jobsare commonly held by new' ived refugees. Althoughthese jobs are classified as unskilled labor, employersexpect workers to be accurate andlo know how to dobasic measuring. Since many foods and chemicals areconcentrated and need to be diluted, workers ,in serviceindustries may be asked to measure concentrated juiceinto dispensing machines or to mix cleaning fluids. Inaddition, in their homes refugees will encounter Amer-ican measuring utensils and will need to read recipes andpackage directions. These tasks all require that measur-ing be done accurately.

Indochinese workers frequently fail to tell their super-visors when they do pot understand directions whichthey have not comprehended at all. According to a recentemployment survey (Literacy 85: 1983), employers mostfrequently complain about the failure of their Indo-chinese workers to ask for clarification. This lesson isdesigned to give the refugee practice in clarifying direc-tionsund asking for assistance when needed.

61

. . . the low-level aduk learner acquiresskills and language more efficiently whenactively involved in performing a task

Lesson Goals and Objectives

In this lesson students learn basic job skills and goodwork habits: measuring accurately, working quickly andefficiently, making a uniform product of good quality,and asking for clarification if they do not understandinstructions. If the job is not done right, this will bereflectediuthe final product; the ink will be spoiled or thecards will be sloppy. These activities will help studentsunderstand how important accuracy and uniformity arein the final product.

We believe that learners acquire language when theyuse it to communicate their wants and needs. This is builtinto the silk-screening activity. This lesson providesactivities which require students to ask questions to getthe job done. A student might need to ask for ademonstration for clarification of the directions, usinglalbguage such as "Can you show me?"; "I'm sorry, I don'tunderstand"; "Can you repeat that, please?"; or "Whereshould I put the stencil?"

Students also need to know that they are expected toprovide the supervisor with feedback on their progressand to -acknowledge that they have understood . the

, instructions by giving a verbal response such as, "OK, Iunderstand," or "Fine." Repeating part of the instruc-tion ' also shows understanding, e.g., "OK. I put the

Mariman & Stephens/ Silk-Screening 47

stencil between the fraihe and the card, right?"Lesson objectives are divided into two categories

Basic Skills and ESL.

0

Objectives for the Lesson'Mixing. Liquids"

Basic Skills.

Following directions:Making somethingaccording to givenspecificationsDetermining volume usingstandard AmericanmeasurementsRecognizing and measuringfractional parts (1/4, 1/2,3/4)Recognizing equivalentproportions, decreasingor increasing proportionsof ingredientsFollowing a recipe

Materials and Tools

ESL

Responding to a supervisor'squestions:

Are you finished? Yes, Iam.How much color did youuse? 374 teaspoon.Is this thick? No, not yet.

Asking for clarification:Can you show me?Which color should I use?Excuse me?Can you repeat again,please?Can you tell me again?

Acknowledgingunderstanding:

Oh, 'I see now.Like this?

Reading, recording, andreporting measurementsFollowing directions

The following materials are- needed for this lesson:

I box corn starch1 bottle liquid detergent4 packets plain gelatin2 bottles powdered food

coloring4 printing frames consisting

of silk stretched over a- wooden box frame (see

Figure 5)4 squeegees4 pieces of medium weight

cardboard that will beused for stencils

40 6" x 8" cardsa.

Lesson Procedures

3 liquid measures: liter,quart, Amer:,An cup

4 scissors8 small dishes4 pairs of rubber gloves1 bucket of water4 aprons1 stove8 tablcspoons4 toothbrushes4 written directions for

making printing ink (seeFigure 2)

Step I. Th:1 teacher introduces this lesson by explainingits purnoFe. This explanation Aiould be provided in thestudents' native language. American units of volumemeasurements, quarts, are contrasted with those thestudents already know, liters. (See Figure 1.) Thestudents am asked to use both liter and quart measure-ments to determine the quantity of water in the bucket.

53

PASSAGE

Figure IContrasting Volume Measurements

Sample Language

LISTENING SPEAKING

About how many litersare in this bucket?About how manyquarts are in thisbucket?

About I liter.

I'm sorry. I don't know.I

,

it

i quart 1 liter.

Step 2. Before class, the teacher has prepared three cupsof colored liquidsyellow, red, and green. The studentsare divided into groups and asked tlo make similarsolutions by following the teacher's directions. (SeeFigure 2.)

Figure 2Preparing Colored Solutions .

Sample Language

LISTENING SPEAKINO

What color is this? YellowRedGreen

Take a cup of water. How much?What should I do?

Measure 1 teaspoon red Put it where?coloring and put it in Excuse me?the cup.

red yellow green

+ water = red soonWItzoi

1 tsp

) yellow1 /2 tsp

yellowpowderedcoloring1 /4 tsp

water = yellow solution

blueliquidcoloring1 /2 tsp

.water =

1 cup

greensolution

Step 3. The teacher asks the students to make a largerquantity of the same solution. The students use measur-ing cups to pour out quarts and pints of the liquids. Inorder to complete this step, the students have to ask forclarification and for additional information. (See Figure3.) The teacher checics the students' solution by compar-ing the color to the original.

Figure 3Increasing Volume Proportions

Sample Language

LISTENING SPEAKING

How many cups to a pint? Twopints quart

Give me some water. How much?Can you make a pint of Is this right?yellow liquid?

a How much coloring Two teaspoonsdo you use?How many teaspoons Twoof coloring?Are they the same Same/ Different.color?

1 quart

1 pint

1 tisp yellow coloring

2 pints

Yellow solution

1 cup

1 /2 1spyellowcoloring

4 cups

k

II Mariman & Stephens/Silk-Screening 49

Step 4. 'The teacher demonstrates how to make asilkscreen greeting card. The teacher tells the studentsthat they will be making similar cards at the end of thelesson. The teacher introduces the necessary tools andmaterials. The students are put into groups and givenwritten directions for making the ink. The students readthese directions (see Figure 4) and proceed to mix the ink.In lower-level classes, the teacher might guide the groupsby having them mix the ink one step at a time.

Figure 4Making the Printing ink

Sample Language

LISTENING SPEAKING

What are these? CardsLook at the recipe.What do you need Gelatinfor step #1? Water

DetergentDo step #1.Are you finished? Yes/ NoRemove from the heat.

1. Mix 2 t. water, 3/4 t. gelatin, 1 /4 t. liquid detergent.

gelat:n

2. Mix 3/4 t. powdered color &1 /2 cup hot water.

3. M'x 2 t. cold water & 2 t.cornstarch

cornstarch

5. Cook slowly until very thick.

Or mix 1 t. liquid food color &1 /2 cup hot water.

4. Mix mixture B & mixture C.

6. Add mixture A to mixture BC.

310:

50 PASSAGE

Step 5. The teacher shows a stencil pattern made frombutcher paper and demonstrates how to make one. Theteacher gives the students time to create their ownpatterns. These are then placed between the frames andcard. If necessary, the students are shown a copy of theillustration in Figure 5. Then the teacher gives a demon-tration of applying the ink and printing the cards. (SeeFigure 5.)

Figure 5Printing

Sample Language

LISTENING SPEAKING

Cut the pattern..Put tbe stencil between

the fraMe.and.the card.Watch me!Put the ink here.Do like this.

Can you show me?

Is this right?

ic' .1a %%%%%%% \

I %% 11,11M

a.LS....s a %%%%%% 1111111MMMOOB UUUUUU Mina s%

MOM MIBIBIIla, UUUUU mammn,.Ma U OMNI elliMilMiSSU/ U MOM IWO% VMV

1/.01091;;;;;VIVI,. Moan= mIS tan M

ammaammomm am mome.,..lirgosss.".....

iii Oaf PI 14%

114 teelle011atI1M%IMIN11101.1. . 11111,40mak 00101,,1

1111111111111141.111a1116.1111

.M.111...§{41%

'....111.111111111,1,411:1:1111109PrS

A III 111vollub

Vslistawsw

ETrarrat7. Aid Viagantaft um low

swop Islamo Ma Mad Iffriblibm..411171111MIFIIMMOIOnaMMIn

Conclusion

This lesson gives students a chance to demonstratetheir ability to perform a ta.A after initial training in asimuar one. Students do these tasks with minimal helpfrom the instructor. The quality of the cards producedshows the students how successful they have been infollowing directions and in asking for more clarificationwhen necessary.

This lesson requires the active participation of thestudents. As the students manufacture their greetingcards, they are learning about American measurementsand how to read a recipe. Furthermore, the students arecommunicating their needs in English .in -order tocomplete their task successfully.

REFERENCES

Literacy 85. 1983. ESL/ Employment survey: job related problemsidentified by employers of Indochinese. Literacy 85: Saint Paul,Minnesota.

Evelyn Mailman has been anA I B level ESL and Pre-Em-ploymt nt Training teacher fortwo years with the consortiumat the Galang Refugee Pro-cessing renter, Indonesia. Ms.Mariman is currently a seniorteacher. in the Basic JobSkills sub-component of thePre- Employment TrainingProgram. She presented aworkshop at the 1984 TESOL

convention in Texas entitled "Concept- Based Language Learn-ing: An Approach for Low Levels." She received her degree inEnglish Education from Satyawacana University, Salatiga,Indonesia.

degree in English.

56

Kelly Stephens is an ESLSupervisor Pith rite consor-tium at the Galang RefugeeProcessing Center in Indo-nesia. After teaching Englishin junior and senior highschools for two years, Ms.Stephens taught ESL to South-east Asian refugees in Bos-ton, Massachusetts. She grad-uated from the University ofChicago in 1979 with an MAT

51

Refugees' Pronunciation of English:Can the Clfissroom Teachers Help?

Douglas Gllzow

Refugee Service Center, Manila

The following article discusses the teaching of pronunciation in English classes for refugeesin Southeast Asia. Recent research and theoretical writing about pronunciation teaching issummarized and evaluated. In particular, the author considers the implications of Purcelland Suter's 1980 research analysis, which concluded that classroom instruction had noeffect at all on accuracy of pronunciation. It is argued that the methods of classroominstruction and other factors in the Southeast Asian refugee's learning situationsignificantly limit the relevance of that research. The article concludes with a briefdiscussion of approaches to teaching pronunciation which the author believes to beeffective.

A revision of materials for pronunciation instructionin the Intensive Programs, originally developed byICMC and CAL, was recently completed at the Centerfor Applied Linguistics. My first assignment at theManila CAL office was to organize the necessarypublishing and tape duplicating of these materials and to"introduce" them at the three refugee processing centersin the region. I learned from colleagues that "introduce"means to put on teacher training workshops demonstrat-ing how the materials are to be used, ,

The materials themselves looked fine to me. Theyconsist of taped exercises, student worksheets, and ateacher's text, which includes scripts for the exercises,analysis of the sounds to be practiced, and suggestioL; foradditional activities. The phonetic items included are thesounds which particularly trouble Indochinese learners ofEnglish, e.g., initial clusters and final voiced consonantssuch as / b/ /d/ , and /g /. Many of Ole listening discrimi-nation exercises involve minimal pairs which are not onlyphonetically appropriate, but also relevant to the curri-culum. In addition, most of the vocabulary used is

concrete and easy to illustrate. The materials are intendedfor use at all levels, in either the tape lab or in theclassroom. Naturally, they would need to be supple-mented to suit individual classes. Teachers of a given classwould want a greater variety of classroom activitiesgames, and opportunities for communication. I plannedto supply these in my workshops.

57

Problems

My first indication that this involvement with pronun-ciation might be controversial came at a CAL staffmeeting. I decribed the materials for my colleagues, andone or, two became quite upset. "Minimal pairs?" theysaid. "Are you kidding?" "But, they're useful," I objected."They train the stUdents to hear the sounds that they getconfused on. They .\ " "What they do, Doug, is boreeveryone to tears." I "tad to admit that pronunciationexercises don't turn up on many people's list of the TenMost Entertaining Ways to Spend Class Time. Nonethe-less, I argued, some pronunciation nractice seems essen-tial, and minimal pairs seem like part of an efficientapproach. My colleagues were not convinced.

My morale was dealt another blow a week. later at thePhilippine Refugee Processing Center. I overheard acolleague there complain that some inferior language labmaterials were "dead as a minimal pair exerciw." Clearly,my forthcoming introduction of these mdterials wouldhave to be based on careful research, thoughtful planning,and some high-powered salesmanship.

I ransacked the libraries at the Manila CAL office andat the local binational center, for up-to-date informationon theories and trends in teaching pronunciation. Initialfindings were not encouraging. It was difficult to turn upany recent discussion of the topic at all. Pronunciationteaching seemed not to fit in well with the current

52 PASSAGE

emphasis on communication activities, the move to purgethe ESL classroom of drills, and the prevailing secondlanguage acquisition theories which characterize thespoken language as simply emerging, like so muchoverflow from a bucket.

Perhaps the most discouraging article was that byPurcell and Suter (1980). A panel of American judgesrated taped samples of foreigners' speech for pronun-ciation accuracy, and the foreign participants filled outquestionnaires about their background and languagetraining. Possible predictors of pronunciation accuracywere then analyzed exhaustively to determine the mostsignificant variables. The important factors influencingaccurate pronunciation were found to be, in order ofimportance, 1) the student's native language, 2) aptitudefor oral mimicry, 3) length of residence in the targetlanguage country and 4) the strength of the individual'sconcern for pronunciation accuracy. As noted in thearticle, the variables which turn out to be important seemto be those which teachers have the least amount ofinfluence on; " formal learning is almost entirely outof the picture" (Purcell & Suter 1980: 286).

The same study was cited wherever I turned. Krashenand Terrell (1983) use the study to support their statementthat there shout.', be no specific classroom pronunciationactivities, especially in early stages. They urge instead thatteachers should " . . . simply provide an environmentwhere acquisition of phonology can take place andprovide an atmosphere where students can feel com-fortable . "( Krashen and Terrell 1983: 90). A bit moreencouragingly, Pica (1984) cites the Purcell and Suter,article to show how necessary it now is to have new, totallycommunicative pronunciation exercises, and she describesseveral. Nearly all the activities described, however, are farbeyond the reach of the typical refugee student inSoutheast Asia. It is difficult to imagine, for example, thatmany of our students could write a burglary report usinglots of prepositional phrases and then read it back inproper "breath groups." I was upset and frustrated thatthe literature had failed me and had contradicted my ownintuitions. I certainly was not enthusiastic at the prospectof introducing materials that would engage teachers andstudents in hours of worthless prattle.

The Way Out

Several thoughts kept me from total despair over thepronunciation materials. One was the vivid memory ofWilliam Acton's presentation at the 1983 Annual TESOLconvention in Toronto. In his paper he describedtechniques which he had used to dramatically improvethe pronunciation of a number of Japanese businessmen,And the Japanese had en singled out by Purcell andSuter (1980) as ones who e native language would mostlikely cause difficulty, It is true that Acton's subjects hadall resided in the United States for five years or more, a

situation totally unlike that of the Indochinese refugees,However, the mere existence of these "fossilized" pro-nouncers in the second language environment, and theirresponsiveness to instruction, argues against the "leavethem alone and they'll come hcme" school of secondlanguage acquisition theory,

. . . the goal of the pronunciation lessonshould be the comprehensibility of students'speech.

Krashen and Terrell (1983: 89) described the Purcelland Suter research as "very recent," but the r zle aboutthat research, published in 1980, was actual ,, an analysisof a study first published by Suter alone in 1976, and theresearch was probably carried out in 1975if not.before.Furthermore, when I went back to Suter's 1976 article itturned out that all the subjects had been "students whowere taking at least one course at California StatePolytechnic Univer ;ity" (Suter 1976). If that was thecase, then the pronunciation training which these stu-dents had received was probably in the early 1970s at thelatest, Should we really dismiss all pronunciation activ-ities from the classroom of today because those carriedout in the early 1970s were not very effective? After all,those were the days when the minimal pair held thepronunciation lesson in a virtual grip of tyranny,

My third and strongest ray of hope was that none ofthe students participating in Suter's research were muchlike the Southeast Asian refugee students. As Gingras(1978) points out, few theories of language learning takeinto account the situation of the student who is studyingoutside the country where that language is spoken. It waswith enormous relief that I read (Gingras 1978: 90):

, explicit language learning plays a very important rolein the FL (foreign language) classroom. In particular, theteaching of vocabulary and pronunciation appear to betaught most efficiently if taught (and learned) explicitly.

The FL learning situation is quite a different set ofcircumstances from the second language situation, In theformer, exposure to the target language is almost entirelylimited to the classroom, FL students do not have theluxury of telephoning for recorded information or turningon TV weather reports for input in the language they arestudying. Indochinese refugees, like many FL students,seldom have native speakers as models even in theirEnglish classes. Clearly, the overseas refugees' needs aredifferent from those of typical second language learners,the ones who are the subject of most research andtheoretical speculation. One of those ,differing needsappears to be the need for instruction in the pronunciationof the target language.

58

Tentatv Conclusionsand a ew SuggeK;ons

At this point I had satisfied myself that there was notheoretical reason for excluding pronunciation practicefrom the classroom, but in fact there were several verygood reasons for including it. So it was with confidence inthe materials and faith in my mission that I set out for myfirst introduction at Galang. I had decided to stress in myworkshop that the goal of the pronunciation lessonshould be the comprehensibility of students' speech. Frommy experience with refugees in the U.S., as well as fromthe implications drawn in the Suter (1976) article, I knewthat Asians, certainly the Indochinese, had great difficultyin making themselves understood. This is generally notdue to shorteternngs in grammar, intonation, or evenvocabulary. No sponsor ever telephoned an ESL programdirector to complain that a refugee's syntax was faulty.

The second point I stressed was that pronunciationinstruction should be systematic. Random error correc-tion in class is not sufficient. Students need to rememberwhich sounds to practice and how to form those sounds.This is best accomplished through carefully sequencedactivities which focus on one problem sound per lesson.Most of my workshop time was devoted to describingpractical teaching techniques which fit into such asequence.

From experience I knew that sounds which were notperceived by a student could not be produced by thatstudent. At the Dong Dok Teacher Training College inLaos in 1971, I listened, helpless and discouraged, ashundreds &students in the language laboratory tried toparticipate in recorded drill practice. Their responses tothe taped cues were generally unintelligible. When thetape chirped out the correct response for them to use as amodel, the students would dutifully repeat the sameunintelligible responses they had given initially.

It makes sense for students to learn early on that thereare sounds in English which create differences in meaning,and special attention must be given to sound's which don'texist in their languages or are not phonemic (critical formeaning) in their languages. A logical approach to this isworking with minimal pairs, sets of words which differonly in one critical sound (e.g., kiss and kit or bus andbutt). These pairs should be introduced in the col.:ext ofthe competency being studied so that students can seetheir relevance to communication. Listening discrimina-tion activities should be followed by explicit instruction inhow to articulate the sounds. Diagrams, careful demon-strations, and explanations in the native language shouldprove useful for this.

Students then can practice the sounds in isolatedwords, in phrases, and in sentences. Here, care must betaken not to embarrass students. I can recall having seed',for example, a poster quoting a letter from a Vietnamesestudent. This man felt so humiliated at being forced to

Gilzow/ Pronunciation of English 53

pronounce strange new sounds in front of his peers thathe avoided language classes altogether upon reaching theUnited States. Having students work in pairs or smallgroups might be one solution to this problem. Further,teachers will need to accept approximations of accuratepronunciation from the students. Insistence on perfectionwill have the same results that it has elsewherestudentswill become discouraged and give up.

. . . teachers will need to acceptapproximations of accurate pronunciationfrom their students.

