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PreparingSkilledWorkersforIntegrationThroughLanguageInstruction:HowAreWeDoing?

TraceyDerwingEducationalPsychology,UniversityofAlberta

PrairieMetropolisCentrePMCBBL–May22,2009

Acknowledgements•  MurrayMunro,SimonFraserUniversity•  RonThomson,JacquiDumas,LoriDiepenbroek,JenFoote,MarleneMulder,MarilynAbbott

•  NorQuestCollege,AnnaDeLuca,PaulHolmes

•  Participants&theiremployers

•  CarolynDieleman

•  SSHRC,CIC,PrairieMetropolisCentre

WhyAsktheQuestion?JasonKenney’squestions

•ShouldweinsistthatpeoplelearnEnglishorFrenchoverseas?

•WhyisuptakeofLINClimitedto25%?

•Whydosomelong‐termimmigrantsstilllackbasiccompetenceinanofficiallanguage?

WhyAsktheQuestion?•Arethelearnersgettingthebestprogrampossible?

•  Aretherechangeswecouldmakethatwouldbetterservethenewcomers’needs?

RelevantResearch

•  CICstudyresults•  Time8(7yearsstudy)

•  Workplacestudy

CLB&CitizenshipLanguageSurvey

•  Datacollectedin2004•  Analyzed&reportsubmittedin2007

•  Over3800immigrantssurveyedandtestedforspeaking&listeningatcitizenshiptest

•  Vancouver,Edmonton,Ottawa,Toronto,Montreal&Halifax

CharacteristicsofParticipants•  54%female/46%male•  averageage=36years(range=18‐61)•  averageageatimmigration=30years•  20%refugee•  34%familyclass•  46%independent•  121countriesoforigin•  ~108mothertongues•  50.7%receivedsomelanguagetraininginCanada

LINC/FeeBased/HS‐College‐Univ

Incongruity–ImmigrationClass&CLBScore

Language AverageCLBScore

Tagalog 7.2

Arabic 6.5

Mandarin(79%independent) 6.1

Punjabi 6.0

Cantonese(53.4%independent) 4.9

MeanCLBScoresfor5CitiesbyLanguageTrainingSource

MeanCLBScorebyCity

JobSkillLevelbyImmigrationClass

MandarinandSlavicSpeakers

Times1–6(year1inCanada)Time7(endofyear2)

Time8(endofyear7)

Fluency/Comprehensibility

RatingExperiments

•Fluency:1=extremelyfluent7=extremelydysfluent

•Comprehensibility:1=extremelyeasytounderstand7=extremelydifficulttounderstand

FluencyImprovementOverTime

ComprehensibilityImprovementOverTime

Year2andYear7Comparisons

Measure Mandarin Slavic

Fluency Nochange Sig.improvement

Comprehensibility Nochange Sig.improvement

MandarinSpeakers’Fluencyat2&7Years(dottedline=non‐improver)

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MandarinSpeakers(Fluency)

SlavicSpeakers’Fluencyat2&7Years(dottedline=non‐improver)

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SlavicLanguageSpeakers(Fluency)

MandarinSpeakers’Comprehensibilityat2&7Years(dottedline=non‐improver)

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MandarinSpeakers(Comprehensibility)

SlavicSpeakers’Comprehensibilityat2&7Years(dottedline=non‐improver)

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SlavicLanguageSpeakers(Comprehensibility)

Implications

•  Exposuretospeakingandlisteningmatters

WorkplaceStudy

•  15interviewswithESLengineers•  Questionnaireandlisteningexperimentswith24Canadian‐bornengineers(co‐workers)

NNSs

•  15respondents‐Columbia,China,Philippines,India,Venezuela,Pakistan,Bangladesh

•  10males,5females

•  Meanage=42(range=34‐55)

•  7studiedEnglishinCanada

NNSs

WastheEWPcoursehelpful?

Oh,yeah,alot‐IwasintroducedtotheCanadianworkplaceculture.

Yeah,sure,ithelpedbutitwastooshort.Thecultureaspectwasthemosthelpful.Ah,yes,definitely…Ithinkthiscoursecouldhelpmeinthefuture.Thefocusonspeakingandcommunicationwasmosthelpful.

NNSs

WastheEWPcoursehelpful?

ItookPhase1butbecausetheclassroomchangedseveraltimesIwenttherebutwecouldn’tfindtheclassroom.

Icouldn’ttakeit‐becausethisistheculturalissue,becauseFridays‐youknowwehaveaspecialprayeronthatday,soitiscomingbetweentheprayer.Thatissortofacompulsorythingforus,sounfortunatelyIcouldnotattendit.ButI’dlovetoattendthesekindsofthings.

NNSs

Areyouhappyinyourjob?

Ahyes…justsometimesmaybeIhavealittlebitofdifficulty,Imeanforthislanguage…butit’sgettingbetter

I’mgettingcooperation.Peoplearefriendly…acceptancevalueismore.Andthemainthingismanagementisawareofimmigrantlimitations,soit’seasytomoveahead.

NSEmployeeReactions

Question Yes No N/A

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

NSEmployeeReactions

Question Yes No N/A

1. More effort with ESL than NS? 22 1 1 2. 3. 4. 5.

NSEmployeeReactions

Question Yes No N/A

1. More effort with ESL than NS? 22 1 1 2. Difficulty comm. with NNS? 22 2 3. 4. 5.

NSEmployeeReactions

Question Yes No N/A

1. More effort with ESL than NS? 22 1 1 2. Difficulty comm. with NNS? 22 2 3. NNSs have problems comm.? 24 4. 5.

Yes,takesmuchlongertoexplain.Youhavetohavepatienceandspeakveryslowlyandpatiencetolistenaswell.WordschosenmustbeproperEnglish,notslang.Somepronunciationisdifficulttounderstand.

Yes–hardtounderstandwhattheyaresayingandhardtousevocabularythattheywillunderstand.Frustratingtoadapttolanguagelevel.

Yes,longertime,rework,mistakes,wastedbudgets,poorqualityproducts,hurtfeelingsandbrokenrelationshipsespeciallyasdeadlinesapproach(orpass).

NSsonESLColleagues

NSEmployeeReactions

Question Yes No N/A

1. More effort with ESL than NS? 22 1 1 2. Difficulty comm. with NNS? 22 2 3. NNSs have problems comm.? 24 4. Socialize within L1 groups? 23 1

5.

NSEmployeeReactions

Question Yes No N/A

1. More effort with ESL than NS? 22 1 1 2. Difficulty comm. with NNS? 22 2 3. NNSs have problems comm.? 24 4. Socialize within L1 groups? 23 1 6. NS reluctant to talk with NNS? 16 3 5

NSExpectationsofNNSCoworkers

“Practice”

Practicewithspeakersofnativelanguage;athome

Enunciate,speakslower

Learnmoreaboutthecultureandnormsofourconversation

GiveupL1altogether

Trynottobeshy;interactmorewithallcoworkers

Summary–HowAreWeDoing?•  TheaverageCLBscoresofnewcomerstoEdmontonarehigherthanothercities

•  Somegroupshavelowerlanguageskillsatthetimeofcitizenshipthanwouldexpected–Mandarin&Cantoneseespecially

•  SomeethnoculturalgroupscontinuetoimprovetheirorallanguageskillsaftertheirESLprogramsarefinished–othersdonot

•  EmployeesintheworkplacearenotentirelyhappywiththeirL2co‐workers’fluencyandcomprehensibility

Summary–HowAreWeDoing?

•  TowhatdegreedoesaCLBscoreoroccupationreflectintegration?

Summary–HowAreWeDoing?

•  WhatisthehardestthingaboutadjustingtolifeinCanada?

Recommendations

•  LINC/ESLprograms

Recommendations

•  LINC/ESLprograms

•  LINCfunders

Recommendations

•  LINC/ESLprograms

•  LINCfunders•  EWPprograms

Recommendations

•  LINC/ESLprograms

•  LINCfunders•  EWPprograms•  Teachertrainers

Recommendations

•  LINC/ESLprograms

•  LINCfunders•  EWPprograms•  Teachertrainers•  Researchers

Thankyou!

tracey.derwing@ualberta.ca