Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Dissertations

1997

A project in English for specific purposes: English

for Hispanic workers at a bulk mailing company
Janese Alane Cerón
Iowa State University

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Recommended Citation
Cerón, Janese Alane, "A project in English for specific purposes: English for Hispanic workers at a bulk mailing company" (1997).
Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 7087.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/7087

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 A project in English for specific purposes:

English for Hispanic workers at a bulk mailing company

by

Janese Alane Ceron

A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Major: English
(Teaching English as a Second Language/Applied Linguistics)
Major Professor: Dan Douglas

Iowa State University

Ames, Iowa

1997
 n

Graduate College
Iowa State University

This is to certify that the Master's thesis of

Janese Alane Ceron

has met the requirements of Iowa State University

Signatures have been redacted for privacy

 m

DEDICATION

This thesis is dedicated to my husband, Miguel Ceron Ruiz, without

the effort and support of whom this project--and all graduate work
accompanying it-would not have been completed to such a successful
extent. His labors not only guided the development of this thesis, but also
helped many Hispanic workers.
 IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE. INTRODUCTION 1

VESL; A Branch of ESP 2
Purpose of Thesis 3
Specific Context for Thesis 3
Program Overview 5

CHAPTER TWO. UTERATURE REVIEW 7

ESP Phases of Evolution 8
VESL Program Design 12
Pre-Program Development 13
Program Development Stage 14
Program Maintenance and Quality Control Stage 23

CHAPTER THREE. COURSE DESIGN 27

Goal Identification 27
Needs Analysis 29
Step One: Work Place Environment to First Draft of Syllabus 29
Step Two: Surveys of Learners' Interests 31
Step Three: Discussion with the Human Resource Manager 32
Step Four: Students Describe their Work Place Language Needs 35
Evaluation of Project's Needs Analysis 36
Description of Program Participants 38
Learners' Needs Analysis and Linguistic Features 42

CHAPTER FOUR. APPUCATION 44

Materials Development 44
Materials Evaluation 47
Content 49
Methodology 52

CHAPTER FIVE. TESTING 56

Test Purpose 56
Target Language Use Domain 59
Description of Test Takers 62
Test Constructs 63
Description of Language test Tasks 64
Scoring Methods 68
Test Usefulness 71
APPENDIX in. MATERIALS EVALUATION 151

APPENDIX IV. LISTENING TEST 161

APPENDIX V. SPEAKING TEST 167

APPENDIX VI. TEST USEFULNESS EVALUATION 178

APPENDIX Vn. PROGRAM EVALUATION FORMS 190

BIBLIOGRAPHY 196
 CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

Since the mid-1940s the world has experienced an incredible growth

in technological fields, international commerce, and immigration to the
United States. English became the language for world communication, and
the learning of English an unquestionable necessity rather than a
pleasurable pastime for those involved in the world marketplace and
United States work force. Each English language learner now requires
knowledge of the language used in his or her particular niche of society
(Hutchinson and Waters 1987). With this new need came a corresponding
response from the language teaching community. And, the beginning of a
well established movement from simply teaching these learners EngUsh as
a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) to teaching them English for Specific
Purposes (ESP) was strongly apparent by the 1960s.
As this happened, several branches of ESP were developed. The
most often observed branches are English for Academic Purposes (EAP),
English for Science and Technology (EST), and English for Occupational
Purposes (EOP). While there is some variation in the arrangement and
classification of the branches, most commonly these branches are all
grouped under the general heading English for Specific Purposes (ESP), with
English for General Purposes (EGP) as a separate offshoot of ESL/EFL,
usually employed only for exam purposes (Hutchinson and Waters 1987
and Crandall 1979). Since a sub-division of EOP will be the focal point of
this thesis, a more complete definition of this branch, along with a
description of the actual EOP context for this thesis, will be provided
before moving on to a review of the development of ESP as a subdivision
of ESL/EFL in Chapter Two.
VESL: A Branch of ESP
Of the three most frequently encountered branches of ESP listed
above, EOF differs substantially from the other two. HAP and EST are for
English Icinguage learners who are planning to enter or have already
entered occupations which demand strong cognitive skill development.
For that reason, their outgrowth can be traced to the increased enrollment
of international students in United States universities (Crandall 1979). On
the other hand, EOP includes English instruction for highly skilled, semi
skilled, and unskilled occupations. In accordance with occupational skills
required in a specific field, EOP is further divided by Hutchinson and
Waters (1987) into such branches as English for Technicians, English for
Secretaries, and English for Teaching (17). English for "semiskilled, skilled,
paraprofessionals, and technical employment" is categorized by Crandall
(1979) as Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL). Crandall goes
on to point out that the learners of VESL are most frequently adults who
are in the United States as immigrants or refugees and have studied little
or no English prior to VESL instruction, unlike EAP and EST university
students who have studied English previously (3).
Crandall (1979), as well as Belfoire and Burnaby (1984), further
separates VESL into two main categories. The first category Crandall
describes as general-employment related or pre-employment English and
labels it "Prevocational ESL" (2). Such courses teach the communication
strategies of finding and maintaining employment. The second is what
Belfoire and Bumaby (1984) label EWP or English in the Workplace. This
type of VESL is for learners who are already employed in a particular job,
and language instruction is directed toward that particular job. It is for
that reason others, such as Savage (1984), label this type of VESL
"Occupation Specific." For practical purposes, this second type of VESL
which is occupation specific, or EWP, will simply be identified as VESL
throughout this thesis.

Purpose of Thesis
The purpose of this thesis is to contribute a documented profile of
an occupation specific VESL program which will elevate VESL's currently
low profile. As authors Belfoire and Bumaby suggest in the concluding
section of Teaching English in the Work Place (1984), unless there is active
promotion of VESL, potential sponsors will not become aweire of the
opportunities a VESL program would bring. Belfoire and Burnaby fxirther
suggest that such documentation would "provide a realistic picture of
present EWP programs in the consulting, curriculum, development, and
teaching functions" (148). Also, from this thesis, I hope to provide fumre
VESL program coordinators and instructors with motivating and useful
ideas. In a developing field like VESL, "information-exchange is the
characteristic activity" (Coffey 1985, 78) which advances the field to a
stage of maturity.

Specific Context for Thesis

The VESL context for this thesis is a bulk mailing comp£iny--Rees
Associates-which functions 24 hours a day and employs approximately
400 people on the three eight-hour shifts. 70% to 80% of each shift are
non-native speakers of English. Rees Associates, as do other bulk mailing
companies, contracts to fill a certain number of envelopes by a specified
date. This plant normally works five days a week; however, when work
load Increases and there is a danger of not meeting important contract
deadlines, it may operate for six or seven days a week. This creates extra
working days, and the contract deadlines require a high level of plant
efficiency. For the plant to work efficiently, all employees must
accomplish their tasks with accuracy. Effective communication between
employees and supervisors and among employees is an essential factor in
plant efficiency.
To fill the lEirge number of contracted envelopes this company uses
big machines called "inserter machines." An inserter machine is operated
by a team of four or five people. During a regular shift, there are as many
as 30 inserting machines running. The machine operator is considered to
be the team leader. He or she usually has seniority and receives higher pay
than other plant workers. The main concern of this employee is to
regulate the entire operation of the machine--that is, to make sure that the
correct materials or 'inserts' are being placed in the correct envelopes or
'outers' and that the correct finished envelopes are being placed in the
correct out-going mail bags. Also, he or she must know how and when to
turn the machine on and off and how to help the other team members
perform their job tasks efficiently and safely. The other four team
members are the "loader," who is in charge of filling the pockets of the
inserter machine with the material to be inserted in the envelopes; the
"tier," who groups the finished envelopes according to postal routing
information and ties them into bundles; the "bagger," who places the
finished material into mailing bags and transports the bags to the out
going mail area; and the "stocker," who brings the boxes of inserts and
envelopes to the machine operating area for the loader to insert into the
machine. If only four team members are working on one machine, the
machine operator takes the place of the tier. While operators and loaders
are consistently assigned to their respective positions for any given shift,
the other positions may change daily or weekly. During one shift an
employee may work as a bagger, and another shift as stocker.
There are two other machines which are necessary to complete the
bulk mailing process. One is a machine which prints the address labels,
and the other is a machine which pastes materials such as coupons and
samples to inserts. Both machines are run by an operator and an
assistant. The tasks of operating the machine are divided among these
two workers. Again, the machine operator usually has seniority and
receives higher pay. Other positions in the plant which do not work on one
of the machine are janitor, cardboard bailer, forklift driver, and warehouse
worker.

If one were to apply a hierarchy to the status of the positions

avEiilable to workers at Rees Associates, operators and loaders would be
at the top. However, these positions can be further divided; by employer
and by shift. Employees can be temporary, employment-agency employees
or Rees Associates employees. The operators and loaders employed by
the temporary agency have a lower job standing than those employed by
Rees Associates. First and second shift employees are considered to
have a higher job standing than third shift employees.

Program Overview
My involvement in the program development project began when my
husband, a former supervisor for the company, initiated the idea and
began consulting with upper management in May 1996. A pilot English
Language Training Program was developed during a period from July 1996
 6

through September 1996, and a final seven-session program design was

implemented, lasting from October 1996 through December 1996. An
approximate total of 70 limited English proficient Hispanic adult
immigrants participated in one or more class sessions of the program
over the six month period. Over 20 of the program participants completed
the program.
While the course design placed all language levels together, the great
majority were at a beginning level with a few at an intermediate level.
There were no students who could have been considered at an advanced

level. My husband and I estimated the language ability level of the program
participants in three ways: 1) casual conversations during plant visits, 2)
informal interviews and 3) vocabulary identification pre-tests. (See Chapter
Three for a more complete description of the progreun participants.)
Program participants were mainly mail-inserting machine operators; a
few worked on the inserting machine in other positions, mainly as loaders.
Over two-thirds of the program participants were employees of the
temporary employment agency. Of these persons, half worked on the
third shift-the least desirable shift of the three. When asked about their
principal motivation for learning English, those that responded (nine out of
ten) overwhelmingly agreed that their motivation was to better their job
status.

While the design for the English Language Training Progrcim for these
employees wUl be under continual revision in use with future progreim
participants, it will be referred to as the "final program" design in order to
distinguish it from the "pilot program" phase during which materials were
developed and changes were made to achieve the final program. Any
future use of this program would, of course, require additional revisions.
 7

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW

ESP is a field that has been under development and will continue to
develop because "new discoveries are likely to be made and even felt to
be required" (Coffey 1985, 78). From the description of EOP types in the
previous chapter, it can be determined that who is leciming the specific
language is as integral a part of the instructional approach as is the
purpose for the specific Itinguage learning. This understanding is reflected
in the current, developing approach to ESP in that the language learner,
rather than the language, is the central focus. The notion of the language
learner being more important thcin the language learned is derived from
other phases of ESP language-learning theory. As ESP continues to evolve,
the current theoretical approach will no doubt be expeinded to include any
new theories and ideas Oohns 1991).
While the world-wide focus on specific communication skills evolved,
there were complementary revelations in the area of language teaching and
learning. Two general changes should be noted: First, with the new focus
on specific communication skills, language teaching also changed its focus
from grammar to commimication skills. Second, language teaching began
to emphasize greater cooperation between teacher and learner. That is to
say, learners' needs are now given more emphasis (Hutchinson and Waters
1987). These two basic cheinges are reflected in the following description
of the five general phases of ESP evolution. One should note that some
feel that the field of ESP does not necessarily change or create phases in
the area of language teaching and learning, but rather it "provides an
important field for their application" (Coffey 1985, 81). However, most
would agree that ESP has made significant contributions to the area of
 8

language teaching and learning, as will be demonstrated in the following

review of ESP development. Johns (1991) identifies work in needs analysis
as the greatest contribution ESP has made to the field of language
teaching and work in syllabus and course design as the second greatest
contribution. A brief review of the phases of ESP evolution is pertinent
because VESL is a result of ESP development, and literature on the exact
area of VESL development is limited.

Phases of ESP Evolution

With the beginning of ESP~Coffey (1985) gives the year 1967 as the
starting date of ESP--and through the early 1970s, a register analysis
approach was prominent. The goal of this approach is to identify the
grammar and lexicon of the specific English being taught. Or, as Palmer
(1981) asserts the goal is to identify the "norm of language use" (64). One
shortcoming of this approach is that the number of sub-registers within a
specific register was so large that it was difficult to make a concrete
division between a specific register and a non-specific or general register
(Coffey 1985). As explained by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), this led to
the realization that there is not a great distinction between the
grammatical and lexical features of a scientific-specific register, for
example, and those of a general English register. "It [register analysis] did
not, for example, reveal any forms that were not found in General English"
(Hutchinson and Waters 1987, 10). While this was found to be the case, it
was also found that general English textbooks lacked some importcint
features of a scientific specific register. Positive support for register
analysis is also given by Ceirver (1984). He states that while it is restricted,
register analysis is of "great utility to give learners practice in such well-
 9

worn elements as the use of passive without agent, the production of

complex nominals, etc." According to Johns 1991, one of the most notable
publications of this phase is John Swales's Writing Scientific English {1971).
In this text, Swales describes the use of various grammatical structures as
they are used in scientific writing. As ESP continued to evolve, curriculum
developers moved from counting the frequency of grammatical forms
within a specific language use situation to the analysis of the respective
functions of the grammatical forms. Johns (1991) describes this transition
as "modernizing influences" which "integrate grammatical form with
rhetorical function" (68). This transition led to the clear realization that
the frequency of the grammatical and lexical items used in the specific
English being taught was insufficient information from which to design ESP
curricula.

In the second phase of ESP development (late 1970s and early

1980s), the restrictive sentence-level view of language, which many felt a
register analysis provided, was changed to a less restrictive, rhetorical or
discourse analysis which allowed for incorporation of cohesive devices
and textual patterns. Some, such as Hutchinson and Waters (1987) and
Johns (1985), use the terms rhetorical analysis and discourse analysis
interchangeably. Some, for example Coffey (1985), favor the use of the
term discourse without explicitly differentiating it from rhetoric. Others,
such as Palmer (1981) and Trimble (1985), make a clear distinction between
the two terms. Louis Trimble's 1985 pubhcation EST: A Discourse
Approach defines the distinction between rhetoric: he uses "the term
rhetoric to refer to one important part of the broad communicative mode
called discourse" (10). Rhetoric, he continues, is a writing process by
which a writer organizes certain ideas for a specific purpose and audience.
 10

By analyzing pieces of scientific discourse, Trimble developed the 'EST

Rhetorical Process Chcirt' in which he divides a whole piece of scientific
discourse into four rhetorical levels each with different rhetorical

functions or techniques such as making a recommendation (Level A),

stating purpose (Level B), defining (Level C), and ordering (Level D). The
underlying idea is that, by defining these devices for the Icinguage learner,
it would enable the learner to interpret and produce written discourse.
As in the case of register analysis, discourse analysts found that
text did not differ greatly from one specific English purpose to another.
Also similar to register analysts, discourse analysis discovered that "there
are major discrepancies between advice in teaching manuals and expert
text occurring in the real world" (Johns 1991, 70). While Hutchinson and
Waters (1987) describe register and discourse approaches as two
individual phases in the early evolution of ESP, others, such as Carver
(1984), view them as approaches which are "widely current" (135). Carver
believes that the register approach comprises the discourse approach
and, therefore, the two exist concurrently. These approaches combined
do provide valuable information about language for a curriculum
developer, and the rhetorical approach encourages the language learner to
consider purpose or function rather than sentence structure eilone.
Within the third phase of ESP development, Hutchinson and Waters
(1987) introduce target situation analysis, and they describe it as an
attempt to relate the language analysis of the first two phases to the
language learner's purpose for learning it. The principal researcher in this
phase is Munby who developed a detailed process for analyzing the target
situation in Communicative Syllabus Design (1978). Coffey (1985) suggests
that Munby's book "offers not only an analysis of English into
 11

communicative functions, in minutely organised categories on several

levels, but directs the user into setting up a complete course design by
creating profiles of student needs" (83). From this description, one can
see that this approach is intended to discontinue the language-only
approaches and replace them with a language and learner focused
approach. However, the main criticism of Munby's suggested course
design plan is that its complexity renders it "quite impractical for most
progrcim planners" (Schutz and Derwing 1981, 32). Coffey (1985) agrees
with Schutz and Derwing (1981) about the difficulty of implementing
Munby's approach. Coffey further suggests that combining the language
needs analysis with the learner needs analysis into a "once-and-for-all
process that apparently need not be amended as time goes on," really de-
emphasizes the inherit characteristic of learners needs (83). He
emphasizes that learner needs are dynamic, not relatively constant hke
language needs. The result is that this phase still lacks a clear focus on
the learner which is overshadowed by its focus on the language itself. It is
in the fourth phase that one sees a more genuine attempt to incorporate
the learner as part of the methodology.
The fourth phase, called the skills and strategies phase or skills-
centered approach, de-emphasizes the surface forms of the language and
concentrates on the "common reasoning and interpreting processes"
which take place during language use (Hutchinson and Waters 1987, 13).
Although some (Coffey 1985 and Johns 1991) do not explicitly consider the
skills and strategies phase to be a separate evolutionciry phase in ESP,
others (Hutchinson and Waters 1987) do. Similar to this phase, Carver
(1984) describes the study skills methodology as that in which learners
work to develop their own learning strategies from activities designed to
 12

help them reflect on their own current strategies for learning (136).
Outside of the four phases described so far, it is interesting to note
Philips's (1981) methodology for Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) in
which "the first and crucial notion that gives LSP its identity as a distinctive
area of language teaching activity is learner's purpose." A learner's-
purpose approach to LSP, as Phihps (1981) further describes, is not
restrained to the language features in and of themselves, but also includes
the learners' mastery of the skills which comprise language use (92).
Perhaps this viewpoint, combined with the strategy and skills approach, is
a close approximation of the fifth phase of ESP development. In this
phase, the focus is not on language use but rather on language learning.
As Hutchinson and Waters (1987), the central proponents of the learner-
centered approach, describe this phase, it is the "starting point for all
language teaching should be an understanding of how people learn" (39).
Analysis of language use will help language teachers define course goals
and objectives: however, language learning is what enables a learner to
convert linguistic features into communication skills. Hutchinson and
Waters (1987) provide a summary for this issue by contending that "A truly
valid approach to ESP must be based on an understanding of the process
of language learning' (14).

VESL Program Design

Both the development of the ESP and VESL methodologies, and the
origins of current practices of interaction between teachers and students
have been summarized. The reason for this is that to a large extent the
way a program coordinator views language learning theory determines
what will take place during a VESL program. This idea is clearly illustrated
 13

by the division Widdowson (1983) (and later Wales, 1993) makes between a
program oriented toward the training of students and a program oriented
toward the education of students.

A training program strives to teach students a "range of stock

responses" which, in turn, allow the student to react appropriately when
prompted by a specific routine. In such a VESL program, students would
learn a "particular repertoire of formulae" for a certain number of
specified situations. (Widdowson 1983, 13). Widdowson observes that
"effective language use requires the creative exploitation of the meaning
potential inherit in language rules," which he later defines as
communicative capacity (13). According to Widdowson, this is the basis
for an educational program in which students would "develop an
understanding of principles in order to extend the range of their
application" (17); emphasis in original. In the first orientation, wherein
training the students is the focus, a coordinator is centered on teaching
the language. In the second orientation, wherein educating the student is
the focus, a coordinator is centered on teaching the learner. fKis
distinction explains why a program coordinator's view of language-learning
theory dictates what will occur during a VESL program.
No matter which theoretical orientation a program designer follows,
the VESL program design will include the stages of pre-program
development, program development, and program maintenance and quality
control (Mackay and Bosquet 1981, 3-4). These stages cire described as
follows:

Pre-Program Development
The pre program development stage Mackay and Bosquet (1981)
designate as the stage of "education^ decision-making" (3). During this
 14

stage, a VESL program sponsor determines to remedy a situation where

break-downs in communication are caused by a lack of English language
skills (Belfoire and Burnaby 1984). While Mackay and Bosquet (1981) imply
that it is unlikely for an applied linguist--or someone fcimiliar with the
various ESP approaches-to be a participant in all aspects of the planning
stages, Belfoire and Burnaby (1984) state that the responsibilities of a VESL
instructor may encompass aspects at all stages. Therefore, the VESL
instructor may or may not be involved at the pre-progr^ development
stage. Because it is at this stage that negotiations concerning such things
as instructor working conditions and program support facihties are
determined, in Belfoire and Burnaby's (1984) view, the VESL instructor is
involved.

Program Development Stage

The program development stage is divided into many smaller
phases, most if not all of which will include the VESL instructor and will rely
on a theoretical orientation of language learning. Mackay and Bosquet
(1981) point out that some of the phases at this stage may occur
simultaneously, and others must be done in a certain order. From a
compilation of several sources (Belfoire and Burnaby 1984, Hutchinson ^d
Waters 1987, Mackay and Bosquet 1984, Schleppegrell and Bowman 1986,
and West 1984) the program development stage can be divided into the
following four phases: 1) needs analysis, also known by West (1984) as
needs assessment and by Mackay and Bosquet (1981) as Basic
Information-Gathering, 2) identifying goals and designing a syllabus, 3)
materials development and evaluation of materials, and 4) teaching
ramifications and class room methodology. Hutchinson and Waters (1987)
divide the phases into two. The first-course design-includes the first two
 15

above listed phases while the second--application--includes the last two.

