Re-introductions and Link to Adult ESL Content Standards

I'm very happy we have decided to start a blog for adult ESL practitioners in Pennsylvania. This is a great way for us to keep the networking that happens at the PAACE MWC going through-out the year.

Here is a link to the ABLE page where you can read about how the standards were put together by & for Pennsylvania practitioners:

http://www.able.state.pa.us/able/cwp/view.asp?q=129314

Please consider downloading the document (12 pages of content, plus a helpful glossary of ESL terminology) and distributing it to your fellow teachers, tutors, students, administrators, etc. The text was written to be as clear and jargon-free as possible, while at the same time conveying what students can learn to do in English at each of the NRS levels.

Enjoy!

Keep in mind that if you test a learner in listening and speaking alone (e.g. BEST Plus), the other skill areas such as reading and writing ability may or may not be at the same level. Much depends on your individual learner's academic background in L1 [native language] and L2 [in this case English]. In our program we routinely get a writing sample at the pre-/posttest to help fill in this gap for in-house diagnostic purposes.

By the way, I'm Doug Masiroff. (ESL Specialist, Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council)