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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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 Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:03 am Post subject: News Article about ESL in Ontario |
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http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/238277
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Second language, second class
Jul 23, 2007 04:30 AM
Carol Goar
Every year, more than 100,000 adults in Ontario register for English-as-a-second-language courses.
The lucky 22,500 get first-class treatment. Their program, known as LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada), is financed by the federal government and delivered by school boards, community colleges and immigrant organizations. It is free. Child care is available.
The remaining 80,000 aren't as fortunate. Their program, known as non-credit ESL (English as a second language), is funded by the province. In most cases, modest fees are charged. There is no child care. Nor does the Ontario government pay school boards enough to cover the cost of heat, hydro and janitorial services. As a result, some of these classes have been cancelled and more are in danger.
The only difference between the two streams of students is their residency status.
Ottawa's language instruction is restricted to landed immigrants and convention refugees.
All other newcomers (and Canadians who, for one reason or another, haven't learned to speak English) are channelled into the province's ESL program. This group includes refugee claimants, foreign students, individuals here on visitors' visas and immigrants who postpone their language training when they arrive because they have to get a job or care for their children. Once they become citizens, it's too late.
Ontario's English-as-a-second-language teachers don't think this is fair.
They've launched a postcard campaign to persuade Premier Dalton McGuinty to plug the funding holes in his government's program. So far, they've collected 5,000 names.
But drumming up support is a struggle. Most Ontarians don't know much about ESL instruction. Even those who are familiar with the issue tend to focus on school-aged children, not adults.
"We're such a small part of the overall picture that we don't get much attention," said Graham Hollings, a Toronto ESL teacher who is spearheading the campaign.
To complicate matters, McGuinty shifted responsibility for adult language instruction from the Ministry of Education to the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration two years ago, weakening the links between school boards and ESL.
Hollings has found Immigration Minister Mike Colle inaccessible and uninterested in the problem. "All he ever talks about is job placement."
Colle's approach is a sharp contrast to that of Education Minister Kathleen Wynne. She consistently championed adult learners at the cabinet table.
Meanwhile, at the school board level, Kitchener-Waterloo has already voted to chop its adult ESL courses. Trustees in other regions are considering the possibility.
The Toronto District School Board, which serves 32,000 adult ESL students, lost $1.6 million on its program last year. It received $15 million from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration but spent $16.6 million providing the courses. The main reason for the shortfall was the $1.4 million cost of keeping classrooms open, heated, lit and clean.
The board's bean-counters are now reviewing all of its expenditures, looking for ways to trim a projected deficit of $25.4 million. Hollings fears that Toronto will follow Kitchener-Waterloo's lead.
What he and his ESL colleagues would like McGuinty to do is provide school boards with "accommodation grants" to cover the physical costs of providing adult ESL courses. The price would not be prohibitive � roughly $4 million.
It would also be helpful if Ottawa loosened the eligibility criteria for its LINC program, allowing more newcomers to take federally financed English classes.
School boards could play a role too. They could act as advocates for their adult ESL students, most of whom aren't in a position to speak for themselves.
These are the parents who will determine whether the next generation of immigrants falters or thrives; the workers who will determine whether Ontario's economy stalls or prospers; the citizens who will determine whether Canada remains a tolerant multicultural nation.
Skimping on basic language instruction for newcomers might seem like a painless way to save money now.
In a few years, it will look like a damaging and entirely avoidable mistake.
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This is part of why it's so hard to make a living as an ESL teacher in Ontario. The non-credit ESL is the level that the community college and university TESL certificates are specifically designed to train people to teach in. There are a tonne of these courses, and as the article says, funding gets shifted and cut. |
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canadashirleyblue
Joined: 06 May 2007
Posts: 162
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| Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 2:41 pm Post subject: |
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Already read it in the doctor's office on Monday where I was waiting to get my prescriptions to take out of the country with me.  This is the biggest problem for me - inadequate medical facilities in the country where I am working. This year I have been resident long enough to qualify for OHIP. Not sure about next year.
