January 31, 2005
Persistence in English as a Second Language (ESL) Programs:
Research
Using the Method of Natural Variations
Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
Testing hypotheses derived from theory using experimental research
designs with random assignment are extremely difficult to implement
in
operational settings such as adult literacy education programs.
It may
also be prohibitively expensive to conduct this sort of "gold standard"
research.
For these reasons colleagues and I explored a different approach
when
we set out to test hypotheses from Functional Context Education
theory
in an operational context. In this case we followed a method used
in
sciences such as astronomy and biology and set out to test a hypotheses
from FCE theory using the method of examining naturally occurring
variations in adult literacy programs.
Some Concepts From Functional Context Education Theory
A basic tenet of Functional Context Education (FCE) theory is
that
adult literacy education ought to be based on what is relevant
to the
contexts of adults' lives. Three FCE principles derived from research
on adult education and training are:
- Explain what the students are to learn and why in such a way
that
they can always understand both the immediate and long term
usefulness of the course content (facilitates entry into and
persistence in the
course; motivates learning).
- Derive objectives from careful analysis of the explicit and
tacit
knowledge and skill needed in the home, community, academic,
technical training, or employment context for which the learner
is preparing
(facilitates motivation, persistence, transfer).
- Use, to the extent possible, learning contexts, tasks, materials,
and
procedures taken from the future situation in which the learner
will be
functioning (facilitates transfer).
The Importance of "Focus" to Persistence in ESL
In research on the persistence of adults in English as a Second
programs, colleagues and I considered the foregoing basic tenet
and
principles and hypothesized that the reasons why adults frequently
enroll in a course of study and then quickly drop out might have
something to do with mismatches between what the adults want to
learn
and what programs actually offer.
We developed this concept of "focus" by considering that both
adults
and institutions can sometimes have very global, generalized purposes
for education. In this case, adults may wish to attend educational
programs just to improve themselves or to further their general
education. In response, institutions may develop general education
programs that have no particular focus but aim to provide adults
an
opportunity to develop their cognitive skills and broaden their
knowledge.
On the other hand, there are some adults who have very specific
goals
in mind, such as getting a job in the electronics field. In this
case,
their focus is on getting a particular kind of job. If the institution
can then offer them education and/or job training that they see
is
directly related to their goal, it is possible that they may be
more
motivated to complete such a focused course than a course in "general
development."
The Study of Natural Variations in Adult ESL Programs
To explore the concept of "focus" on the part of adults and education
programs, we took a two-pronged approach. First, we looked at
the
reasons that adult students gave for why they were attending English
as
a second language (ESL) education and the types of programs they
were
attending. We wanted to see, for instance, whether adults who
were
attending ESL programs having a particular focus, such as being
vocationally-oriented, are more likely to give job-related reasons
for
attending ESL instruction than are adults enrolled in other types
of
courses, such as family-literacy oriented, or general academic
or life
oriented. Data from surveys of naturally occurring programs in
the San
Diego Community College District having these different foci indicated
that this was indeed the case. The types of programs that adults
were
enrolled in reflected the major reason they had for enrolling
in ESL
classes.
In a second approach to try to better understand the role of focus
in
persistence, we looked at the course completion rates of adult
students
in three on-going vocationally oriented ESL (VESL) programs that
differed with regard to the specificity of the vocational training
component of the ESL instruction. Here we were interested in whether
the extent to which a VESL course focused on actual job training
and
job placement, which was the major goal for adults taking the
VESL
courses, increased the likelihood that adults would persist in
and
complete the program, as hypothesized from FCE theory.
To find out if the relationship between the focus for taking an
ESL
course and the closeness of fit of the course to this focus might
have
some affect on course persistence and completion, we looked at
three
different naturally occurring VESL classes in the Continuing Education
Division of the San Diego Community College District. One VESL
program
was a 10 week, six hour a day program for Electronics Assembly
that
offered electronics-related English as a second language instruction
for three hours in the morning and electronics assembly training
for
three hours in the afternoon. The program electronics instructor
maintained close relationships to the electronics industry and
was very
strong in placing people in jobs at the end of the course. The
other
two VESL programs were full semester, 18 week programs, in which
adults attended class for three hours a day. One of the VESL programs
was solely focused on Office Technology but was of a general nature,
not focused on any particular office in a real business and not
aimed
specifically at job placement. The other VESL program was a more
general pre-vocational orientation to different job fields such
as
Office Technology, Automotive Trades, etc. It focused more on
job
readiness training, how to do a job interview, proper dressing
for
work, resume preparation, and so forth. Neither of these semester
long
programs had close links to job placement.
Data on persistence showed that , in general, the closer the match
between the reasons of the adult students for taking the VESL
course,
in this case to get a job, and the focus of the program, in this
case
focusing directly on vocational training and finding jobs for
students,
the more likely the students were to complete the course. This
was
clearest for the VESL program that was six hours a day but only
10
weeks in duration. Almost 60 percent of the students who enrolled
in
week one of the 10 week course completed all ten weeks, and over
80
percent completed nine weeks (90 percent of the course), by which
time
many of them already had a job in electronics assembly.
In contrast, for the other two courses, both of which were three
hours
a day and 18 weeks long, the course with the focus on a particular
job
field (Office Technology) but not on actual job placement had
a rate of
persistence of about 70 percent at the nine week point (50 percent
of
course) compared to over 80 percent retention in nine weeks for
the
high focus course, and fewer than 40 percent completed the full
18 week
semester. The general pre-employment type course with the least
focus
on specific jobs had a nine week retention rate of less than 60
percent
and a course completion rate of just over 30 percent.
The foregoing data offer support for the hypothesis derived from
the
FCE principles that persistence will be greater in adult literacy
programs when the program more closely matches the interests of
the
adults taking it. Also, there is reason to suggest that courses
that
are brief as well as strongly focused might help increase completion
rates. This is suggested by the fact that in all three courses
completion rates were higher the fewer the number of weeks that
the
course went on. In the two 18 week, semester long courses, retention
rates half way through the courses, at the end of nine weeks,
were
considerably higher than they were at the end of 18 weeks.
The Method of Natural Variations
The method of studying naturally occurring variations in adult
literacy
programs is considerably less expensive and more feasible to implement
than experimental designs. Though not as rigorous as true experiments,
it can be used in testing hypotheses derived from adult literacy
theory. The paucity of such research may result at least in part
from
the lack of adult literacy theory that has been formulated explicitly
enough to derive hypotheses that are testable.
Theory of this sort is crucial for the development of validated
knowledge for the general advance of adult literacy education
because
it provides guidance beyond the specifics of particulars books,
technologies, management practices and other operational details
of
programs. The latter are too numerous and change too often to
make it
practicable to conduct experimental tests of the relative effectiveness
of programs comprised of combinations of such particulars.
As Kurt Lewin said, "There is nothing so practical as a good theory."
Reference
Sticht, Thomas G.; McDonald, Barbara A.; Erickson, Paul R. (1998,
January). Passports to Paradise: The Struggle To Teach and To
Learn on
the Margins of Adult Education. Online at:
http://SearchERIC.org/scripts/texis.exe/scripts/asearch1?db=ericft&expan
=no&disp=snote&proximity
=rank &lmt=nul&nsz=20&arg=passports+to+passports |
