Incorporating Digital Health Literacy into Adult ESL Education on the US-Mexico Border

The increasing digitization of information and communication has undoubtedly impacted the ways in which people in the United States access and interpret health information. Although the traditional emphasis of health literacy research has been the comprehension of health-related texts such as patient information forms, prescriptions, and medicine labels, the increased use of electronic means to locate health information requires more critical engagement with texts beyond basic comprehension. In accessing electronic health information, patients need to be able to navigate the vast amount of online health information and to interpret and synthesize health information across multiple sources (i.e. websites) while also evaluating the credibility of these sources. Recent health literacy research has examined the increased role of the media literacy in influencing health behaviors (Bergsma & Carney, 2008) and the role of increased access to computers (Salovey et al., 2009), but little (if any) research to date has provided recommendations for best practices related to meeting the health literacy demands required by digitization. This article attempts to fill this gap by exploring the use of the internet as a key source of health information and by looking at best practices in teaching digital health literacy. It describes the development of a digital literacy component within a community-based health literacy/ESL curriculum funded by the National Institutes of Health and implemented on the US-Mexico border

An Interdisciplinary Theory-Based ESL Curriculum to Teach English as a Second Language

Among Hispanic immigrants in the United States (US), learning English is considered necessary for economic and social achievement. Asa consequence, there is a high demand for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Despite the recognized benefits of ESL programs,both at the individual and social levels, more research is needed to identify education strategies that effectively promote all aspects of learningEnglish as a second language. This article describes an ESL curriculum that incorporates a theory-based pedagogical approach specificallydesigned for immigrant Hispanic adults on the US-Mexico border region. The article also describes the implementation of the curriculum aswell as the results of the evaluation, which was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative results indicate thatthe participants significantly improved their English proficiency (L2). Qualitative results suggest that participants were positively impactedby both the content and pedagogical approaches used by the curriculum. Their experience with the ESL class was positive in general. It canbe concluded that the curriculum achieved its objective. This approach could serve as a model for second language teaching for adult

Un currículo interdisciplinario de base teórica para enseñar inglés como segunda lengua1

Among Hispanic immigrants in the United States (US), learning English is considered necessary for economic and social achievement. As a consequence, there is a high demand for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Despite the recognized benefits of ESL programs, both at the individual and social levels, more research is needed to identify education strategies that effectively promote all aspects of learning English as a second language. This article describes an ESL curriculum that incorporates a theory-based pedagogical approach specifically designed for immigrant Hispanic adults on the US-Mexico border region. The article also describes the implementation of the curriculum as well as the results of the evaluation, which was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative results indicate that the participants significantly improved their English proficiency (L2). Qualitative results suggest that participants were positively impacted by both the content and pedagogical approaches used by the curriculum. Their experience with the ESL class was positive in general. It can be concluded that the curriculum achieved its objective. This approach could serve as a model for second language teaching for adults.Para los inmigrantes hispanos de los Estados Unidos (EEUU) aprender inglés (L2) es considerado necesario para progresar y funcionar en la sociedad, y hay una gran demanda de clases de inglés como segunda lengua o English as a Second Language (ESL). A pesar del reconocido beneficio individual y social de los programas de ESL, todavía se debe potenciar la investigación de estrategias educativas eficaces en los diferentes aspectos del aprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua. Este artículo describe una estrategia pedagógica de base teórica incorporada en un currículo de ESL para hispanos inmigrantes adultos en la frontera entre EEUU y México. Igualmente el presente artículo describe la implementación y evaluación del currículo mediante métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos. Los resultados cuantitativos indican que los participantes mejoraron significativamente su nivel de L2. Además, los resultados cualitativos sugieren que los participantes recibieron satisfactoriamente tanto el contenido como la metodología pedagógica del currículo, y en general declararon haber tenido una experiencia positiva con la clase. Este trabajo podría servir de modelo para la enseñanza de una segunda lengua para adultos

“Renaciendo esperanzas” /“Reviving hope”: Popular educator perspectives on literacy, development, and social transformation in northern Mexico

This study explores the perspectives and practices of literacy, development, and social transformation of popular educators in the northern desert region of Mexico. The focus of the study is one group of practitioners who founded a non-governmental organization (NGO) known as the Centro de Educación al Apoyo de la Producción y al Medio Ambiente-Parras (CEP-Parras) and who have been involved in grassroots adult education and social action in the North of Mexico since the early 1980s. Their community-based work is situated within a context of policy discourses about international education and development where more than half a billion adults are classified as functionally illiterate, and where widespread literacy education is portrayed as a key factor in stimulating economic, social, and political development among so-called underdeveloped societies. Based on oral histories with the CEP educators combined with data collected during nine months of intensive ethnographic fieldwork, I found that CEP educators enacted a complicated, multi-layered stance on literacy that emphasized reading and writing centered on the life practice and experience, or the literacies of life, of the people with whom they worked. They also placed emphasis on small-scale economic development practices that were situated within the everyday lives of participants and that involved a learning-by-doing approach that integrated oral reflection, writing, and concrete action. Their approach to community-based development was closely linked to their approach to social transformation, where they emphasized the search for coherence between theory and practice and where they worked to organize communities across the region, not only through commercial networks but also through the construction of desert-based identities using music, photography, and poetry. At the center of the CEP educators\u27 work was a process of participatory research or sistematización (systematization), where they methodically analyzed, wrote about, published and disseminated accounts of their activities, in collaboration with the people involved in their projects and programs. The findings of this study have implications for researchers and practitioners in literacy, adult education, and community development, both in international and U.S.-based contexts

“Renaciendo esperanzas” /“Reviving hope”: Popular educator perspectives on literacy, development, and social transformation in northern Mexico

This study explores the perspectives and practices of literacy, development, and social transformation of popular educators in the northern desert region of Mexico. The focus of the study is one group of practitioners who founded a non-governmental organization (NGO) known as the Centro de Educación al Apoyo de la Producción y al Medio Ambiente-Parras (CEP-Parras) and who have been involved in grassroots adult education and social action in the North of Mexico since the early 1980s. Their community-based work is situated within a context of policy discourses about international education and development where more than half a billion adults are classified as functionally illiterate, and where widespread literacy education is portrayed as a key factor in stimulating economic, social, and political development among so-called underdeveloped societies. Based on oral histories with the CEP educators combined with data collected during nine months of intensive ethnographic fieldwork, I found that CEP educators enacted a complicated, multi-layered stance on literacy that emphasized reading and writing centered on the life practice and experience, or the literacies of life, of the people with whom they worked. They also placed emphasis on small-scale economic development practices that were situated within the everyday lives of participants and that involved a learning-by-doing approach that integrated oral reflection, writing, and concrete action. Their approach to community-based development was closely linked to their approach to social transformation, where they emphasized the search for coherence between theory and practice and where they worked to organize communities across the region, not only through commercial networks but also through the construction of desert-based identities using music, photography, and poetry. At the center of the CEP educators\u27 work was a process of participatory research or sistematización (systematization), where they methodically analyzed, wrote about, published and disseminated accounts of their activities, in collaboration with the people involved in their projects and programs. The findings of this study have implications for researchers and practitioners in literacy, adult education, and community development, both in international and U.S.-based contexts

Asset-Based Teaching and Learning with Diverse Learners in Postsecondary Settings

The demographic composition of students in U.S. institutions of higher education is rapidly shifting. We know that 21st century learners are more digitally adept and more socially, economically, and culturally/linguistically diverse than at any moment historically. The The University of Texas at El Paso\u27s (UTEP) student body reflects these broader demographic changes taking place nationwide: more than 80% of UTEP students are Latina/o, with the majority identifying as bilingual; more than 50% of students are the first in their families to attend college; and roughly half of students are Pell-eligible (e.g., many of whom have annual family incomes of less than $20,000). For these reasons, UTEP is poised to be a pedagogical leader in approaches to maximizing 21st century student learning at the postsecondary level across disciplines, with a particular focus on linguistically diverse student populations. Traditionally, Latina/o students in the K-20 pipeline -- not unlike those at UTEP -- have had to contend with deficit notions surrounding their academic performance and achievement. This deficit thinking has placed emphasis on students\u27 deficiencies -- whether in terms of language, cognition, or motivation, among other factors -- rather than the structural conditions, such as inequitable funding for schools, that have tended to contribute to the persistent under-achievement of certain groups (Valencia, 2010). As a challenge to deficit explanations of Latina/o student academic under-achievement, the recent 10-year student success framework adopted by UTEP, known as the UTEP Edge, advocates an asset-based approach to working with students both inside and outside of the classroom. Drawing on educational research as well community development literature, these asset-based pedagogical approaches emphasize students\u27 individual and collective strengths, skills, and capacities as the starting point for learning and engagement. Such approaches do not claim to resolve the systemic conditions that contribute to persistent inequities experienced by minoritized students in the K-20 pipeline; rather, they are focused on reconfiguring teaching and learning to promote equity at the classroom level. This paper provides an outline of the conceptual underpinnings of an asset-based framework for teaching and learning (ABTL), highlights key characteristics of ABTL with culturally and linguistically diverse learners, and provides examples of ABTL in the classroom, across disciplines

An Interdisciplinary Theory-Based ESL Curriculum to Teach English as a Second Language

Para los inmigrantes hispanos de los Estados Unidos (EEUU) aprender inglés (L2) es considerado necesario para progresar y funcionaren la sociedad, y hay una gran demanda de clases de inglés como segunda lengua o English as a Second Language (ESL). A pesar delreconocido beneficio individual y social de los programas de ESL, todavía se debe potenciar la investigación de estrategias educativas eficacesen los diferentes aspectos del aprendizaje del inglés como segunda lengua. Este artículo describe una estrategia pedagógica de base teóricaincorporada en un currículo de ESL para hispanos inmigrantes adultos en la frontera entre EEUU y México. Igualmente el presente artículodescribe la implementación y evaluación del currículo mediante métodos cuantitativos y cualitativos. Los resultados cuantitativos indican quelos participantes mejoraron significativamente su nivel de L2. Además, los resultados cualitativos sugieren que los participantes recibieronsatisfactoriamente tanto el contenido como la metodología pedagógica del currículo, y en general declararon haber tenido una experienciapositiva con la clase. Este trabajo podría servir de modelo para la enseñanza de una segunda lengua para adultos.Among Hispanic immigrants in the United States (US), learning English is considered necessary for economic and social achievement. Asa consequence, there is a high demand for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Despite the recognized benefits of ESL programs,both at the individual and social levels, more research is needed to identify education strategies that effectively promote all aspects of learningEnglish as a second language. This article describes an ESL curriculum that incorporates a theory-based pedagogical approach specificallydesigned for immigrant Hispanic adults on the US-Mexico border region. The article also describes the implementation of the curriculum aswell as the results of the evaluation, which was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitative results indicate thatthe participants significantly improved their English proficiency (L2). Qualitative results suggest that participants were positively impactedby both the content and pedagogical approaches used by the curriculum. Their experience with the ESL class was positive in general. It canbe concluded that the curriculum achieved its objective. This approach could serve as a model for second language teaching for adult

Bilingualism as a Meaning-Making Resource for Learning Engineering

Part of a large-scale study on Hispanic engineering students at a university on the U.S./Mexico border, this paper focuses on participants\u27 reported use of language in learning activities in engineering. Specifically, we call attention to the meaning-making resources that engineering undergraduates brought to learning activities. Semiotic (or meaning-making) resources include oral and written language (in one or more languages) as well as visual, gestural, or auditory modalities. Whereas border Hispanic students could be (and often are) positioned from a deficit perspective, we highlight the wealth of resources that participants avail themselves to in learning engineering. Drawing on ethnographic interviews and observations over a two-year period, we examine participants\u27 reported multimodal and multilingual resources. We found that participating students 1) have a wide variety of language and literacy practices; 2) show a high awareness of language itself and how they use it and learn it; and 3) use bilingualism and biliteracy as a resource for learning in engineering