Communication mil/Wes are essential as well. Onethat has impressed me is the use of dialogues, created bythe students if possible. It is not difficult to develop ashort, relevant conversational exchange in which oneparticipant misunderstands the other because of a mispro-\nounced word. Minimal pairsthose old "friends"canbe used as a basis for this sort of dialogue. In addition, a \dialogue which simulates a breakdown in communi-cation is very realistic. These are exactly the circum-stances in which non-native speakers will pronouncewords carefully, using the skills gained in the pronunci-ation lesson. Pica (1984: 4) provides a good example:

A. I'm looking for the pins. Can you help me?B. Did you say "pens"? They're in Aisle 7.A. No, I said "pins."B. Oh, pins! In that case, you should turn left and go to

Aisle 6.Pairs of students can perform their dialogues in front

of the other students, who will be quizzed about thedialogue content afterwards.

There still remains my colleagues' criticism that pro-nunciation lessons, especially minimal pairs, are very dullfare. That ain't necessarily so. Hecht and Ryan (1979) inSurvival Pronunciation describe a number of games andpuzzles which involve the students in both listening formeaning and in speaking intelligibly. Among the activi-ties suggested are student-to-student dictations, tic-tac-toe, and even a version of Bingo. Tongue twisters aregood for breaking the ice and overcoming an individual'sshyness. Indochinese students, for example, may balk atdemonstrating a then-den or though-doe contrast, butwill enjoy trying to pronounce "Did that dog that drankthere die?" Aside from using games, simply keeping mostof the vocabulary in the pronunciation lesson relevant tothe other classroom topics helps keep students interested.

I am happy to report that the introduction wentsmoothly and that the teachers and supervisors seemedreceptive to the idea that comprehensible output isimportant and that a systematic, thoughtful approach topronunciation instruction can contribute to this goal.And it does not have to be boring.

59

54 PASSAGE

REFERENCES

Acton, William. 1983. Pronunciation change: making the fossilizedfluent, facile (and accurate). Paper presented at the 17th AnnualTESOL Convention, Toronto, Canada.

Center for Applied Linguistics and International Catholic MigrationCommission. 1985. English pronunciation lessons, second edition.Manila, The Philippines: Southeast Asia Regional Service Center.

Gingras, Rosario. 1978. Second-language acquisition and foreignlanguage teaching. In Second language acquisition and foreignlanguage teaching. Rosario Gingras (Ed.). Washington, D.C.:Center for Applied Linguistics.

Hecht, Ellen, and Gerry Ryan. 1979. Survival pronunciation: vowelcontrasts, teacher's guide. San Francisco, California: The AlemanyPress.

Krashen, Stephen D., and Tracy D. Terrell. 1983. The naturalapproach: language acquisition in the classroom. San Francisco,California: The Alemany Press.

Pica, Theresa. 1984. Pronunciation activities with an accent oncommunication. English' Teaching Forum 22(3):2-6.

Purcell, Edward T., and Richard W. Suter. 1980. Predictors ofpronunciation accpracy: a reexamination. Language Learning30(2): 271-287.

Suter, Richard W. 1976. E.edictors of pronunciation accuracy insecond language !ranting. Language Learning 25(2): 233-253.

V

ESL program formaster's degree in

Douglas Gilzow is the CALManila gae:Aasjs

Journal of REducation. Mr. Gilzow is aProgram Associate for ESLat the Center for AppliedLinguistics. Refugee ServiceCenter in Manila. His exper-ience in the field includesteaching English in Laos,Iran, and the United States.For three years he directed an

refugees in Lansing, Michigan. He holds alinguistics from the University of Michigan.

How Not to Blow a Flute into the Buffalo's Ear

Thelma M. LaguIlles

Philippine Refugee Processing Center

According to a Lao and Thai proverb, one who talkswithout making sense to another, is like one who blowsbeautiful music into the ears of a buffalo, which is notcapable of appreciating it. How often does this charac-terize teacher-student communication in the classroom?

Moving a learner from the known into the unknown isa guiding principle in all teaching. With this in mind,teachers of Cultural Orientation (CO) often follow aformat of showing how a topic was approached in thenative country, how it was approached in the first-asylumcamp and processing center, and how it might beapproached in the United States. It is useful to provide acommon thread throughout the lesson. However, fol-lowing this format alone does not guarantee coherence.A gigantic leap must be made to compare the nativecultures to the target culture. It's the teacher's job tomake the gaps closer and thus the leaps not toooverwhelming.

One effective Way' to do this is through the use ofproverbs indigenous to the learner's language and culture.This is especially true when we have to apple withIndochinese values and attitudes as contrasted withAmerican values and attitudes. The differences arestaggeringindeed, they are worlds apart. But the newculture is made less alien when described, presented, andexplained through familiar images.

This is not a novel idea. The old masters taught inparables. When the audience consisted of fishermen, agiven message was explained in terms of fishes andcasting nets; to farmers, lilies of the field and grains ofwheat; to housewives, leavened bread and wineskins. Ineach case, the message was communicated in terms thatthe audience would understand best.

Confucius said, "I am not one who was born in thepossession of knowledge; I am one who is fond ofantiquity, and earnest in seeking knowledge there." Aswith the old masters, modern educators see the wisdomof respecting old values while introducing new concepts.Too often the temptation is to destroy first and thenrebuild. While this might be practical for builders andengineers, educators need to build upon the knowledgethat the learners already have. An adult learner analyzes,criticizes, rejects, or accepts what is presented. The

61

55

learner decides. It is efficient for the teacher to takeadvantage of the learner's decision-making powers inpresenting a new concept.

There are communication patterns hidden within alanguage. People communicate not only through theirliteral words, but also through images whose meaning isnot stated directly. In fact, figurative language is oftenused when one wishes to transmit conceptual messages.Frequently in CO, we face the problem of trying to makean entirely foreign idea make sense to a learner who isconfronting it for the first time. How do we reduce thestrangeness of it? One way is to refer to the proverbsfamiliar to the students. In Vietnam, Laos, or Cambodia,the use of adages and analogies embedded in parablesand stories is a common teaching technique.

. . , educators need to build upon theknowledge that learners already have.

Let me illustrate. Suppose that an Indochinese studentappears indifferent during the CO class time. The teachermay say, "Please pay attention because this class isimportant, so that when you go to the United Statesyou'll know what to do." This is fine, but is not as forcefulas saying:

"On dry ground, a person walks in order to get around.In the water, he must learn to swim. Now, walking andswimming are entirely different skills. In your country,you probably ;.ad more practice walking. Now you'regoing to another place where only walking may not besufficient; you may also need to swim. Here at theprocessing center you'll have the chance to learn otherskills so you can get around in a new place and survive."

