National Coalition for Literacy

John Segota, Director of Advocacy and Professional Relations for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), shares strategies for raising awareness of adult ESL programs, including the use of social media. See the two You Tube examples below from the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in California (APALC). In the comment box, tell us what you have done or are doing to raise awareness of adult ESL programs in your community or in the Web 2.0 world. Is your class on You Tube, for example? Share those links with readers here.

Making an Impact

In his blog post earlier this week, ProLiteracy President and CEO David Harvey discussed how to develop a media strategy for policy change. Adult ESL programs can also have a great impact simply by raising their visibility and awareness within their own community.

Community Outreach

Adult ESL programs exist in every community throughout the U.S. Whether your program is offered through a community college, a faith-based program, or an adult education program, it is part of a larger community. Yet in many cases, adult ESL programs are not well known outside of the immediate community of learners they are serving. Building awareness of your adult ESL program not only raises the visibility of your program and your students within the community, but also raises awareness of the issues your students face as immigrants and learners.

Consider the types of activities and events that take place within your community. Is there a role for your adult ESL program to play? For example, can your program have some kind of presence at a local event, such as a booth at a church or community fair?

Alternatively, what role can the community play in your program? Celebrations are common events in adult ESL programs, such as international nights, graduations, and citizenship parties. Why not invite members of the broader community to participate? For example, invite other community college students to learn about their fellow students at international night, or invite leaders and members of your faith community to celebrate the achievements of your students who have become U.S. citizens.

Media Outreach

While many programs would welcome the opportunity to connect with the media, getting the attention of reporters can often seem too difficult a task. Rather than aiming for the largest newspaper or media outlet, the best tactic to start out can be to aim small. While it is often difficult to get the attention of the big media outlets, there are often many small, community-based media outlets that can be quite easy to reach.

Find out who these community-based outlets are, and the best way to reach them. These can either be local newspapers, radio stations, or public access cable TV. Local media outlets are often looking for local- and human-interest stories, and adult ESL can provide a wealth of compelling information.

Consider ways to reach out to reporters and other media. If you are having an event of some kind, invite reporters to cover it. If your community college or local community has a public access TV station, see if they’d be interested in a story about your students. Often times these outfits will offer training classes for people interested in journalism or television production. Why not offer your program as a place for students to practice their journalism or television production skills?

With new technologies, you can create your own media online to raise awareness through various online communities. It’s easier now more than ever to create videos or podcasts to upload online that feature your program and students.

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center in California (APALC) offers some great examples on YouTube. By partnering with a small, local video production company, APALC created a series of short videos to raise awareness of adult ESL in southern California. The first video, “Finding Their Way with English,” was created by the students in the Torrance Adult School. The second video, “Class Room 206,” features the Evans Adult School in Los Angeles, the largest adult ESL program in California.

Finding Their Way with English

Students in the Torrance Adult School program created this video to show what their English classes mean to them:

Class Room 206: Making Time for English

In one representative class room in Evans Adult School, California’s largest adult school English language program, students and teachers discuss how new immigrants make time to learn English: