The Adult ESOL Strategy for Scotland

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Evaluation Guide

Resources

Funding for Learners

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ESOL Conference

ESOL and Citizenship

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ESOL Enews, Issue 5 - February 2010

 

Welcome to Scotland's ESOL Enews. If you would like to share information about local ESOL activities or events, or resources you have used or developed, please contact us. Contributions should be brief (approximately 100 words, including contact details for further information). If this Enews has been forwarded to you, please register here to receive your own copy.

Latest National News

ESOL Conference
The first Scottish ESOL Conference was held at Stirling Management Centre on 24th November 2009. Over 150 delegates attended the event to listen to Keith Brown MSP, Minister for Schools and Skills; Euan Reid, Chair of the National ESOL Panel and Professor Joe Lo Bianco, an international language expert from Australia.

The Minister highlighted the achievements of the last 2 years which have been made possible with the additional funding for ESOL provided by the Scottish Government, the commitment of ESOL providers and the development of new professional development qualifications. He also thanked the National Panel for their part in taking forward the ESOL Strategy for Scotland.

Euan Reid concentrated on the progress of three working parties appointed by the National Panel to look at a curriculum framework for ESOL, professional development and funding principles. Each of the working parties gave an update on their recommendations.

Professor Lo Bianco gave a very interesting and thought provoking presentation on the Australian system. This showed how ESOL provision in Australia has evolved from the 1950s through to the present day.

Delegates also had the opportunity to attend a variety of workshops relating to ESOL.

Feedback from the event has been very positive - delegates said that it was a useful networking opportunity and allowed them to see ESOL provision from a national perspective.

Documents and presentations from the conference are available to download by clicking here.

ESOL Curriculum Framework
Over the next few months, Learning Connections and Scotland's Colleges will be working together to further develop the Curriculum Framework for ESOL. They will be using the recommendations from the ESOL Curriculum working party to start plotting out the content of the framework which will be available online in the coming year. Any enquiries, please contact Clare El Azebbi.

Learning Link Scotland Seminar
Learning Link Scotland are holding a series of Mindset and Resilience at Work Seminars:

Wednesday 24th February 2010, 10am to 1pm at The Club Room, City Halls, Glasgow Keynote Speaker: Dr Carol Craig, CEO Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing. Carol Craig will lead you in thinking about how developing a "growth mindset" can increase your own resilience at work and how this can contribute to the work of your organisation.

Wednesday 24th March 2010, 10am to 1pm at Business Centre, City of Edinburgh Chambers Keynote Speaker: Isobel MacNaughtan, Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing. Isobel will lead us in thinking about how these techniques can support our personal development as practitioners and how we can develop them as part of our programmes and projects.

By taking part in these seminars you will be able to:

• Increase your understanding of how to develop a "growth mindset"
• Increase your resilience to succeed at work
• Learn new techniques in confidence building for you and your service users.

These seminars are for staff, volunteers and students with an interest in lifelong learning in the community, drawn from 3rd sector organisations, Learning Link Scotland members and local authorities.

The event fee per person: £20 members/£40 Non-Members per seminar. Book early for both and receive a £5 discount! For a booking form please email Learning Link Scotland or to find out more please visit their website.

Book onto a Lifelong Learning Programme Information Day!
The Lifelong Learning Programme team at ECOTEC invite you to attend one of their nine UK Information Days for the Leonardo, Grundtvig and Transversal Programmes.

Why attend?
This is your chance to find out all you need to know about European Lifelong Learning Programme opportunities in:

• vocational education and training (Leonardo);
• adult education (Grundtvig); and
• education planning (Transversal)

Who will be there?
Representatives from all kinds of organisations have attended our Information Days in the past, including:

• education institutions (colleges and other training providers)
• Government and local authorities
• not for profit, adult education and arts organisations
• emergency services (fire services, police, NHS)
• Businesses
• Trade Unions and Chambers of Commerce
• ...and many more

How to register
Hurry! Places are strictly limited so register your place now at one of the following web pages: Leonardo, Grundtvig or Transversal.

Lifelong Learning UK Newsletter
Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) published the first edition of its newsletter Learning Scotland in November 2009. The publication promotes the sharing of best practice across the different parts of the lifelong learning sector and provides an update on the recent work of LLUK in Scotland. The November issue includes an employers' guide to the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework, an overview of labour market intelligence for the sector and a case study on Motherwell College's integrated approach to career guidance. Lifelong Learning UK plan to complement the newsletter with an e-bulletin. For further information, or if you would like a copy of Learning Scotland, please contact Kate Sankey.

Latest Local News - a taster of ESOL across Scotland

Edinburgh University Settlement Community Learning Centre
The ESOL team at Edinburgh University Settlement Community Learning Centre (EUS CLC) - a voluntary organisation delivering informal adult education - are currently developing the Welcome Package for Migrant Workers. This Grundtvig-funded online course will be available free of charge online at the start of 2010. It is being designed for migrant workers from Poland and Lithuania, but it will be available on the internet for all ESOL learners and tutors to use. To find out more about this project please contact Joanna Patterson, CLAN Project Leader, Edinburgh University Settlement or visit the Work Mobility website.

ESOL Saturday Culture Club, Shetland College
Shetland is at a cross-roads between Europe, Scandinavia and the UK and for centuries it has been a meeting place for people of many nationalities. "Waves of immigration have enriched our community" reports Averill Dorrat, ESOL lecturer at Shetland College. "Our ESOL students are a part of that rich tapestry. The aim of Culture Club is to help ESOL students better understand our way of life so that they can become more actively involved in the community. The main themes are: Environment, History, Traditions, Dialect and Music and the aim is to provide opportunities to get out and about in Shetland and to meet local people through having visiting speakers or trips to local events. Dialect taster sessions, dance workshops and literature events are also planned."

ESOL Saturday Culture Club first met in February 2009. Meetings are free and are scheduled for every six weeks, on a Saturday or Sunday - families are welcome.

For more information, please contact: Averill Dorrat, ESOL Lecturer at Shetland College, Lerwick, Shetland. Telephone: 01595 771442.

ESOL for Care Sector Staff
The Perth & Kinross Council Housing and Community Care/Adult Literacies and Learning Team supports international care staff. Its mains aims are to reduce the language barrier between the learners and the service users, and to enable staff to progress. Employers provide valuable support by allowing the ESOL sessions to be held on site during working hours, which eliminates some of the barriers to learning, such as travel time and cost. For more information, please email Lyn Tuer.

Fantastic Forces, North Ayrshire
12 ESOL families from North Ayrshire celebrated Family Learning Week by attending the Fantastic Forces Event organised by Scotland's Learning Partnership in the Glasgow Science Centre. A group of 40 ESOL learners and their children had great fun trying out the various hands-on exhibits in the Science Mall, including wriggly wires and reaction time testers. The highlight of the evening was the Fantastic Forces workshop where the whole family could join in an action-packed interactive show on Sir Isaac Newton and his forces. The event provided an excellent opportunity for families to learn a variety of science words in English and to meet other families from different cultural backgrounds.

For more information, please contact Orsolya Dunn, ESOL Development Worker, North Ayrshire Council, telephone: 01294 461 824.

Joint Tenancy Project, Perth & Kinross
In Perth and Kinross the Lifelong Learning Team and Housing and Community Care delivered a joint tenancy project for Speakers of Other Languages. Workshops included the language used in tenancy agreements, housing "do's and don'ts", various surgeries by housing officers and a talk from the Crime Prevention Officer.

For more information about this pilot, please contact Willie Sinclair or Renata Fraser on 01738 477092.

South East Glasgow ESOL Learner Website
The South East Glasgow ESOL Advice, Support and Entry (EASE) Service has developed an ESOL learner website. Although written primarily for SE Glasgow residents, ESOL learners across Scotland may find of interest the sections on ESOL levels, ESOL qualifications, ESOL and citizenship and ESOL study skills. ESOL practitioners may also find of use a variety of classroom based documents intended to support the development of independent learning skills available from the "Downloads" section of the website which could be adapted to suit a variety of contexts.

Workplace ESOL in Aberdeen
The WEA Aberdeen City and Shire are busy delivering ESOL in a variety of workplaces across the North East of Scotland. They currently have 14 different course programmes running and are delighted to say that they are preparing for the first time to assess at Access 2/3 levels with one of their groups. Also, they are pleased to report on the success of their community based workplace ESOL programmes - rather than work with small numbers of learners in one workplace, they are bringing small numbers together from different workplaces at a venue in the community and this is proving to be a popular and effective way of engaging with the learners.

WEA are working with about 50-60 learners on a weekly basis. Two sessions are based on 1:1 learning and the other sessions are a mixture of five/six learners.

For more information please contact Keith Anderson at the WEA, telephone: 07969 60359.

Aberdeen Summer School
The Adult Learning team at Summerhill Community Centre organised a Summer School for ESOL. It was a bit of an experiment for them as they don't run many activities over the holiday period. Their original plan was to facilitate a week-long intensive course, as several learners had identified this as a useful addition to existing ESOL provision. Many ESOL learners are out of the country or choose to move house during the summer and it's all too easy to lose touch with them. They also wanted to provide a crèche facility to encourage parents to sign up and this led to issues around sourcing appropriately qualified workers (their regular crèche workers generally don't work over the summer) along with the obvious financial implications of supporting classes in this way. Six learners signed up for the class and five of those went on to join existing ESOL classes across the North of Aberdeen. Tutors report that all are enjoying their weekly "bout of English".

