How we do things here…

The Cultural Barriers to the Academic Success

of

Adult English Second Language Learners:

McLeod Adult Learning Centre Research Project

Final Report

October 2002


Final Research Report

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements5

A Year of Learning: Foreword by Darlene Cullimore7

  1. Executive Summary9
  1. Introduction12

AGoals of the Project12

BResearch Process12

  1. Background18

ALiterature Review18

iRoessingh’s Research18

iiAddressing Cultural Barriers20

iiiCulture: Visible & Invisible21

ivBICS/CALPS: How Much Time Is Enough?23

vTOEFL & The Canadian Language Benchmarks Assessment25

viThe Foresee Approach26

viiWorkplace Literacy28

BESL in Winnipeg30

iKindergarten to Grade 1230

iiAdult Language Training (ALT)30

aSchool, College and University Adult ESL Programs30

bCommunity Based Language Training (CBLT) Programs31

cRegional Programs31

iiiWorkplace Language Training31

CProfile of McLeod Adult Learning Centre Clients33

iHigh School & Language Issues34

iiSkill vs. “Piece of Paper”34

iiiSchema of ESL Process at McLeod Adult Learning Centre35

  1. Main Findings & Analysis36

AIntroduction36

BFindings re: Learners36

CSystems38

iCommunication System41

iiClassroom/Education System42

aIn the Classroom42

bSuggestions to Teachers43

cCanadian Classroom Expectations44

dClassroom Observations46

eLessons Learned46

iiiWork System49

aWorkplace Issues49

  • Prioritising Tasks49
  • Organising Information49
  • Accessing Resources50
  • Applying Expected Processes50
  • Communication Styles50

bDetailed Cultural Issues Related to the Workplace51

cMeta-cognition in the Workplace54

DOther Findings55

iClass Attendance55

iiConsistent Work55

iiiSocial-Affective Factors55

  1. Learning How to Learn in Canada: A Resource57

ARationale57

BTable of Contents57

  1. Concluding Comments64
  1. Follow-up Report, January 200365
  1. Glossary72

List of Figures

Figure 1 / Styles of Paragraph Development, based on Kaplan, 1966 / 21
Figure 2 / Schema of ESL Process at McLeod Adult Learning Centre / 35
Figure 3 / Distance from the Mainstream[1] (variables that can affect language acquisition and integration) / 40

List of Tables

Table 1 / Cultural Influences & Academic Skills Expectations / 16
Table 2 / Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) / 24
Table 3 / TOEFL Scores and Corresponding Benchmark Levels / 25
Table 4 / Profile of McLeod ESL Learners / 33
Table 5 / Canadian Classroom Expectations / 44
Table 6 / Profile of 30S Classes at McLeod Adult Learning Centre, Fall 2001 / 46
Table 7 / Teacher Behaviours that Affect Cultural Barriers / 47
Table 8 / Comparison of “Canadian” Resumé and “Immigrant” Resumé / 53
Table 9 / CLBA Results, McLeod Adult Learning Centre, 2001-2002 / 56

List of Appendices

Appendix 1 / Ethics Statement (Letter to Participants) / 73
Appendix 2 / Consent to be Interviewed / 74
Appendix 3 / Canadian Language Benchmarks Overview / 75
Appendix 4 / Survey Questionnaire / 76
Appendix 5 / Academic Word List / 81
Appendix 6 / Sample Lesson, The Foresee Approach to Integrated ESL Instruction / 84
Appendix 7 / Participant Comments from MALC Survey / 87

Acknowledgements

This report and the research conducted was funded by Government of Manitoba, Education, Training and Youth. Additional in-kind support was provided by Government of Manitoba, Labour and Immigration, Adult Language Training (ALT) Branch, Palliser Furniture and McLeod Adult Learning Centre.

Thank you to all the 30S and 40S clients at McLeod Adult Learning Centre, 2000 – 2002 who generously shared

their experiences, their insights and their time.

