Social Turn, Identity and ‘New’ Literacy Practices

Peter Clements, UK

Working as an ESOL tutor primarily in the Adult and Community Learning sector, Peter Clements considers the past five years teaching ESOL to have been the most rewarding part of his eleven year teaching career. He holds a Certificate in Education and a Trinity ESOL Subject Specialist Certificate along with the Trinity Cert. TESOL.
E-mail: peter.clements@talktalk.net

In ‘Teaching Adult ESOL - Principles and Practice’, John Sutter (2009:75) considers the way in which some common approaches to texts might conflict with the value learners place on quality written material. Considering this matter can help the ESOL practitioner relate to the cultural background of learners in this regard.

Skimming, scanning and analysing texts from the bottom up are some of the essential literacy skills required for reading elements of most English exams. However, these methods may contradict the way some learners identify with certain genres of ‘prestige texts' commonly used in their own cultures.

John Sutter (2009:75) describes what researchers have coined 'identity' as part of a wider study of 'social turn' where the social (and cultural) factors of students are taken into account as factors affecting their learning. For example, the way texts are approached in exam preparation requires teaching the skills of how to skim quickly for relevant parts of a text in order to scan for required key words or detail. We teach that there is ‘no time to read the whole text’, and that to succeed in a timed exam such as IELTS or the Level 1 and 2 English National Literacy tests (used by ESOL students studying at equivalent of Int. / Upper Intermediate in the UK), the ability to read quickly and take in a brief overview of the text is crucial.

For some English learners who are accustomed to reading 'prestige texts' with a view to 'precise interpretation', such practices might seem contradictory and even disrespectful. Sutter uses the example of learners who come from a background where they read the Koran or other sacred texts regularly. Applying what Sutter calls 'prestige literacy practices', students are expected to give careful attention to the precise interpretation of vocabulary and syntax.

When faced with substantial or what Sutter terms 'valued texts' in the ESOL or EFL classroom; perhaps preparation material for Cambridge ESOL , IELTS or other exams, learners may have a great deal of respect for such material and naturally desire to approach the reading of it in a similarly respectful and contemplative way. However, they are now told to employ techniques that place an emphasis on speed rather than on detailed careful reading. This set of 'new' skills, and being told that there is no time to read the whole text and meditate on it, can seem contradictory and may even suggest that the teacher is calling into question the value of methods the student has learnt before. 'Furthermore,' notes Sutter, 'such a learner may feel very disorientated and destabilized - this is not just a new 'skill' to acquire, it is a 'skill' that appears to call into question everything they have already learnt, and their self image as a 'literate' person.'

It is easy to see therefore, why learners might find these literacy skills hard to come to terms with. Perhaps this explains the apparent resistance to our attempts to encourage them to acquire meaning of unknown words from context rather than reliance on electronic bi-lingual dictionaries to translate - perhaps these are the electronic equivalent of 'security blankets' in which learners seek solace and are reluctant to relinquish in their desperate attempts to wring and extract as much meaning and value as they can from any high quality written material.

To give examples of when we need to read quickly, I often refer to how we locate information in directories or dictionaries, but that is hardly a useful comparison for well educated students. Neither is the example of skimming a newspaper for a specific article of interest, that is something universally done by students. Perhaps I make matters worse with my attempts to be helpful, 'Well, when you look up a word in the (paper based) dictionary, you don't need to read the whole page do you? You glance quickly for the word you want.' Perhaps when I on occasion, take off and use my glasses as a prop, moving them around on the page projected onto the screen, to illustrate the search for specific words or textual features, it might not actually be as helpful to all students as I intend, some of whom might find it too flippant. I wonder?

Whilst reflecting on this, I came across an occasion probably familiar to most readers. I was reading along with a recording of a text and lost my place. I am sure this often happens in class and it is so easy to ‘lose the place’ on the page due to a momentary lapse of concentration. Upon realisation, there then follows the familiar frantic search to try to catch up and relocate the place and get back in step with the speaker. I noticed that I was not searching for what was being uttered precisely at that moment or for the actual words yet to come (although I was looking all over a section of the page), but for what had just been expressed, such as a particular word or short phrase to act as a signpost to narrow the gap between that which had just gone before and the words being uttered at a precise moment. I noted that this was a much more dynamic form of scanning and could be likened to trying to catch up with a moving object that could not yet be discerned. I came to the conclusion that this was harder than simply scanning ‘static’ text where the reader has time to locate specific fixed points rather than an ever forward -moving spoken rendition of the text. Likewise, relocating the place on a page we have either been distracted from or have paused in our reading also requires a quick scan of surrounding material to find a precise point. So maybe scanning isn’t such an alien concept after all!

Using the experience above as an analogy, perhaps this could be a way of demonstrating that the learners ‘prestige literacy practices’ when encountering written material and the ‘new’ literacy skills required for English exam success are indeed both of value and have an important place in a variety of situations.

Postscript

UK ESOL teachers in the ‘Skills for Life’ sector will be familiar with the way in which the ESOL Core Curriculum expresses the following element of reading skills:

‘Rt/L1.5a* Use skimming, scanning and detailed reading in different ways for different purposes.’ and one of the sub-skills involves helping the learner to: ‘Recognise that different strategies are useful for different purposes, and select appropriate strategies when approaching a text.’

* The coded reference represents R=reading skills; t = at text level; L1= Level 1 of the National Qualification Framework (or Intermediate Level) and 5a = the element of reading at text level. Similarly, Rs = at sentence level and Rw = at word level, each at different levels and divided into elements and sub-skills.

References

Sutter, J (2009) ‘Second language acquisition (SLA) and the contexts of UK ESOL practice’ in Teaching Adult ESOL Principles and practice Edited by Anne Paton and Meryl Wilkins. Open University Press - McGraw Hill. Maidenhead

The UK ESOL Core Curriculum. Available online at
www.excellencegateway.org.uk/page.aspx?o=sflcurriculum

Please check the How to be a Teacher Trainer course at Pilgrims website.