They are talking about making cuts to police, fire, ambulance etc. This is probably related to the failure of the city of Toronto to pass legislation to increase taxes on home sales and the upcoming provincial election. Still, I think it is unlikely that services for immigrants would be much of a priority with any government. It wouldn't surprise me if there were further cuts to ESL in Ontario.
I think it is shameful that they keep turning out teachers for jobs that don't exist. Why don't they save money by cutting the teacher training programs?
No one who says they will increase taxes will be elected. So any extension of ESL services just isn't going to happen. |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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| canadashirleyblue wrote: |
I think it is shameful that they keep turning out teachers for jobs that don't exist. Why don't they save money by cutting the teacher training programs?
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Because they make money for the college or university. |
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canadashirleyblue
Joined: 06 May 2007
Posts: 162
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:28 am Post subject: |
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Right. I forgot.
Surely they could make more money turning out doctors? I was watching the news yesterday and they were showing people lining up outside a doctor's office in Gander. The new doctor was coming in two weeks and the office was booking in his patients. They stopped his list at noon when he had 800. The rest had to go home without a gp. |
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VanKen
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Posts: 139
Location: Calgary, AB Canada
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:58 am Post subject: ESL in Onatario |
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| canadashirleyblue wrote: |
| Surely they could make more money turning out doctors? |
Surely they could, but many people want to take a short-term "How to teach ESL" program rather than the longer-term (and more expensive) medical school. It's a matter of supply and demand. If people demand TESL programs, somebody will offer them, in spite of the reality. |
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canadashirleyblue
Joined: 06 May 2007
Posts: 162
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:40 pm Post subject: |
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| So why do people keep taking them? |
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spiral78
Joined: 05 Apr 2004
Posts: 11534
Location: On a Short Leash
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| Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:59 pm Post subject: |
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Lotsa people take them thinking they'll teach outside of Canada, right?  |
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GambateBingBangBOOM
Joined: 04 Nov 2003
Posts: 2021
Location: Japan
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| Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2007 12:51 am Post subject: Re: ESL in Onatario |
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| VanKen wrote: |
| canadashirleyblue wrote: |
| Surely they could make more money turning out doctors? |
Surely they could, but many people want to take a short-term "How to teach ESL" program rather than the longer-term (and more expensive) medical school. It's a matter of supply and demand. If people demand TESL programs, somebody will offer them, in spite of the reality. |
But as far as TESL is concerned, these programmes are really, really long- they are a year (they cover the same things as some MAs in TESOL in the US). The same as doing a B.ed. The same as doing corporate communications, or publishing or marketing etc programmes at a community college after finishing an undergraduate degree. In Ontario you can get "TESOL Certified" in a weekend at the Y whenever the ridiculously expensive private companies show up (and they tell people that they teach all that the universities teach - totally untrue, btw). Or you can be in university for a full time year again.
A huge chunk of it is that the people who go to medical school have degrees in biology/pre-med stuff. The people who get certificates in TESL from universities usually have degrees in English, Linguistics, Psychology, Geography, Music/Art/Theatre or the history of it, Women's Studies, Journalism etc. (I think for the most part it is only the people who have taken at least first year Intro to Linguistics who really know what they will be studying in these programmes).
The programmes are designed for people to teach English in Canada, with a pretty strong emphasis on it being a qualifying year to do the MA in Applied Linguistics from the same university. Many people do end up overseas, but a lot of them end up overseas because of the job opportunities available in Canada. If you want to be teach, then TESL certificates from universities are good in that they are significant experience for approaching a B.Ed program (most people who apply to do a B.ed in Ontario get denied, and thanks to new retirement laws the number of jobs available has shrunk, and of course, we still ear-mark 50% of the positions specifically for practicing Catholics) and they are requirements for doing an MA in Applied Linguistics. And an advantage is that they can easily be used outside of Canada to get a job (one in which people use very little of what they learned and did during their practicum course in Canada), because a significant number of the people who take other year-long certificates in Ontario through the community colleges, end up not really using them for their career (which often ends up being in a golf shirt with a name tag at some big-box store). |
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