We wish to acknowledge the following for their contributions:

Darlene Cullimore

Project Co-ordinator

Director

McLeod Adult Learning Centre

Angela Chotka

Project Researcher

Chotka Consulting

Our Project Partners and Steering Committee members for their commitment to this project:

Lynn Connell

Funding Partner & Project Officer

Labour Market Partnerships, Employment & Training Services,

Manitoba Education, Training and Youth

McLeod Research Project 2002: “How we do things here…”

Chotka Consulting

Page 1 of 92

Lisa Petit

Program Officer

Adult Language Training Branch,

Immigration and Multiculturalism Division,

Manitoba Labour and Immigration

Joanne Pettis

Program Officer

Adult Language Training Branch,

Immigration and Multiculturalism Division,

Manitoba Labour and Immigration

McLeod Research Project 2002: “How we do things here…”

Chotka Consulting

Page 1 of 92

Chris Trory

Education Director

Corporate Human Resources,

Palliser Furniture Ltd.

Valerie Unwin

Education Development Co-ordinator

Corporate Human Resources,

Palliser Furniture Ltd.

McLeod Research Project 2002: “How we do things here…”

Chotka Consulting

Page 1 of 92

Barbara Wynes

Adult Learning and Literacy, Community Learning & Youth Programs Branch,

Manitoba Advanced Education and Training

Phil McBurney

Co-ordinator, Adult Program,

McLeod Adult Learning Centre

Margerit Roger

Program Developer,

UFCW Training Centre

Beth Bisson

Director, Adult Education Centre

Thanks to the following for sharing their resources, time and expertise:

Michael Witt McLeod Adult Learning Centre

Brenda Trevenen, McLeod Adult Learning Centre

Jim Crean, Winnipeg 1 School Division

Ron Munroe, McLeod Adult Learning Centre

Richard Jarko, McLeod Adult Learning Centre

Kathleen Clarke, ALT Branch/Chotka Consulting

Judy Johnson, ALT Branch

Hetty Roessingh, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

Helen Christie, Miles Macdonnell Collegiate

Shirley Kozlowich, Miles Macdonnell Collegiate

Barb Reid, UFCW Training Centre

Lucy Epp, Language Training Centre, Red River College

Louise Giesbrecht, Diverse Workforce Development, Palliser Furniture

Wendell Wiebe, Bristol Aerospace Ltd.

A Year of Learning

How McLeod Adult Learning Centre benefited from this project

Darlene Cullimore: Director of Continuing Education

River East Transcona School Division: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Where do project ideas come from? In this case, the idea was spurred in 1999/2000 by the needs of students who came to our adult learning centre who were recent immigrants and who had varying levels of ability to communicate in English. Many needed Canadian high school credits to enroll in post secondary institutions; others had never had the opportunity to complete high school in their home countries. Our centre was new; we offered high school credit courses toward the Manitoba Mature Student Diploma, but none of us was experienced in second language training or in dealing with subtle cross-cultural issues. However, we were faced with highly motivated students who deserved a reasonable chance for academic success.

After some time spent searching for assistance, I connected with Lisa Petit and Judith Hayes who, at the time, were contractors with Manitoba Labour and Immigration’s Adult Language Training Branch (ALT). With ALT’s blessing, Lisa and Judith “benchmarked” the Senior 4 (Grade 12) English Language Arts (ELA) provincial curriculum. To “benchmark” meant that they assessed the language expectations of the provincial Grade 12 curriculum against the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB), a well-regarded system used to assess adult immigrants’ ESL levels, but which is mostly unknown in the school system. We were all shocked at the result – much of the curriculum benchmarked at CLB 12, the highest level, found in only a minority of university educated native English speakers. Lisa and Judith also informed us that Manitoba’s Red River College had recently benchmarked many of its programs, which scored at CLB 8 or 9. Clearly some of the issues we were facing were of our own system’s making!

Drawing on their extensive experience with immigrants and ESL training, Lisa and Judith went on to educate me about the subtle barriers we in Canada create for newcomers from other cultures by our unconscious expectations about the skills “everyone” should have. They showed me how these expectations are imbedded in the ELA curriculum (and other courses too) – skills such as brainstorming, participating effectively (by North American standards) in groups, and challenging authority. Out of my horror at inadvertently and perhaps unfairly “raising the bar” for our ESL learners grew the idea for a larger project. I therefore gathered together a Steering Committee of interested partners, including ALT Branch; Palliser Furniture (to examine workplace cultural and ESL issues); Employment and Training Services Branch of Manitoba Education Training and Youth (METY) -- our forward-thinking funder; Adult Learning and Literacy Branch (METY); and two other adult learning centres, Adult Education Centres and the United Food and Commercial Workers Training Centre. Our project was funded for the 2001/02 academic year and this report details our discoveries.