Chapters Three and Four of this thesis will reflect this division.
Included here are frequent recommendation made in VESL literature
regarding each of the four above listed progreim development phases.
Needs analysis. Reflecting the current trend in VESL approaches, the
first phase should include both an analysis of language needs and of
learner needs. This idea is exemplified in the division Laylin and Blackwell
(1983) make of the entire curriculum development process; the first three
of the six stages they describe are focused on the learners' work
situation. They cire as follows: 1) preliminary orientation to the work
setting, 2) visuahzing the communications network, and 3) identifying work
responsibilities. Stage four-identifying communication situations-bridges
learners to language. It is not until the fifth stage, which moves into the
lesson design, that language is the focus of the needs analysis. Prince
(1984) also includes learners' work situation in the preliminary part of the
needs analysis. He suggests analyzing the learner's work situation in terms
of data (What information do the workers have to process?), people (With
whom and how do the workers interact?), and things (With what tangible
objects do the workers have to perform tasks?).
When language is the focus of the needs analysis, many sources
recommend the use of a tape recorder to record typical dialogues used in
the work place; in fact, Svendsen and Krebs (1984) give this as a
fundamental technique. However, the limitations to this form, as Svendsen
and Krebs continue, are that it does not capture context or nonlinguistic
features. While tape recording is one frequently recommended needs
analysis method, a second, possibly more frequently recommended
method is interviews. This method can be limiting because the
 16

interviewees may discover it difficult to identify specifically where

communication breaks down because they "probably have made many
accommodations over the years for poor communication. Using
interpreters, miming, or gesturing may have become standard practice by
now" (Belfoire and Burnaby 1984, 25). A third method of needs analysis is
job site observation which West (1984) identifies as "an important
ingredient of needs assessment research" (144) that starts with a tour of
the entire work place cind, then, moves to close observation of the
workers. A fourth method is surveys. For surveys or questionnaires, as
well as interviews, to be productive, it is important to ask very specific
questions (West 1984 and Belfoire and Burnaby 1984). For example, asking
"What do you do if the machine breaks down?" is more productive than
asking general questions, such as "What do you want to learn?" (Belfoire
and Burnaby 1984, 32). An additional 'information gathering instrument'
which is suggested by Mackay and Bosquet (1981) is a checklist. An
advcintage of a checklist is that it produces easily analyzable data. All of
the above methods have both advantages and disadvantages. For a
summary of the advantages and disadvantages, see Mackay and Bosquet
(1981). Because there are disadvantages with each method, there is a
strong agreement that it is important to use a variety of methods and to
include a variety of people-all levels of management as well as the
prospective learners.

Identifying goals and designing a syllabus. Another aspect of

program development which is agreed upon in the ESP and VESL literature
is that instructors vary greatly in the procedures used for identifying goals
and designing a syllabus. As CrandciU (1979) and Belfoire and Burnaby
(1984) advise, VESL program models vary greatly due to a number of
 17

factors. These include learner factors--age, language ability level, and

needs--and program factors-time limitations, financial arrangement, and
instructor preferences. Therefore, no one set of program design
procedures is applicable to all VESL situations. The following is by no
means a complete description of all goal identification procedures and
types of syllabus designs; it is intended to provide an insight into the
variety that does exist.
Mackay and Bosquet (1981) believe that during the goal specification
phase the question that needs to be addressed is: "What should the
learner ideally be able to do after successfully completing the instructional
program?" (11). They suggest that the resulting answer should be stated in
an unambiguous and descriptive manner. Bachman and Strick (1981) state
in the same publication that "at this point neither the client nor the
designer can determine very precisely what resources will be necessary to
achieve the objectives they have set" (45). These authors then describe a
process by which objectives are reasonably matched with available
resources and vice versa.

The same range of possibilities for goal identification is found in

syllabus design. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) attribute this to the fact
that the statement of what information will be learned advances through
different stages before reaching its final target--the learner's mind. Each
stage dictates a "further layer of interpretation" (80). The same authors
give six different syllabus types and describe eight different manners to
arrange the information in a syllabus. This creates an almost unlimited
number of syllabus designs. Each is dependent on how the syllabus
functions within the course design process. Belfoire and Burnaby (1984)
simplify the syllabus types by stating that they can be "formal or informal,
 18

fine-tuned or roughly outlined" (59). As stated at the start of this section,

a program designer's views of language learning determines what will take
place during a VESL program. This is especially true for syllabus design.
While the above authors place syllabus design on a spectrum from
informal to formal, Johns (1991) gives three design types which are as
follows: 1) the task-based syllabus in which students must learn a number
of tasks in the target situation, 2) the project-based syllabus in which
students must produce a visible product-Herbolich's 1979 'Box Kites"
project is the most representative of this syllabus type-, and 3) the
process-based syllabus in which the students are an integral part of
determining what will be taught in the course. This last syllabus involves
constant changes as the course progresses. While the last of John's
syllabus designs is included by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) imder the
name learner syllabus, they also include modified forms of other two.
Other syllabus designs Hutchinson and Waters (1987) describe are as
follows: the evaluation syllabus, which states what the successful learner
should know by the end of the program; the organizational syllabus, which
goes beyond the evaluation syllabus design in that it includes a description
of the order in which information will be learned; the materials syllabus,
which is interpreted by the materials writer when materials are designed;
and the classroom syllabus, which is generated by the dyneimic, interactive
environment of the classroom.

Materials development and evaluation of materials. Hutchinson and

Waters (1987) divide this phase-transforming course design into usable
teaching materials-into three possible courses of action (96). The first is
"materials evaluation" in which existing materials are evaluated by
matching aspects of the proposed course to aspects of the existing
 19

materials. The second is "materials development" in which the course

designer actually writes his or her own materials. The third is "materials
adaptation" in which the aspects of exiting materials not completely
matching those of the course design are modified to match more exactly.
The first step in "materids evaluation" and "materials adaptation" is to
identify which aspects or criteria one is to use for matching the intended
course design to the existing materials. Hutchinson and Waters (1987)
suggest the following criteria categories, acknowledging that other
possible criteria exist: audience, aims, content, methodology, and other
criteria (i.e. cost). Questions which define these categories in detail are
included in Appendix III. While some materials do exist that can be
adapted for certain work situations, Belfoire and Burnaby (1984) note that
the "individuality of each work place environment, the specific demands of
the sponsor(s) [and/or work place management] and the unpredictability
of the learners' needs and interests" make locating an existing textbook
quite hard (78). The result is that the majority of VESL courses demand
that the materials be produced specially for the work place environment.
These authors suggest using photographs, tape recorded conversations,
and printed material collected during the needs analysis as sources for
materials writing. All three of these sources agree with Coffey's (1985)
stressing of the importance of using authentic materials in ESP. This
second scenario, materials development, is related to the first two
scenarios, materials evaluation and adaptation, in that the materials are
designed to match the initial course lay out and should be evaluated
accordingly. As suggested by Crandall (1979), Hutchinson and Waters
(1987), Belfoire and Burnaby (1984), and Svendsen and Krebs (1984), it is
important to continue examining how the progrcim is meeting learning
 20

needs and to continue to revise accordingly. The materials are a central

part of the program; therefore, they should also be examined to determine
how they are meeting the program's purpose. The same materials
evEiluation identified for the evaluation of existing materials would serve
this purpose.
Teaching ramifications and class room methodology. As is the case
with goal identification and syllabus design, the teaching methods for VESL
courses vary greatly from one VESL context to another. Likewise, the
following is not intended to include all possible methods; it is intended to
name the most current methods.

From the limited literature on VESL, it can be found that the current
thinking on VESL methodology can be included in the previous description
of ESP development. As the field of ESP has discarded a strong emphasis
on language aspects for a strong emphasis on learning aspects, the field
of VESL has evidenced the same. Evidence can be found in Prince (1984)

who cites Widdowson's (1981) two interpretations of VESL instruction.

These interpretations make a critical point which emphasizes the
importance of the language learner being as important as the specific
language at hand. They are that consideration must be given to "what the
learner needs to do with the language at the end of a course" and to "what
the learner needs to do in order to acquire the language" (Prince 1984,
109). Prince continues with an explanation that places a process-oriented
approach in distinction from a goal-oriented approach and states that
both are applicable to VESL (109). The idea here is that the mannerin
which a student leams a language should be considered in addition to the
language the student needs to learn.
 21

Furthermore, there may be an additional reason in VESL for focusing

more on learning and less on language. As noted by Prince (1984), because
of VESL's specificity to the pcirticular work environment for which it is
intended, approaches do vary among VESL programs. Nevertheless, in the
majority of the cases the VESL learners are characteristically of a low level
of English proficiency. For that reason, a register analysis approach, a
discourse analysis approach, or any other approach which places a heavy
emphasis on linguistic structures the VESL learners may not yet be able to
process are not appropriate in the VESL classroom. While Coffey (1985)
stresses the importance of authenticity in an ESP classroom, Schleppegrell
and Bowman (1986) encourage teachers to carefully select texts which are
challenging but not too difficult for the students. Related to language
difficulty level in a VESL classroom, Crandall (1979) points out that in
language content for VESL "the differences in 'acceptability ' or
'appropriateness' for different situations, with different participants,
topics, setting, and goals" may be of more significance thcin a good
command of the language structures themselves (4).
A learner centered approach supports the following eight principles
as listed by Hutchinson and Waters (1987). These eight principles, also
reflected in the methods descriptions of any sound language instruction
method, are as follows:
1) Second language learning is a developmental process.
Language learning takes place when students use their existing knowledge
to decode any new information. Teachers should try to exploit students
existing state of knowledge.
 22

2) Language learning is an active process.

Learners must not only possess the necessary knowledge, they must also
be able to put their knowledge to use. Teachers should try to use
activities that make students use their cognitive capacities.
3) Language learning is a decision-making process.
The process of changes the new information flow of the second language
into an organized schemata requires learners to make their own decisions.
Teachers should encourage students to become decision-makers.
4) Language learning is not just a matter of linguistic knowledge.
Learners who do not possess mature levels of linguistic knowledge are still
conceptually and cognitively mature. Teachers should encourage growth in
both areas.

5) Language learning is not the learners' first experience with language.

Learners are aware of modes of communication in their native tongues.
Teachers should actively rely on their students knowledge of
communication.

6) Learning is an emotional experience.

Learners need to associate positive emotions with the language learning
experience. Teachers should build on existing social relationships and
avoid unnecessary pressures by placing more emphasis on the learning
experience rather than the final outcome.
7) Language learning is to a large extent incidental.
Language learning does not necessarily take place during a classroom
activity which is intended to teach the language; problem solving activities
which necessitate language use are often when learning takes place.
 23

8) Language learning is not systematic.

Learners must develop their own internal orgcinization of the new language
system. Presenting the language systematically does not automatically
create information that is easy to leam.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) state that a teacher who moves from
teaching General English to Specific English should be aware that he or she
need not believe that an entirely new teaching method be acquired. The
same basic principles underlie teaching the two.
Program Maintenance and Quality Control Stage
The program maintenance and quality control stage is described by
Mackay and Bosquet as "less exciting and creative than the previous two"
(4) and by Alderson and Scott as frequently being "perceived as
threatening the interests of those involved" (27); however, it is an
absolutely important stage. While this stage is often realized last, as
suggested by Belfoire and Burnaby (1984) learner assessment and course
evaluation are an ongoing process. The same is indicated by Hutchinson
and Waters (1987). They suggest that there are reedly three types of
learner assessment.

It is important to note the distinction between learner assessment

and course evaluation is not always clear. Belfoire and Burnaby (1984)
define evaluation as "the measurement of success of the entire program"
and view "assessment as just one factor" of the evaluation (127). They
note that learner assessment is often the only type of evaluation
performed in work place English programs. Others view learner
assessment, or the evaluation of the proficiency of the students, as a
reflection of the effectiveness of the overall course. Hutchinson and
Waters (1987) explain that learner assessment may indicate that some
 24

aspect of the course design is inefficient. However, it is through a more

precise course evaluation that the exact cause of the inefficiency can be
found.

Hutchinson cuid Waters (1987) divide learner assessment into three

types. These three types are placement testing, achievement testing, and
proficiency testing. Some, for example Brown (1996) and Bachman and
Palmer (1996), divide test types according to the decisions made about the
test takers based on the test results, and create varying terms for their
divisions. The divisions made by Hutchinson and Waters (1987) are
directed toward an ESP course and will be described here. Because the

purpose of the first type is to determine the pre-course knowledge of the

students, the results are usually used to group students of similar
language ability level. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) caution that that
placement tests are to be used only as an approximate guide for
determining learner needs. It is for this reason that Brown (1996) adds a
more specific pre-course test. He lists a diagnostic test for the purpose
of determining the specific needs of the learners. The second type,
achievement testing, occurs throughout the course in order to determine
how the students are progressing. It is this type that represents the idea
of assessment and evaluation being an on-going process and not just a
course-final event. The third type is proficiency testing; this type
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) describe as a test which should "be able to
give a reliable indication of whether a candidate is proficient enough to
carry out the tasks that will be required" (150). Besides providing a
rehable indication, such tests must also possess a high level of face
validity. They must "look as if they are rehable indicators" (Hutchinson and
Waters 1987, 150).
 25

These two qualities of a language test, whether it be a proficiency,

achievement, diagnostic, or placement test, are important. However,
Bachman and Palmer (1996) write that more qualities are needed in order
to evaluate the usefulness of such a test. Test usefulness "provides a kind
of metric by which we can evaluate not only the tests that we develop and
use, but also all aspects of test development and use" (Bachman and
Pcilmer 1996, 17). The qualities they include in their notion of test
usefulness are as follows: reliabihty, construct validity, authenticity,
interactiveness, impact, and practicality. These are explained in the
checklist Bachman and Palmer (1996) provide for evaluating the extent to
which the above qualities are met by a particular test which is included in
Appendix VI. This type of test usefulness evaluation is especially
important in ESP programs because the inherit specificity of the program
creates a need for test development.
Notwithstanding that learner assessment and instructor reflection
throughout the duration of the program are very useful, a more formal
final evaluation involving all levels-students, teachers and employers-can
provide qualitative feedback for a VESL program's further development.
Such course-final assessment and evaluation have much broader uses for
all involved than those performed throughout the^course (Belfoire and
Burnaby 1984). For example, they provide information which may be used
to increase student performance on assessments. Hutchinson and Waters
(1987) further suggest that an additional evaluation take place not only
upon completion of the program, but also some time after the course
when the learners are in contact with the situation for which the program
intended to prepare them.
 26

As stated above, final evaluations should include as many

participants as possible (Alderson eind Scott 1992). Various means can be
used to collect data from program participants. Belfoire cind Burnaby
(1984) give example questionnaire forms for learners' self-assessment and
for work place supervisors' evaluation of the course. They state that such
questionnaires should include recommendations for future programs.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) give test results, discussions, and informal
means such as 'casual' chats as other methods for collecting course
evaluation data. They caution, however, that course evaluations are
limited by one's ability to collect such data and then, in turn, to use the
data that is collected. One's ability to collect such data is hindered by the
fact that it is "time-consuming, complex and frustrating," and by the fact
that the situations and suggestions arising from such data may be too
difficult to implement (Hutchinson and Waters 1987).
 27

CHAPTER THREE
COURSE DESIGN

The topics for this chapter are language needs analysis, goal
identification, and syllabus design for the Rees Associates English
Language Training Program. In order to evaluate our procedure in
accordance with recommendations from ESP and VESL literature, I will
summarize the four step process-l) observing the work place through
immersion, 2) collecting surveys of learners' interests, 3) meeting with the
Human Resource Manager, and 4) having pilot program students describe
their language needs in the workplace--we used for investigating cind
identifying the specific language employed in this bulk mailing company.
While the principal intention of the five steps was to assess language
needs, we found it was impossible to separate syllabus design into a
separate step. Therefore, syllabus design is included in the summary.
Last, I will report on lecirner's needs analysis and on how this influenced
the linguistic features selected for the final seven-session course design.

Goal Identification
I will start with comments on the topic of goal identification. As will
be noted in the following paragraphs, an instrumental part of the course
design procedure was my husband's involvement while he was working as
a supervisor for the company. Because no experienced specific purpose
language instructor was involved, the goals identified in the first weeks of
the needs analysis were stated in very general terms. They did not include
specific task related gocils such as learning specific vocabulary lists or
producing specific phrases for a particular situation. With no specific
knowledge of the VESL context with which I would soon become fcimiliar, I
 28

wrote these goals to reflect the work place situation as my husband had
described it to me. He explained that the employees speak little or no
English, so there are frequent breakdowns in communication between
supervisors and employees which create an inefficient working
environment. As my husband was one of a few Spanish speaking
supervisors, the employees confided in him that they were frustrated with
the lack of efficient communication. At this point in the program
development, it seemed that the management did not realize the impact
the program would have and were content with the following generally
stated goals.
To provide program participants with basic English language
competencies in the following three areas:
1. English vocabulary and resources which are needed to properly
carry out their duties as Rees Associates employees.
2. English communication skills which are needed to interact with
English speaking peers in the work place.
3. English survival skills which are needed to deal with everyday
problems which arise in the workplace.
Although the mcinagement did not request a formal written statement of
goals-probably because it was there first experience with such a program
and did not know exactly what to expect--, 1feel, as Belfoire and Bumaby
(1984) affirm, presenting them with such a statement helped to ensure that
all parties were in agreement.
 29

Needs Analysis
Our needs analysis consisted of four step process which was as
follows: 1) observing the work place through immersion, 2) collecting
surveys of learners' interests, 3) meeting with the Human Resource
Manager, and 4) having pilot students describe their language needs in the
workplace
Step One: Work Place Environment to First Syllabus
The language needs analysis was initiated by my husband during his
employment at Rees Associates. Due to the fact he was immersed in this
specific language environment, he was easily able to define in genereil
terms what aspects of the English language were needed by the non-native
speaking employees to perform their respective tasks. My husband noted
the recurring situation in which he was asked to translate directions for
supervisors and to intervene in production problems--both mechanically
related ones and employee related ones. With several weeks of notes
accumulated, we found that the situations naturally grouped themselves
into topic areas with identifiable, corresponding objective tasks.
Therefore, my husband and I were able to compile the information into a
topic/objective syllabus. The resulting syllabus thus far in the needs
analysis is shown in Table 1.
This syllabus format was selected for two reasons. The main reason
is that its primary purpose was to guide materials development. As
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) explain, such a syllabus need not contain
detailed language features which may hinder the creativity of the materials
writer. Instead, the language features emerge from the materials
themselves. The "materials -generated syllabus can then be checked by an
 30

Table 1. First Draft of Topic/Objective Syllabus

1. People/Positions in the Work working on a team

talking about work with others
receiving directions and
instructing other employees

2. Places in the Work Place working on a team

talking about work with others
receiving directions from
supervisor

3. Mechanics and Machine Pcirts requesting mechanical

assistance from the mechanic

working with others on a team

independent syllabus produced by the needs analysis" (93). In our case,

our materials were "checked against" other materials designed for the
same Icinguage ability level. A secondary reason for selecting this syllabus
type, is that I was not concerned that a small grammatical feature would
be overlooked and that such an oversight would hinder the language
learners' progress. Based the prospective students' low language abihty
level and on the short length of the program, I concluded that highlighting
major aspects of basic English language without adding complicated
linguistic detail would allow ample grammatical features for the students
to practice for the objectives listed in our syllabus.
 31

As stated earlier, this topic/objective syllabus was used to create

materials and design lesson plans for the English Language Training
Program pilot program and was later revised for the seven-session final
program design. While loosely grouped categories of topics emerged
during the first step in our needs analysis, revisions were made during the
duration of the pilot program to arrive at the final syllabus. This is a
common occurrence, as Belfoire and Burnaby (1984) state: Syllabus design
is a "dynamic process" in which one lesson emerges from another lesson
in a flexible sequence (128). During the pilot program this idea was
followed: however, during the final seven-session program, a more
directed syllabus was followed as much more was known about the
learning environment and day-to-day learner needs.
Step Two: Surveys of Learners' Interests
During the English Language Training Program pilot, the second step
in the process was implemented. A survey was administered to program
participants which solicited information regarding general English survival
skills they desired to leeirn. The survey was developed by reviewing the
workbook LifePrints: ESL for Adults (Podnecky, et. al. 1983) as a source for
determining which general English survival skills would be relevant to adult
ESL students such as ours. General English survived skUls on the survey
included such skills as asking for directions in a city, sending packages
from the post office, buying food at the grocery store, and asking a
landlord to make repairs along with such vocabulary lists as names of
building in a city, names of foods, and parts of a house (See Appendix I
for the actual survey).
Since an employee's ability to use the English language to accomplish
tasks outside of the work place is a separate issue from his or her ability
 32

to use the English language to accomplish work related tasks, general

English survival skills may seem unrelated to the specific language needs
of non-native English speaking employees of a bulk mailing company.
However, there is an important related purpose for such a survey. During
the analysis of the specific language which the students need, it is
important to also analyze the language which the students want
(Hutchinson and Waters 1987). Using the program participants as decision
makers of program content helps to increase motivation. As students are
also stake holders not only in the decisions based on program outcomes,
but also in the program content and design, we felt their input was
important.
As the results only effected a small portion of the total program
design-providing one lesson in the program compared to the several work
place related lessons in the program--, it is also only a small, but
important, portion of our needs analysis. While the survey provided the
option for the students to indicate that they did not want to learn any
survival skills English, the results indicated a strong desire to learn health
related topics (i.e. body parts, going to the doctor, etc.). Health related
topics were then included as part of the program curriculum. For this
particular topic, transforming the general survival Enghsh to work related
English was not difficult as the employees of this company often have to
report health problems and injuries to the supervisor.
Step Three: Discussion with the Human Resource Manager
Based on the above two steps-work place observations by my
husband and surveys results from the students-, a tentative outline of a
final seven-session program design was established and presented to
Rees Associates management for evaluation and feedback. At this point
 33

the outline included four basic topic categories (three topics that were, as
described earlier, compiled from by husband's observations and one topic
that was provided from the survey) which were as follows: 1)
people/positions in the work place, 2) places in the work place, and 3)
mechanics and machine parts, and 4) health problems and injuries. The
result of feedback received from the management, in particular through a
discussion with the Human Resource Manager, these four categories were
revised to focus more on the "team player" attitude of the company by
adding safety rules as a fifth topic for the topic/objectives syllabus.
Adding these safety rules incorporated the quality of supporting problem
solving which Rees Associates mcinagement deemed as an important
communication based quality because the employees not only need to be
made aware of the rules but also need to be able to communicate them to

the English speaking employees. Supporting problem solving is an

essential quality of a "team-player." The corresponding objective for the
topic of safety rules is educating team members about the safety rules.
One interesting aspect of this discussion with the Human Resource
Manager is that he did not feel that health and injury related situations
were as important as the other situations, while the students had selected
that topic through the interest survey. After completing the first three
steps of our need analysis, the five topics were arranged with their
corresponding objectives in the syllabus shown in Table 2. This is the final
syllabus draft which was used for materials development.
 34

Table 2. Final Topics/Objectives Syllabus

1. People/Positions in the Work •

working on a team
Place •
talking about work with others
•
receiving directions and
instructing other employees

2. Places in the Work Place •

working on a team
•
talking about work with others
•
receiving directions from
supervisor

3. Health Problems and Injuries •

commvmicating health problem
in order to receive assistance

•
reporting an injury in the work
place
•
calling in sick to work/sick child

4. Safety Rules •
educating team members about
the safety rules

5. Mechanics and Machine Parts •

requesting mechanical
assistance from the mechanic

•
working with others on a team
 35

Step Four: Students Describe their Work Place Language Needs

The fourth step in gathering information about the specific language
used in this bulk mailing company is related to the second in that the
students' language needs and wants were being addressed; however, it is
more directly related to the actual development of program materials and
subsequent tests than the second because their actual responses were
used to develop class activities and test items. Pilot program participants
were given index cards and asked to describe in writing (in their native
language of Spanish) situations they have encountered while working at the
company in which they had needed to or wanted to communicate in
English. Although the students were briefly prompted to think of
situations related to working on a team, communicating with the
supervisor, and requesting mechanical assistance from a mechanic, of 21
situation descriptions collected from these program participants, eight
were related to health problems and injuries. Two of these eight were
telephone calls to the supervisor regarding the same. I view this outcome
as parallel to the results of the survey given in step two. The students
viewed health related issues as an important aspect of their lives as Rees
Associates employees.
Interestingly, sub-categories for the situations related to working on
a team emerged from the seven responses about team work. One sub-
category which emerged is requesting that a team member get more
supplies. Of the seven team-work related responses, four were requests
for more supplies. The other three team-work related responses were
written by operators who needed to direct other team members for
various reasons. Included in the remeiining six responses were four
 36

situations in which employees wanted to address a supervisor, but these

situations were not appropriate for use in class activities or on a formal
test because they involved personal situation applicable only to the
student who wrote them and not to all students in the program. The two
remaining descriptions were in the category of requesting mechanical
assistance from a mechanic.

