SAN FRANCISCO—At last week’s eighth annual Low Educated Second Language and Literacy Acquisition for Adults (LESLLA) conference, held at the Mission Campus of City College of San Francisco (CCSF), the 160 or so attendees gained insight into research and practices on working with adults that have limited literacy or education in their native and/or second language.
According to Dr. Anne Whiteside, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at CCSF, the conference is the only one of its kind. Attendees could choose between sessions on topics such as “Gender, Power and Print Literacy in a LESLLA Classroom,” “Non-Literate Finnish Learners and a Ten-Month Challenge” and “Making Literacy Compelling: Embedding Literacy in Livelihood and Opportunity.” Other events included a presentation by Nigerian-born artist Victor Ekpuk about his use of Nsibidi, a graphic system from his native country; and a talk by Dr. Norma Guillard from the University of Havana about participating in the Cuban National Literacy Campaign, followed by a movie about women literacy workers in Cuba, “Maestra.”
The range of options appealed to Stephanie Love, who came from Turin, Italy, where she teaches English and Italian and researches immigration issues.
“I’m really interested to see the diversity of what’s being offered,” said Love, who was presenting a paper on testing immigrants in Italy.
An opening address was delivered by Dr. Robin Waterman, director of La Conexion Comunitaria de Aurora in Colorado, about her work with mostly illiterate women in El Salvador using methods of the late Brazilian Paulo Freire, who advocated education as a tool to change socioeconomic status and for teachers to be facilitators of dialogue, rather than simply depositing information in students’ heads.
Waterman discussed topics that would be meaningful to the women as well as valuing the experience and knowledge they bring to the group. She also discussed her research in the U.S. on the importance of teaching ESL based on students’ goals, such as talking to their children’s teachers.
