First, this is ESOL (taken from the DIUS website)
“ESOL is an acronym that stands for English for Speakers of Other Languages. Other acronyms are widely used in English language teaching, including English as an Additional Language (EAL), English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Language Teaching (ELT). In post-16 education the universally accepted term is ESOL, whereas EAL is always used to describe this work in schools.”

Now the why….

Having spent the last five or so years working with ESOL learners, not directly as a tutor, but supporting and encouraging technology usage, I have been keen to explore how we can make good use of all this online stuff. The current tools available to both tutors and learners are of varied use and as per usual, spread all over the web. So the idea is in the first instance, is to gather a selection of tools, blogging, video, audio recording and make these available to learners in an easy to access manner. Then, show them how to make the most of these tools to support their learning. This is what it’s all about? yes, but…..
There is an increased awareness about access to technology and how we encourage those with limited IT literacy. There are many reasons why people can’t or won’t access the technology. In this case, we are faced with language and cultural barriers. The idea is to increase the confidence of the learners, to encourage them to dabble with the tools and to not be afraid. Again, staple aims of our project, but now we’re looking Family Learning as a possible route into achieving sustainability. By involving “the kids” who of course have no fear of technology, we can maybe encourage the learners to try the technology away from the classroom. Combine this with routine classroom access to technology, supporting their learning, we can begin to embed this approach to learning as standard, not gimmicky or off putting.
We are planning some sessions in the very near future to trial this approach. If we can (a): develop an interactive, usable system of web tools for learners / tutors / managers etc, and then (b) increase learners access to this system – we can assess if the technology can really make a difference. If we get some positive results (and i’m quite confident we can), we are looking further down the line to creating an online resource that will be available to anyone wanting to improve their English, for free.