Language As A Vocational Choice

If Idaho vocational education students are to learn to communicate in English, then vocational and ESL teachers must learn to communicate period. ESL teachers had traditionally been thought of as on the academic side, says Pat Wilson, who taught fashion design at Los Angeles Trade Technical College for 17 years before becoming an administrator for the Los Angeles Community College District and then retiring in 2006

"I saw that we had all these students who didn't speak English and weren't able to get jobs," Wilson recalls about the beginnings of what would become a collaborative program between some of Trade Tech's vocational instructors and ESL teachers. Wilson says she often spoke with other vocational teachers who were having trouble reaching the LEP students in their classes but the vocational teachers resented the heck out of these ESL teachers coming into their classrooms and talking over their heads. Wilson adds. "My expertise is not in English or ESL."

Wilson and a handful of vocational teachers from various departments, including culinary arts, electronics and graphic arts, sought the advice of Jean Phillips, a local ESL specialist. The group was able to secure a grant through the California community college system for a professional development class--one in which Phillips would teach Trade Tech's vocational staff how to clear the LEP hurdle. Vocational teachers who chose to participate attended the class on Saturdays until they accumulated about 32 professional development hours. The majority of teachers participated.

Phillips also developed a handbook outlining some ESL techniques vocational teachers could use in the classroom. Then the vocational teachers applied these techniques to create new and improved classroom activities. Here's one example Platt documented in her research. In a fashion design class the teacher described, illustrated and showed examples of different kinds of skirt pleats. After each description and example, she asked students to describe the pleats in their own words [in English], using a question-and-answer format in a kind of chain drill. However, the activity lacked authenticity, not in the selection of terms themselves, but in the way in which they were taught. Platt suggested modifications for the activity to take better advantage of vocational education's hands-on learning component.

Students could make drawings or create actual examples of each of the pleats, write notes about their particular uses and indicate specific information such as the type of fabric best suited for a given type of pleat. They could summarize their discussions about the garments they were planning, and then write letters to their friends or relatives who could help them make the skirts.

In her study Platt says such an activity is appropriate for an early speaking level, one in which students English conversation is rudimentary. But even to participate in a vocational lesson at a basic level, she adds, students must be familiar with the vocabulary specific to that class. This is best accomplished through collaborative efforts between ESL (or VESL--vocational English as a second language) teachers and vocational teachers.