If the teacher wishes, the preceding could be made evenmore student centered by asking a series of questionsleading to the point:

56 PASSACE

Teacher Students

What skill is needed by people in orderto move around on dry ground? Walking.

Would you be able to use the same skillin the water? No!

What would happen if you tried towalk on the water? (Laughter) Drown!

So what would you need to know inorder not to drown? Swim!

In your country you were probablyvery good at walking; now you'regoing to a new country where newskills will be needed in order not todrown.

Do you know what these skills are. Speak English.

What else? Speak telephone.

Yes, being able to use the phone isa useful skill.

The preceding shows how an abstract idea can beconveyed in concrete terms. The important points toremember are:

I. The image used must be familiar to the learners. Itmust be culturally sensitive, i.e., offensive neither to theirethnic group nor to their being refugees.

2. Images must fit the message naturally and easily. Ifthe teacher needs to explain the vocabulary concepts andthe components of the image, then it is not a good image.

3. A new concept is less alien when delivered through afamiliar medium. The teacher must be able to handle themedium so well that the message is not lost but deliveredsmoothly and efficiently.

This leads to the following conclusions: ( I) Usingproverbs from the learner's culture enables the teacher tocommunicate with the learners within the realm of theirexperience; (2) This requires more than a cursory know-ledge of the learner's culture and the tari,et culture; (3)Possibilities for teacher-student exchange involving learn-ing on both sides are created.

The following is a collection of proverbs used in COclasses. It has been effective with students at several levelsof English.

Proverbs on CO Topics

Self-reliance and IndependenceBe content with flpwers, fruit, and even le; vesif itis from your own garden that you have pickedthem. (Confucius)

Self-sufficiencyThere's no point blaming heaven for our sufferings,for the root of goodness lies within ourselves.(Confucius)When we escaped through the forest, each man hadto run on his own feet. Nobody ran for another;

41.

only the crippled, the very-old, and the very youngwere led by others. (Khmer)Our hair sticks to our head. (My hair grows on myown head, not on anybody else's head.) (Khmer)

Patience and Persistence (looking for a job)If you have patience to sharpen the steel, one dayyou will 'have needles. (Khmer)

Signing contracts (meaning of "yes" and. "no"). A gentleman doesn't take back his words; the

painter doesn't repair his strokes. (Chinese)Parent-child relationship

The fruits of the trees never fall far from the roots.(Khmer)Fish without salt will be spoiled. (Vietnamese)The hardship of the father is as high as Thaisonmountain, the love of the mother is as endless as thewater from the spring: (Vietnamese)

Teamwork in the familyOne tree cannot form a hill but three trees puttogether will form a high mountain. (Vietnamese)

EducationIf you stay near the ink, you will be dark; near thelight you will be bright. (Khmer)I am not one who was born in the possession ofknowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, andearnest in seeking knowledge there. (Confucius)In teaching, there should be no distinction of classes(Confucius)

Flexibility, openness to learn in a new environmentTo be wise is to be like the hollow bamboo that iswilling to be filledit bends but never breaks.(Khmer)

EmploymentIt is better to fill your mouth with green bananasthan with nothing. ( Khmer)

Attitude towards entry-level jobsA journey of a thousand miles must begin with asingle step. (Chinese)

Assertiveness (Job interview)A bashful lover will not obtain favors from hismistress. (Lao)

Thelma M. LaguIlles's workin cross-cultural training andlanguage teaching started withthe U.S. Peace Corps. Later,she worked briefly in Pala-wan, Philippines, at a first-

," asylum refugee camp. She hasworked with the InternationalCatholic Migration Commis-sional the Philippine RefugeeProcessing Center for twoyears, first as a teacher and

supervisor, and currently as Deputy Program Officer of theIntegrated Program which serves non - literate adult learners,Her strongest interest is in working with the low-level learner.She holds a degree in psychology.

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Editor's note: In future issues we plan to include descriptions of ESL classes or lessons which reflect the influence of theteacher training described in this article.

A Quiet Revolution in LanguageTeaching at Bataan

Robert Wachman

Philippine Refugee Processing Center

In the past, ESL teachers at Bataan relied primarily on techniques drawn from theaudio-lingual approach of language teaching. Recently teacher training at the processingcenter has emphasized methods based on more current theories of second languageacquisition. Krashen's Monitor Theory has been given particular emphasis, and it is brieflysummarized in this article. This summary is followed by detailed advice to ESL teachers onhow to plan and conduct language lessons which are consonant with K; ashen's theory.

Introduction

If you walked around the Philippine Refugee Pro-cessing Center (PRPC) in the early days of the programand poked your head into ESL classrooms, most likelyyou would have seen teachers and students spendingmuch of their time performing repetition and substitutiondrills and practicing sentences and dialogues. You mighthave heard such exchanges as:

"What is this?"

"What is this?"

"Is she looking for coffee?"

"Is she looking for milk?"

"That is a chair."

"That is a piece of chalk."

"Yes, she is."

"No, she is not."

or

"May I help you?" "I want a blue skirt."

"What size?" "Medium."

"Here you are." "Thank you."

being practiced again and again in chorus and by pairs ofstu, ents, interspersed with correction, prodding, andpraise from the teacher. If you were to observe a numberof ESL classrooms now, you would find some of thesesame kinds of activit;es, but you would also be likely towitness a good deal more natural communication. The

63

topics are the same: health, clothing, food, housing, etc.,but the teaching approach is shifting, in some casesdramatically. An uninformed observer might think thatsome ESL classes are engaged only in informal conver-sation, or that they are concentrating on cultural orienta-tion rather than on language learning.

Are the teachers becoming more nonchalant or lesspurposeful about their teaching? Have they given up ontheir students learning English? No, definitely not. Arelaxed, informal manner and ,ne use of "real communi-cation" (i.e., communication which is of interest andsignificant to the communicators, is not rehearsed, andwhen participal...s do not know in advance what they orothers will say) are two practices now being encouragedby International Catholic Migration Commission(ICMC) trainers and supervisors in all departments. Thisis due largely to the work of a number of people whoduring the past months have been promoting a commun-icative approach and, more recently, adherence to theimplications of current second language acquisitiontheory.

There have been trainers, supervisors, and teachersgiving some emphasis to activities employing real com-munication for some time. For example, we have hadtraining sessions for at least two years on "Freire Codes"and "Questioning Techniques," both of which employ real

58 PASSAGE

communication. The emphasis became Si.. anger whenTim Maciel, ESL supervisor/ trainer, joined ICMC inJuly of 1983. He began promoting more student-origi-nated communication and more use of real questions(e.g., "Are you hungry') rather than classroom questions(e.g., "Is this a book?").

