Foundation Learning Quality Assurance

Practice Five: Delivery

Programme delivery supports learners to achieve their foundation learning goals.

Differences between ESOL and literacy learners

Delivery should take into account differences between ‘first language’ literacy learners and ESOL learners. For example, many literacy learners have had negative prior educational experiences, so assessment and teaching may need to be adjusted in response to this. Some ESOL learners have had positive prior educational experiences and will feel well disposed to assessment and formal teaching.

While each learner group benefits from deliberate teaching, the approach is usually quite different. For example, beginning ESOL learners require structured teaching of vocabulary, phonology and meaning to understand everyday conversation. On the other hand, first language speakers can use everyday conversation to unpack the meaning and form of written language.

Note: Sometimes assessment that profiles learners’ needs is referred to as ‘diagnostic’ assessment.

For further guidance on foundation learning assessment, refer to Assessment for Foundation Learning: The importance of purposeful assessment in adult literacy, numeracy and language courses (NZCER/MoE, 2006)

Good practice

A learning plan is based on individual learners’ current and/or future foundation learning needs and goals (for example a pre-employment programme goal could be the vocational or job goal learners wish to achieve, as an outcome of the programme). The goals should be realistic and attainable. A good learning plan indicates strategies and activities that are appropriate to the learners’ contexts and cover a specified timeframe. The plan is implemented for all learners.

Example of the use of individual learning plans

On a workplace literacy programme, learners’ goals relate to their employer’s business requirements e.g. learn to read standard operating procedures for their job, as well as incorporating learners’ individual goals, such as to 'be able to read to my children’.

Example of individual learning plans used with a group

An ESOL provider assesses students and places them into groups with similar levels of language proficiency, which match the distinct learning outcomes of different programmes. The tutor and the group discuss the general results of the initial assessments and negotiate a learning plan template for the group. The tutor discusses with the group how each student will adapt their own version of the template to take account of their individual needs, within the limitations of the group context and the learning outcomes of the programme.

Useful guidance and tips for developing individual learning plans can be adapted from Planning Learning and Recording Progress and Achievement, from the UK Department of Education and Skills website.

Example from a vocational bridging programme

A foundation learning specialist working on a vocational bridging programme uses specific reading techniques rather than simplification to help students understand quite complex written texts. The tutor recognises that students will need to decode texts such as written job procedures and instructions in the workplace and they will need improved independent reading skills after they graduate . For example, the tutor asks students to take two minutes to ‘skim’ a relevant, written job procedure to identify its main subject and purpose. After some feedback, the tutor then asks students to ‘scan’ for specific information to answer four key questions about the text. The tutor regularly uses this method and students are able to see an improvement in their accuracy and speed as they learn how to identify text markers and search for key information, rather than struggling to read text without a particular purpose. This, and other tutoring methods have been used by tutors doing professional development in the Ministry of Education Learning for Living exploratory projects.

Example from a community-based literacy provider

Six to eight students attend a three-hour weekly session with a literacy tutor who is assisted by a support tutor. The literacy tutor has found that a topic-based approach helps develop a cooperative learning environment and ensures that the individual needs and preferences of students can be met.

In one learning session the group agreed to explore the topic of immigration after reading and discussing two newspaper articles about the topic. A range of literacy and language activities then took place. Two students who were keen to improve their research skills worked together to access the Department of Immigration website to see whether the articles reported accurate information. A support tutor worked with a student, who had very limited reading skills, to put her opinion of the government's immigration policies onto paper. The support tutor acted as a scribe and then created follow up activities associated with the topic, using the ‘language experience’ approach. After the literacy tutor revised the writing process, one student started to write a personal account of his experience of immigrating to New Zealand. Another student, who had identified letter writing as a goal, drafted a letter to the editor.

Research evidence indicates…

… that formative assessment of reading needs to measure all six components of reading: alphabetics, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Example

Example

For one provider, formal recognition of learning includes an official Record of Achievement, which indicates the achievement of unit standards, and a programme certificate, which records the programme components. Celebrating learners’ success and achievement includes in-house awards and a graduation ceremony with family and friends invited, as well as the formal record.