Evaluation Project's Needs Analysis

From the above description, it can be seen that the needs analysis
was still in progress during the pilot program. As noted in Chapter Two,
some of the phrases of the production stage often occur simultaneously.
The primary reason that the two phases overlapped was because a needs
analysis is not a "once-for-all-activity" which is not continually monitored
(Hutchinson and Waters 1987, 59). Literature regarding ESP needs analysis
consistently recommends the use of a variety of sources; an additional
reason that the needs analysis continued into the pilot progreim was the
reahzation that we had a lack of variety. While my husband gathered a
wealth of invaluable information, this information only provided the
program with one perspective. Obtaining the perspectives of the students
and management was also essential. Furthermore, the health problems
and injuries topic which was input by the students and the safety rules
topic which was input by the management would not have been included in
the final seven-session program design had we relied on only one method
of needs evaluation.

On the other hand, collecting the bulk of our information through

mimersion in the work environment had innumerable benefits. My husband
was immersed in the language environment eight hours a day for
 37

approximately three months before the classes of the pilot program

began. He begcin gathering materials and taking notes approximately one
month after starting his work at Rees Associates. When the development
of an English language was approved by the management, he had an ample
start on a strong collection of notes and materials. These benefits can be
identified when the limitations of several needs einalysis methods such as
those suggested in the literature review of this thesis. Many situations
from which our information was gathered were production problems which
several events and/or communication breakdowns had led up to. In these
cases, the frequently recommended needs analysis method of tape
recordings would not have sufficed, and, therefore, were not used.
Interviews also have limitations in that the managers and students found it
difficult to identify the language needs. This can be seen in the situation
where the student gave a personal situation which was not applicable to
the entire group of students as a language need. The same limitation may
also be true with the administration of surveys.
The limitations of tape recording, interviewing, and surveys can be
overcome by using a variety of methods; however, this can be a very time-
consuming task. Another limitation is that most needs analyses because
of time constraints, are interested in determining the language necessities
without realizing that this is only provided a part of the total picture. As
Hutchinson and Waters (1987) suggest, it is more advantageous to
examine "the target situation in terms of necessities, lacks and wants" (55).
Because the immersion allowed for determining the necessities and lacks, we
were able to allow time during the pilot program for examining the
learner's wants as described earlier in this chapter. This is an important
issue because, as described in the literature review of this thesis,
 38

analyzing the learners' work situation is often done prior to analyzing

language analysis. In our needs analysis, we were performing both
analyses simultaneously.
An additional note regarding the above summary is that the
information gathered was not only used for revisions of course materials
and methods of the final program version but also for course test
development procedures.

Description Program Participants

Following an ESP approach which focuses on the learners and what
objectives they are to perform and de-emphasizes the actual linguistic
features, establishing which, if any, linguistics features to teach the
program participants took place after meeting with them, collecting their
personal data, and performing some informal language 'lacks'
assessments. We needed to confirm that our perception of their English
ability level was accurate. The idea here is that our syllabus was wholly
objective oriented with no reference to linguistic features; however, to
prevent the limited Enghsh proficient students from learning pure stimulus
response type phrases through rote memory, some language in the form
of grammar or linguistic features is often needed.
To convey the general characteristics of the program participants, I
will present the personal data statistics collected from 21 of the 23
program peirticipants who completed the final seven-session program
either by presenting the final assessment tests, having good attendance,
or both. Ten of these students also participated in all or part of the pilot
program, as well. Table 3 summarizes their general characteristics.
 39

Table 3. General Characteristics of the Program Participants

1. Age; wide range of ages from early 20s to middle 40s (Specific ages
were not asked.)

2. Sex: 10 male and 11 female

3. Nationahties: 20 from Mexican and one from El Salvador

4. Immigrant Status: unknown (Immigration status was not asked.)

5. Native language: Spanish
6. Level and type of general education: Six had primary school education,
nine had junior high school level education, five had completed high
school, and one had some college education. Only three had studied
English at another location--with a community action group who
provides free adult ESL classes-after their arrival to the United States.
7. Additional Experience: Amount of time in the United States ranged
from three months to 12 years with an average of two and a half years.
The following table shows the distribution of time in the United States.

Amount of Time Number of Students

3 months to 1 year 2

1 to 2 years 11

2 to 3 years 4

4 to 5 years 2

6 to 7 years 1

8 or more years 1

Besides collecting the above personal data, 1 also performed

informal individual interviews with each smdent before the pilot program
began. These informal interviews consisted of two parts. The first part
was a warm-up exercise in which 1 had a sheet with various pictures; as I
 40

pointed to a picture the interviewee was asked to name it in Enghsh. The

second part of the interview consisted of personal questions. These
personcil questions began with present tense questions such as "Where
are you from?," "How old are you?," and "Where do you live?," which could
be answered in one word or with a complete sentence. Also, the last two
examples above were intended to indicate if the student knew numbers in
English. If the student confidently and accurately answered the picture
naming and the first three or four questions, the interview was continued
with questions in the past tense and then with questions about the future.
(See Appendix 1 for interview prompt questions.)
In most of the interviews, students were unable to name all the
pictures in English and answered the present tense questions with one
word or phrase; communication broke down before arriving at the past
and future questions. If the past and future questions were presented and
the student understood the content of what was being asked, he or she
did not answer in complete sentences with accurate use of past and
future. According to the Inverted Pyramid of Spoken Language Proficiency
developed by American Council on the Teaching Foreign Languages
(ACTFL), these interview results suggest that our perception of the
students ability level as being low was confirmed. The majority of
students were at a novice or beginning level with speech limited to
memorized phrases. While a few were intermediate level students as they
were able to give basic information about themselves, no one student was
identified at an upper intermediate or advcinced level because they fciiled
to show ability to narrate or describe past or future events. These findings
were generadized to the population of students who participated in the
 41

final course program, as similar student data regarding education and

additional experience was collected.
To supplement these interviews, at the start of the pilot program
and final seven-session program 1 administered a low-stress vocabulary
identification test. (An example of this test is included in Appendix 1.)
These two measures-informal interviews and low-stress vocabulary
identification tests-were used for two reasons. First, there was no
pressure from the management to produce quantitative measurements at
this point in the program development, and we felt a formed testing
procedure would be too intimidating for the program participants. As
Belfoire and Burnaby (1984) confirm, when this is the case, an "informal
procedure is often successful" (40). Second, the topic/objective syllabus
for the course was still under construction at that time. While we had a
strong general idea of what was to be covered during the pilot program,
the fear of creating a test which was not representative of future program
content and activities which would dishearten the students motivation
persuaded us to use a general vocabulary test instead of a test specific
to the bulk mailing context.
An additional important note about assessing the students' language
ability is that at the start of the final seven-session program ten students
volunteered to take a listening and a speaking tests designed from the
topics and objectives of the final course design. These tests, along with
the outcomes of both the pre-program and post-program administrations
of the tests, will be discussed in more detail in Chapter Five.
 42

Learners' Needs and Linguistic Features

Upon realization that many of these limited English proficient
students had not obtained a high school education and had not studied
English prior to peirticipation in this program, I reviewed several textbooks
designed for adult beginning English (See Appendix I for a listing of these
sources). From this 1 established that the following eight linguistic
features (structures) are commonly taught at this level, present tense
forms of the verb be, present tense verbs, present continuous verbs,
present tense questions, use of not, commands, and present tense forms
of the verbs can and have. Additional features along with these are
alphabet and numbers. I also reviewed several detailed language analysis
from other ESP courses similar to this one-ranging from textiles to health
care occupations (See Appendix I for a listing of these sources). From
this I found that the above listed language structures eilso reflect many
basic on the job functions. They were also Included in many speech acts
provided by our language analysis.
Furthermore, general English skills like those listed above serve as
building blocks for specific English skills. As Wales (1993) describes,
general ESL instruction assists workers to participate normally in the
workplace. He suggests that not only are there linguistic relationships
between general and specific English, as I have Indicated above, there are
also two other factors. One is that the learners' perception of their needs
often involves general English skills. This idea Is reflected in these
learners' desire to learn health problem and injury related English. The
other is that "learners' L2 proficiency levels may require general skill
development" (3). Although I have titled this VESL program an English
Language Training Program, my ideas of this title do not coincide with
 43

Wales's (1993) idea of Training Program. In the literature review, it was

stated that Widdowson (1983) and Wales (1993) claim that a training
program is a program which develops limited systematic formulae which
relate to linguistic and communicative competencies while education
develops the students' ability to interpret-"make inferences, resolve
cimbiguities, make sense of or produce novel utterances" ( Wales 1993, 9).
The program title 1 have chosen rtlay be misleading because my aim is to
do the former in Wales definition--to teach what Widdowson (1983) termed
communicative capacity. The main objective which influenced my inclusion
of these eight grammatical structures is to allow students to creatively
construct language for a variety of situations-both work place specific
situations and general life situations.
 44

CHAPTER FOUR
APPUCATION

As mentioned in Chapter Three Belfoire and Burnaby (1984) view-

syllabus design as a "dynamic process" in which one lesson emerges from
another lesson in a flexible sequence (128). Hutchinson and Waters (1987)
point out the same about converting a syllabus into usable materials. Our
situation proved to support this assumption. Later in their book,
Hutchinson and Waters advise that, as materieils design is the most time
consuming task of an ESP instructor, it should be should be "regarded as a
last resort" when other possible materials fail to meet students' specific
needs. (79) As the context supplied by a bulk mailing company is so
unique, no materials for our purpose could be found, and my husband and
1 compiled our own through adaptation and design. In Chapter One, a
description of the program context was given. This chapter opens with a
few additional details about the program context to prompt a description
of materials development. Subsequent to this is an evaluation of the
materials. The evaluation is divided into the two categories of content
and methodology. Please note that the English Language Training Program
materials, along with a list of pedagogical activities, are included in
Appendix 11.

Materials Development
The initial class plan-used during the pilot program-was to have two
two-hour class meetings on the weekend for 12 weeks. Different groups
of students attended each meeting. One hour of each meeting was
devoted entirely to general English. The linguistic structures listed in
Chapter Two were presented in very general life skills contexts through
 45

exercises from the workbook LifePrints: ESL for Adults (Podnecky, et. al.
1983) which was recommended to me by a colleague for this purpose. The
second hour of each meeting was devoted to practicing the same
linguistic structures in the specific context of the students' work place.
The fact that the pilot program lasted for a rather extending period
had both advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that we were
provided with ample time and opportunities to collect, design, and adapt
materials for the specific language of the bulk mailing company. Not only
were materials collected before the program began, but also they were
collected during the pilot program. Over the 12 weeks of the pilot
program we collected a large amount of work-related materials-forms,
manuals, and vocabulary terms--and were able to be selective about what
was to be included in the final course program materials packet. Another
advantage is that we were able to test the materials on two different
groups of students and revise accordingly for the final materials packet.
However, the disadvantages were also a factor. One disadvantage
was that student interest decreased as the weeks passed, and, for that
reason, attendance also decreased. This decrease was also due to an

extra work demand being unexpectedly placed on the students during the
weeks of the pilot program. As Belfoire and Burnaby (1984) point out,
irregular attendance is a common problem in smcill industry ESP programs.
Another disadvantage is that after some weeks the students had lost
most of their materials because they did not have folders for them. Most
students had purchased notebooks for the course, but few had purchased
folders. With some students attending sporadically and no guarantee the
students would come to class with their materials, we realized that
shortening the duration of the course and providing students with a bound
 46

materials packet would solve these instructional obstacles. Therefore,

each student was provided with his or her own materials packet for the
final seven-week program.
Besides aiding students in keeping their materials together when
transporting them to and from class each weekend, the materials packet
also aided in increasing interest in the program. One recommendation
Hutchinson and Waters (1984) provide for ESP instructors faced with
designing their own materials is to "pay careful attention to the
appearance of your materials," so that dull looking materials will not
create a dull attitude toward them and the program. By providing the
students with pleasant looking materials which contained photographs and
pictures of familiar people and things around their work place, I feel that
the enthusiasm level toward the program was raised.
The final program design consisted of a seven week session which
met once a week for three hours of general linguistic structures set in a
specific bulk mailing context. While the health-related, life skills materials
were maintained, following the suggestion made by Hutchinson and Waters
(1984, 126) to not "re-invent the wheel" and use already designed materials
as an idea source, other life skills exercises used during the pilot program
were revised to fit the bulk maihng context. Omitting the general life skills
content was not only prompted by the need to shorten or intensify the
program design, but by the management's encouragement that the course
be aimed more directly at the adult learner's need for satisfying
immediately relevant needs, which in this situation is his/her need to
communicate in English in the work place and not in general non-work
related situations. This encouragement was also supported by the results
of student questionnaire about motivation for learning Enghsh. When
 47

asked about their principal motivation for learning English, nine out of ten
student responses were directly related to the work place advancements.
An additional important feature of our materials development is the
fact that my husband was both an "insider" in the company and a resource
for the VESL course during materieils development meant that many
advantages were at hand for the development of this project. As the
following quote details, this is not always the case:
For the instructor or curriculum developer the major difficulty
usually lies in his "outsider" status. That is, he is not part of the
learner's environment and, therefore, does not come to the situation

with an understanding of their needs in he work context. He does

not "know" the workplace. (Laylin 1983)
Because the curriculum development included someone who was not an
"outsider" this major difficulty was overcome. From informal comments
from the students, I am confident that they felt the materieils closely
matched the details of their work place.

Materials Evaluation

As I proposed in Chapter Two of this thesis, the materials evaluation

intended for existing materials would serve as evaluation guidelines for the
materials developed for a specific curriculum actually perform their
purpose. This division of Chapter Four will follow the materials evaluation
procedure which "matches needs to available solutions" through a
subjective and objective analysis provided by Hutchinson and Waters
(1984, 97-105). The subjective analysis refers to the findings which
resulted from the steps taken during the course design stage, and the
objective analysis refers to the resulting materials. The purpose of such
 48

an evaluation is to determine to what extent the materials match their

intended purpose. While these questions are directed more toward

evaluating others' materials in order to determine if they meet a program's
specific needs, they are useful questions for our purpose as well. For our
discussion, the subjective analysis will consist of pre-final program
responses, while the objective anedysis will consist of post-final program
responses. This evaluation procedure is comprised of 21 sets of
questions-one subjective and the other objective--in five categories.
These five categories are audience, aims, content, methodology and
cost/availability. An example of a subjective question in the category of
content is "What language points should be covered?" The answer to this
question reflects the teaching theories held by the program designer. The
objective question for the above is "What language points do the
materials cover?" The answer to this question comes from an objective
review of the textbook's content.

In my materials evaluation, the first two categories-audience and

aims-seem to prove to be almost a complete match. When the audience
is examined, it is clear that the materials were designed for the program
participants-Hispanic non-native speakers of English employeed at Rees
Associates. The category of aims also shows an almost complete match.
The main objective of the course is to provide the learners with basic
English language competencies needed to properly carry out their duties
as Rees Associates employees. The learners' language ability level and
common work place situations were used as the basis for developing
materials. The last category in which there was also a complete match
pertains to cost and availability. The estimated cost per packet was not
exceeded, and Rees Associates management agreed to purchase as many
 49

packets as needed. The third and forth categories-content and

methodology-demonstrate some interesting "misses" and "matches"
which are explained below. The actual questions and answers are supplied
in Appendix III.
Content

My concern about the content of the course materials I designed for

this program is that an ESP instructor assigned to a bulk mailing company
such as Rees Associates would use them as they are included in Appendix
II without realizing that many supplemental activities are needed to achieve
their intended purpose. This concern can be divided into two categories.
The first is that the language descriptions included in the materials need
to be supplemented to achieve the intended variety: the second is that the
amount of practice in the macro-skills of speaking, listening, reading, and
writing is unbalanced. A list of pedagogical activities which were used with
these materials follows the program materials in Appendix 11.
As described in the answer to question #3A-what types of language
description is required?-, a variety of language description should be used
in order to fit the varying ranges of learning styles present in this, as well
as any other, language program. This is especially important in this
particular situation because these learners possess varying levels of
language skills and le£irning/smdy skills. Variety in a language program
should guide "the development of autonomy and independent learning
strategies that will take learners beyond the classroom" (Belfoire and
Bumaby 1984, 80) Language description variety is included in this materials
packet, but more could appropriately be added. For example, the first
pages of the materials packet include a functional language description
which teaches the task of talking about work to others and a notional
 50

language description which explains number (singular versus plural). Later

in the course these same concepts are reviewed through a structural
language activity in which the students ordered individual words written on
index cards into sentences and questions. Many learners appeared to be
actively engaged during this hands-on language manipulation activity, and
no such structural activity is included within the course materials.
Another possible drawback about the variety of language
description included in these materieils (also prompted by question #3) is
that much of the linguistic description is presented in the students' native
language of Speinish before it is presented in English. As Belfoire and
Burnaby (1984) discuss, in an adult learning course of such short duration,
it is important to build on the knowledge and experience that the learners
already hold in order to help them develop their own learning style.
However, to make use of this set-up the instructor of the course must
know Spanish.
The second concern is that practice in the macro-skills most
important for this context-listening and speaking-is needed, but is
provided for the most part through supplemental materials; therefore, as
much practice as is needed is not explicitly included in the materials
packet. Capturing listening practice and speaking practice on paper is
really not possible; therefore, as pointed out in the answer to question #5B
of the matericds evaluation-What is the proportion of work on each skill?
Is there skills-integrated work?—, the materials focus on reading and
writing. This aspect is a "miss" because, while there is some level of skills-
integrated work within the first unit, there seems not to be correct
amounts of practice in the macro-skills important for this context
throughout the packet. Question #10-about organization within the units
 51

of the course--also brings up this issue. As the first unit-People and Places
A55ocMfe5~includes more varied practice than the other units
because speaking activities are included in this unit, the materials packet
seems unbalanced when evaluated according to the amount of practice in
each macro-skill for each linguistic feature within a unit. The other three
umtsSafety Rules at Rees Associates, Machines at Rees Associates, and
Putting it All Together-are strictly reading and writing. An important
aspect of this, however, Is that while speaking and hstening is the main
concern, for many students reading and writing provide skills-integrated
work which can reinforce these skills. If I were to rewrite these materials, I
would incorporate more speaking activities within the last three units of
the materials packet and add authentic Ustening tapes for the students to
practice this macro-skill between class meetings.
While the above describes how these course materials may have
missed their intended purpose, the following describes how these
materials seem to have matched their intended purpose in an important
way. This is brought up by question #11 about the content sequencing
throughout the course. The intention was to move from guided '"skill-
getting" activities to less guided "skill-using" activities. In order to aid the
students in the treinsition from the knowledge they demonstrated pre
program of isolated words and phrases to becoming more productive in
their language use and begin to develop individualized learning styles. An
example of this is found in the presentation of vocabulary terms.
Vocabulary used in the texts on pages 11, 12 and 13 of the packet is
presented explicitly to the students on page lO-before reading the tests.
Later on page 22, the learners are encouraged to determine the meaning of
words in the text from the context provided by the pictures. Finally, in the
 52

second unit, Safety Rules at Rees Associates, the students are encouraged to
read and write using the vocabulary list at the end of the unit as a
reference. The same type of content sequencing throughout the course
can be found when we look at the use of authentic versus non-authentic

texts within the packet. As explained in the answer to question #7B of the
materials evaluation, the first reading texts of the packet on pages 11
through 13 are non-authentic while the last reading texts of the packet on
pages 36 through 39 are authentic. The authentic texts are more difficult
than the non-authentic ones written at these students language ability
level.