There is a saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher will come”. For me, now ready, the teacher was Angela Chotka, the young, impassioned, untiring researcher and curriculum developer recommended by Lisa to implement our project. From October to August, Angela interviewed our students, observed classes, gathered resources, and skillfully persuaded and inspired me to a much richer understanding of the needs of all of our students -- not just, but certainly also, our immigrant, ESL learners.

I think many of us at McLeod have benefited from this “year of learning”. We learned together and, through this project, found a forum from which to view everything differently. I can’t thank enough Brenda Trevenen who in Fall 2002 is piloting our new credit course, Learning How to Learn in Canada 41G (a direct result of the project) as well as our Senior 3 (Grade 11) ELA for ESL learners, and Michael Witt, McLeod’s Student Facilitator, an ESL learner himself -- now a qualified teacher, who has taken a special interest in the holistic needs of our immigrant ESL students. I also want to thank Phil McBurney, McLeod’s program coordinator and lead ELA teacher, Angela’s research assistant, Kathleen Clarke, and the other members of the Project Steering Committee. A special thanks must also go to Alberta’s Hetty Roessingh who shared her research and expertise so willingly with us.

I encourage you to reflect on this report and use the curriculum resource any way that works for you. The data collected from our research has only been touched on for the report; it will be available in its entirety to interested program developers through the Adult Learning and Literacy page of the METY website. If you have questions, please contact me at or at (204) 667-4952.

Sincerely,

Darlene Cullimore, M.A., M.Ed.

  1. Executive Summary

McLeod Adult Learning Centre (MALC), located in a northeast suburb of Winnipeg, Manitoba, found over recent years, more and more people who did not speak English as a first language were wanting to join the continuing education program. These English Second Language (ESL) learners stated that they wanted to improve their English language skills and/or attain high school credit in Manitoba. The McLeod Adult Learning Centre Director and her staff recognised that this group of ESL learners faced distinct challenges in succeeding both in the education system and in the workplace system. The vast majority (88%) of the ESL learners at MALC were working at least full-time, raising families here in Winnipeg and helping to support families in their home countries.

The goals of this research project, initiated by Darlene Cullimore, Director of Continuing Education of River East Transcona School Division, McLeod Adult Learning Centre were to:

  • Identify cultural barriers to success for Adult ESL Learners in the education system
  • Consider if cultural barriers interfere with success in the workplace
  • Design and develop a resource, Learning How to Learn in Canada, to address the identified cultural barriers and help people succeed in Canadian systems.

Many variables such as origin, experience and age, influence one’s adaptability and integration. These factors make it exceedingly difficult to predict how people will fare in our systems. What we can do, though, is acknowledge Canadian systems – what makes them work, why they are set up the way they are and try to be open with people about “how we do things around here.” Adult students, in particular, need to be masters of their own ships. As educators, coworkers and decision-makers, we must do our best to show people how things are done here and how to transfer their understanding to new situations by learning metacognitive strategies.

It should be noted, that while this project focuses on immigrants’ integration and success in the Canadian academic and workplace systems, anyone outside the standard Canadian system will struggle with these issues to some extent.

Main Findings:

  1. Cultural understanding is a huge barrier to success. Cultural understanding is intertwined with appropriate use of language, particularly where more formal and/or sophisticated communication is required.
  2. Canadians are not very aware of their own culture and tend to think of themselves as quite neutral culturally. Supervisors, managers, teachers, administrators and decision-makers need to apply metacognitive strategies to their own situations and interactions in order to better interpret their own behaviours as well as the behaviours of others.
  3. The skills required to negotiate cultural barriers (accessing resources, organizing information, communication styles, using appropriate processes and prioritzing tasks) are foundation skills. These skills affect success in the workplace, day-to-day life and in the education system.
  4. Behaviours that perpetuate cultural barriers are found in the supervisors, managers, teachers, and administrators who are least successful in working with immigrants and people from different backgrounds.

This research resulted in the development of curriculum resource, How We Do Things Here: Increasing Cultural Understanding of Canadian Workplace and Learning Systems, designed by Angela Chotkawhich has been offered as a Senior 4 (Grade 12) credit course at McLeod Adult Learning Centre in Fall 2002. The resource contains background and supporting information developed by Angela Chotka and lesson plans compiled and adapted by Kathleen Clarke, which will be used in various ways in workplaces, adult English for Specific Purposes (ESP) programs and other Adult Learning Centres.

