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Refugee English project: need volunteers | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| yenome Hexaglot Newbie United States Joined 5373 days ago 37 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, French, Persian Studies: Thai, Arabic (Iraqi), Mandarin | Message 1 of 10 04 June 2015 at 8:53pm | IP Logged |
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Hello all,
I work in the English Language Training department of Refugee Focus (www.refugeefocus.org), a refugee resettlement agency in Phoenix, Arizona. We serve about 1200 refugees each year. Learning English is a critical, but often very problematic element of our clients’ path to self-sufficiency: many arrive with little to no English background, and many are only able to attend our classes for several months. Therefore, I have initiated the development of a web-based graded reader that will build up from zero knowledge and that will remain accessible to our clients through the local library, etc., even after they can no longer come to class. The reader will be based on the idea of comprehensible input (cf. Stephen Krashen) and, for logistical reasons if nothing else, will be entirely in English with no translations provided. It will start with basic sentences like “This is a man” and “This is a woman,” with understanding facilitated by Google Images and custom illustrations. As the lessons progress and the students know more words, we will scaffold on those and explain new vocabulary by means of the old vocabulary. One successful implementation of this model that I’m aware of is Lingua Latina per se Illustrata by Hans Orberg—of course, that is for Latin. The problem is that although I have people to handle the illustrations and the technological component, I do not have a large enough team to actually write the curriculum. To be more specific, right now it’s basically me by my onesies, and I have quite a few other responsibilities in my position besides doing this. Therefore, I am eagerly looking for people willing to pitch in, even if just a little bit. Requirements are English proficiency, basic grammatical competence, and the ability to imagine good ways to explain word meanings without using any translations. I would be more than happy to provide additional information to interested parties. My email address is echien@refugeefocus.org, and my US phone number is (602) 248-4400 x138. We could also arrange a Skype call if that’s more convenient. Thanks for your time, and I hope to hear from some of you! Edward Chien 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4520 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 2 of 10 04 June 2015 at 8:58pm | IP Logged |
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"English by the nature method" by Arthur M. Jensen. Same publisher as Ørberg. You might not need to write anything on your own. It's even available on scribd. Edited by daegga on 04 June 2015 at 9:05pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| yenome Hexaglot Newbie United States Joined 5373 days ago 37 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, French, Persian Studies: Thai, Arabic (Iraqi), Mandarin | Message 3 of 10 04 June 2015 at 9:34pm | IP Logged |
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What a wonderful resource, thank you! It is not quite self-explanatory enough for our clients (some of whom have never been to school and can't even read in their native language), and the lesson style is a bit "kill & drill," but it will definitely furnish useful ideas. Perhaps certain sections can even be stolen--I'll have to look into the licensing and copyright dates.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4532 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 4 of 10 06 June 2015 at 11:25am | IP Logged |
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Do you know the Extensive Reading mailing list on Yahoo? If you post your question there I am sure you'd get a very good response.
You might want to also check out the Extensive Reading Foundation There is also the Extensive Reading blog and the newly created Extensive Reading Central website. Edited by patrickwilken on 06 June 2015 at 11:26am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| yenome Hexaglot Newbie United States Joined 5373 days ago 37 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, French, Persian Studies: Thai, Arabic (Iraqi), Mandarin | Message 5 of 10 08 June 2015 at 7:40pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, Patrick: I'll look into that.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 4051 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 6 of 10 08 August 2015 at 2:42pm | IP Logged |
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Hello venome,
In the off-chance that you do not visit this site very frequently, I suggest that you have a quick look at the General Discussion section of the Forum and, more particularly, the discussion threads NOTICE: Contact Information and Fate of HTLAL. There is an on-going debate about the future of this Forum and it seems that some members are moving to the parallel Forum Not the Real HTLAL. I am NOT suggesting that you abandon this website; rather, I am merely concerned that you and your project might get lost in the shuffle. I wish you success with your project! Edited by Speakeasy on 08 August 2015 at 2:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| yenome Hexaglot Newbie United States Joined 5373 days ago 37 posts - 45 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, French, Persian Studies: Thai, Arabic (Iraqi), Mandarin | Message 7 of 10 08 August 2015 at 10:01pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the heads up!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| aokoye Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5540 days ago 235 posts - 453 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Norwegian, Japanese | Message 8 of 10 09 August 2015 at 2:27am | IP Logged |
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One suggestion that I would give would be to reach out to the University of Arizona's Masters in ESL
department - their website is here http://english.arizona.edu/language-and-linguistics/ma-esl . Another resource is the TESOL International Association. Edited by aokoye on 09 August 2015 at 2:27am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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