Informational interviews have become a common practice among American professionals, but many English language learners remain unfamiliar with this type of networking and job search activity. ESL teachers can create both compelling classroom assignments and provide opportunities for ESL students to explore their career options by including informational interviews in their courses.
As readers of this blog know, I have given several presentations at CATESOL conferences on “Informational Interviews: A Practical, Multi-skill Activity for High Intermediate and Advanced ESL Students.” Based on my six years of assigning both undergraduate native speakers and international graduate students at the University of Southern California to conduct informational interviews, this presentation demonstrated how this one presentation assignment can lead to an entire month of engaging, demanding, and career-focused lessons for advanced ESL students. Students expand their vocabulary, write questions, conduct an off-campus interview with a working professional in a field of interest, and share the career advice they collected in a short oral presentation. It’s a challenging, satisfying, and popular assignment in my oral skills classes.
A small vocational college in Los Angeles, CES College, asked me to share the exercise with their faculty last week. Would middle-aged immigrants in blue collar jobs find this exercise worthwhile? I’m quite confident that immigrants would learn from all steps of the exercise, and expanding their social network beyond relatives and friends remains essential. Mechanics can interview mechanics and car repair show owners, and construction workers can interview construction workers – or managers. The proof, as the cliche goes, will be in the pudding and let’s see what happens with their students in the next six months.
Would this exercise work in an EFL context? I’m not sure. Many American universities can count on alumni to help their students in their job search, and granting an informational interview is a relatively easy way to contribute. Many American professional organizations also encourage their members to both assist and recruit students into the field. It may be difficult in many cultures for a younger person with less status to directly contact an older professional to seek career advice.
I do know, however, that many American colleges and graduate programs train their students to go on informational interviews to gain more detailed knowledge of their prospective careers. As in so many other areas of American life, white collar professionals have far greater access to both more information and stronger personal networks. This assignment brings a best practice outside of the elite circles.
Informational interviews can also be used with high school students as they begin to focus on their career ambitions. Here is a short list of additional links that I found last night as I prepared my presentation. The links are loosely organized from the most general sites that explain the concept to general audiences in simple English to professional documents for more specialized, often graduate-school audiences. Adult and community college ESL programs would probably find the earlier links more helpful than the later ones. As ever, use or lose.
University of Notre Dame Informational Interviewing – This six-page guide provides excellent step by step instructions for students needing assistance with locating individuals, asking interview questions, writing thank you notes, and professionally networking. http://careercenter.nd.edu/assets/488/informational_interviewing_guide_8.16.pdf
Finally, here’s a 13-slide PowerPoint presentation titled “Networking and Informational Interviewing: Nuts and Bolts” by Scott Turner from USC Marshall School of Business, one of the world’s top MBA schools. Although I’m biased as a USC instructor, I think this presentation captures the practical possibilities of information interviewing. Many Marshall instructors advise MBA students that they should always be networking and conducting informational interviews during their graduate studies.
Given the difficult economic climate in many countries, I would suggest that it behooves more ESL and EFL teachers and tutors to consider adding informational interviews to their oral skills courses for their high-intermediate and advanced students.
“Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.”
Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), Nobel Prize winner for Literature
Holidays and anniversaries often prompt personal reflections. As 2010 ends and a new year beckons, millions of English language learners and thousands of English teachers reflect on their lives and make new year resolutions.
· What did you find satisfying in 2010?
· What were some magic days and memorable moments?
· What English words will you choose to remember?
· What English lessons would you prefer to forget?
Sometimes we look back with satisfaction on our classroom achievements, and sometimes we look back in regret. A USA Today article proclaimed “2010: The Year Technology Replaced Talking. Yet here we are facing 2011.. Almost everyone hopes for a happy, healthy, and more prosperous and productive new year. The challenge remains how we can move forward, and talking about change and hopes for change seems like a natural place.
Often, we openly declare our hopes and goals for the New Year with bold resolutions that require serious change in our habits. We also know that change can be hard, surprising, and sometimes liberating in our classrooms and in our personal lives.
· What do you hope for in 2011?
· What changes would you like to make? Why?
· How do you plan to realize your goals in the next year?
· How will you measure personal success in 2011?
· How will you measure your academic success in 2011?
· Are you ready to keep your New Year resolutions?
Given the rate of exceptional technological and social change in the 21st century, I find that discussing the topic of Change a perennial winner in my advanced English classes. I often open the Spring semester with this popular conversation activity in the first two weeks. Although public opinion surveys show that only a small percentage of Americans keep their New Year resolutions to change after a month, I suspect we can increase those odds of our English students by candidly discussing our hopes and plans to change.
“A word is dead when it is said, some say.
I say it just begins to live that day.”
