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| Effective teaching and learning ESOL practice - Linked effective practice studies (Completed) |
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| Project description:
| This project is one of a suite of five ‘Linked effective practice studies’ projects.
This project investigated the range of approaches to the teaching of ESOL to adult learners, understood as a “pedagogical repertoire”.
It placed a particular emphasis on the teaching of spoken language as a distinctive characteristic of ESOL pedagogy. It was hoped that this would establish where possible correlations between the approaches identified and student progress and to make recommendations on effective practice and for further classroom-based research.
To do this researchers drew on a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. 40 classes were observed across sites which profile the demographic diversity of Adult ESOL provision, both urban and rural, metropolitan and regional. These classes yielded an initial cohort of some 400 - 480 students.
The aims of the proposed project were:
- To establish from the extensive research literature on classroom based language learning, from Adult ESOL research conducted by the NRDC and from consultations with expert practitioners what are currently held to be principles of effective pedagogical practice in language teaching and learning, evaluating their appropriacy for Adult ESOL provision in England;
- On the basis of this, to observe the range of pedagogical practices occurring naturally in classroom settings in the teaching of ESOL to adult learners in England, placing an emphasis on the identification and documentation of good practice from both theoretical and practice-oriented perspectives.
- To document using a range of internal and external measures, quantitative and qualitative, and pre- and post assessment the progress made by adult ESOL students in these exemplary classroom settings;
- To establish where possible correlations between particular pedagogical practices and student progress;
- Where such correlations do not prove possible, or where a correlation establishes a gap in the pedagogical repertoire and/or available testing procedures to provide proposals for addressing them;
- To draw implications for policy, provision and further professional development of ESOL practitioners.
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| Findings:
| All data has now been analysed and a final report will be produced later in the year (2006).
Interim findings:
- Before and after assessments in the pilot phase indicate statistically significant progress on oral skills in all classes
- Being employed appears to be a crucial demographic variable that positively affects student progress
- ESOL teachers are keen to be involved in research with a focus on processes of teaching and learning rather than solely on outcomes.
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