Maciel's ideas and enthusiasm spread rapidly amongthe teachers, supervisors, and trainers with whom heworked. This, however, was still the prelude.

In November of 1983, Dr. James Tollefson, Director ofthe TESL Training Program at the University of Wash-ington, began giving workshops in basic linguistics andsecond language acquisition (SLA) theory to the instruc-tional staff. The workshops, consisting of four two-hoursessions, were designed to provide the "staff with anintensive introduction to recent linguistic theory; to recentmodels of adult second language acquisition, principallythe Monitor Model; to recent research in errors and erroranalysis; and to a framework for evaluating the effec-tiveness of .various teaching techniques in terms ofincreasing students' communicative abilities.

Use natural communication and focusstudents' attention on the meaning of whatyou say rather than on the form.

Tollefson's objealivek were to provide an elementaryunderstanding of:.

(1) language as a form of knowledge rather thanbehavior

(2) the linguistic notion of "deep structure"(3) the difference between "acquired" and "learned"

knowledge(4) the causes of errors(5) the value of errors for acquisition(6) language acquisition as "hypothesis testing"(7) the importance of meaning and comprehensible

input(8) the importance of communicative classroom ac-

tivities.Tollefson's teaching has had a profound effect on the

way in which many ICMC staff members judge what kindof classroom activity is conducive to second languageacquisition. They were convinced that full considerationshould be given to the Monitor Model and its implica-tions, and that training and teaching should re alteredaccordingly.

What is the Monitor Model?

Stephen Krashen's Monitor Theory as described in TheNatural Approach (Krashen and Terrell, 1983) makes thefollowing statements:

1. The bulk of second language acquisition takes placesubconsciously. The term "acquisition" is used to describethis subconscious process, whereas learning is defined asconscious accumulation of knowlege about a language.

2. There is a "natural order" in which grammaticalstructures are 4:...quired, but we don't know the order andwe don't need to know the order.

3. Conscious knowledge about a language can be usedonly as a "monitor" or editor. It requires time and a focuson form rather than content. Utterances are initiated bythe acquired system.

4. The way a learner increases ability in a secondlanguage is by comprehending input that is both con-textualized and slightly beyond what has been previouslyacquired. The emphasis is on meaning rather than form.

5. There is a significant correlation between social andemotional factors and' the learner's -cadiness and ability atany given time to acquire a secont language.

ImPlidations from the Monitor Modelfor Teaching ESL

Implications drawn from the Monitor Theory aremany and suggest some radical 'departures from tradi-tional teaching practices. One of the fundamental impli-cations of the Monitor Theory is at language acquisi-tion is fostered most when the focus is on mea,iing ratherthan on form. Thus, Cultural Orientation and Pre-Employment Training classrooms, in which the primaryobjective is not language learning, may nonetheless serveas fertile ground from which language ability may grow.The following are some of the implications for teachers asstated by Tollefson in the final session of his workshop.

1. Use natural communication and focus students'attention on the meaning of what you say rather than onthe form. Specifically:

a. Ask real questions.Examples: Are you hungry?

Where are your shoes?Why were you absent yesterday?What kind of house do you want inAmerica?

b. Do not ask questions to which the answers arealready known or of no interest.

Examples: What color is my shirt?(holding a pencil) Is this a pencil?What's his name? (immediately aftersaying his name)

c. Do not repeat a question once it has been answered.d. Do not require artificial answers or anything otherthan what you would expect of a native speaker. Mostimportantly, do not require a complete 'sentence whena native speaker would not he required to give one.

Examples: Teacher. Do you have your map?Student: Yes.

64

e. If you want students to practice complete sentences,construct questions that require them.

Examples: Why are yeu late?Why is your friend gone?How did you feel while you were sick?

f. Respond to content, not form. Do not correctpronunciation or grammar when students are trying tocommunicate with you.

Examples: Teacher Why are you late?Student: I work late.Teacher Oh, you worked late. Why didyou work late? (The student hears the'correct form in the midst of a normalconversation.)

g. Accept nonverbal responses When they make sense.Examples: Teacher Where is your friend?

Student: (Shrugs shoulders and smiles.)2. Use concrete referents and :.eal activities (objects,

games, pictures, etc.).3. Do not make students play roles they will never have

Example: In lessons on understanding an Americansupervisor at work, do not make begin-ning students repeat the supervisor'slanguage.

Example: In role plays on looking for an apartment,do not ask beginning students to play therole of the landlord or to repcat thelandlord's language.

4. If you choose to teach rules of grammar, do so only ina distinct grammar lesson. Teach only easy grammarrules, not complex ones, because students will learn thecomplex rules only from their real attempts to speakEnglish. For example, do not spend much time on definiteand indefinite articles.

5. Expect errors and do not focus attention on errorsduring communication. Do not show impatience withrepeated errors; they are inevitable. Respond to thecontent of students' utterances, not to the form. Try to-minimize students' sense of failure. Emphasize theirsuccessful communication at all times. Correcting errorsin grammar will not help students avoid them.

6. Avoid asking students to memorize dialogues. Theonly value of memorization of dialogues is to nelpstudents learn stock phrases.

7. Do not expect students to acquire structures before itis natural for them to do so.

a. Do not worry about repeated errors.b. Feel free to use complex structures in your speechaddressed to students.c. Students' avoidance of structures may lead to fewer

Wachmani A Quiet Revolution at Bataan 59

errors, but not to learning. Therefore keep in mind thatmany errors are a sign that learning is taking place.8. Do everything you can to help students relax and

gain self-confidence. Tension, fear of making mistakes,and lack of confidence are the greatest inhibitors oflanguage acquisition.

9. Use realistic role plays, but do not tell students whatthey must say, and do not require them to produce specificsentences. Instead, carefully define the roles and permitstudents to say anything that makes sense for their roles.

10. Devise exercises and activities which focus students'attention on something other than language, hut whichrequire use of language.

Examples: Problem-solving; giving directions ac-cording to a map; gamesanythingwhich requires the use of English as ameans to achieve a goal.

Conclusion

Follow-up discussions, trainings, and demonstrationshave been conducted by supervisors and trainers sinceTollefson returned to the U.S. in July of 1984. InterestedICMC teachers are experimenting arid gradually changingtheir teaching to a more natural or communicativeapproach. Additionally, the program-wide teaching/learning model is in the process of being written to includeor to be in harmony with modern linguistic and currentsecond language acquisition theory.

REFERENCES

Krashen, Stephen D. and Tracy D. Terrell. 1983. TA naturalapproach: language acquisition in the clasiroom. San 1 rancisco:Alemany Press.

