Throw out that old textbook: Puente has adopted a new approach to teaching ESL to adult students, on the advice of one of the country’s most prominent experts on English-Spanish bilingualism. Stanford Prof. Guadalupe Valdés has spent years documenting – and trying to solve – a problem most ESL educators try not to acknowledge: that -grammar-based ESL doesn’t teach students as much as it is hoped. “The TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) profession has generally agreed that it’s only native speakers who can teach English, and English can only be taught in English,” says Prof. Valdés. “The teacher doesn’t need to use the students’ language because they’re trying to teach them English. Prof. Valdés uses TESOL scholar Robert Phillipson’s catchy name for that kind of approach – ‘linguistic imperialism.’ In grammar-based approaches, students learn words and grammar, often without a clear understanding of what they’re repeating. And because the teacher doesn’t speak Spanish, he or she has no idea how much students are actually progressing. Puente Academic Director, Suzanne Abel, and Executive Director, Kerry Lobel, invited Prof. Valdés to re-make Puente’s ESL curriculum this summer, using her techniques with a pilot class of adult learners. Puente offers the only available ESL classes to adults on the South Coast. Those who enroll are often parents of children who … Continue reading Puente gets schooled – in teaching ESL