Emily Dickinson
Cheap pleasures can sometime be the most satisfying.
Reading, an activity that often costs nothing, falls into that category. Reading provides many pleasures and many insights. So does talking about reading.
Following a December ritual, I’ve been reviewing the year and find many reasons for satisfaction. Co-writing a monthly column called “Instant Conversation Activity” in the newspaper Easy English Times makes the list for the third straight year. Each monthly newspaper column in the Easy English Times, modifies and expands a thematic chapter from Compelling Conversations, an advanced ESL textbook, for lower level English language learners. The August issue, for example, talked about watching television and favorite programs; the November 2010 issue celebrated the American tradition of choosing leaders in elections. (Immigrants, refugees, new citizens, and potential citizens often appreciate voting while too many American citizens fall into apathy.) It’s an honor to have the lessons used in ESL, EL/Civics, and literacy classes.
In reviewing the 2010 clips, however, my favorite column this year remains “Reading Pleasures and Tastes.”
Reading can be a great – and overlooked – pleasure. Reading allows us to imagine life in distant lands and times – and better understand our own lives and climates. It broadens our imagination, highlights absurd situations, shows new possibilities, and can deepen our sympathy. Since urban Californian classrooms often resemble a mini-United Nations, reading provides a passport to better understand our classmates and our ever-changing world. .
Yet too few American adults – including adult education students – allow themselves the pleasure of reading books and newspapers in English. We can see and hear on adult school campuses how the inability to read causes real problems. We know the many studies that document the links between illiteracy, poverty, and criminal activity. One reason might be that reading builds empathy and instills information. Reading can also provide solace, inspiration, and perspective. Celebrating the pleasure and power of reading to the Easy English Times column audience, including adult immigrants, GED students and some prisoners, seems appropriate. Perhaps it could have been called “Three Cheers for Reading – Even if Life is Hard.”
Yet I also like the Reading Pleasures column because discussing books has created some of my most poignant classroom moments. During a decade of teaching advanced adult ESL, we often read short stories, memorized proverbs, and wrote about living in Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Many ESL students also demonstrated their passion for literature. A Polish student sought help translating romantic poems, a Mexican immigrant constantly recited lines from Cervantes, and an Iranian woman journalist discussed her fear of reading banned books – even while in the United States.. Reading matters and transcends borders.
Let me give another example from a global classroom with a dozen or so different best languages. Each evening we would have a “brave volunteer” give a short oral presentation at 8:30 as a closing activity. I wanted everyone to be a volunteer, but I left the choice of presenting to students. Some students introduced their hometowns, a few gave product reviews, and many recommended movies. Topics and styles varied.
One night an older Korean woman gave an eloquent, moving book review of To Kill A Mockingbird that combined personal biography and literary criticism. Chloe, not her real name, began smiling because she had just finished rereading her favorite book in its original language – English. She joked about how long it took, but she had patience. Chloe went on to confess that she often had racist feelings like some ugly characters in the novel. “But I learned from the noble character too”. Chloe stated that living in Santa Monica and studying English she had learned to overcome racism. Her daughter was going to marry a non-Korean – something once unthinkable. Then, returning to the novel, she concluded by quoting her favorite character. “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks. ” Her daughter visited our class that night, and cried. She was not alone. Powerful. Poignant. Unforgettable.
Reading remains a great pleasure and a helpful guide. Literature can also enliven our ESL classrooms, and discussing our favorite books opens up new possibilities. The humanities should be for everyone – including English language learners. Let us, as Emily Dickinson advised, “dwell in possibility” and bring more literature into our English classrooms.
Millions of people, around the world, have chosen – or been forced – to leave the nation where they were born. Immigration has become more popular – partly due to modern technologies like planes, trains, and cars – than ever before in human history.
Immigration remains a vital, if controversial, topic. Why do people immigrant? How have immigrants contributed to your country? How important is the distinction between legal and illegal? Do wealthy nations have an obligation to open their doors to refugees? What qualifies someone as a refugee? Should nations chose their immigrants? If so, what criteria should nations use? How have immigration laws changed over time in your country? What, by the way, do you consider “your” country? Do you think someone can be a loyal citizen to more than one country? How?
As today’s federal court decision in Arizona shows, the debate over illegal immigration remains alive, often hot, and frequently ugly in the United States. On one hand, the United States celebrates the Statue of Liberty as a national symbol and accepts more legal immigrants than any other nation on the earth. On the other hand, the continuing economic crisis and high unemployment rates have led to widespread resentment about the large number of illegal immigrants. President Obama has called for a civil, open, and honest debate as the United States debates its immigration policies. Many other nations are holding similar debates.
