TEXT TRANSCRIPT
Narrator:
Twelve million immigrants came through Ellis Island between 1892
and 1924. At the height of its activity, the Ellis Island station
could process one million people a year. Although now Ellis Island
stands as a museum marking this remarkable time in history, hundreds
of thousands of new immigrants still enter the United States each
year, and many are determined to learn the new language of the country
they hope to call home. In an effort to help these new learners
speak, read, and write English, Suzanne Leibman of the College of
Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois, has incorporated technology
into her adult learning classes. She hopes that her students not
only learn English, but also acquire the skills to move on to other,
higher-level classes.
Leibman:
This class is an intermediate-level class. What does that mean?
They're not beginners, and they're not ready to go out into the
world yet. They are all English-as-a-Second-Language learners. They
all have academic goals for their future. They have varied amounts
of education from previous education, so that we have people who
have six years of education in the class; we have university graduates
in the class. The purpose of the class is to help people start thinking
about going to other college or university classes in the United
States, or to help them practice a profession in the United States,
where they'll need academic-style reading and writing skills. We
use computers a great deal, because computer literacy is one of
our goals. And we use a word processing application; we use some
educational software; we use the Internet. I always have a significant
number of students who have never turned on the computer before,
have never touched a mouse before, so we start from the very, very
beginning, showing people how to turn it off and turn it on properly,
how to use the mouse comfortably. And we go from there to teaching
basic word processing and computer skills, always incorporating
some language learning at the same time, so that we'll have an exercise
that might teach people how to save something on the computer and
save it on a disk, but at the same time, they're practicing story-writing
form, and they're practicing past tense. They're...But instead of
using a canned piece of software that practices past tense in a
workbook format, they're actually doing their own stories and their
own writing with it. One of the last things that I teach them about
the computer is how to use the Internet. They use it for several
purposes:
One, they use it to find other resources for their English on the
computer, and we've set up bookmarks of some of their favorite spots
to go to. But the part of the Internet that they are most intrigued
by is using the Internet to get them in contact with life back home.
So they've learned how to search for things about their own countries,
and you'll see in class later today where people are going to do
presentations about some aspect of their culture, and many of them
use the Internet to find picture resources, to find information
about their country that they're going to bring to us in class.
One of the advantages in using the Internet, besides that it's here
and it's spiffy and it's fun, is that they can find information
in their first language, which you usually can't find in the public
library, or even the academic library over here, so they have those
various resources. The Internet, because it can bring in newspapers
from home, can also bring in touches of home to help people connect
in a way that a public library can't, and I have my famous anecdote
about the student who found all the baseball scores from all the
leagues in Taiwan through the Internet. And that's something you
don't find in the newspaper here, and as he said, "Now, anytime
I feel homesick, I can come in here and I can connect." And that's
really exciting. The other exciting part about that project is the
fact that they discovered this themselves. When I first introduced
them to the Internet I had this project of, you know, look for the
best stuff, or practicing English on it, and immediately... well,
they did what I asked them to do, and they found nice stuff, but
immediately they said, "Okay, I can look up my country, and I can
find things, and I can show people who the popular rock stars are."
And they began showing each other about life in their country, and
pictures. That brought real live communication that you can never
plan for in class quite as well.
One person found pictures that she downloaded and either she'll
be able to show us directly on the computer or she'll have print
shots that she'll show us through the overhead, or distribute in
the class, so that they use pictures and graphics that they find.
Sometimes they find information that you'll hear incorporated in
their report. One woman who will be presenting today will be talking
about a wedding in India, and different states of India have different
customs. So she knew some things, but didn't know other things.
She was able to find on the Internet someone else who had reported
on their family's wedding and she was able to look at their pictures
and see how things were the same, and things were different in different
parts of India. So they use it to find that kind of information
as well.
Student 1:
We are in the U.S.A. just one month ago... so we was very interesting
to use the computer because we can do our research without going
outside so we can use this opportunity and so we tried because we
know something about Italian food because we are Italians, but some
picture we don't have, so it was a very interesting use of computers.
Student 2:
It was interesting to translation into English (laughing).
Student 1:
So we found these, then we read what was inside, and we use our
knowledge about these letters... and so we wrote exactly the recipe
we wanted to give to other students.
Student 2:
Then we have also the Italian map, of Italy, because some, maybe
they don't know where exactly is our town, because our town is not
famous like Milan ... We found a lot of maps, and so it was beautiful
because then they can understand where we are [from] in Italy.
Student 1:
It's because we didn't bring many pictures about our country so
it is the only system to show other people where we come from, where
we live. So... other students sometimes have pictures so we can
see where they live.... We don't have [pictures] so... I think it's
a good idea to use [the computer].
Student 2:
Hello. My name is Stefania. Her name is Magdalena. And we come from
Italy. And Italy is divided in 20 regions. And our region is called
Basilicata. And Basilicata is near Naples and is a mountain region.
We live in Potenza, which is a mountain town near Naples.
Leibman:
I think that having the computer is a great motivator for students.
People are excited about having learned it. I get comments in student's
journals that they never thought they could use a computer, and
now here they are doing whatever it is we are doing.
Do you use this technology with students with less education?
We've used it with "pre-beginning" students who are students with
very low literacy and education in their first language and in English.
Obviously, we don't teach them the Internet on the first day. We
start out with real low-level writing skills, identifying themselves.
That's the advantage to people who may have trouble holding a pencil
but it's nearly as much trouble hitting a key. And they get something
that looks good afterwards, and when you have low literacy skills,
having something that looks good is really important to you. It's
something that you can go back in and can change. It's something
you can blow up in big print and your teacher can post all over
the walls. So having the technology, I think, is a great benefit
for people with low literacy skills. Plus, there's the... again,
there's the excitement in saying, "I can conquer this very modern
"sophisticated" piece of technology."
Student 3:
There are in Mexico many cities with colonial history...If you want
more information about...but if you really want, you can go to here
[pointing to icons of Mexican cities on computer screen]. This is
a beautiful place, Zacatecas. Look at this. They just use this place
to transport the water by the city, you know, so the [place] is
really strange because it has a lot of mountains around, so they
need to make some construction that helped to transport the water
from far away to another side of the city. In another city, has
stone, you know... it is really, really difficult to build there.
So it's because they just... [use] this form to transport the water.
I know Zacatecas, and I love this place. But it's different when
another people from another countries and from another cities and
maybe from Mexico, but they come from another states... they can
... they can find it... and they can say, "Oh, my God. I will go
to Zacatecas; it's beautiful!"
You know, I went there, but now I can see it again, and I'm here,
and I'm an American, you know, and I can talk about it and I can
show them, and it's great!
Leibman:
The first obvious benefit is this is a growing academic tool. And
students need to be able to feel comfortable with that tool as they
go into college classes where there will be a lot of things they
will be uncomfortable [with]. If you feel like you have control
over something, that'll make the next hard part just a little bit
easier. It's hard to do two hard things at one time. So that's one
benefit. There's the excitement in it. Many people come into learning
a new language with a great deal of fear and a great feeling of...
discomfort and nervousness, and embarrassment. We'll hear people
say, "I feel like a kid again, I feel dumb, I feel mute." And when
you can do something like use a computer comfortably, it gives a
boost to your self-confidence. When you feel more self-confident
and comfortable, you learn a language more easily.
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