For more information please contact Colin Garrow, Adult Literacies Worker, Community Learning and Development, Aberdeen City Council, telephone: 01224 346 181.

Learning and Teaching

Comparing Qualifications in the UK and Ireland
An updated easy-to-use guide to comparing qualifications in the UK and Ireland has been published. Qualifications Can Cross Boundaries - A Rough Guide to Comparing Qualifications in the UK and Ireland compares the main qualifications in each country and clarifies the numbering of levels adopted in the various frameworks across the UK and Ireland. It enables comparisons to be drawn between qualifications and their levels, rather than direct equivalences. Examples of major qualifications at each level are provided. For printed copies please email qaa@linneydirect.com.

IATEFL Conference 2010
The IATEFL Conference and Exhibition 2010 will take place on 7th-11th April 2010 at the Harrogate International Centre. For more information, please click here.

NATECLA Conference 2010
NATECLA's Conference 2010 will take place on 9th-11th July at University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH. Click here for details.

St Andrew's University Workshops
Online registration for the workshop "The Challenge of Teaching EAP to Lower Level Students", to be held at ELT, University of St Andrews on 20th Feb 2010, is now open. Call for Papers and Registration Form are available by clicking here.

ESOL Practitioner Network

ESOL Practitioners' Network
The agenda, national ESOL update and copies of presentations from the October 2009 meeting of the ESOL practitioners' network are available here.

The next ESOL practitioners' network will meet from 10.30am to 3.00pm at Parish Halls, 266 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1QX on Tuesday 23rd February 2010. There will be an opportunity to hear Professor Steve Reder from Portland State University, Oregon talk about "The Adult ESOL Lab School" and Fiona Macdonald, Scottish Government will talk about the "How to Guide" for practitioner-led action research in Scotland.

This is a free event and is open to all practitioners involved in developing and delivering Adult ESOL in Scotland. Places will be limited so if you would like to book a place please complete this booking form by Thursday 11th February.

Professional Development

SQA Qualifications - Professional Development Award in ESOL Literacies: Teaching Adults Reading, Writing and Numeracy
PDA in ESOL Literacies: Teaching Adults Reading, Writing and Numeracy G7PY 16
This level 8 qualification is intended for experienced, qualified ESOL practitioners (holding a minimum of CELTA or equivalent) who wish to develop competences for teaching literacies to ESOL literacies learners. The qualification includes sessions focusing on the ESOL literacies learner, the learning and teaching context, strategies for developing basic reading, writing and numeracy skills, assessing learners and measuring progress, evaluating, adapting and creating ESOL literacies materials and the use of ICT in an ESOL literacies context.

Structure
The PDA is a single Unit with 16 SCQF credit points at SCQF level 8.There are four mandatory Outcomes, which are integrated and co-dependent:

• Apply the principles of adult ESOL literacies and adult literacies in Scotland
• Evaluate approaches and strategies to support the adult ESOL literacies learner throughout the learning cycle
• Apply approaches and strategies for teaching adult ESOL literacies learner(s)
• Create and adapt materials for use in teaching adult ESOL literacies learner(s).

SQA Qualifications - Introduction to Tutoring ESOL SCQF Level 6
PDA: Introduction to Tutoring ESOL SCQF level 6 (G91E 46)
The Professional Development Award: Introduction to Tutoring ESOL (PDA: ITESOL) provides an introduction to the core knowledge and skills required to tutor ESOL learners in a supported context. It meets the needs of practitioners who are new to the field of ESOL and/or who have no recognised TESOL/TEFL qualifications. It is also relevant for teachers of other subjects who have ESOL learners in their classes and who wish to develop a broader understanding of issues related to English language development.

SQA Qualifications - Professional Development Award in Teaching ESOL at Level 9
This qualification is currently in development. Further information will be posted as the development progresses. Prospective centres or candidates who would like further information on any of the above can contact Jennifer MacDougall (SQA TESOL Development Manager) or go to the SQA website.

Warwick University's new MA Degree in English Language Teaching
The Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick is pleased to announce that it will be offering a new MA degree in English Language Teaching (ELT) with a specialism in testing and assessment. The course is unique in providing a professional practice module that is run in collaboration with the University of Cambridge ESOL examinations. The programme has been designed for qualified and experienced teachers from a variety of professional backgrounds. For more details, please see their website.

For further information please contact: Claudia Harsch or Gerard Sharpling.

ESOL Website
The ESOL Scotland website has details of courses all over Scotland. If you would like to register your courses on the website, please go to the Learn English page and click on the 'complete this word form' link. Please return completed forms to Isabel Russell.

 

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