Teaching Tolerance, an exceptional educational non-profit that provides many free resources to American teachers, is asking a simple question this week. How do you teach about immigration issues? Join the discussion here.
Context, as ever, remains crucial. Teaching about immigration issues is far easier in some contexts – such as an intensive English language program – than in other contexts. Teaching the history of American immigration in an EL/Civics class is far easier than discussing current events in my advanced adult ESL classes in Santa Monica. Why? Everyone in the EL/Civics class was pursuing citizenship, and held legal status. On the other hand, the advanced ESL class – on the same campus – was clearly divided between refugees, visa lottery winners, other legal immigrants, and many undocumented/illegal immigrants. With limited language skills and great passion, the topic was too controversial to rationally discuss.
Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and many other English-speaking nations continue to attract immigrants and refugees from around the world. As English teachers, we know the faces and stories behind the statistics. We also know the crucial role that English skills play in creating successful immigration policies. But do we teach about immigration? And, if so, how?
Why do you want to learn English? What are your interests and priorities? Why not create your own, independent English language program this summer – for free?
Learning English, on your own and according to your own wishes and needs, has never been easier. Everyone with internet access can become autotelic, or self-directed, in creating their own educational program. Naturally, ambitious English students, innovative ESL educators and EFL schools have embraced these possibilities. Why not you?
The endless web continually offers pleasant surprises. This weekend I spent time on four more exceptional free websites for English teachers, tutors, and students: ESL video; USA Learns; BBC Learning English; and YapPR. You might find them valuable too.
ESL Video - This relatively new site allows you to watch short video clips, take an online quiz, read the transcript, and improve your listening comprehension. This smart, effective approach makes the site valuable for you, English teachers, and tutors.
BBC Learning English – The BBC takes its once imperial obligations to spread English seriously. This outstanding website includes the latest news in audio, transcripts, and sometimes video in clear English.
USA Learns – The popular U.S. Department of Education website for adult immigrants and future American citizens also offers video lessons for lower level English students. The new citizenship, for worse or for better, only requires a second grade English level. As an American educator, consider me disappointed that the expectations and standards for our new American citizens is so very low. By the way, one way the administration can build support for immigration reform is demand higher standards for citizenship and expand adult education ESL and open more EL/Civics classes. As Obama used to say, “yes, we can!”
YapPR – This innovative public relations site highlights short music videos, amusing commercials, and AP news stories with English transcriptions for English language learners. Designed for English students from around the world, it also includes materials in several languages. Does the public relations element bother me? Not really. The transcription feature provides valuable information for students which outweighs the apparent “pay to play” selection bias.
This is the best time – so far – to learn and teach English. We have never had so many resources available – often for free -to explore and experiment with new technologies. So be the captain of your own lifeboat, pick your English goals, and become an autotelic English student today.
Where can immigrants go to practice their English speaking skills in a relaxed, non-judgmental atmosphere? How can American libraries introduce their wonderful resources to new users and provide a vital need? Where can volunteers, librarians, and both novice and experienced English teachers enjoy leading small groups of English language learners in engaging, reflective conversations?
American public libraries are increasingly hosting ESL conversation clubs. Filling a clear unmet need for thousands of American immigrants, libraries can often provide a smaller, less stressful environment than crowded adult ESL classes. Some ESL conversation clubs regularly meet twice a week for two hours, and other clubs less frequently for shorter periods. Members get a chance to share experiences, expand their vocabulary, and actually practice speaking.
I became aware of this growing trend in the Spring of 2010 when an influential blog for librarians mentioned Compelling Conversations as a recommended resource.
Under the title “Great Tips”, a small, but influential American librarian’s blog called eslconversationclubs.blogspot.com shared some ideas from Compelling Conversations. Naturally, I am quite pleased to both be recommended – and to discover an entire community of like-minded educators.
After reading this short post that made me smile, I spent a satisfying hour exploring the deep resources on the blog that dates back several years. Among the excellent resources is a short two-page document called ESL Conversation Clubs Best Practices by Jean Kaleda of webjunction.com that deserves a wider audience. Check it out here: http://eslconversationclubs.blogspot.com/search/label/bestpractices
I’m glad to discover that so many American public libraries already offer ESL conversation clubs. Their apparent growth is even better news, especially as immigration debate heats up. These friendly, informal gatherings fill a vital, often overlooked, need for many American immigrants, adult ESL students, and other English language learners. “Speech is civilization itself,” as Thomas Mann wrote. “It is silence which isolates.” ESL conversation clubs at libraries allow many quiet, hardworking, and often silent immigrants to find their voices and share their experiences in English. These conversations can be simple, moving, and significant.
Naturally, I’m also glad that my little niche, self-published book is considered a valuable, accessible resource.
