Charting a Course: Responding to the Industry-Related
Adult Basic Education Needs of the Texas Workforce
Handbook Two: Workplace Savy for Workforce-related Instruction
Modules #5 & 6

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Module Six: Delivering Instruction Responsive to Identified Needs

Developing Work-Related ESL Learning Activities

Whether you are teaching a class at a worksite, providing instruction focused on needs identified by employers and employees, or incorporating work-related topics into your regular classes, the balance between work-related content and language skills development is critical. Mastery of work-related content does not always equal improved English language proficiency, and one should not be sacrificed in exchange for success in the other.

The integration and transferability of work-related content and English language skills to the workplace requires careful planning. Adult learners participating in a 2002-2003 piloting of a retail sales curriculum adapted for use with English language learners reported that, while their knowledge of retail sales increased significantly, their ability to use the English language to communicate did not (Center for Literacy Studies, June 2003). Both instructors and participants emphasized the need for additional attention to communication skills development. After all, language learning requires time and opportunities to practice and apply the skills being learned.

Defining the parameters of curriculum development is all about local capacity. Program administrators, along with instructional staff have several options to consider:

1. A program focused on addressing workforce-related topics in regular adult education classrooms, may use generic instructional materials – not a bad choice, provided the materials focus on what learners and research tell us is needed. Pre-packaged, “boiler plate” instructional materials – either commercially available or developed by other adult educators to meet similar needs and often available online – can work well when supported with appropriate professional development for instructors.
2. Some projects develop one curriculum for similar positions across an industry and make them available to programs with similar needs. For example, curricular responses to Rider 82 are designed to provide general introductions to three industry clusters with entry-level job opportunities as well as career advancement: healthcare, manufacturing, and sales and service. They focus on job opportunities and career path options in each industry, and contextual learning drives instruction. Actual work-related materials, work-related situations, and industry-related vocabulary/ terminology are incorporated into the curricula. Rider 82 curricula are modular in format and designed to be adapted to different settings across the state. November 1, 2007ith workforce and business partners willing to share the cost) is to customize curriculum and instruction in response to the specific needs of an employer, its employees, or another group being prepared for employment in a particular industry or occupation. Some customized curricula focus on particular jobs and jobs tasks in a specific industry.

The ultimate goal is to merge an ESL curricula with adaptations that respond to learners’ specific interests and work-related needs. Before program staff select one of the options described here, several questions should be answered:

• Does the program have the capacity to develop its own work-related curriculum? Capacity here refers to time, cost, and staff with workplace savvy and experience in curriculum development. Curriculum development is very labor intensive; who will pick up the tab?
• What are the local labor force needs? Are employers looking for workers who can perform specific jobs in an industry, or do they need individuals with good language , literacy, employability, and work readiness skills who can succeed in on-the-job training?
• Are there local partners who can provide access to a continuum of education and training not available in adult education? What kind of commitment can be expected from them in terms of fees for services, opportunities for student internships, or funding for bridge programs that take learners to the post secondary level?

Typically, employers are looking to the service provider to identify employees’ work-related needs and propose instructional solutions that respond to those needs. A commercial text may be used as a “core” text, but instructors should be prepared to use worksite-related materials to contextualize instruction. There is no need, however, to reinvent the wheel. The References and Resources section at the end of this handbook includes a number of websites where free instructional materials can be downloaded. Another source of inexpensive materials, the Career Development Resource Center (a TWC-sponsored service) has available at minimal cost (from five cents to $2) brochures, charts, and workbooks – some in both Spanish and English – that address generic employability skills and help individuals learn about career options.

As an instructor, you play a critical role in the delivery of workforce-related instruction, especially if you are being asked to teach a class for a particular employer or group of employees. Program directors are encouraged to include instructors in the five step process Grognet recommends in preparing to deliver workplace ESL:

1. participate in a language task analysis that identifies the work-related needs of the learners
2. develop or select a curriculum responsive to the identified needs
3. incorporate the workplace into instructional planning
4. keep instruction learner-centered
5. monitor and measure learner progress and program success

Identifying Instructional Goals and Objectives
In adult education, there is a tendency to try to be all things to all people. Instructors find that meeting all the needs of adult learners can be a very exhausting if not impossible challenge. In delivering work-related instruction, following a few basic rules can save your sanity:

1. Don’t be tempted to promise what you can’t deliver
2. Keep goals and objectives simple, realistic, and achievable in the time allotted; use the ratio of 1:3 for developing goals and objectives
3. Plan for instruction to be delivered in short cycles or modules
4. Know upfront how you will assess/measure learners’ needs and progress

Workforce-related ESL instruction focuses on the language skills workers need to successfully perform their jobs and includes many of the following characteristics:

• Actual job-related materials (forms, documents, signage) are used in instruction
• Instruction is organized around the language needed to perform job tasks, not around discreet job skills
• Instruction includes problems and simulated situations that enable the learner to apply language and literacy skills in the workplace
• Learning activities link language and literacy skills, critical thinking skills, and work readiness skills
• Instruction builds on the learner’s prior knowledge/knowledge of the job; learners are a source of topics and materials
• Learning activities give learners opportunities to work together in teams, to solve problems
• Instruction is linked to the needs of both employer and employee
• Instruction optimizes learners’ opportunities for practice, reinforcement, and application
• There is a clear connection between identified needs, instruction, and assessment
• Language components (vocabulary, grammatical structures, language functions, pronunciation) are integrated around topics of importance/interest to the learners
• Learners’ literacy skills – in their primary languages as well as English – are considered

The Five Step Model employed in the development of curricular responses to Rider 82, the OTAN (Outreach and Technical Assistance Network) Online Lesson Plan Builder at http://www.adultedlessons.org/login.cfm?fuseaction=login, and the template being used in developing learning activities to accompany the Texas Adult Education Contents Standards and Benchmarks (June 2007) all employ a similar format for developing learning activities that maximize learners’ opportunities to practice and apply language and work-related skills:

1. Warm up/review (drawing on learners’ prior knowledge)
2. Introduction of new material
3. Presentation
4. Practice
5. Evaluation/evidence
6. Application/extension