'Robert Watchman has beenan ESL supervisor in Bataansince March of 1983. He hasconducted numerous pre-ser-vice and in-service stainingsessions, including several onsecond language acquisition.Mr. Wachman received hisMasters of Arts in Teachingfrom the School for Interna-tional Training, and taughtESL to Indochinese refugees

for three years in Long Beach, California.

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60 PASSAGE

Reviews

A ilandbook for ESL LiteracyJill Bell and Barbara Burnaby. Toronto: OISE Press in association with Hodder. & StoughtonLimited, 1984. Distributed in the United States by Alemany Press, Pp. 140.

For some time now there has been a need fora practicalhandbook for adult ESL literacy. While many beginning-level ESL teachers are faced with multi-level classes ofliterate, semi-literate, and non-literate students, few havemuch backgrpund in the theory or practice of teachingliteracy.

A Handbook for ESL Literacy is a good beginning infilling this need. The book is written in such a way thatmost of the ideas are helpful to the experienced as well asthe neophyte ESL literacy teacher. The book is dividedinto twelve chapters and two appendices. The chapterheadings are as follow: 1. Literacy Students and LiteracyClasses; 2. Background to Literacy Theory; 3. ParticularFactors to Bear in Mind in the Adult Class; 4. Content ofESL Literacy Lessons; 5. Teaching Pre-Literacy; 6.Teaching Reading; 7. Teaching Writing; 8. TeachingMulti-level Classes; 9. Combining the Various Ap-proaches in the Classroom: Some Sample Lesson Se-quences; 10. Other Useful Activities; 11. Assessment; 92.Resources; Appendix A, Two Hundred Most FrequentlyUsed Words; Appendix B, Common Syllable Patterns inEnglish.

As one can see from the chapter headings, most of thisbook deals with practical teaching methodology, fromcontent of lessons, teaching approaches, and assessmentto detailed sample lesson sequences that show how thevarious methods can be combined in the classroom. Thebook is sensibly free of dogma: "A good ESL literacyprogram employs a variety of approaches . . . ," theauthors write. "No one approach is valid alone . . . " (p.44). Chapter 6, "Teaching Reading," discusses almostevery known method of teaching reading under the twomain approaches, teaching for meaning and decoding. Ofthe two approaches, teaching for meaning is favored in thebeginning stages over methods that focus on decoding,but the importance of decoding skills to the independent

reader is recognized. Chapter 9, "Combining the VariousApproaches in the Classroom: Some Sample LessonSequences," shows the importance of tailoring approachesto the needs of a particular teaching situation. By way ofillustration, four teaching situations are used: a workplace.ESL class, an evening community (general ESL) class, acommunity college class, and a community daytime classfor housewives. For each situation, sample lesson plans,with helpful graphic illustrations, are provided.

Chapter 10, "Other Useful Activities," is particularlyuseful; the authors have pulled activities from some of thebest available resources in the field. These and otherresources are listed in a bibliography that is compre-hensive but contains one error attributions of articles byCharles Fries and Kenneth Goodman (whose first name is ,

given incorrectly as "Charles") have been reversed.Although the focus of the book is on the practical,

theory is not ignored. Chapter 2, "Background to LiteracyTheory," neatly sums up in language that is straight-forward and non-technical what the beginning ESLliteracy teacher needs to know about the reading andwriting processes. Humorous illustrations throughout thetext enliven and enhance the content of the book.

The only criticism of any note is that the chapter on'assessment should have come earlier.

Teachers faced with the task of teaching adult ESL,literacy would be well- advised to have a copy of this littlegem in their persona' libraries.

Jean Lewis is currently working on a grant from the VirginiaState Department of Education to develop an adult ESLliteracy curriculum. From 1981-1982. Ms. Lewis worked in theBataan Refugee Processing Center as an ESL teacher forMormon Christian Services.

The American Way: An Introduction to American Culture.Edward N. Kearny, Wary Ann Kearny and Jo Ann Crandall. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey:Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984. Pp. vi + 241.

Reviews 61

Those of us who are in the business of trying to explainthe United States, its culture, and values to people fromother countries are used to working without manytextbooks (or even many useful reference works) toprovide ourselves and our students with supplementarysources of information. That is why I was delighted tocome across The American Way: An Introduction toAmerican Culture.

This book was. prepared primarily as a text for ESLstudents, and'this reviewer must admit, at the outset, thathe is not an ESL expert and therefore will not attempt toreview the book from that point'of view. This review willfocus on the book's use in teaching about America as aculture--in particular, its values, beliefs, and institutions.

Most of us grow up and live our entire lives withoutonce questioning out own culture and its implicit assump-tions about the way the world works. We buy into theseassumptions as if they were absolutes It is clear that theauthors of this book have asked many deep, soul-searching questions, and in so doing, they have given all ofusnative- and foreign-borti alikemuch to'think about.

In their preface, the authors state the book's purpose: toanswer some of the questions that foreign students boundfor the United States most often ask about our countryand its values. Not only will this book be of interest anduse to foreign students, but also to foreign businesspeople, visiting scholars, government officials, tourists,immigrants, and refugees. The book provides answersabout America and Americans for anyone whose Englishis up to it. The vocabulary level has been carefully kept tobetween 2,500 and 3,000 words; the book is clearly forsomewhat advanced students, but even very advancedreaders whose language goes well beyond the 3,000 wordlevel will not find the book condescending or patronizing.

Since it is basically an ESL text, each chapter is repletewith exercises whichhave been carefully designed toimprove study skills, writing skills, reading skills, vocab-ulary, composition, conversation, and outlining skills, aswell as cross-cultural understanding. These exercisesshould serve equally well as in-class exercises, homeworkassignments, or for self-study. Since several of themaccompany each chapter, there are plenty to be used in allthree ways.

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Iv.*

The text itself is divided into chapters on Americanvalues (and how thw 'values are changing), the Pro-testanv heritage, the "Ruttier heritage, the, heritage ofabundance, the business world, government and politici,our ethnic and racial assimilation, education, sports andrecreation, and family life: A discussion of a single chaptershould .demonstrate the breadth of the content and itspractical application.

Chapter 8, "Ethnic and Racial Assimilation in theUnited-States," begins with a Russian immigrant tellingwhy he decided to defect to America even though he hadno friends here, rather than to Japan or one of severalEuropean countries where he did have friends. "In theUnited States," he said, "I would not be treated like aforeigner. In Japan or in Europe people would accept me,but I would always be a little different and a little on theoutside. In America everyone came from another country.Here I . . ; can be an American and not a foreigner."America is about the only country where that is true. Infact, most Americans are reluctant to let foreigners retainany of their foreign ways, as if by doing so, their ownAmerican ways are threatened.