This research moves the issue of “communicative/academic competence” into a larger cultural context. It is important to recognize that responsibility for academic and workplace success rests with all of us, not just those who are “new” or somehow outside our system. Those of us who find ourselves working with those not familiar with “the system”, such as teachers, managers, supervisors, trainers, need to understand our own cultural assumptions and behaviours and demystify and share them openly. The findings from this research also remind us consider “culture” more broadly than ethnicity and to include social and economic factors (previous education, people from “the other side of the tracks”) in academic and workplace success.

Findings for:

a)Teachers/Trainers/Instructors:

For further information, consult the resource, Learning How to Learn in Canada. In addition, see Table 1, Cultural Influences & Academic Skills Expectations, the Literature Review, Background, High School Issues and the Detailed Findings, Classroom/Education System, Suggestions to Teachers, The Process for ESL Instruction at McLeod Adult Learning Centre Graphic, Figure 2 and the Participant Comments from MALC Survey, Appendix 7.

In the Canadian classroom we value:

  • Team work
  • Extroversion – vocal participation
  • Facilitation skills
  • Independence
  • Initiative

Some behavioural expectations will be harder for immigrants to accommodate since one does not simply “unlearn” behaviour overnight. But the key seems to be in the identification and discussion of these expectations. Answering the cultural questions often involves a discussion around why which inevitably involves the needs to be more specific such the teacher exploring his/her own behaviours, examining how things are done in Canada, considering the values behind certain expectations, and so on. See also Table 7, Teacher Behaviours that Affect Cultural Barriers.

b)Workplace Managers/Human Resource Professionals/Supervisors

For more information on how cultural barriers impact in the workplace system, see Background, Workplace Issuesand Detailed Findings, Work System and the Participant Comments from MALC Survey, Appendix 7. In addition, consult the Literature Review, specifically, Addressing Cultural Barriers; Culture: Visible & Invisible; BICS/CALPS: How Much Time is Enough?and Workplace Literacy.

In the workplace, we often see people from different backgrounds struggling to succeed. Many of the skills identified as impeding success are foundation skills, such as:

  1. understanding and demonstrating how to prioritise tasks,
  2. understanding and demonstrating how to organise information,
  3. understanding how to access resources
  4. understanding and applying expectedprocess
  5. communication styles such as body language, handling conflict

The supervisor/manager is of critical importance in facilitating the integration of people from different backgrounds as the supervisor’s behaviour can encourage learning about cultural barriers or perpetuate these barriers. See also Table 7, Teacher Behaviours that Affect Cultural Barriers.

c)Learning Centre Directors

Learning Centre Directors require a “big picture” perspective about their programs in terms of promoting a school atmosphere that is responsive to the special needs of ESL learners. This involves listening for staff statements that may reflect lack of understanding of cultural issues/barriers, and developing sensitivity at external meetings and when reading administrative documents to the general lack of cross-cultural awareness of curriculum developers and administrators in the education system. Hidden cultural expectations will beimbedded in course documents, school plans and other material that provide the framework for the learning centre’s program. The discovered examples then can lead to “teaching moments” for the alert education leader to provide impromptu -- or more structured -- professional development for the staff who deal directly with ESL learners. See Lessons Learned.

d)Students

See the Guide to Learners in the Resource, How We Do Things Here: Increasing Cultural Understanding of Canadian Workplace and Learning Systems. Students will also benefit from the section, Other Findings.

  1. Introduction

AGoals of the Project:

  • To identify the cultural barriers faced by Adult ESL clients at McLeod Adult Learning Centre
  • To develop an adjunct curriculum to address foundation needs to support the clients in the 30S English Language Arts course

This project was initiated by Darlene Cullimore, Director of Continuing Education of River East Transcona School Division, McLeod Adult Learning Centre, after observing an inordinate number of ESL clients’ struggles to obtain high school credit and functional skill levels comparable to those achieved by native speakers. In Observations on Benchmarking the Foundations for Senior 3 and 4 High School Programmes, Lisa Petit and Judith Hayes of Adult Language Training Branch wrote: