As many of you are already aware, each state has their own standards and benchmarks for Adult ESL. Here’s a link to the page that lists the Texas Adult Education Standards and Benchmarks for ESL Learners. These standards and benchmarks guide decisions on the what and the how when it comes to teaching adult ESL for us here in Texas, and there is likely a significant overlap between the standards here in Texas and the rest of the United States.
These standards and benchmarks were kept in mind throughout the process of designing and creating the English Forward curriculum. For example, in the English Forward Instructor Training you spend some time working with lesson 8.3 “A Traffic Stop”. The objective of the lesson is “Students will be able to talk to a police officer if they get a traffic violation” and the Language/Culture Point is “Tone of voice: formal vs. informal”. If we go back to the Texas Adult Education Standards and Benchmarks for ESL Learners, we can see that both are related to Listening Benchmark 5.3, which is “Use knowledge of various basic cultural conventions to understand oral communication”. The lesson teaches students about acceptable behavior during a traffic stop, how to speak with a police officer, and the difference between formal/informal tone based on the scenario presented in the lesson. You can see that cultural conventions are the main focus of this lesson, along with content knowledge and vocabulary associated with a traffic stop.
This is just one example of a benchmark being met by the English Forward curriculum. Do you know your state’s standards and benchmarks for adult ESL? How do they align with the English Forward lessons that you’ve used?
If you have any questions or comments, leave them below!