Methodology
As described in response to question #13A, the theory/ies of
language learning on which the course should be based is a cognitive
approach which draws on the language knowledge the learners bring to the
class should be used, according to my analysis of the learners' needs.
Also, implicit language instruction should be preceded by an ample amount
of explicit language instruction. An inductive approach might be
frustrating for adult learners (Shrum 1994). As these students
demonstrated some command of isolated words and phrases, a deductive
approach might speed up the learning process. These are the same
theories that underlie the materials and the class activities. However, at
the end of the program some students in the class were making requests
for repetition of isolated words and phrases which may indicate that some
influence from the behaviorist approach may have been helpful for them
as noted in the response to question #14B about the learners' attitudes
to/expectations about learning English.
 53

Under the discussion of content, I noted that my intentions were to

include as much variety as possible and to move from guided exercises to
free exercises over the duration of the program. These same ideas came
up when answering question #15A under methodology. This question deals
with the kinds of exercises/tasks which are needed for the program. I
responded by stating that a variety of exercises/tasks are needed;
furthermore, the expected responses for the exercises/tasks should
range from discrete point to open-ended. In the first unit of the materials
packet, several types of discrete point exercises (fill-in-the-blank, circling
and matching) are included; in the last unit, the photographs on pages 44
through 49 provide a context for which students can write descriptive
paragraphs or conversations. This is a very open-ended exercise in which
the students can apply their newly learned language skills.
Questions #16A £ind #16B bring up another "miss" for these
materials. This question asks about the teaching-learning techniques
which are to be used. My goal initially was to include a variety of
techniques which would mean both individual, pair and small group work.
Upon evaluating my materials through these questions, 1 noted that the
goal of aiding the students in developing their own learning/study styles
had lead me to create more individual work than pair and small group
work. 1agree with Belfoire and Burnaby's (1984) view that the development
of healthy peer dependence to be equally as important as the
development of independent learning styles. For that reason, adding more
pair and small group work is advised for any future revisions of these
materials.

As noted at the beginning of the discussion about the content, 1am

concerned that the course materials I designed for this program cire not
 54

planned for an ESP instructor assigned to a bulk mailing company such as

Rees Associates to use them as they cire included in Appendix II without
supplementing them with various activities to achieve their intended
purpose. This same idea was brought up by question #18--what
guidance/support for teaching the course will be needed? There are three
types of information needed to teach this course from these materials.
The first is that although there are instructions for the students to
complete the exercises in the materials, instructions for converting the
exercises into speaking activities and/or pair work needs are not included
within the materials. An experienced ESL instructor would be able to find
that such pages as 18, on which the students are instructed to write a
conversation between employees, include opportunities for role-playing
exercises. An inexperienced instructor would need to be provided with
additional information.

The second is that while much of the vocabulary needed to teach

this course is included in the materials packet, knowledge of other work
procedures, such as postal regulations, is needed. For example, page 23
is included for a class activity where the Quality Control Supervisor
presents the students with the vocabulary needed to correctly sort the
out-going mail into mailing carrier routes. The fact that this supervisor at
Rees Associates is also bilingual, brings up the third type of information
necessary to teach from these course materials.
This third type of information was mentioned earUer under the
content section of this chapter. To make use of the set-up of this
materials the instructor of the course must not only speak Spanish, but
also be able to make comparisons between English and Spanish. Also, the
materials contain several vocabulary lists which the instructor aids the
 55
/"

students in filling in the Spanish equivalent and vice versa. While for most
terms, my husband and I were able to establish correct translations, in
several instances throughout the program, the bilingual Quality Control
Supervisor was used as a reference to verify the correct use of the
technical terms in Spanish and English.
 56

CHAPTER FIVE
TESTING

This chapter is dedicated to the issue of testing. While testing--

especially ESP testing--is such a large topic that this entire thesis could
have been devoted to it, I am containing it here as it truly exists within an
ESP program. It is a part of the whole program; therefore, this chapter
discusses only the most important topics for the development of tests
for this program. The first four of the seven testing discussion topics
included in the chapter are those that are the resulting product of the
design stage as outlined by Bachman and Palmer (1996). They are as
follows: 1) a description of the purpose of developing a test in the
context of Rees Associates English Language Training Program, 2) a
description of the Target Language Use (TLU) domain and task types and
3) a description of the test takers 4) a definition of the constructs to be
measured. The fifth and sixth topics included in this section are actually
included in what Bachman and Palmer (1996) refer to as the

operationalization stage of test development. They are as follows: 5) a

description of the language test tasks and 6) a description of the scoring
method for these testing procedures. The concluding section of this
chapter is a summary of the evaluation of the qualities of test usefulness.

Test Purpose
As will be described in the following section of this chapter about
the Target Language Use domain, it was determined that two tests were
needed for testing the English language ability of the non-native speakers
of English at Rees Associates. One test is a listening test, and the second
is an oral test. The purpose of the listening test is to make inferences
 57

regarding the ability level of a Rees Associates employee to understand

short spoken phrases in EngUsh (short speech acts) which he or she would
typically hear and need to understand while working in the company. The
purpose of the oral test is to make inferences regarding the abiUty level of
a Rees Associates employee to produce short spoken phrases in English
(short speech acts) which he or she would need in order to function
successfully as a Rees Associates employee.
These inferences together (listening ability and oral ability
inferences) are part of an assessment of the ability of each employee to
work as a "good team player." Rees Associates management defines a
"good team player" as an employee who possesses four essential
quaUties. These four qualities are that the employee is 1) easy to work
with, 2) easy to train, 3) easy to direct and assign, and 4) someone who
supports problem solving. The main characteristic which links these four
qualities is the need to understand (listening comprehension) and
communicate (speaking ability) with English speaking employees and
English speaking supervisors.
The purpose of the inferences made from these two tests, then, is
to assess an employee's ability to understand and communicate with
English speaking persons in his/her work place which emphasizes a "team
player" attitude. When it is inferred from these tests that an employee
possesses communication skills which may enable him or her to actualize
the four communication based qualities of a "team player," along with the
three work related criteria of 1) high productivity, 2) good attendance, and
3) high quality of work, Rees Associates management will review the
employee for two possible reasons.
 58

One possible reason is that the employee is not actually a full-time

Rees Associates employee; he or she is actually an employee of a
temporary agency. In this case, an employee who demonstrates the four
communication based qualities via the English language tests, along with
the three work related qualities during his/her employment through the
temporary agency, is a candidate for full-time Rees Associates

employment. While the temporary employment agency employees often

work 40 or more hours in a week, they do not receive the benefits that the
full-time Rees Associates employees receive.
To understand the second possible reason, one should understand
the hierarchy of employment at Rees Associates. As mentioned earlier,
"team player" qualities are important at Rees Associates. A team is a
group of usually five people. These five people receive differing pay
depending on their positions on the team. For example, the "team
captain" or the operator receives higher pay than the stocker or bagger.
The higher paid positions are filled by employees who possess more
communication based qualities. Therefore, the second possible reason is
that the employee can be promoted frorn one position to a higher position
on the team, either within Rees Associates or within the temporary agency.
(Team positions are described in Chapter One.)
For the test takers, the decisions made based on results of these
tests are semi-high stakes. 1 define them as semi-high stakes because the
purpose of this test is not to pinpoint employees who are lacking in
communication based skills in order to fire or demote them. Furthermore,
employees must also display the three work related cheiracteristics listed
above, so the employment decisions are not based on test results alone.
However, hiring as a Rees Associates employee or promotion within the
 59

company or temporary agency will result in greater job stability, more

overtime availability, and higher wages for the employee, all of which, for
many reasons, are of high importance to these non-native speaking
employees. An additional aspect of employment decisions is that, as is
the case with any employment decisions, Rees Associates hires and
promotes employees according to overall company needs eind position
openings.

Besides the above purpose of assessing communication skills, these

tests have a second purpose. The combined scores of these tests, along
with other evaluative methods, will be used to evaluate the effectiveness
of the English Language Training Program. For example, one issue which
will be examined is how students performed as a group on the different
sections of the oral test. If students performed poorly on a particular
section, than the instruction materials and methods used when teaching
the information contained in that section will be revised accordingly. The
combined test scores will also allow the management to decide to
continue or to discontinue the English Language Training Program.

Target Language Use {TLU) Domain

Bachman and Palmer (1996) define Target Language Use (TLU)
Domain as "a set of specific language use tasks that the test taker is likely
to encounter outside the test itself, and to which we want our inferences
about the language ability to generalize" (44). As mentioned in the last
section, the inferences to be made from the results of the tests which

were to be developed for this program were semi-high stakes. In order to

develop a test which contains language use tasks that closely correspond
to the actual language use tasks of the work place situations which the
 60

program participants encounter, I found it necessary to review the results

of the language needs analysis done during the pilot program. To review
the results in a productive manner I followed the TLU Task Checklist
provided by Bachman and Palmer (1996). Their TLU Task Checklist is
divided into four sections; 1) characteristics of the setting, 2)
characteristics of input, 3) characteristics of expected response and 4)
relationship between input and expected response. Though this
systematic activity, I was able to gain more specific insight into the
language needed to perform the generally described tasks in the
topics/tasks syllabus used for the materials development. Table 4 is the
resulting description of the TLU tasks.
Two importcint findings resulted from this analysis, One was that
reading and writing tasks were minimal to non-existent. Signs posted
around the plant are in both English and Spanish. Only mechanics are
required to fill out forms, and they must be able to do so before being
hired as a mechanic. The second finding was that when the expected
response is language, the input is non-language as described above. When
the expected response is non-language, the input is language as described
above. An exception to this is when employees call on the telephone to
speak to a supervisor. In this case, input and expected response are both
language. The amount of spcciking done over the telephone is small when
compared to the amount of speaking done on the production floor.
 61

Table 4. TLU Tasks Description

Characteristics of the setting:

Physical Setting-The majority of language use takes place on the

production floor. The production floor has a high level of background
noise which can easily interfere with communication. A small exception to
this physical setting would be when employees call on the telephone to
speak to a supervisor.

Participants-The employees communicate with three groups of people

which are as follows 1) other employees, 2) supervisors, and 3) mechanics.
Time of task-Any time while working on one of three shifts. Rees
Associates works 24 hours a day.

Characteristics of input:
Format:
Channel-aural (if input is language)
Form-both language and non-language
Language-English
Type-When input is language it consists of commands and questions from
other employees and supervisors who speak English. When input is non-
language it consists of mechanical, health/injury, or team-player problems
which need attention.

Characteristics of expected response:

Format:
Channel-spoken (if expected response is language) and action (if
expected response is non-language)
Form-both language and non-language
Language-English
Type-limited production response or action

Relationship between input and expected response:

Reactivity-Non-reciprocal (except for telephone call)
Scope-Narrow
Directness-Indirect
 62

Description of Test Takers

While a through description of the program participants was
provided in Chapter Three, because taking a test causes different
emotional reactions than does participating in regulcir class activities,
more information is needed about them for test development. First, the
target language use (TLU) tasks are those needed for real-life, work-related
performance, both tests used for this program solidly reflect the content
of the program. Both program content and TLU tasks were selected from
our language needs analysis as described in Chapter Three. This aspect
could cause these students to value the test results more than if the tests

were not related to their immediate circumstances.

Related to the above is the program participants' topical knowledge.

As all test takers were working at Rees Associates in one position or
einother either for the company itself or for the temporary agency at the
time of the testing, they all possessed a relatively homogeneous topical
knowledge of work related tasks. Such knowledge includes that of the
appropriate responsibilities of employees and basic knowledge of how an
inserter machine functions. Furthermore, three fourths of the students
who took the tests worked at the same position-machine operator. As
Bachman and Palmer (1996) point out, "We would generally expect that test
takers who have the relevant topical knowledge will have positive affective
responses to the test and test tasks..." (114). 1 believe that this statement
is true for this particular case because the test takers generally appeared
confident and prepared on test day.
 63

Test Constructs

As mentioned earlier, it was determined that two tests-one test for

listening and a second for speaking--were necessciry for a satisfactory

representation of the TLU tasks: a listening test for measuring
comprehension of commands and questions from other employees and
supervisors who speak English, and a speaking test for mechanical
problems, health/injury related problems, or teeun-player related problems
which need attention through speech acts like commands, requests and
statements. I have defined the construct for the listening test as "listening
comprehension of short speech acts in work related situations" and the
construct for the speaking test as "production of effective speech acts to
accomplish work related functions."
While the listening test construct is relatively straight forward, the
speaking test construct is a bit problematic. The main reason for this is
that the test takers possess a low English proficiency level. While some
spoken English used to accomplish work related tasks may be interactive,
these test takers are not likely to participate in interactive conversations
in English. This observation is based on conversations with Rees
Associates management and on data collected from student data sheets
used for the learner needs analysis discussed in Chapter Three. On the
data sheets students were asked how often they have conversations in
English in a typical day. Of 13 student reported data, five students
responded zero to two times per day, five students responded three to
five times per day, two students responded six to ten times, and only one
student responded 11-15 times per day. For one reason or another, eight
students did not respond to this question on their data sheets.
 64

In addition, a speech act, while it may be too formal or informal, is still

effective for accomplishing the work related functions we will be using on
the speaking test. Another aspect which should be noted here is that the
general environment of the company is one in which a speech act would
rarely be considered too informal. Furthermore, the program participants
are not lacking in politeness in their own language. Simple phrases such as
"excuse me," "please," and "thank you" are used frequently by them in
both their native language and their attempts at English.

Description of Language Test Tasks

In the same book which includes the above TLU Task Checklist,

Bachman and Palmer (1996) also provide a useful framework for describing
the language task characteristics within a language test. They emphasize
that the purpose of such a framework is to provide a basis for the
following three activities;
1. describing TLU tasks as a basis for designing test tasks,
2. describing test tasks in order to insure their comparability and
as a means for assessing reliability, and
3. comparing the characteristics of TLU and test tasks to assess
authenticity (47).
This framework is divided into five categories. These categories, which
are as follows, are almost identical to those of the TLU task checklist: 1)
characteristics of the setting, 2) characteristic of the test rubrics, 3)
characteristics of the input, 4) characteristics of the expected response,
and 5) relationship between input and response. Table 5 includes he
resulting description of language test task characteristics.
 65

Table 5. Language Test Tasks Description

Characteristics of the setting:

Physical setting-same as instruction setting (the lunch room of the
company)
Participants-myself as test administer--l am also the main instructor for
the English Language Training Program. Listening test is administered in
group and speaking test is administered individually.
Time of Task-Saturday or Sunday afternoon

Characteristics of the test rubric:

Instructions: Language-test takers' native language (Spanish)
Channel-aural
Specifications of procedures and tasks-
tests are included in Appendices II and III.
Structure: The listening test includes 16 multiple choice items. Eight of
these items are speech acts by a supervisor and eight are by an
employee. The speaking test includes six situation categories and is
divided into three parts. There is a total of ten items-five in part
one, two in part two, and three in part three. The first part contains
two items randomly selected from four "team player" situations, one
item randomly selected from four commands containing "turn-off" or
"turn-on," one item randomly selected from four situations related to
obtaining more supplies, and one item randomly selected from five
health problem/injury situations. The second pcirt is concerned with
safety rules. Two items are selected randomly from five safety rules
situations. The third part is concerned with requesting mechanical
assistance from mechanics; three items are selected randomly from
five situations.
Time allotment: Students are given eight minutes to read the multiple
choice sheet for the listening test. The listening tape lasts
approximately seven minutes. For the speaking test, time allotment
will vary. If no attempt to respond to a test item is made within
approximately 30 seconds, the next item is given. For the trial
administration of the test, each test taker finished the speaking test
in approximately five to ten minutes including instructions.
Scoring method: For the listening test the score will be calculated from
the number correct out of the number possible. The scoring rubric
and rating scale for the speaking test are included in Appendix V. A
two rater system should be used for scoring the speaking test.
 66

Table 5. (continued)
Characteristics of the input:
Format:
Channel-aural for both tests (multiple choice sheet is visual)
Form-language
Language-native language (Spanish)
Length-varies
Type-items
Degree of speededness for both input and expected response)-For the
hstening test, students are given eight minutes to read the multiple
choice sheet before the tape is played. During the tape the speech
acts are repeated twice with approximately 15 seconds after the
second for the students to process the input and select a response.
Because the students are given time to read the multiple choice
sheet, there is a relatively low degree of speededness. A relatively
high degree of speededness is apparent in the speaking test in that
if no attempt to respond to a test item is made within approximately
30 seconds, the test administer goes on to the next item.
Vehicle-listening test-live instructions, reproduced test items
speaking test-live instructions, live test items
Language of Input:
Language characteristics: Due to the low proficiency level of the test
takers, all language input is in the test takers' native language except
for the speech acts contained in the listening test. For that reason, I
will examine in this section the speech acts of the listening test. The
16 speech acts included on the listening test are as follows: five
questions from supervisor, three commands from supervisor, seven
commands from employees, and one statement from employee. All
are spoken with minimal quickness (close to normal speech rate)
with no reductions or contractions. For example, the one statement
included is "You are doing a good job." and not "You're doing a
good job." or simply "good job."
Topical characteristics (for both input and expected response): As
described earlier, these tests assume that the test takers possess
knowledge of the appropriate responsibilities of team members and
basic knowledge of how an inserter machine functions. This
knowledge is essential for completing these two tests.
Characteristics of expected response:
Format:
Channel-spoken (if expected response is language) and select multiple
choice response (if expected response is non-language)
 67

Table 5. (continued)
Form-both language and non-language
Language-English
Type-For listening test: selected response
For speaking test: limited production response
Degree of speededness-see above under characteristics of input
Language of expected response-for the limited production responses the
test takers are asked to produce effective one or two sentence
speech acts which perform the function of command/request and in
a limited number of items statements. For the limited number of
statements, the response does not necessarily need to be in
sentence form to be effective.
Topical knowledge: see above under characteristics of input

Relationship between input and expected response:

Reactivity: Non-reciprocal
Scope: Narrow
Directness: Indirect

An explanation of how the TLU domain tasks match and differ from
the test tasks is provided in the last section of this chapter. One note
about the above description is that the characteristics of the test setting
changed. They were predicted to be as follows: 1) The physical setting
would be the same as instruction setting which was the lunch room of the
company. 2) The participants would be myself as test administer; the
listening test 1 would be administered to the whole group, and the speaking
test I would administer to students individually. And, 3) the time of task
would be Saturday or Sunday afternoon. While the participants basically
stayed the same-another tester for the speaking portion was added to
save time-the physical setting and the time of the test changed
drastically. The fact that the bulk mailing company worked overtime on
the particular weekend testing was scheduled, combined with the
management's increased interest in obtaining quantitative results of the
 68

final course design, changed the testing location to outside the plant itself
and to Saturday and Sunday morning. Half of the test takers met on
Saturday morning in a nearby church basement, and half of the test takers
met on Sunday morning in a large, community reception hall. Another
affect of this change was that the Sunday morning test takers had left
their third shift work only minutes before taking the test which resulted in
them being tired and perhaps not as focused as they would have been had
the test been administered at a different time.

Scoring Methods
The listening test is scored number correct out of number possible.
There is no partial credit scoring for two reasons. The first is that the
speech acts are short and straight-forward; there is no allowance for
interpretations and opinions. Secondly, many of the multiple choice
possibilities are written so that a test taker must focus their listening as
to hear the slight, yet often times important differences. For example,
there are two items (#3 and #13) which involve commands of "turn-off" and

"turn-on." In item #2 a key word is "light" and in the responses there is a

rhyming word~"night." This is also true in item #8 with the words "glue"
and "blue." Phonological clues along with the context provided by the
other words in the speech act allow test takers to determine the meaning
of the speech act. While the phonological difference of the pairs of words
included in the above examples may be small to a non-native speaker of
English, it is important that they are able to identify the difference in order
to accomplish what is being asked of them.
Although a strategic listening competence of focused listening may
be functioning for these test takers to complete some test items, the
 69

speech acts are so short that, as demonstrated with the above excimples,
it is almost a necessity that the test takers understand all the words in the
short speech act, rather than focusing on just the key words as is the
case in extended discourse. Another example of this is found in item #15.
In this item a supervisor is asking an employee "Can you work second
shift?" Among the multiple choice selections is "Do you work second
shift?" In such a case a misunderstanding can result in either the
employee not understanding that the supervisor wants him or her to work
second shift or the employee missing an opportunity to work second shift.
Due to the fact that the expected response for the speaking test is
limited production response, the responses are rated on a scale of four to
one according to four criteria. The first criterion-effective communication
in the context-can only be fulfilled if the second and third criteria are
properly executed. The second and third criteria are satisfactory
structure of response with regard to function and correct, appropriate
vocabulary for the context. The fourth criterion is pronunciation
intelligibility. Table 6 gives the scoring rubric for the speaking test.
An example of how this rating scale is interpreted is that if the
function of the response is to command an employee not to do something
the structure of the response would start with "don't" and be followed by
the correct lexicon (verb and possibly an object). Such a response would
receive a #4 rating. However, if the same response type starts with "no"
and is followed by the correct lexicon, communication has taken place but
can not considered as effective as a response which starts with "don't."
Such a response would receive a #3 rating. Another example is that if the
function of the response is to request more supplies, the structure can
 70

Table 6. Rating Scale for Speaking Test Responses

Rating #4: Effective communication in the given context

Satisfactory structure of response with regard to function
Correct, appropriate vocabulary for the given context
Pronimciation easily intelligible
Rating #3: Generally effective communication m the given context
Satisfactory structure of response with regard to function
Correct, appropriate vocabulary for the given context
Pronunciation intelligible
Rating #2: Somewhat effective communication in the given context
Structure of response not apparent
Some attempt at correct vocabulary for the given context
Pronunciation not easily intelligible
Rating#!: No effective communication in the given context
No structure of response with regard to function
No knowledge of correct vocabulary for the given context
No response for pronunciation rating

either be a statement (i.e. We need more glue.), a request (Can you get
more glue please?), or even a command (Get more glue). For this
response simply stating the correct vocabulary without structure (i.e. more
glue or glue), does not effectively convey the function of requesting more
supplies as it could be interpreted as asking where more glue is located,
asking if the listener wants or needs more glue, or asking if the speaker
should go get more glue. Such a response would receive a #2 rating.
A crucial element of the above hsted criteria is the fourth criterion
of pronunciation intelligibility. For a rater to be able to identify structure
of response with regard to function and correct, appropriate vocabulary
the test taker must be able to speak intelligibly. This fourth criterion, like
the others, does not make predictions about pronunciation or
communication ability in other contexts; it only assesses these abilities
within the context of a given test item.
 71

An additional note about scoring for the speaking test is that I used
a two-rater system in which the test takers responses were tape recorded,
and a second rater evaluated them without knowledge of the ratings I gave
as the first rater. When the two ratings varied greater them two points, the
individual test items were examined for a third time. If they did not, the
average of the two was taken to arrive at the final score.

Test Usefulness
When evaluating the usefulness of any test, it is important to
remember that the intention is to maximize the overall usefulness of the

test and not simply the individual qualities of reliabihty, construct validity,
authenticity, interactiveness, impact, and practicality. Bachman and Palmer
(1996) further emphasize that these qualities these qualities "cannot be
evaluated independently, but must be evaluated in terms of their
combined effect on the overall usefulness of the test" (18). Included in
Appendix VI are answers to the questions for logical evaluation of test
usefulness as outlined by Bachman and Palmer (1996). This section
describes some important aspects of this evaluation.
The answer to the first reliability question concerning how the test
setting varies in unmotivated ways from one test to another is that there
are no notable variations. However, as mentioned above, there actually
were changes in the test setting from one administration to the next. In
fact, all of the three test administrations were in different settings. As
noted in the practicality section of these questions, authenticity was
sacrificed to achieve higher practicality.
The most authentic test would have been to have employees on the
production floor carrying out various work related tasks. For example.
 72

one employee could train another employee. During the logical evaluation
it was determined that this would not be practical because not only would
it have been time consuming to administer, it would have also been
difficult to score. However, after a full sccile administration of the test,
another aspect is added. It would have been impossible to administer a
highly authentic test outside of the company itself in the setting where the
test was actually administered.
Although the most authentic test was not developed for practicality
concerns, I still view the correspondence between test tasks and TLU
tasks to be high. The main reason for this is that the speech acts of both
tests are preceded by explanations which give the location of the speech
acts as the production floor of the work place. From the description of
the TLU domain, it was found that the majority of language use occurs in
this setting. A second reason I feel there is a high level of
correspondence between the two is found in the relationship between
input and expected response.
In the majority of the TLU tasks, when the expected response is
language, the input is non-language, and when the e?q)ected response is
non-language, the input is language. The same is true for the majority of
the test tasks. For most test tasks on the speaking test, the input is
explanations of situations (non-language) in which the test taker is required
to respond with language. For example, the second section of the test
includes descriptions of situations in which another employee is breaking a
safety rule-running on the production floor, blocking the aisles, etc. The
responses to these situations are language such as "Don't run" or "No
rurming" The same can be found on the listening test. For example, the
response to the listening prompt "Turn-off the yellow light" would be the
 73

non-language response or action of turning off the light. The fact that the
answer sheet for the listening test, as well as the prompts for the
speaking test, are in the students' native language ensures that the
students understand the non-language aspects of the test tasks.
 74

CHAPTER SIX
TEST RESULTS AND EVALUATION ANALYSIS

This chapter discusses two topics. The first topic is the analysis of
the testing results. While this discussion is interesting, as it is based on
only two sets of 10 students or 20 total final scores, not many absolute
conclusions can be made. Further statistical analysis would require at
least ten more student subjects to have taken the tests. The second
discussion topic is the results of the student course evaluations. A total
of 14 student course evaluations were collected.

Testing Results and Analysis

As mentioned in Chapter Three, at the start of the final course
program ten students volunteered to take the listening and speaking tests
as a pre-test. Fortunately, these same ten students had exceptionally
good attendance for the seven week session. They took the same tests
as post test during the last class meetings. The results and answers for
their pre-tests were not presented to them until after they took their post-
tests. During the same time, the tests were administered to ten other
students as an exit test for the program. These three test groupings will
be labeled pre-test, post-test and exit test groups. The class period
before the post-test/exit-test was administered, the students were told
which sections of their materials packet to concentrate on for the tests.
I felt that in general the test results were highly representative of
each student's work related English language ability. Those who had been
generally good language learning students (high beginning to low
intermediate students) performed better than those who had
demonstrated lower language ability levels (low beginning students).
 75

Before presenting the test results for these 20 students, I will point
out that no strong relationship between the number of class meetings
attended and the score on test can be identified. One exception may be
that two extremely low speaking test scores-percentages correct of 39%
and 27.596--are from students who only attended two or three class
meetings respectively other than the testing session. On the other hand,
two student attending only two sessions besides the testing session
scored high on both tests. The average number of classes attended for
the entire group of test takers (not including test day) is four out of sLx
class meetings. Not including the four students mentioned above the
average moves up to five out of six class meetings.
On the listening test, there was no indication that the incorrect
answers selected by the students were due to the item being confusing.
Only one item was missed by eight of ten students on the pre-test who all
selected the same incorrect response. This test item (#13) involved the
difference between "turn-off" and "turn-on." The correct answer was "Turn-

off the red light," and the consistently mistaken answer was "Turn-on the
red light." On the post-test exactiy half made the same error. And four of
the ten students who took the test as an exit test only did the same.
There were two other listening test items missed by several students on
each of the three test groupings (pre-test, post-test, and exit-test groups);
however, for these items they did not consistently select the same
incorrect responses or supplied no repose at all. These two items were
#12 and #15. Table 5 shows the number correct out of 16 possible along
with the percentage correct for the three test groupings. Figure 1 is
graphic display of the data for the pre-test and post-test. Figure 3 is a
graphic display of the data for the exit listening test.
 76

Table 5. Listening Test Results

Student Pre-test Pre-test Post-test Post-test Exit-test Exit-test

Number Score Percent " Score Percent Score Percent

001 14 87.5 . 12 75 12 75

002 11 69 14 87.5 14 87.5

003 9 56 14 87.5 15 94

004 13 81 14 87.5 15 94

005 12 75 13 81 15 94

006 13 81 15 94 14 87.5

007 13 81 14 87.5 12 75

008 16 100 16 100 15 94

009 15 94 15 94 13 81

010 13 81 16 100 15 94

Pre and Post Listening Scores

L

8 16 Pre-test
t 15
• Post-test
e 14
n 13
1
12
n
11
P
10
9
S
»
c
/
0

r
6 T 1 1 r

e Student
s

Figure 1: Pre-test and Post-test Listening Scores

 77

The mean score for the pre-test is 12.9 (or 81%), and the mean score
for the post-test 14.3 (or 8996). While the mean score for the post test is
only 1.4 points higher than the pre-test mean score, this translates into 8
percentage points because there was not a large number of items on the
test. The mean score for the exit test group is 14 (or 87.5%). This is
almost equivalent to the post-test mean score. There was some concern
that the listening test was too easy of a test as the pre-test mean score is
rather high. A more difficult test would have been developed and
administered as an exit test for both the post test and exit test groups.
However, with the change in the physical setting of the testing site, it was
decided that the listening test would function as an excellent warm-up
activity for the more difficult oral test. Getting the students mentally
prepared and oriented for the oral test when their surrounding
environment may have been causing them extra unwanted stress was
important. The results (both scores and percentages) for the three groups
on the oral test with 40 possible points are shown in Table 6. A graphic
display of the pre- and post-test groups is shown in Figure 2. Figure 4 is a
graphic display of the data for the exit speaking test.
The mean score for the pre-test is 23 (or 58%), and the mean score
for the post-test 31 (or 77.5%). This translates to an eight score point (or
20%) increase. As each test task is worth four points, this translates to
each student achieving an average of two tasks fully correct on the post-
test and not on the pre-test. For the exit test group the mean score is
27.2 (or 68%). Without 007 and 009, which are scores the two students

mentioned in the introduction to this section who attending few sessions

of the program, the mean score of the exit test group increases to 30.7
(or 76.7%) which is 3.2 points (or 8%) above the total mean score for all
 78

Table 6. Oral Test Results

Student Pre-test Pre-test Post-test Post-test Exit-test Exit-test

Number Score Percent Score Percent Score Percent

001 22.5 56 28 70 29.5 74

002 18.5 46 32 80 31 77.5

003 23 57.5 28.5 71 24.5 61

004 19 47.5 33.5 84 32.5 81

005 17 42.5 27.5 69 34 85

006 20 50 21 52.5 32.5 , 81

007 26 65 32.5 81 15.5 39
008 35.5 89 40 100 37.5 94

009 21 52.5 29.5 74 11 27.5

010 29 72.5 38 95 24 60

Pre and Post Speaking Scores

S
P 40 -1
e
si Pre-test
a 35 - H Post-test
k
i 30 -
n

q 25 -

20 -
3
n
1h -
u

r
10 -
e
Student
s

Figure 2: Pre-test and Post-test Speaking (Oral) Scores

 79

Exit Speaking Scores

Exit Test

Student

Figure 3: Exit Test Speaking Scores

Exit Listening Scores

L
i
s 16 IEx it Test
t 15
e 14
n 13
1
12
n
11
.q
10
9
S
8
c
/
0

r 6 1 1 r

e Student
s

Figure 4: Exit Test Listening Scores

 80

ten students in the exit test group. This revised mean score is almost
equivalent to the mean score of the post-test group.
A summary of the descriptive statistics for the three test groupings
is included in the Table 7. In the table, the Ustening test is labeled with a
#1; the speaking test is labeled with a #2.
As described with the actual test results, the mean for the exit test
group on the speaking test increases by approximately 8% when the test
scores of two students with poor class attendance are omitted. Since the
reason for their poor performance is known, they can reasonably be
considered outliers which negatively effect the data and be omitted from
the data. Table 8 provides the descriptive statistics for the exit group
with the two scores omitted. Also, included in this table are the
descriptive statistics for the combined results of the post and exit
groups. Again, the listening test is labeled with a #1, and the speaking test
is labeled with a #2.

Table 7. Descriptive Statistics

Statistic Pre#l Post #1 Pre #2 Post #2 Exit #1 Exit #2

Number 10 10 10 10 10 10

Total Items 16 16 40 40 16 40

Mean 12.9 14.3 23.15 31.05 14 27.2

Mode 13 14 none none 15 32.5

Median 13 14 21.75 30.75 14.5 30.25

Midpoint 12.5 14 26.25 26.25 13.5 24.25

Low-High 9-16 12-16 17-35.5 21-40 12-15 27.5

Range 8 5 19.5 20 4 27.5
Stand. Dev. 1.87 1.19 5.35 5.19 1.18 8.03
 81

Table 8. Revised Descriptive Statistics

Statistic Revised Exit #2 Combined #1 Combined #2

Number 8 20 20

Total Items 40 16 40

Mean 30.7 14.15 29.15

Mode 32.5 15 32.5

Median 31.75 14 30.25

Midpoint 30.75 14 25.5

Low-High 24-37.5 12-16 11-40

Range 14.5 5 30

Stand. Dev. 4.31 1.19 7.03

The mean for the combined test scores for the listening test is 14.15
or 8856; the mean for the combined test scores for the speaking test is
29.15 or 7296. It can be interpreted from this that the group as a whole
passed both tests. More indicative of this interpretation are that the
medians of 14 and 30.25. These statistics suggest that the upper half of
the score were over 87.5% for the listening test and over 75.6% for the
speaking test. Although higher combined statistics for the speaking test
would have been desirable, a comparison of the pre-test and post-test
scores on the speaking test gives desirable results. One can find a
noticeable increase in the mean, median, and high-low scores while the
range and the standard deviation remain constant. This indicates that the

group as a whole improved. All scores showed some improvement.

 82

Course Evaluation Results

Course evaluations forms were developed for both students who

participated in our program and managers. These forms are included in
Appendix VII. As indicated in Chapter Two, course evaluations may be
limited by one's ability to collect data. I found this to be true when
attempting to collect completed course evaluations. While many student
evaluations were distributed, only those who successfully completed the
course returned their surveys, and some were not completely filled out.
Some students wrote on their evaluations that they did not have enough
time to answer all the written questions because they were working.
However, all 14 which were returned had the rating questions completed.
The averages of the rating questions responses are shown in Table 9.
Students who successfully completed the course returned their evaluation
forms because upon turning the forms in, they received a certificate for
completing their studies. This provided an incentive for completing and
returning the evaluation form.
Forms from management have not yet been collected. While their
feedback would have added to this discussion, it will be collected
concurrently with a needs analysis for further English instruction. In
Chapter Two it was stated that evaluations performed some time after the
course when the leeu-ners are in contact with the simation for which the

program intended to prepare them can often be useful. Hopefully, this will
prove to be the case for this course eveduation as well.
The 15 rating questions on the student evaluation form were on a
scale of five to one-five representing strongly agree, four representing
agree, three representing agree slightly two representing disagree and one
representing strongly disagree.
 83

Table 9: Course Evaluation Results

1. Throughout the program the class met regularly, on time, and

for the entire period. 4.43

2. The teacher responded appropriately to students' questions. 4.36

3. The teacher clearly explained the purpose and what you were
to do for each class activity. 4.36

4. The teacher presented material to the class in a clear and

helpful way. 4.43

5. Class discussions and activities helped you improve you

English language ability. 4.07

6. The teacher appeared to enjoy teaching the English language. 4.14

7. You were glad you had this teacher. 4.29

8. By the end of the program you improved your English language

ability. 4.14

9. The teacher showed respect for students' opinions, feelings,

and cultural backgrounds. 4.71

10.You were glad that the teacher communicated frequently in

your native language/Spanish. 4.21

11. You wished the teacher had spoken more English during
classes. 3.86

12.You are more confident about speaking English to other

employees. 3.79

13.You are more confident about speaking English to supervisors. 3.86

14. You are more confident about speaking to mechanics. 4.29

15. Your listening skills have improved. 4.14

 84

The lowest responses are for questions eleven, twelve and thirteen.
Question eleven is of a different type than questions twelve and thirteen; it
is consistent with question relatively high rating for question ten. While 1
tried to speak more English during the final course program than I did
during the pilot program, the students were pleased with the course being
presented mainly in their native language. However, the disadvantage to
this is that the students' response to question fifteen about the
improvement of their listening skills is slightly low.
Questions twelve and thirteen are interesting when compared to
fourteen. From these results, it appears that the students feel more
confident speaking to mechanics than to other employees and
supervisors. This same feehng is expressed in the written comments as
well. These comments were directly mainly toward wanting to improve
communication with supervisors. While this is the case, when the results
from each section of the speaking test are compared, the performance is
not higher for the section on speaking to mechanics. In fact, the average
score for all three sections-speaking to other employees, speaking to
supervisors, and speaking to mechanics-is the same. The average score
for each section was approximately three out of five possible points.
An interest survey was distributed and collected along with the
student course evaluation as a means of collected needs analysis data for
any future English programs. However, the data collected from this survey
is beneficiEil for evaluating this program. This survey asked students to
rank topics according to their perceived need for more practice in the
topic area and assign numbers according to their importance. They were
asked to assign three points to the most important, two points to the
second most important, and one point to the third most important. The
 85

survey was divided into two parts. The first part asked the students to
rank the topics covered during the program. The second part asked the
students to rank some topics not covered during the program that may
be covered during future programs. Table 10 shows the results from
these rankings. All 14 students completed this ranking Some students
marked more than three choices.

Table 10. Interest Survey Results

Part One Combined Ranking Score
1 names of positions 6
2 names of places in the plant 3
3 names of machines
5
4 postal regulations information 14
5 health problems and injuries 8
6 safety rules of the plant 17
7 machine parts 9
8 mechanical problems •11

Part Two

9 quality control issues 9

10 conversations of personal nature 7
11 grammatical correctness 9
12 intelligibility of pronunciation 13
13 fill-out work related forms
3
14 read work related forms
6
 86

The results for part one of this survey suggest that the students
feel they learned more about names of positions, names of places in the
plant, and names of machines than they learned about postal regulations
and safety rules of the plant. These last two topics would be ones to
cover in any future English programs for this company. It is interesting
that mechanical problems ranked relatively high when one considers these
students responses to the course evaluation in which they indicated they
felt more confident speaking to mechanics.
The highest result for part two of this survey suggests that the
students are very interested in learning more about pronunciation. The
lowest results are in the two categories pertaining to filling-out and reading
work related forms. These results are consistent with Eire initial needs

analysis in that speaking and listening skills are more important to these
students' work at Rees Associates than reading and writing skills.
 87

CHAPTER SEVEN
CONCLUSION

For the specific VESL context of this thesis, program development

began with a needs analysis done mainly through immersion in the
students' work place. While this method provided us with a much clearer
picture of these learners' needs than any other method would have
provided, it was combined with other methods to ensure input from all
levels of participants--both students and management.
During the needs analysis and the pilot program, work place forms,
maps, manuals and photographs were collected which could be
transformed into program materials. These were combined with basic
English language structures applicable to adult beginning English students
to form the resulting materials packet. Special attention was given to
including a variety of language description, exercises, and macro-skills
practice in the materials. The students native language was used as a
reference for much of the language description. Should these materials be
revised, they should be revised to include more listening eind speaking
activities. A tape recording accompanying each student's packet would be
helpful.
Besides developing a materials packet from our needs analysis
results, two tests were developed. One test is to assess "listening
comprehension of short speech acts in work related situations," and
second is to asses "production of effective speech acts to accomplish
work related functions." In the development of these two tests,
authenticity was lowered in favor of practicality. While the situations
prompted by test tasks are authentic, for practicality the test can be given
outside the production floor of the company. One purpose of developing
 88

these tests is that the results will be used as part of an assessment

concerning these students' employment with this company. The second
purpose is an overall evaluation of the program. The second, combined
with student course evaluation results, provides some interesting insight
into the effectiveness of the program.
The scores of the pre- and post-test group showed improvement,
and the scores of the exit test group, when revised to eliminate outliers,
are above average. However, the course evaluation results indicated that
the students did not feel they had improved a large amount in speaking
with other employees and with supervisors. While the scores on all three
sections of the speaking test--speaking with other employees, supervisors,
and mechanics--were similar, the students did feel they improved in
speaking with mechanics. The students generally did not feel that their
listening skills had improved a Icirge amount. These results support my
suggestion to include more speaking and hstening practice within the
materials packet.
Another factor which should be considered in any future program is
that the class should meet more than just once a week and for more than
just seven weeks. With more class contact time, additional speaking and
hstening practice could be achieved. This is important for two reasons.
First, the interest survey given at the end of the progremi suggested that
the students still desired to learn about some topics which were covered
during the duration of the program. These topics were postal regulations
and safety rules of the plant. Second, the same survey indicated that the
students were interested in improving their pronunciation. With more
class time, these topics could be included.
 89

While the test and course evaluation results are interesting, perhaps
the most encouraging form of feedback came through casual
conversations with students and management. Both expressed to my
husband and me that they were anxious to continue with future English
programs.

As summary, the intent of this VESL program was to educate rather

than train these students in basic English language skills needed to carry
out their duties as Rees Associate employees. The idea here being that
these students learn to construct appropriate Icinguage within the context
of the work place and not simply respond with a formulaic phrase. Special
concern was taken to use a learning centered approach. Due to the fact
that all students worked at the same company and had the same first
language, as materials developer and instructor, I explicitly capitalized on
these two factors, Although these learners did not possess advanced
levels of English language knowledge, they possessed well-developed
knowledge about work place procedures. In this cQurse they were
encouraged to learn more about their work place along with the language.
Furthermore, the language structures were taught in Spanish before being
presented in English in order to draw on the existing linguistic knowledge
of these students.
 90

APPENDIX I
PROGRAM DESIGN INSTRUMENTS
 91

Learner Interest Survey (Translated from Spanish)

Think of situations that you have encountered in the street, the store, the
restaurant, or in any other place where English is spoken. Select from the list
three situations for which you would like to learn more English. Number your
selection 1 for the most important, 2 for the second most important, and 3 for the
third most important.

greetings

emergencies

sending things by mail (post office)

asking for directions (in the city and in buildings)

expressing emotions to American friends

comparing prices and buying things in a store (like Wcil-mart)

speaking with the doctor in the hospital

making repairs to your house (how to ask for help)

buying food at the supermarket (like Hy-vee)

Vocabulary-Select three from the list of vocabulary term categories and order the
same as you did above.

names of buildings (school, bank, etc.)

people in a family (mother, cousin, etc.)

days of the week and months (Thursday, July, etc.)

methods of transportation (bus, car, etc.)

emotional states (happy, mad, etc.)

parts of the body (arm, leg, etc.)

names of parts of the house and furniture (dinning room, lamp, etc.)

names of food (lettuce, ham, etc.)

 92

Pilot Program Interview Prompts

What is your last name? .

What is your first name?

Where are you from?

(numbers) How old are you?

(Present) Where do you live?

(Present) Who do you live with?

(Past) What did you do last weekend?

(Future) What will you do next weekend?

(Past continuous) How long have you been working for Rees Associates?
 93

Pilot Program Vocabulary Identification Pre-test

Clothing Ropa

Indentifique los siguientes: Indentify the following:

1.

espanol English
2.

espanol English
3.

4. espafiol English

espanol English
5.

'PI
1

espanol English
 94

Final Program Design Pre-Program Language Assessment

Encierra en un circulo las palabras que corresponden a la categoria dada.

I

Food Clothinsr Family ' Traiisportation

meat shoe after car

i

shoe pants wife bicycle

apple movie sister boat

jcake phone brother cake

money sweater sun lamp

books chair moon windows

Nouns Verbs Nouns Verbs

chair eat room eat

walk cat floor sleep

car mouse fix chair

eat numbers make table

sleep run play speak

dog work wnll bed

 95

Sources for Program Ideas

Burenstein, Benjamin D. Sowing the Seeds: Literacy in a Clothing Factory.

A Workplace Literary Curriculum. Philadelphia: Center for Literary, Inc.,
1989.

Dean, Peggy and Teresa Figueroa Uribe. Leer y Escribir Hoy. Palatine, IL:
Unmore Publishing, 1990.

Kelly, M., P. Menges, and K Lambert. Machine Shop Fundamentals.

Waubonsee Community College, 1982.

Keresztes-Nagy, Susan. Suncast Corporation Curriculum Guide. English as a

Second Language for the Workplace. Chicago: Worker Education
Program. Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union, 1993.

LeMar, Maureen and Emily Schnee. The Global Factory. Union Worker-Family
Education Program. New York: International Ladies' Garmet Workers
Union, 1993.

Macero, Jeanette, D. Lauback Way to English: Workbook for Skills L Syracuse:

New Readers Press, 1991.

Nishio, Yvonne-Wong. ESL Literacy. Student Book and Teacher's Resource

Book. White Plains: Longman, 1991.

Podnecky, Janet et. al. LifePrints 1: ESL for Adults. Syracuse: New
Readers Press. 1993.

Prince, David and Julia Gage. English for your First Job. Washington, D.C.:
Office of Superintendent of Pubhc Instruction, 1980.

