I think you make a good point about the loss of status for patriarchs of immigrant families, Terry.  I would like to someday see a program that functions to allow the immigrant population to learn the English that would help them succeed in the professions they practiced in their countries.  It seems demeaning to me that a person who had been a teacher, lawyer, etc. would have to take a job doing cleaning.  One fellow that my husband worked with had been forced (by one of our beneficent US programs) to learn kitchen duties, when he had been a salon owner and operator in his own country.  It would have made more sense for him to study cosmetology here, where he could have made a connection with things already familiar.  


>>> Terry Pruett-Said <said at ameritech.net> 12/6/2008 2:27 PM >>>

I find in my community college ESL reading classes that men tend to prefer non-fiction to fiction more than women, and I think I've seen research to back this up for native speakers too.  But I think men may be more more sensitive to the loss of status that comes with being a new immigrant in a new culture. I know in talking with my students that many of them say the patriarchs of the family often suffer the most adjustment problems. As bad as things may have been in their own countries they were still respected, but once in a new country they will usually have to take a job lower in social status, and not be able to protect and support their family as they want because of a lack of language skills and cultural capital. So they may, indeed, feel that children's books only add to their feeling of loss of status. 

I think that's why it makes a lot of sense to have a wide variety of reading materials available to students, and not rely on only one type. If students feel they have options, then they will be more likely to be open to new types of reading materials. Obviously, if your students are all women (or men) who want to read stories to their children then they may all want to read children's books. And it is true there are some children's books out there that you would never know are children's books unless someone told you. But I think we need to be sensitive to all our students. If it's the men complaining about this, then maybe that tells us we need to be more aware of the men in our classrooms.

Theresa Pruett-Said
Macomb Community College
Michigan




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From: KRISTA K ANDERSON <KKANDERSON at burnsville.k12.mn.us>
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>
Sent: Friday, December 5, 2008 8:34:50 PM
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3257] Re: I don't understand the current thinking behind teaching reading to adults!


First, I find it interesting that the most critical voices in this discussion are men.
 
One reason I use children's books once in a while is that my students who are parents are very interested in reading to their children, especially the moms.  I also try to emphasize reading books at home in their native language, and not only English, but they are quite interested in reading to their kids, and in being able to read books their kids bring home from school.  Also, some of my students don't read in their own language, or sometimes children's books in certain languages may be hard to come by.
 
Krista Anderson


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