| English Language Learning- A Canadian Model |
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by Frances Charette-Phelan, M. Ed.
Children learn their mother tongue within the flexible and forgiving framework of family life. In this setting, practical social requirements become playful imperatives for the tiny language learner. When English is taught as a second language, the learning parameters are usually quite different from this natural model. To begin with, the learners are no longer as psychologically or even physiologically predisposed, as infants are, to absorbing language. Adolescent or adult learners often come to the process with a collection of established mechanisms, attitudes, and inhibitions that are bound to impede even the most willing learner. The goal of the language teacher, then, is to accentuate what is useful among these mechanisms while circumventing those that hinder.
As innumerable studies have shown, the best way to learn a language is by speaking and living it, thereby approximating, however imperfectly, the early childhood model. Achieving this ideal within the modern classroom, where perhaps thirty students sit reluctantly at desks for a prescribed period waiting to be "taught," can be daunting. Getting the learners' attention, and keeping it, is usually the first step. Without their active involvement and interest, the process simply cannot succeed. The most promising learners are those who perceive the study as an enjoyable effort, beneficial to their everyday lives and future advancement.
When ESL students have moved beyond the rudimentary vocabulary and structures required for basic communication, however, there is often a tendency to inundate them with "text and meaning" experiences that lose sight of the satisfying, real-life language that serves them best. The problem with many of the most well-intentioned language teaching texts and exercises is that they are not about anything which is meaningful to the learner. They fail to enlist his or her attention or commitment because they are neither particularly useful nor enjoyable. They often have little to do with what the student is living or with the interesting events and topics of the day in the larger world.
Your News - Canada's Teaching Newspaper is a monthly periodical that attempts to respond to this deficit. Its mandate is to offer language and literacy learners entertaining articles about Canadians: their activities, events, opinions, sports, poetry and history. It does so in a pleasing 12-page tabloid format using an eye-easing, larger than standard font size.
The monthly newspaper also appeals to its readers with language activities, puzzles, word games and seasonal topics intended to build fluency and vocabulary in ways that are challenging yet painless and fun. It provides oral group exercises, opportunities for debate, and a forum where students' written responses are published. In other words, Your News takes an approach that is natural by adding enjoyment as well as reality to the practicalities of language learning.
Your News began life in 1985 as an occasional periodical that founding publisher Bonnie Billick created for her literacy students in a program sponsored by the Douglas Hospital in Montreal. She called the paper Your News to personalize it for her small group of students. In the ensuing 17 years it has grown and changed, becoming an enthusiastically endorsed resource among teachers across Canada and beyond. A new publisher, Frances Charette-Phelan took on the reins in 1991. At that point the paper was redesigned and reconfigured to reflect innovations in the pedagogy of language.
An editorial board of educators and users now oversees Your News. This board meets periodically to review and offer directives about the newspaper's mission. Members critique and provide suggestions about its content and methodology. They assess whether the publication's editorial approach fulfills its mandated goals.
Canada's Teaching Newspaper contains no advertising, nor has it ever been "marketed," aggressively or otherwise. It has evolved largely by word of mouth, a testament to its usefulness and the loyalty of its readership. Today, intermediate to advanced English Second Language learners are its main clientele in Quebec, British Columbia, and Central Ontario. Adult Literacy programs remain an important focus, however, as are Special Education users in every province and territory. There are currently fifteen thousand readers across Canada.
People learn language by speaking and living it. Without these components they may come to possess the shell of language but never know its vital fullness. A specialized newspaper that manages to capture the interest and engage the imagination of its readers, while stimulating them to share and interact on its contents, brings the ideal that much closer to reality for language learners.
Frances Charette-Phelan, M.Ed., has been the Publisher of Your News - Canada's Teaching Newspaper since 1991. For ten years prior to this, she taught "Effective Written Communication" across diverse disciplines at McGill University. She has also taught ESL to adult and adolescent learners for the Montreal Catholic School Board. She began her career as a journalist with the Montreal Star and has edited a variety of commercial publications.