VESL for Industrial and Technical Training (VITT) Curriculum. Student

Materials and Instructor's Guide. Macomb: Curriculum Publications
Clearinghouse, Western Illinois University, 1989.
 96

APPENDIX II
PROGRAM MATERIALS
 97

This course materials packet for Rees Associates English

Language Training Program was designed by Miguel and
Janese Ceron. October, 1996
Table of Contents

People and Places at Rees Associates:

Positions 1-2
Pronouns 3
"To Be" 4
My Work Place - 5-7
Questions 8-9
Machines and Positions 9-13
Verbs (simple present and present continuous) - 14-15
"Do" and "Does" - 16
Conversations 17-18
More Positions— 19-21
Postal Information- 22-23
Notes about Health EVoblems and Injuries 24
Conversations - 25
"Not" 26
"To Have" 27
"Caiv'Can't" 28-29

Safety Rules at Rees Associates:

Safety Rules 30-31
"Do" and "Don't" 32
Saftey Rules Vocabulary 33

Machines at Rees Associates:

Notes about Machine Parts 34-35
Instruction Manual 36-39
Machine Related Forms 40-41
Conversatons 42

Putting it All Together:

Photos from the Work Place 43-49
Letters of the Alphabet and Numbers 50
 98
Pftnplft and Places
l Yourself and Other Employees

What is your name? es tu nombre?)

My name is (Mi Dombre es

Where are you from? QDe donde eres?)

I am from (Yb soy de

Some positions in my work place: positions = puestos

-operator =

"tyer

"loader =

"bagger

-catcher

(Vea la pagina ^^ para una lista de mas puestos)

What is your position?

I am a

What shift do you work? shift = tumo

I work shift.

First Shift Cist) Second Shift ('2nd) Third Shift (3rd)

 99

Find the people in the class who.

...work first shift. ...work second shift. ...work third shift.

Operators

Tyers

Loaders

Baggers

Catchers

Fork-lift
drivers

Cardboard
bailers

Jflnitors

Stockers

Other
Positions

f7

E
 100

Pronouns
Que son "pronouns"?
"Pronouns" (o pronombres) son peilabritas que
sustituyen a nombres de personas y cosas.

Siagular pronouns: I'lural pronouns:

I YO we nosoti^s, nosotras
you tivUd. you

he el they ellosj ellas, esosi

she ella
it eso NOTA: it refiere a cosas--no a personas.
thev es el plural de it.

Circle the pronouns;

1) Maria is from Mexico. She is an operator.

2) Ted and Manuel work together. They work first shift.

(together = juntos)
3) The inserter is a machine. It is a big machine.

4) The inserters are machines. They are big machines.

5) John is from the United States. He works at Rees Associates

1 inserter machine 3 inserter machines

"it" "they"
 TO BE

SER ESTAE
"To be" es un verbo importante.
"to be" es equivalante a "ser" y "estar" en espanol.

Escriba 3 frases en espanol que usan "ser" (soy, eres, es, somos, son)
o que usan "estar" (estoy, estas, esta, estamos, est^).

1.

2.

3.

En ingles hay tres formas del verbo "BE":

am IS are

am solamente se usa con L

is se usa con she, e it.
are se usa con vou. y they.

am. Yq soy. Yo estoy.

ie is. Bl ieS. , _; : El esta.
5he is. BUa es. Ella est^
t is. Eso es. Eso esta.
We are. N^osotros somos. Nosotros estamos.
^'ou £ire. lu eresAJd. es/Uds. son.Tu estas/Ud esta/Uds. estan.
rhey are. 'Ello^Bllas est^
 102

My Work Place

I work at a bxalk mailing company. The name of the company is Rees

Associates. It is a big company. My work place is divided into many areas.
There are three big buildings in the company--the Main Building, the Annex, and
the Bell Warehouse. All buildings have a production floor, a lunch room, several
offices, and a parking lot.
Many people work with me in this company. Rees employs 300 people
every day. Some people work in the Main Building, and some others work in the
Annex. Not very many people work in the Bell Warehouse. I have many friends
in my work place. We like working at Rees because there is a lot of work to do.

Names of places:

main building parts room

annex glue room

warehouse parking lot

production floor employee entrance

workshop vending machines

machine shop scale

lunch room post office

office meeting room

production office aisle

reception area

computer room

dock
 How many places can you uienLify on this map of the Main Buiding?
Label the places.

IJf*!!..'
inniiL

O
LO

aa^sr 33>2r I ^ A»ar I . x^gr I MJ»^r I II S*Sr I I 3135 I

I A»gr I n>er ^ I v>3r ^ I *»2r ^ |g/lvtf»grf]

•SEZr

c
;;
t a
t ISj ru
o i> z
Q I

O)
How many places can you identify on this map of the Annex?
Label the places.

--] [[I l:

L^LLJ l_j
c:-r I p:-

U U .. LJ
 105

Questions?
Questions?
Questions?
^Preguntas?
^Preguntas?

mo? ^G)uien?
What? <i;Que?
Where? iDonde?

Write questions that correspond to the following answers:

Escriba las preguntas que coiresponden a las siguientes preguntas:

1. Who is she? She is an operator.

2. It is an inserter machine.

3. They are in the warehouse.

4. He is Jaxmito.

5. It is an envelope (un sobre).

6. They are bins {canastas).

NOTA: Todas oraciones en ingles se necesitan sujetos.

agood worke^ ^^Ta good work^^

A. B.

<J^Cu^ de estas dos oraciones tiene sujeto?

8
 106

Answer the following questions according to the information in parenthesis:

Conteste las siguientes preguntas segun la informacion en parentesis:

1, Who are they? Cworkers) Thev are workers.

2. What is it? (a box)

3. Where are they? (in the meeting room)

4. Who is she? (Lolita)

5. Where is it? (in the limchroom)

Names of the Machines

Multi-Inserter Machine

Jumbo Inserter Machine

Small Inserter Machine

Ga-Veren

Label-Aire

Eckta-Jet
 107

Vocabulary

team bags

sort inserts

stacks bend

material fan

rubber bands pound.

bvindles bins

glue coupons

paper catch

corns trays

penmes keep up

puts boxes

labels prints

send addresses

What do you see in these pictures?

 108

Multi-Inserter Machine

L
JUi.'.] k':

Oralia, Paula, Tania and Chang Vo work together in the production floor. They
are a team. They are working in a mxilti inserter machine.

Oralia is an operator. She operates the machine, and right now she is sorting
the stacks.

Paula is a tyer. She takes the stacks of finished material and ties them with
rubber bands in small bundles. She puts the small bundles in big bags.

Tania is a loader. Her work is important. She loads the inserts in the machine
and makes sure that the material is running okay. She needs to work the
material and bend it, fan it, and pound it.

Chang Vo is a bagger. He takes the full bags of finished material and puts
them in the bins. When the bins are full, he takes them to the warehouse.

11
 109

Ga-Veren

This is the Ga-veren. The Ga-veren is a machine. It uses white glue to paste
objects to the materigd. With the Ga-veren we can paste almost anything to the
material-from paper to coins. Last week we were pasting pennies to coupons
in the Ga-veren.

Ted and Manuel run the Ga-veren together. Ted is the operator and Manuel is
the catcher. Ted needs to load the machine with material and make sure that
the machine is running okay. Manuel needs to catch the finished material and
put it in boxes or trays. The machine runs very fast, Manuel needs to move
faster than the machine to keep up with it.

12
 110

Label-Aire

My name is Suzy. I am from the United States. I am an operator. 1 work

first shift. I operate a Label-Aire. The Label-Aire is a machine that puts labels
on material. When all the material has labels, 1 put it in boxes and send it to
the warehouse.

Eckta-Jet

This is Lisa. She works iq the production floor. She operates the Eckta-Jet.
The Eckta-Jet is a machine that prints addresses on material. Lista puts the
material in boxes when it is printed and ready to go to the inserter machines.

13
 111

VERBS

Simple Present
Present Continuous

En espanol, ^cuantas formas tiene im verbo en el tiempo "presente simple"?

Tiene formas.

En ingles, hay solamente 2 formas de un verbo en tiempo "presente simple".

I work.
He works.
She works.
It works.
We work.
You work.
They work.
<iCiiles son las dos formas del tiempo "presente simple" en ingles?

El tiempo "presente continuo" es parecido en los dos idiomas.

I am working. Yo estoy trabaj^do.
He is working. ! El „esta trabajando.
She is working. EUa esta trabajando.
It is working. Eso esta trabajando.
We are working. Nosptros estMnos trabajando..
You are working. ;:: Tu;estas, trabajandoy^d: esta trabajando.
VUds. est^ trabajando.
I'hey are working. iEDos/Elias est^ trflba|anH^^
continuo en espanol?

14
 112

Indentify the verb form in Simple Present

the following sentences. Present Continuous

1. Lolita is writing a letter.

2. Marco lives on 14th Street.

3. Maria's children are going to school.

4. Sonia is having a baby.

5. Blanca speaks English and Spanish.

6. Ann and Thomas have two daughters.

Write three sentences using "simple present".

1.

2.

3.

Write three sentences using "present continuous".

1.

2.

3.

15
 113

DO and DOES

Hacer "auxiliar"
"Do" y "Does" son palablras importantes.

"Do" y "Does" tienen dos significados.

I do. Yo hago.
He does. El hace.
She does. Ella hace.
It does. Eso hace.
We do. Nosotros hacemos.
You do. ::Tu haces/Ud: hace/ Uds. hacep
Thev do. Ellos/EUas hacen.
Nota: En algunaa aituadones, "hacer" se traduzca como make y maVtta.

2) Funcionan como "auxiliar" o ajoida los verbos en preguntas

(y no se traduzca al espanol)
Como se indica en el cuadro arriba:
do se usa con I, we. vou. y thev.
does se usa con he. she, e it.
(^Trabaja Thomas hoy? = Does Thomas work today?
El veit)o en esta pregimta es "work".
iDonde trabaja tu esposo(a)? = Where does your husband (wife) work?
El veibo en esta pregunta es "work".
^Que comes para el almuerzo? = What ^ you eat for limch?
El verbo en esta pregimta es "eat".
iQue arregla ella? = What does she fix?
iCual es el verbo en esta pregunta?

Telephone conversation:
Begin each question with do or does.
Janet; "I'm going to Mexico City. your mother live there?
Amta: "Yes. She lives with my brother. you want their address?
Janet: "Yes, thanks. they speak English?
Amta: "No. your husband speak Spanish?"

ft 16
 114

Conversations between Employees

Fabiola: Hello. How are you today?

Heather: I'm fine. How are you?

Fabiola: Okay. Where do you work today?

Heather: I am doing handwork today? What are you doing today?

Fabiola: I am doing handwork, too.

17
 115

More Conversations between Employees

With another student m the class and/or with the help of your teacher, write
more conversations between employees.

18
 116

More Positions in my Work Place

fork lift driver

cardboard bailer

janitor

stocker

postal inspector

Vocabulary

fork-lift metal wires

out-going mail tie

trailers throw away

cardboard empty.

compactor break

bails jack-mule

construction worker cleans

buildings builds

storage room

19
 117

Fork-Lift Driver

This is a photo of Jorge. Jorge is the fork-lift driver. In this photo, he is at the
west dock. He is taking the out going mail to the trailers.

Janitor

'/l v.'.:, '

' Ml 'i:

' i -Jk

"-;r • - A.

This is a photo of Guadalupe. He is a janitor and a construction worker in the

company. He works a lot. He does many things. He cleans the buildings and
builds rooms and walls. In the photo, he is building a storage room in the
warehouse. Erazmo is helping him build the storage room.

20
 118

Cardboard Bailer

Pedro is a very nice person. He is always smiling. He operates the cardboard

compactor and makes big bails of cardboard. He uses metal wires to tie the
bails. In the photo, he is taking the pieces of cardboard out of the bin and
putting them inside the cardboard compactor.

The cardboard comes from all the boxes that the loaders throw away on the
production floor. The loaders put the empty boxes in bins. Then, the baggers
break them and take them to the warehouse where Pedro works. Pedro moves
the bins close to the cardboard compactor. He uses a jack-mule to move the
bins.

21
 .i\l VV"
119

Postal Inspector

FIRST CUSS MAIl

•• ,M,;.:1,1.!.!.!.,11
-i*. 'r '.T, c-i'/ssvotBtaHS® a
•.-i»i3i,i65e«SS$W'
vfAs-rv't-i- jiidioca

•,

Terry is an inspector from the post office. He does not work for Rees Associates.
He doesn't work for Western either. He works for the United States Postal
Service. His office is inside the company, but it is part of the post office. Terry
checks all of our work., and if there are any mistakes, he rejects it. And we have
to do it again. Terry knows a lot about postal regulations-like zip codes,
addressing, and carrier routes.

Are there words above that you don't know?

22
 w

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 121

Notes about Health Problems and Injuries

24
 122

Conversations between Employee and Supervisor

Employee: I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning.

Can I come to work for a half day?

Supervisor: What time is your appointment?

Employee: It is at nine o'clock.

Supervisor: Please come to work by noon.

With another student in the class and/or with the help of your teacher, write
more conversations between employee and supervisor.

25
"BE" + NOT Do and Does + NOT
Una manera de formar una oracion negativa es anadir "NOT" a a la oracion.
Examples:
1) Anita is not fin operator.
2) Thomas and Marco are not working today.
3) Anita does not work at Rees Associates.
4) Paula and Lolita are not in the luchroom.
5) Thomas and Marco do not work third shift.
6) Anita does not load the machine correctly.

^Cu^es de estas oraciones usan "BE" + Not? _ y

^Cu^es de estas oraciones usan Do o Does + Not?

En ingles se usan "Contractions" para decir cosas en una manera mas corta.
I + am = I'm Do + not = Don't
He + is = He's Does + not = Doesn't
She + is = She's
It + is = It's
We + are = We're Is + not - Isn't
You + are = Your'e Are + not = Aren't
They + are = They're
Rewrite the six sentences above using "contractions."

1. Anita iftn't an operator. O She's not an operator.

2..

3.

4.

5.

6.

26
 124

TO HAVE = TENER
Escriba 3 frases en espanol que usan el verbo "tener"
(tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, o tienen).

1.

2.

3.

En ingles hay dos formas del verbo "tener":

have has

has se usa con he, she, e it.

have se use con I, we, you y they.

Complete the sentences with have or has.

1. My son an earache.

2. My daughter is sick too. He the flu.

3. My husband says, "I think I'm getting sick. I a sore throat."

4. We sure a lot of problems this week.

Comple the sentences with don't have or doesn't have.

Carol is talking to her friend Elita.

1. "We any aspirin. Can I get some from you?"

2. "Fred feels sick, but he a fever."

3. "At least my son an earache like my daughter."

4. "I feel fine." I any problems with my health."

27
 125

CAN = PODER

I bag the material.

You
He study English
She Can/Can't
It work second shift.
We
You speak Spanish
They

es la differencia en significado entre can y can't?

Examples;

When can you fix the leak? We rnn fit it tomorrow.

Can you work nights? I can't work nights this week.

Answer the following questions with "Yes, I can." or "No, I can't."

1. Can you operate a fork- lift?

2. Can you work next Saturday?

3. Can you do hand work?

4. Can you drive a car?

5. Can you take me to the doctor today?

What more can you do? What more can't you do?
T nan leam Enfrlish. r r.an't fspeak Chinese.

28
 126

More Conversations

Between Employees:

Loader: Can you please ask for some more material?

Stocker: Yes, I can.

Loader: Thank you.

Between Employees:

Operator: C^ you please fill the water jug?

Loader: Yes, I can.

Operator: Thank you.

Between Supervisor and Employee:

Supervisor: you paint this wall?

Janitor: Yes. What color?

Between Supervisor and Employee:

Supervisor: Can you work overtime?

Employee: Yes, I can.

Between Operator and Mechanic:

Operator: C^ you please fix this machine?

Mechanic: Yes. What is wrong?

Operator: It is jamming.

29
 127

Safety Rules at Rees Associates

What do you see in this pictues?

© o

® ©

(Vocabxilaiy list on page 33.)

30
 128

If a safety rule is broken,

a supervisor says the following:

A Clean and dry the floor.

B. Stack full boxes.

C. Throw away trash. (Put trash in the trash cap.,)

D. Clear the walkway (Clear the aisles.)

E. No food or drink on the production floor.

F. Report bumed-out light bulbs.

Report buTQed-out fluorescent lamps.

G. Put tools in there place.

H. Always have materials available.

Always = Siempre Never = Nunca

Always tie long

hair back.

Never wear
31
loose jeweleiy.
 129

Do and Don't

Which is correct? Circle the correct sentence.

1. Do block the aisles. Don't block the aisles.

2. Do run in the production floor. Don't run in the production floor.

4. Do wear a name tag. Don't wear a name tag.

SAO-

5. Do tie long hair back. Don't tie long hair back.

6. Do wear loose jewelry. Don't wear loose jewelry.

7. Do walk on pallets. Don't walk on pallets.

8. Do know where the fire extinguisher is.

Don't know where the fire extinguisher is.

9. Do know how to turn off the machine.

Don't know how to turn off the machine.

32
 130

Safety Rules Vocabulary

available = disponible
block = bloquear
cleeir - desalojar
drink = bebida
fire extinguisher extinguidor de incendios
floor piso
floiorescent lamps = lamparas floresentes
full Ileno
jewelry = joyas (coUares, pulseras, etc.)
light btdbs = focos
loose = suelto
name tags = gafete de nombre
report = reportar
stack = estaquear
tools = herramientas
trash = basura
trash can = bote de basura
turn-off = apagar
tnm-on = prender
walkway = camino
wear = vestir, Uevar

Notes about Safety

33
 131

Notes about Machine Parts

34
 132

Notes about Machine Parts

35
 133

b. If ONE OF THE HOPPERS IS EMPTY , re-load the hopper

with care.

Do the following:
1) PICK UP AND FAN (D the required materials.
2) Be sure the materials are properly positioned.
a) The envelope should have the flap up and toward the
back of the hopper.
b) The inserts should have folds in the proper position.
3) Neatly stacl< the INSERTS © in the proper INSERT
HOPPER ® if the hopper is empty.

4) Neatly stack the ENVELOPES © in the ENVELOPE

hopper © if the hopper is empty.

36
 134

c. If the RESET LIGHT (a) is on and:

1) An INSERT STATION LIGHT (D is on, one of the following
things nnay have occurred;
a) Double inserts were pulled. (Check separator screw
.and insert station adjustments.)
b) No insert was pulled. (Check to see if the hopper is
low, or whether the insert station is adjusted, or
whether the sucker cup is operating.)
2) The TURNOVER LIGHT © is on, one of the following
things may have occurred:
a) There is a jam at the TURNOVER ©.
b) There is a jam on the TAKEAWAY RACEWAY ©.
c) There is a jam at the POSTAGE METER ©, causing a
jam on the takeaway raceway.

37
 135

d. If only the reset light is on:

1) The ENVELOPE STACKER ® (if used) is not stacking
properly.
2) The INSERTION JAM DETECTOR ® has been tripped
because the inserts are not being put into envelopes
properly.
3) The envelope detector has been tripped because the
ENVELOPE HOPPER © did not feed or the FL^P
OPENER KNIFE © did not open the envelope.

e. Clear the jam and make adjustments.

f. Press the RESET PUSHBUTTON ©.
g. Restart the machine. If the machine will not run, call your
supervisor.

38
 136

h. If the address piece hopper is empty and there are no addi

tional address pieces to load, the JOB IS COMPLETED ®.
NOTE:
If the address piece is an INSERT ®. the INSERT HOPPER © furthest from
the INSERTION AREA ® is the address piece homer. If the address piece
is an ENVELOPE ©, the ENVELOPE HOPPER © is the address piece
hopper.
SHUT DOWN THE MACHINE © by doing the following:
1) Turn off the POWER SWITCH ®.
2) Ennpty the remaining hoppers of all extra materials.
3) Put away the extra materials.
4) Report to your supervisor for further instructions.

ZVl'*/. UtiColM ^
Ullc<^0.XX.. ie»oc
 137

•ion or iM'-j ciJi.TV i?r:i>ORT

ope 'CO i: iXu I. o Shii'; I

Job No. Machine No. Production Standard

/ / MACHINii Problem Area Brief Description Down time

/ / MATERIAL Item Problem Down time

Code

/ / SORTATION Postal Tier Problem Downtime

/ / CR RT

/ / 5-Digit

/ / Residue

/ / OTHER Description Downtime

SUPERVISOR: If above accurately describes problem, check YES /~7 If n.

give reason

MECHANIC COMMENTS, i f needed

40
 138

^QiN-r check:

,Ql en in
OPEH.
SHxrr MACH- NO. DATE
PROGRAM
JOB NO.
TIMK OP FIfcST
TIME OF SECOND
POINT CHKCK
POINT CHECK
CHECKED BY
CHECKED BY;

POCKET i;*IOPS STOPS FIXED POCKET

NUMBER KOK MISS
STOPS STOPS FIXED
FOR OQIIHl.H's: BY: NUMBER FOR MISS J^OR_DOUBLES BY;

V
V
&
S

-> 1 O
-10
I 1
1 1
1 ^
1 2.
'I 3
1 3
14
14
1

1
1 S
T_7
IV
1 Q
IS
1 ^
13
O
2:0
1
^ 1

23
_a^
34
•ZS
-Z S
2 e
z e
2.-7
2-7
2.&

PLEASE RETURN TO
AT THE END OF EACH SHIFT! THANKS

41
 139

Conversations between Workers and Mechanics

With another student in the class ancj/or with the help of your teacher, write a
conversation between a worker and a mechanic.

42
8^
on
141

44
Qf
zn
143

46
Lf
48
6f
 147

Letters of
Alphabet Numbers
A 1 one first 1st

B 2 two second 2nd

C 3 three third 3rd
D 4 four fourth 4th
E 5 five fifth 5th
F 6 six sixth 6th
G 7 seven seventh 7th
H 8 eight eighth 8th
I 9 nine ninth 9th
J 10 ten tenth 10th
K 11 eleven
L 12 twelve
M 13 thirteen
N 14 fourteen
O 15 fifteen
P 16 sixteen
Q 17 seventeen
R 18 eighteen
S 19 nineteen
T 20 twenty 90 ninety
U 30 thirty 100 one hundred
V 40 foiirty 1,000 one thousand
w 50 fifty
X 60 sixty
Y 70 seventy
Z 80 eighty
50
 148

Health Lesson for Final Program Design

Match the left column in English

with the correct right column in Spanish.

1. I cut my finger. A. Mi hijo/a esta

I need a bandage. enfermo/a.

2. I have a headache. B. Me duele la espalda.

I need some aspirin. No puedo levantar
cajas.

3. My back hurts. C. Tengo una cita con el

I can not lift boxes. doctor manana.

I have a doctor's D. Me corte el dedo.

appointment tomorrow. Necesito ima curita.

My son/daughter E. Me duele la cabeza.

is sick today. Necesito unas aspirinas.

6. My knee hurts. F. Me duele la rodilla.

I can not walk. No puedo caminar.

Frases utiles:
• My hiirt(s). Me duele

• My ache(s). Me duele

Laspalabras hurt y ache quiere decir do/er(como verbo)

y cuando el sujecto es singular se anade "s" al final.
Plural Singular
My knees hurt. My back hurts.
My arms ache. My shoulder aches.

I have a earacheAeadacheA)ackache/toothache. =

Me duele el oido/la cabeza/la espalda/el diente.

 j IP i
English Program Certificate
awiirdedto
K^S?
O^ Congratulations on the successful! completion of 11
Recs Associates English Lansuace
Language Training Program
Proerai
mm
mm
it'
presented hv
Rees Associates Management and Janese and Miguel Ceron
December 23,1996
Company President Human Resource Manager
English Instructor English Instructor
f r s:
 150

Pedagogical Activities

Page Unit/Activitv

People and Places at Rees Associates

2 Students will use the expressions on page 1 to identify the names,
positions, and shifts of the students in the class.
6-7 Students will use question construction (taught on pages 8 and 9) to
identify locations on work place maps.
11-13 Students will read the passages and understand their content.
11-13 Students will identify subjects and verbs in the passage.
18 Students wiU write and role play conversations using the language
learned thus far in the program. (Questions, simple present, present
continuous, do/does and vocabulary.
20-22 Students will read the passages and understand their content.
20-22 Students will identify verb tense (simple present and present
continuous) in the passage.
24 Students will take notes about language relating to health problems
and injuries from overhead transparency.
25 Students will write and role play conversations using the language
relating to health problems and injuries.
29 Students will memorize and role play these short conversations.

Safety Rules at Rees Associates

30 Students will work in small groups to describe the picture based on
existing knowledge.

Machines at Rees Associates

34-35 Students will take notes about language relating to machine parts as
presented on the production floor by a mechanic.
36-41 Students will work in small groups and use their machine parts notes
to identify vocabulary in the authentic texts.
42 Students will write and role play conversations using language
relating to machine parts.

Putting it all Together

43-49 Students will write passages describing the photographs or
conversations relating to the photographs based on all language
covered in the program.
 151

APPENDIX III
MATERIALS EVALUATION
 152

Materials Evaluation

The first question in each set (designated A) is the subjective question;

the second question (designated B) is the objective one.

Category 1: Audience
IA. Who are the learners?

1. Age: wide range of ages from early 20s to middle 40s (Specific
ages were not asked.)
2. Sex: 10 male and 10 female

3. Nationalities: 20 from Mexican and one from El Salvador

4. Immigrant Status: unknown (Immigration status was not asked.)

5. Native language: Spanish
6. Level and type of general education: SLx had primary school
education, nine had junior high school level education, five had
completed high school, and one had some college education.
Only three had studied English at another location--with a
community action group who provides free adult ESL classes-
after their arrival to the United States.

7. Additional Experience: Amount of time in the United States

ranged from three months to 12 years with an average of two and
a half years. The following table shows the distribution of time in
the United States.

IB. Who are the materials intended for?

The materials were designed for these particular students.
 153

Category 2: Alms
2A. What are the aims of your course?
The aims of this course are to provide program participants with basic
English language competencies needed to properly carry out their duties
as Rees Associates employees which include interacting with English
speaking peers in the work place and dealing with everyday problems
which arise in the work place.
2B. What are the aims of the materials?

The aims of the matericils are to supply students with the basic building
blocks of the English language from which they can interpret and build
meeiningful utterances in the context of their work place.

Category 3: Content

3A. What types of language description do you require? Should it be

structural, notional, functional, discourse-based, some other kind, a
combination of one or more of these?

A combination of language descriptions should be used. Due to the fact

the students' educational backgrounds are not strong-very few have
studied English prior to participating in this program, the majority do not
possess highly developed learning/study skills. Presenting the same
linguistic description in a variety of ways will increase student
understanding.
3B. What types of linguistic descriptions is/are used in the materials?
Most linguistic descriptions are presented in Spanish before being
presented in English in order that the students start thinking about the
structure as it exists in their own language. Differences and similarities
between the two language are identified by the students which provides
 154

for a confidence building warm-up exercise. While both functional and

notional descriptions are provided within the packet, structural linguistic
descriptions can be provided with supplemental activities. Another factor
related to the presentation of linguistic descriptions is that formulaic
expression are provided in the materials for students to practice.
4A. What language points should be covered?
Those considered relevant for adult ESL students of this level.

4B. What language points do the materials cover?

The materials include the same basic English language structures as many
other adult ESL books for both general and for specific purposes.
5A. What proportion of work on each macro-skill is desired? Should
there be skills integrated work?
The two most desired macro-skills are listening and speaking. Skills
integrated work is also desirable for the same reason listed in answer 3A;
presenting the same information in various manners will be of help to
these students.

5B. What is the proportion of work on each skill? Is there skills-integrated

work?

The material packet itself focuses on reading and writing; however, the
exercises included can be converted to listening and speaking exercises
for in-class activities. Supplemental activities are needed to achieve the
desired level of skills integration.
6A. What micro-skills do you need?
Students need to practice metalingusltic skills which help them move from
isolated words and phrases to producing and interpreting their own
language. Using their native language as a resource for this practice would
be an appropriate starting place.
 155

6B. What micro-skills are covered in the material?

As described in answer 3B, most linguistic descriptions are presented in

Spanish before being presented in English in order that the students start
thinking about the structure as it exists in their own language. An
additional note is found in the sequencing explanation in answer IIB.
7A. What text-types should be included?
While authentic texts would be most appropriate, most authentic text are
too advanced for these students. Authentic materials should be revised

for the students' Enghsh proficiency level.

7B. What kinds of texts are there in the material?

Most texts included in the materials are non-authentic texts which are

written at the students' ability level-pages 11-13 of the course packet for
e.xample. Others, however, are non-revised authentic material texts-pages
36-39-and are difficult for some of these students.

8A. What subject matter area(s) is/are required? What level or knowledge
should be assumed? What types of topics are needed? What treatment
should the topics be given?
See topics/tasks syllabus in Chapter Three. Furthermore, it should be
assumed that all students are very familiar with their work as Rees
Associates employees. Topics should be treated with some amount of
humor in order to make a division between actual work which goes on daily
and work related English learning which is separate from the routine. In
other words, the materials should aid in creating a friendly learning
environment.
 156

8B. What is/are the subject-matter area(s), assumed level of knowledge,

and types of topics in the materials? What treatment are the topics given?
The subject matters are the same as Indicated in the topics/tasks
syllabus. All employees who participated in the program are current Rees
Associated employees and are familiar with their work at the company.
Also, some humor is added to the materials packet through illustrations.
9A. How should the content be organized throughout the course?
The content should be organized by work related topics and tasks.
9B. How is the content organized throughout the materials?
It is organized by topic and topic related tasks. The first three topics are
combined in order to provide more contextual support for the linguistic
descriptions: linguistic descriptions are clustered within the first unit. The
last two topics provide a context for review of the linguistic features.
lOA. How should the content be organized within the course units?
Extensive and.varying practice-in all macro-skills-should be provided
after each new piece of linguistic information. Each unit should contain
warm-up and closing activities.
lOB. How is the content organized?
The first unit is larger than the others three because it contains the
majority of linguistic descriptions. Also, the first unit includes some
speaking activities. This factor may cause the material and course to
seem unbalanced. While plenty of reading and writing practice is provided
throughout the materials packet, equal amounts of each macro-skill is not
provided for all language aspects presented. However, many exercises
within the packet can be converted into speaking activities for further
practice.
 L57

IIA. How should the content be sequenced throughout the course?

The content should be sequenced from guided to free. Basic English
language structures given explicitly at first and then given implicitly with
less-guided practice later.
IIB. How should the content be sequenced throughout the book?
The first unit of the materials packet contains a sufficient amount of
guided practice. The second unit attempts to depart from over supplying
information. For example, almost all vocabulary in the first unit is
provided for the student before he or she attempts to do any reading or
writing; vocabulary in the second unit is provided on the last page of the
unit. Students are encouraged to read and write while using the vocabulary
only as a reference.
12A. How should the content be sequenced within a unit?
Units should be well structured in order to aid these students who do not

possess highly developed learning/study skills.

12B. How is the content sequenced within a unit?
While there are three clear units in the materials packet, the content within
the units is structured differently from unit to unit. The first unit perhaps
should have be divided further into two or three separate units in order to
provide more structured organization.

Category 4: Methodology
13A. What theory/ies of language learning should the course be based
on? Should it be behaviorist, cognitive, affective, some other kind, a
combination of one or more of these?

A cognitive approach which draws on the language knowledge the

learners bring to the class should be used. Also, implicit language
 158

instruction should be preceded by ample amount of explicit language

instruction. An inductive approach might be frustrating for these adult
learners; a deductive approach might speed up the learning process.
13B. What theory/ies of language learning are the materials based on?
The same theories underlie these materials. Some students in the class

were still asking for repetition of set phrases at the end of the course
which may indicate that some type of behaviorist approach may have been
helpful for them.
14A. What aspects of the learners' attitudes to exceptions about learning
English should the course take into account?
While this question was not directly asked of the students, the fact that
they continually attempted to memorize phrases without breaking them
into the basic components demonstrated that they my hold a behaviorist
attitude toward language learning.
14B. What attitudes to/expectations about learning English are the
materials based on?

While their possible attitude is addressed by the fact that the materials
include set phrases for them to memorize, the main feature of these
materials is that they address the basic components of these phrases.
15A. What kinds of exercises/tasks are needed?
A variety of exercises/tasks are needed. The expected responses for the
exercises/tasks should range from discrete point to open-ended All
macro-skills should be practiced and used.
15B. What kinds of exercises/tasks are included in the materials?
A variety of reading and writing exercises/tasks are included ranging from
discrete point to open-ended. Speaking and listening exercises which
emphasize use are not explicitly included in the materials packet.
 159

16A. What teaching-learning techniques are to be used?

A variety of techniques are needed, including individual and pair work.
16B. What teaching-learning techniques can be used with the materials?
Most exercises included in the materials packet are intended to be done
individually, but they can be converted into pair work.
17A. What aids are available for use?

An overhead projector and tape player are available.

17B. What aids do the materials require?
The same as above are required.
18A. What guidance/support for teaching the course will be needed?
The use of this materials packet requires several supplemental activities
and instructions for converting the exercises into speaking activities
and/or pair work. While much of the vocabulary needed is included in the
materials packet, knowledge of other work procedures, such as postal
regulations, is needed.
18B. What guidance do the materials provide?
No guidance on such aspects of using this materials packet are currently
included. More guidance would need to be provided to any future user of
these materials.

19A. How flexible do the materials need to be?

As the program classes only meet once a week, the materials should be
set-up with flexible stopping and starting points so that as much material
can be covered each class meeting.
19B. In what ways are the materials flexible?
The first unit is large enough that it is very flexible; however, the second
and third units should be completed each within its own class meeting.
 160

Category 5: Other criteria

20A. What price range is necessary?
The price range was quoted to be between S2.00 and S3.00 per student
packet which includes copies, cover, and binding.
20B. What is the price?
The actual price was $2.30 per packet.
21 A. When and in what quantities should the materials be available?
Each student should receive his or her own materials packet.
2IB. When and how readily can the materials be obtained?
The management supplied funds to make as many student materials
packets as necessary.
 161

APPENDIX IV
USTENINGTEST
 162

Listening Test-Tapescript included

Duration approx. 7 minutes
16 items in two categories
8 speech acts by workers
8 speech acts by supervisor

Instructions (given orally in Spanish): This is a test of your ability to

understand short sentences and questions spoken in English which are typical of
what you hear during your work at Rees Associates. There are sixteen phrases
on the listening tape. Each phrase is preceeded by a short explanation in
Spanish, After the explanation, you will hear a sentence or question spoken in
English. It will be repeated tv/ice. There will be a pause after each sentence or
question During this pause, select the correct reponse on your answer sheet.
Let's look at an example.
First you will hear a short explanation-
You hear a Mexican employee speaking v/ith a supervisor. The employee says to
the supervisor. "Please speak slower."
"Please speak slower."
You read on your answer sheet the following-
The employee is saying:
a) I don't speak English.
b) Please speak slower.
c) I speak Spanish.
d) Please speak with the operator.

NOTEj Students v/ill be given 8 minutes to read the answer sheet before the
tape is played.
 163

Listening Test Instructions:

Esta prueba es para medir tu habilldad para entender oraciones y

preguntas cortas en ingles. Estas oraciones representan situaciones
que escuchas regularmente en tu trabajo. Durante la cinta vas a
escuchar 16 frases. Cada frase es previamente explicada en
espanol.
Despues de haber escuchado las situaciones en espanol,
escucharas una frase o pregunta en ingles. Esta frase sera repetida
2 veces. Habra una pausa entre cada frase. Durante la pausa
tendras que elegir la respuesta correcta en tu hoja de respuestas.
A1 decidir cual es la respuesta, todo lo que tienes que hacer es
encerrar en un circulo el inciso que escojas.

Por ejemplo:
Escuchas que un empleado hispano esta hablando con el supervisor.
El empleado le dice al supervisor.

"Please speak slower."

En tu hoja de respuestas tienes;

Ei empleado esta diciendo:

a) Yo no hablo ingles.
b) Por favor, habla mas despacio.
c) Hablo espanol.
d) Por favor habla con el operador.
 164

1. Te cortaste el dedo con un sobre. Cuando el supervisor se da cuenta, te dice:

"Do you want a band aid?"
2. Un supervisor te dice:
"Can you work Saturday?"
3. Eres el operador de una maquina, y otro empleado te dice:
"Turn on the yellow light."
4. Estas trabajando como el operador de una maquina. Tu cargador esta atrasado y
la maquina queda sin papeles. Le dices:
"You need to keep up with the machine."
5. Esta trabajando y oyes al supervisor decir:
"Don't run In the production floor."
6. Hablas por telefono para decirle al supervisor que vas a lleqar tarde. El supervisor
te pregunta:
"What time will you be here?"
7. Eres el cargador de una maquina, y el material esta defectuoso. La maquina esta
teniendo problemas con el. El operador te dice:
"You need to work the material."
8. Estas trabajando in el piso de produccion. Otro empleado te dice;
"Please go get more glue."
9. Le dijiste al supervisor que tienes una cita con el doctor manana. El supervisor te
dice:
"What time is your appointment?"
10. Estas trabajando in el piso de produccion y le escuchas decirle a! estaqueador:
"We need more material."
11. Estas trabajando en una maquina con otras dos personas, y lo estas haciendo
muy bien. Otro trabajador del equipo te dice:
"You are doing a good job."
12. Estas trabajando como bolsero en la planta. El supervisor te dice:
"Don't block the aisles."
13. Eres el operador de una maquina y otro empleado te dice:
"Turn off the red light."
14. Estas trabajando y le escuchas decir uno de tus compaiieros a un tercero.
"You need to work harder."
15. El supervisor te dice:
"Can you work second shift?"
16. Durante tu trabajo, le escuhcas decir al supervisor:
"Don't walk on the pallets."
 165

Para cada uno de los siguientes escoge la repuesta correcta segun lo que
oyes en la cinta:

1. El supervisor quiere saber... A. como te cortaste el dedo.

B. si quieres una curita.
C. con que te cortaste el dedo.
D. si quieres de.jar de trabajar.
2. El supervisor quiere saber... A. que piensas hacer el sabado.
B. quien va a trabajar el sabado.
C. si puedes trabajar el sabado.
D. si sabes que trabajas el sabado.
3. El otro empleado quiere... A. que prendas la luz amarilla.
B. saber si te divertiste anoche.
C. saber si trabajaste anoche.
D. que apagues la luz roja.
4. El operador esta dlciendo que
A. el cargador necesita venir temprano manana.
B. le gusta la camisa del cargador.
C. el cargador tiene que mantenerse al ritmo de la maquina
D. necesita ir al bano.
5. El supervisor esta dlciendo que...
A. trabajas en el piso de produccion.
B. no corren en el piso de produccion.
C. corren hacia la salida.
D. trabajan mucho durante la noche

6. El supervisor quiere saber... A. por que vas a llegar tarde.

B. a que hora vas a llegar al trabajo.
C. si vas a llegar tarde manana
D. si llegaste tarde ayer.
/. La operadora esta dlciendo que..
A. necesitas mas material.
B. tienes que trabajar mas rapido.
C. tienes que trabajar el material.
D. necesitas cargar mas material
8. El otro empleado quiere...
A. que vayas a buscar mas pegamento
B. saber donde hay mas pegamento
C. Una camisa azul
D. saber si hay mas material azul.
 166

9. El supervisor esta preguntando...

A. a que hora vienes al trabajo
B. a que hora es tu cita
C. si necesitas que alguien te viene a buscar
D. si necesitas hacer una
10. La empleada dice al estaqueador que...
A. necesitamos mas
B. tenemos que trabajar mas rapido.
C. tenemos que trabajar el material.
D. Necesita cargar mas material.
11. El trabajador te dice que.. A. es bueno que tengas empleo.
B. lo estas haciendo muy bien.
C. es bueno que vengas a trabajar
D. tienes que trabajar mejor.
12. El supervisor quiere que...
A. el bolsero no bloquee los pasillos.
B. los pasillos no esten bloqueados
C. el bolsero trapee el piso
D. el bolsero no trapee el piso.
13. El empleado quiere que...
A. apagues la luz roja
B. te descanses esta noche
C. lleves una camisa roja
D. prendas la luz roja.
14. Tu companero dice al tercero que...
A. necesita trabajar manana.
B. manana hay un partido de futbol
C. tiene que trabajar en otra maquina
D. tiene que trabajar mas duro.
15. El supervisor quiere saber...
A. en que turno trabajas.
B. en que turno trabaja tu pariente.
C. si puedes trabajar el segundo turno.
D. si trabajas el segundo
16. El supervisor esta diciendo...
A. que no caminen en las paletas
B. que no caminen tan despacio
C. que caminar es buen ejercicio
D. que va a comer una paleta.
 167

APPENDIX V
SPEAKING TEST
 168
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PART ONE: (given orally in Spanish)
For the first part of this test, I am going to briefly explain five situations in which you, as
a Rees Associates employee, are going to have to day something to an American
employee or an American supervisor. I, as the instructor, will say a situation, and you,
as the student, will have to say a sentence/phrase that corresponds to the given
situation. For example. I say "The supervisor is talking to you and you don't
understand very well. You think that if he would speak slower that you would t>e able
to understand. How would you ask him to speak slower?" And you respond, "Speak
slower, please"

TWO FROM THESE FOUR:

You are working with other employees on the production floor and you want to
congratulate an American employee because he is working well.
What would you say to the other employee?

You are working with other employees on the production floor and you want to tell an
American employee to work harder.
What would you say to the other employee?

You are working as an operator on the production floor and you want to the American
loader that he needs to work the material.
What would you say to the other employee?

You are working as an operator on the production floor and you want to the American
loader that he needs to keep up with the machine.
What would you say to the other employee?
 169

ONE FROM THESE FOUR:

You are working on a team in the production floor and you want to ask an American
employee to turn off the yellow light.
What would you say to the employee?
You are working on a team in the production fioor and you want to ask an American
employee to turn on the red light.
What would you say to the employee?

You are working on a team in the production floor and you want to ask an American
employee to turn on the yellow light.
What would you say to the employee?

You are working on a team in the production floor and you want to ask an American
employee to turn off the red light.
What would yoL' say to the employee?

ONE FROM THESE FOUR:

You are working ori a team In the production floor and you want to ask an American
employee to go get more glue.
What would you say to the employee?

You are working on a team in the production floor and you want to ask an American
employee to go get more material.
What would you say to the employee?

You are working on a team in the production fioor and you want to ask an American
employee to go get more water.
What would you say to the employee?

You are working on a team In the production fioor and you want to ask an American
employee to go get more addressing.
What would you say to the employee?
 170

ONE FROM THESE FIVE:

You cut your finger with an envelope and you want to request that the supervisor bring
you a bandage.
What would you say to the supervisor?

You have a headache and need to ask the supervisor for some aspirin.
What would you say to the supervisor?

You hurt your back. You want to tell the supervisor that you hurt you back so you are
unable to lift boxes.
What would you say to the supervisor?

You have a doctor appointment. You need to call the supervisor and tell him that you
are going to be late. When the supervisor answers the telephone, What would you
say?

You have to take a relative to the doctor tomorrow, so you need to leave work early.
How would you explain this to the supervisor?

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PART TWO: (given orally in Spanish)

All employees know that there are safety rules in the plant. When you see an
American employee break one of the safety rules, it is better that you advise him so
that he doesn't get into problems with the management of the company. In the second
part of this test, I am going to tell you what an American employee is doing. And you
have to tell me what you would say in these cases.
There are two.

TWO FROM THESE FIVE:

1. He is walking on a pallet.
2. He is running in the production floor.
3. He is blocking the aisles.
4. His (long) hair is down (loose).
5. He Is wearing loose jewelry and clothing.
 171
INSTRUCTIONS FOR PART THREE:
It is inevitable that employees of Rees have to ask the mechanics to repair the
machines. I am going to tell you what is wrong with a machine. And you have to tell
me what you would say to the mechanic in these cases.
There are three.

THREE FROM THESE FIVE:

1. The machine is taking two papers instead of one.

2. The machine isn't even taking one paper.

3. The machine is jamming.

4. The water is leaking.

5. You need a little blue suction cup.

 172

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PART ONE:

Para la primera parte de esta prueba, voy a explicar brevemente cinco
situaciones en las que t6, como empleado de Rees Associates, vas a tener
que decir algo a un empelado gimericano o a un supervisor americano en
ingles Yo, como instructor, dire una situaction, y tu, como estudiante,
tendras que decir una frase que corresponde a la situacion dada. Por
ejemplo, yo digo "El supervisor te esta diciendo algo y no entiendes muy
bien lo que esta diciendo. Piensas que si hablara mas despacio podrias
entender. <iComo le pedirias que habk mas despacio?" Y tu repondes
"Speak slower please."