The question of whether America has been a "meltingpot" or more of a "salad bOwl" is then discussed, admittingthat "the truth probably lies between these two views" andthat "game' groups continue to feel a strong sense ofseparateness from the culture as a whole." The points aremade that assimilation/has been much easier for whites,and that "American Jews are the only group of whiteswho retain a strong sense of separateness from the largerculture," while, at the same time, participatingln it fully.

. America's many waves of immigrants are then con-sidered in the order which they came: first theProtestants, then the non-Protestants, then the non-Western Europeans, and finally the non-Europeans. Eachsucceeding group experienced increasing difficulties ingaining acceptance, as their differences from the normwere greater and greater.

The point is made that the Americans of Africandescent were brought initially to this country against theirwill, as slaves. Except the American Indians, all others"came to'the United States voluntarily as immigrants inorder to better their living conditions." Enslavement of the

62 PASSAGE

blacks and the civil war it led to is discussed; much of therest of this chapter is devoted to the struggle of Americanblacks to achieve full equalitya goal that the bookadmits has been reached only partly.

The 15 activities which follow amplify further thecontext' of the chapter itself. For example, one exerciseasks questions such as "Should black Americans receivespecial consideration in applying for admission to univer-sities and colleges?" and "Should blacks and whites beallowed to intermarry'?"

Throughout, The American Way is filled with insightsinto understanding particular aspects of American. cul-ture, On page 179, for example, there is a very helpfulparagraph on how to tell when a professor is signaling,both yerbally and non-verbally, thatan appointment witha student is over, so that the student will then take the hintand offer to leave. These subtle manifestations ofculture,especially one's own native culture, are most difficult to beaware of and to analyze and describe. At the same time, itis absolutely essential to do so (and to do so simply,clearly, and factually) if the foreign student is ever tobecome acclimated.

Each chapter begins with a short blit sometimes ratherstartling cross-cultural anecdote. These are excellentintroductions to the subjects of each chapter, and theycould be used as separate case,studies to begin discussioninto the subject matter of the day's assignment.

The photographs, although their quality of reproduc-tion is rather ordinary, could also be used to sparkdiscussion. They are small in size, but if each student has acopy of the book, that need not present a problem.

Ito

The short but excellent list of five or six readings whichter, while it is presented as justent, actually provides an excel-tothe specified -subject. Theseand non-fiction materials (If

y, rather than the more famil; trusually found in such reference

accompanies each chaanother possible assignlent bibliography relateare made up of fictiogenerally excellent quaand more academic texlistings.

Although The American Way is primarily an ESLtextbook, its value as a reference book should not beoverlooked. The substantive content of each chapter isworthy of serving as an excellent reference, but even theworkbook exercises themselves are Med with valuableinformation and ideas.

Finally, if 1 may add a personal note as a cross-culturaltrainer, the book has provided me with at least a couple ofdozen ideas for future training exercises, and this potential'hse should not be overlooked. 1 hope this is not the lastsuch book on American culture which these three authorswrite.

L. Robert Robb is Executive Director of the Washington'International Center (WIC), Washington, D.C., which helpspeople from other countries understand American institutions,values, bnd customs. Dr. Kohls has had 20 years of experiencepreparing Americans for overseas assignments and foreignnationals for life in the U.5. He is the author of The SurvivalKit for Overseas Livirtgib classic in the field of cross-culturaltraining. He holds a Ph.D. in cultural history fro'n New YorkUniversity.

11

passage staffDavid Armstrong, Galang SiteEditor, is an ESL Supervisor atthe Galang Refugee ProcessingCenter, Indonesia. David receivedhis M.A. from Teachers College,Columbia University and hastrained ESL teachers in Africa,New York City, and Indonesia.

John M. Duffy, MA., BataanSite Editor, is an ESL supervisorat the Philippine Refugee Pro-cessing Center at Bataan. Johnhas worked with Indochinese re-fugees in the Philippines, NewYork, and Boston. His poetry hasbeen published in several jour-

, nals.

Christina Herbert, Phanat Nik-horn Site Editor, has been an'SL supervisor at Phanat Nik-

horn since January, 1984. From1981-1982, Christie taught EFLin )span. She has also taught 4

IndOchinese refugees in Boston.She h s a B.A. in literature fromReed ollege and a Masters ofArts in achingfrom The Schoolfor Inter ational Training.

Krthleen Corey, CAL ManilaEditor, is a Program Associate

for Materials Services at TheRefugee Service Center in Ma-nila. After completiri, a Mastersof Arts in Teaching program atthe School for InternationalTraining in 1980, "Corey" spenta year as a supervisor in theConsortium Program in BanVinai, Thailand. Prior to this,

she taught EFL for five years in Liberia, West Africa, andOrizaba, Mexico.

69

degree

t

Douglas Gilzow, CAL ManilaAssociate Editor, is a ProgramAssociate for English as aSecond Language at the RefugeeService Center in Manila. Doug'sexperience in the field includesteaching English in Laos, Iran,and the United States. For threeyears he directed an ESL pro-gram for refugees in Lansing,Michigan. He holds a master's

in linguistics from the University of Michigan.

MEM Don Ranard, CAL WashingtonEditor, is on the program staff ofthe Refugee Service Center inWashington, D.C. Don hasworked in refugee programs inthe U.S and in Asia as an ESLteacher, literacy specialist, ma-terials and curriculum developer,CO specialist, and UNHCRprogram monitor. Prior. to this,he taught EFL in Taiwan as a

Fulbright grantee, in Laos and Thailand. He holds an M.S. inapplied linguistics from Georgetown University.

Nelly Kurfehs, CAL WashingtonProduction Assistant, is a staffmember of the Refugee ServiceCenter in Washington, D.C.Nelly has worked as a secretary,translator, and proofreader fornon-profit organizations in theU.S., and as a French teacher inEngland. She holds an M.A. inEnglish !rom the University titMontpellier, France.

ABOUT THE COVERS

The scene on the fr\?nt cover is of a Khmer refugee woman at thePhilippine Refugee Proces g Center at Bataan, Philippines. She is sittingin front of her "billet", (a signed living quarters), which has been wall-papered with various public tions. The drawing, was done with ball-pointpens using a network of cm s-crossed curved lines. The artist, Ceasar C.Natividad, has worked in the \television/aitdiovisual department in Bataansince 1983. His artwork has ben exhibited in Manila. He has won severalawards for his involvement in filmmaking including the Silver Award forDocumentary in the 1981 Bei in International Film Festival and BestDocumentary Award for Telev'sion in the 1982 Catholic Mass MediaAwards. ,

IACK

The photograph on the back cover is of a Khmer woman in abeginning ESL class at the Phanat N\ikom Refugee Camp. The picture wastaken by Roger Harmon, Regional Cc\nsultant.

1

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,;