TWO FROM THESE FOUR;

Estas trabajando con otros empelados en el piso de produccion y quieres

felicitar a un empleado americano porque esta trabaj£indo bien.
iQue le dirias al otro empJeado?

Estas trabajando con otros empelados en el piso de produccion y quieres

decir a un empleado americano que tiene que trabajar mas duro.
iQue le dirias al otro empleado?

Estas trabajando como operador en el piso de produccion y quieres decirle

a \in ceirgador americano que tiene que trabajar el material.
(iQue le dinas al cargador?

Estas trabajando como operador en el piso de produccion y quieres decirle

a un cargador americano que tiene que mantenerse al ritmo de la
m^uina.
iQue le dirias al cargador?
 173

ONE FROM THESE FOUR:

Estas trabajando en equipo en el piso de produccion y quieres pedirle a un

empleado americano que apague la luz amarilla.
6Que le dinas al otro empelado?

Estas trabajando en equipo en el piso de produccion y quieres pedirle a un

empleado americano que prenda la luz roja.
^Que le dirias al otro empelado?

Estas trabajando en equipo en el piso de produccion y quieres pedirle a un

empleado americano que apague la luz roja.
<iQue le dirfas al otro empelado?

Estas trabajando en equipo en el piso de produccion y quieres pedirle a un

empleado americano que prenda la luz amarilla.
^Que le dirJas al otro empelado?

ONE FROM THESE FOUR:

Est^ trabajando en equipo en el piso de produccion y quieres pedir a un

empleado americano que vaya a buscar mas pegamento.
^Que le dirfas al otro empelado?

Estas trabajando en equipo en el piso de produccion y quieres pedir a un

empleado americano que vaya a buscar m^s material.
iQue le dirfas al otro empelado?

Estas trabajando en equipo en el piso de produccion y quieres pedir a un

empleado americano que busque mas agrua.
iQue le dirias al otro empelado?

Estas trabajando en equipo en el piso de produccion y quieres pedir a un

empleado americano que vaya a buscar mas direcciones.
<iQue le dirias al otro empelado?
 174

ONE FROM THESE FIVE:

Te cortaste el dedo con un sobre y lo quieres reportar al supervisor. Y quieres

pedir que el supervisor te traiga un curita.
iQue le dirlas al supervisor?

Te duele la cabeza y se lo tienes que decir al supervisor para poder pedir una
aspirina.
iQue le diriSs al supervisor?

Te lastimaste la espalda, Quieres decir al supervisor que no puedes levantar

cajas porque te duele la espalda.
^Que le dirlas al supervisor?

Tienes una cita con el doctor. Necesitas llamar por telefono para decirle al
supervisor que vas a llegar tarde. Cuando el supervisor contestck el telefono,
^Que le dinas?

Tienes que llevar a un pariente tuyo al doctor manana. Y por eso tienes que
salir temprano del trabajo. iComo explicarfas esto al supervisor?

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PART TWO:

Todos los empleados saben que hay reglas de seguridad en la planta.
Cuando ves a un empleado americano romper con una de las reglas es
mejor que le avises para que no se meta en problemas con la gerencia de
la planta. En la segunda parte de esta prueba Te voy a decir lo que esta
haciendo un empleado americano. Y tu tienes que decir lo que dirfas en
estos casos.

Hay dos.

1. Esta caminando sobre una tarima (paleta).

2. Esta corriendo en el piso de produccion.
3. Esta bloqueando los pasillos
4. Esta suelto su cabello.
5. Lleva ropa o joyas colgando
 175

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PART THREE:

Es inevitable que los empleados de Rees tengan que pedir a los mec^cos
que reparen las mlquinas. Te voy a decir lo que una maquina tiene mal.
Y tu tienes que decir lo que dirias al mec Anico en estos casos.
Hay tres.

1. La maquina esta agarrando dos papeles en vea de uno.

2. La maquina no esta agarrando ni un papel.

3. La maquina esta atascad^atorada.

4. El agua se est^ tirando.

5. Necesitas una gomita azul (las chiquitas).

 176
Test of Speech Acts in the Work Place
Rating Scale

Rating #4: Effective communication in the given context

Satisfactory structure of response with regard to function
Correct, appropriate vocabulary for the given context
Pronunciation easily intelligible

Rating #3: Generally effective communication in the given context

Satisfactory structure of response with regard to function
Correct, appropriate vocabulary for the given context
Pronunciation intelligible

Rating #2: Somewhat effective communication in the given context

Structure of response not apparent
Some attempt at correct vocabulary for the given context
Pronimciation not easily intelligible

Rating #1: No effective communication in the given context

No structure of response with regard to function
No knowledge of correct vocabulary for the given context
No response for pronunciation rating
 177

Student Date

Part One: Team Player

Rating #4 Rating #3 Rating#2 Rating #1

Category 1.

Category 1.

Category 2.

Category 3.

Category 4.

Category 1: Imperatives (context: working on a team)

Category 2: "turn off' and "turn on"
Category 3: Requests (context: getting more supplies)
Category' 4: Speaking to a Supervisor (context health related issues)

Part Two; Safety Rules

Rating #4 Rating #3 Rating#2 Rating #1

1.

2,

Part Three: Talking to Mechanics

Rating #4 Rating #3 Rating#2 Rating #1

1.

2.

"3.

Total Score: /40

 178

APPENDIX VI
TEST USEFULNESS EVALUATION
 L79

Questions for Logical Evaluation of Test Usefulness

as Outlined by Bachman and Palmer (1996)
ReUability
") To what extent do the characteristics of the 1) test setting, 2) test
rubric, 3) test input, 4) expected response, and 5) relationship between
input and response vary in unmotivated ways from one part of the test to
another, from one task to another, or on different forms of the test?
Qualities satisfied for all five characteristics groups.
Explanation-For test setting there are no notable variations. For the other
four characteristics all variations are motivated by function of the speech
act and context in which the speech act occurs. In order to create
different forms of the speaking test, items are selected from various
situations within a category grouping. All items in the same part/category
of the test are of equal difficulty level expect for category four of part
one (speaking to the supervisor about health/injury related situations).
Some situations in this category are naturally more difficult than others.
After examining the TLU domain no more than two at an easy level, one at
a medium level, and two at a difficult level could be established. To

ensure different forms of the test, I wanted to include more than two
situations at a particular level for each category and part; however, such
situations could not be established for part four of part one.

Construct validity
6) Is the language ability construct clearly and unambiguously defined?
Yes.
 180

Explanation--One exception is that the construct definitions include "work

related situations" and "work related functions" without stated specifically
that these are work related situations and functions at Rees Associates--a

bulk mailing company. I feel that this is an understood implication of the

test project itself. Furthermore, the construct definition was used to

develop the scoring rubric.

7) Is the language ability construct for the test relevant to the purpose of
the test? Quality completely satisfied.
Explanation-The speech acts included on the two tests are for work
related situations and to accomplish work related functions and the
purpose of the test is to assess how the test takers perform such tasks
in order to make employment decisions.
8) To what extent do the test tasks reflect the construct definition?

Quality satisfied.
Explanation -All test tasks are devised from speech acts in work related
contexts.

9) To what extent do the scoring procedures reflect the construct

definition? Quality completely satisfied.
Explanation-Scoring for the listening test is based on if the speech act
was understood or not understood. Scoring for the speaking test is
based on the effectiveness of the speech act (with consideration for the
low proficiency level of the test takers).
10) Will the scores obtained from the test help us to make the desired
interpretations about test takers' language ability? Quality satisfied.
Explanation—While it is not possible to predict and test every English
language situation which a Rees Associate employee encounters during a
 L8l

work day, our needs analysis was detailed and included the majority of
these situations.

11) What characteristics of the test setting are likely to cause different
test takers to perform differently? Very few.
Explanation-The listening test is administered to test takers as a group.
As the speaking test is administered individually, time of day will vary
slightly for each test taker. Furthermore, the order in which the test takers
proceed will cause slight variations. For example, the test taker who go
first and last may be a little more nervous than the others. While the
speaking test items are random to ensure different forms of the test, it
may be possible that the first test takers provide the last test takers with
some hints about the content of the test.

12) What characteristics of the test rubric are likely to cause different
test takers to perform differently? Very few.
Explanation-Most questions require the topical knowledge of appropriate
responsibihties of team members and basic knowledge of how an inserter
machine functions, some test takers who hold positions outside the team
player setting may perform differently. Only two possible test takers of
the 22 who filled out student data sheets fall into this category.
--) What characteristics of the 13) test input, 14) ex^Dected response, and
15) relationship between input and expected response are likely to cause
different test takers to perform differently? None.
Explanation-While test takers literacy level in their native language of
Spanish is a concern here, as well as for the characteristics of the test
rubric, I do not anticipate any program participant who is illiterate in
Spanish obtaining an English abihty level at which it is plausible to
administer the test to him/her. While it is true that many possible test
 182

takers have only a primary education level, 1 have seen little evidence of
complete illiteracy.
Authenticity
16) To what extent does the description of tasks in the TLU domain
include information about the setting, input, expected response, and
relationship between input and response? Complete.
Explanation-Description of the TLU domain is presented on pages eight
and nine of this project report.
17) To what extent do the characteristics of the test tasks correspond to
those of the TLU tasks? Relatively high correspondence.
Explanation-Input from stake holders in the test and language program
(management, students, and program designers) was the main source for
creation of actual test tasks. This input was very representative of the
actual TLU domain as initially defined.

Interactiveness

18) To what extent do the tasks presuppose the appropriate area or level
of topical knowledge, and to what extent can we expect test takers to
have this area or level of topical knowledge? V^ery high extent.
Explanation-See explanations for question 12 and question 13 through 15
on pages 23 and 24 of this report.
19) To what extent are the personal characteristics of the test takers
included in the design statement? Included in sufficient detail.
Explanation-A variety of personal characteristics were collected from
possible test takers. (Personal characteristics are explained on pages 10
and 11 of this report.)
 183

20) To what extent are the characteristics of the test tasks suitable for

test takers with the specified personal characteristics? Relatively highly

suitable.

Explanation-See explanations for question 12 and question 13 through 15

on pages 23 and 24 of this report.
21) Does the processing required in the test tasks involve a very narrow
or a wide range or areas of language knowledge? Narrow.
Explanation-Understanding and producing short speech acts requires a
narrow range of language skills when compared to extended interactive
discourse especially when register is considered.
22) What language functions, other than the simple demonstration of
language ability, are involved in processing the input and formulating a
response? None.
Explanation-When the term "speech acts" is used to include commands,
requests, questions and statements, all possible language functions are
included in the construct definition of the language ability.
23) To what extent are the test tasks interdependent? Not
interdependent.
Explanation-All test items are set in independent contexts/situations.
24) How much strategy involvement is provided? High in the area of
topical knowledge. Low in other strategies.
Explanation-Comprehending short speech acts requires little ability to
listen in a focused manner for identifying key words only. As there is no
interactive discourse on the speaking test, discourse level strategies are
not involved. One strategy which is involved in the speaking test is ability
to use circumlocution when a specific vocabulary word is not known.
 184

25) Is the test task likely to evoke an affective response that would make
it relatively easy or difficult for the test takers to perform their best?
Relatively easy.
Explanation--Because the test tasks require a high use of topical
knowledge, a positive affective response is highly probable. However, any
test taking situation creates a varying affective response from each
student according to their past experience with and opinions of language
tests.

Impact

26) To what extent might the experience of taking the test or the
feedback received affect characteristics of test takers that pertain to
language use?
Varies from considerably to very httle.
Lxplanation-Good test results might motivate participants to continue
learning Enghsh either in the real-life setting of the company or in
community sponsored classes outside the company. Frustration created
from poor test results may limit or halt completely such a motivation.
However, the first is probably a more likely situation.
27) What provisions are there for involving test takers directly, or for
collecting and utilizing feedback from test takers in the design and
development of the test? Considerable.
Explanation-See step two on page five and step five on pages six and
seven in part two (Defining and Describing of Tasks in the TLU Domain) of
this report.
28) How relevant, complete and meaningful is the feedback provided to
test takers? Not highly.
 185

Explanation-Test takers will be provided with one score for each test
which will be encouraging or discouraging scores. The two scores
compared may indicate to the test takers in what area (listening or
speaking) they are stronger or weaker. There may be a possibility to go
over the listening test results; however, this will not be highly meaningful
feedback for the test takers because it does not show them what specific
cireas they need to work on.
29) Are decision procedures and criteria applied uniformly to all groups of
test takers? Yes.

Explanation--The same procedures and criteria are used for all test takers.
30) How relevant and appropriate are the test scores to the decisions to
be made? Highly relevant and appropriate.
Explanation-All test tasks are developed from work related situations and
the construct defined as speech acts is appropriate for both language
ability level of the test takers and language ability level needed to perform
necessary job tasks at Rees Associates.
31) Are the test takers fully informed about the procedures and criteria
that will be used in making decisions? Somewhat.
Explanation-Test takers from the trial administration of the tests were
fully informed about the testing procedures and scoring criteria. However,
they have not been fully informed regarding the employment decisions
which are related to the test results. This will take place closer to the
actual exam date when an official set of test takers has been established.

32) Are the procedures and criteria actually followed in making the
decisions? Yes for testing procedures and criteria for scoring. Unknown
for decisions regarding the test purpose of employment decisions.
 186

Explanation-As I am only involved in the testing and not in employment

decisions, at this point I am not fully informed to answer this question
accurately.
33) How consistent are the areas of language ability to be measured with
those that are included in teaching materials? Very highly consistent.
Explanation-Test and teaching materials were designed simultaneously.
34) How consistent are the characteristics of the test and test tasks with

the characteristics of teaching and learning activities? Highly consistent.

Explanation-All teaching and learning activities are based on the specific
English needed to work at a bulk mailing company such as Rees
Associates. While reading and writing activities are also included in the
learning activities, the purpose these Is to reinforce the speaking and
listening activities.
35) How consistent is the purpose of the test with the values and goals of
teachers and of the instruction program? Highly consistent.
Explanation-A global value and goal of the company is the promotion of a
"team player" attitude. Due to the fact the main qualities of a "good team
player" are strongly related to communication, the purpose of this test is
consistent with this value and goal. Furthermore, a global goal of the
instruction program is to promote future English learning. Test
characteristics such as affective response of test takers are consistent
with this goal.
36) Are the interpretations we make of the test scores consistent with the
values and goals of society and the education system? Yes.
Explanation-see explanation for the previous question.
 187

37) To what extent do the values and goals of the test developer coincide
or conflict with those of society and the education system? .Almost
complete agreement.
Explanation-The only disagreement which can be seen is that I, as the test
developer and language program designer, feel it Is very important to
include the health/injury unit on the test and in the language program
because the test takers/program participants indicated they view this unit
as important, and they are central stake holders in both. The management
felt that the health/Injury unit should not be Included on the test. It was
included on the test with the compromise that safety rules would also be
included.

38) What are the potential consequences, both positive and negative, for
society and the education system, of using the test in this particular way?
None can be predicted at this point.
39) What Is the most desirable positive consequence, or the best thing
that could happen, as a result of using the test in this particular way, and
how likely Is this to happen?
Test takers demonstrate team player related communication skills via
these tests and also possess the necessary work related qualities and,
therefore, are hired or promoted. The possibility of this happening is
dependent on overall company needs and position openings. Because
most language program participants are enthusiastic, they are also those
which possess the necessary work related qualities.
40) What is the least desirable, negative consequence, or the worst thing
that could happen, as a result of using the test in this particular way, and
how likely is this to happen?
 188

Because Rees Associates management will be not be using the test for
firing or demoting, no negative consequences can be defined at this point.

Practicality
41) What type and relative amounts of resources are required for a) the
design stage, b) the operationalizatlon stage, and c) the administration
stage? 42) What resources will be available for carrying out a), b) and c)
above?

At the design stage and operationalization stage, the main concerns

were the resources of time availability for myself as test designer and
cooperation on the part of Rees Associates management. A crucial
element for carrying out these two stages was the time and effort of my
husband--the former supervisor at the company mentioned in this thesis
and an assistant instructor in the English Language Training Program, as
well. Additionally, he played an essential role in opening up avenues for
communication and cooperation on the part of Rees Associates
management.

While few actual materials are needed for the listening test
administration (listening tape and tape player are already available and
photocopies of the multiple choice sheet are easily attainable), an
important resource for the speaking test is time. If many program
participants actually take the test, many hours will be need to administer
the individual tests. Additional persons to administer the speaking test
may be needed.
One additional note related to the above is that test authenticity
was sacrificed slightly for practicality reasons. The most authentic test
would have been to have employees on the production floor carrying out
 189

various work related tasks. For example, one employee could train
another employee. However, not only would this have been time
consuming, it would have also been difficult to score.
 190

APPENDIX VII
PROGRAM EVALUATION FORMS
 191
Student Program Evaluation (Translated from Spanish)
INSTRUCTIONS
This questionnaire gives you the opportunity to evaluate the Rees Associates
English Language Training Program. All feedback will be reported
anonymously to the program coordinators/instructors. This questionnaire will
provide information for improving the program. Therefore, you should try your
best to answer the questions thoughtfully and to write informative comments.
For each of the below, indicate which rating best fits your judgment according to
the following scale. 1= Strongly Disagree
2= Disagree
3= Agree Slighitly
4= Agree
5= Strongly Agree

1. Throughout the program the class 1 2 3 4 5

met regularly, on time, and for the
entire period.
2. The teacher responded appropriately 1 2 3 4 5
to students' questions.
3. The teacher clearly explained the 1 2 3 4 5
purpose and what you were to do for
each class activity.
4. The teacher presented material to the 1 2 3"" 4 5
class in a clear and helpful way.
5. Class discussions and activities 1 2 3 4 5
helped you improve you English
lanquaqe ability-
6. The teacher appeared to enjoy 1 2 3 4 5
teachinq the English languaqe.
7. You were glad you had this teacher. 1 2 ' 3 4 5 ^
8. By the end of the program you 1 2 3 4 5
improved your English language
ability.
9. The teacher showed respect for 2 3 4 ' 5 "•
students' opinions, feelings, and
cultural backgrounds.
10. You were glad that the teacher 1 2 3 4 5
communicated frequently in your
native language/Spanish.
11. You wished the teacher had spoken 1 2 3 4 5
more English during classes.
12. You are more confident about 1 2 ' 3 4 ^ 5
speaking English to other employees.
13. You are more confident about 1 2 3 4 5
speaking English to supervisors.

More =>
 192

14. You are more confident about 1 2 ' 3 4 5

speaking to mechanics.
4 5
f

15. Your listening skills have improved. 1 2

Please use the back of this sheet to comment on any of the above
ratings and to respond in writing to the foilowing questions. These
questions are especialty important, so please be as clear and
complete as possible.

1. Please comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the language

program.

2. Please describe specific instances In which communication between you

and an English speaking employee has improved.

3. Describe specific Instances in which communication between you and an

English speaking supervisor has improved.

4. Describe specific instances in which communication between you and an

English speaking mechanic.

5. What is your principal motivation for learning English?

6. Are you interested in continuing your English studies at Reej Associates at a

more advanced level?
 193
Needs Assessment for further English language training
Interest Survey (Translated from Spanish)
The Rees Associates English Language Training Program currently includes
the following communication based topics as components of the introductory/
beginning level instruction:
COMMENTS:

names of positions

names of places in the plant

names of machines

some postal regulations information

health problems and injuries

safety rules of the plant

machine parts

mechanical problems

Think about the language needs of Rees Associates employees. From the list
above please select and rank the top three topics in which you would like to see
further communication improvements. Rank them as 3 = most important to you,
2 = second most important to you, and 1 = third most important to you. Place
your rankings in the boxes provided. Feel free to make comments about the
topic area to the right of the boxes.
Please do the same with the list below. COMMENTS:

• quality control issues

• conversations of personal nature

• grammatical correctness

• intelligibility of pronunciation

fill-out work related forms Which forms?

read work related forms Which forms?

Over Please ==:

 194

Please respond in writing to the following questions. These questions are

especially important, so please be as clear and complete as possible.
1. What specific situations in your workplace cause communication difficulties?
Please give some examples.

2. What kinds of specific changes would you like to see (in terms of language
skills and communication issues) as a result of further English language
training?

3. Are there any other topics and/or language skills areas you would like to see
included in further English language training?

4. Are there any questions you would like to ask us about the components of
the introductory/ beginning language program? About further language
instruction?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

YOUR INPUT IS CRITICAL TO SUCCESS.

Janese Cer6n
English/Spanish Instructor
 195
Manager/Supervisor Evaluation of Rees Associates
Engiish Language Training Program

This questionnaire gives you the opportunity to evaluate the Rees Associates
English Language Training Program. All feedback will be reported
anonymously to the program coordinators/instructors. This questionnaire will
provide information for improving the program. Therefore, you should try your
best to answer the questions thoughtfully and to write informative comments.
For each of the below, indicate which rating best fits your judgment according to
the following scale. 1= Strongly Disagree
2= Disagree
3= Agree Slightly
4= Agree
5= Strongly Agree

You are aware an English language

training program has been taking place. 1 2 3 4 5
You know some employees which havs
been participating in the program. 1 2 3 4 5
You have noticed improvements in
these employees' ability to understand
spoken English in work related 1 2 3 4 5
situations.
You have noticed improvements in
these employees' ability to speak
English in work related situations. 1 2 3 4 5
Overall, you feel that this program
achieved the objective of increasing
work place participation by non-native
speakers of English. 1 2 3 4 5
This English language training
program has helped ease
communication difficulties between
you and your non-native speaking
employees. 1 2 3 4 5

Please use the back of this sheet to comnfient on any of the above
ratings and to respond in writing to the following two questions.
These questions are especially important, so please be as clear
and complete as possible.

1. Please comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the language

program.
2. Please describe specific instances in which communication between you
and a non-native speaking employee has improved.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.
YOUR INPUT iS CRITICAL TO SUCCESS.
 196

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