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This book explores the reasons why adult ESL learners drop out of their language classes and suggests explicit strategies for keeping students engaged. The most effective strategies may be personal rather than technical or curricular. Based on a study of a group of Mexican immigrants to the US, the author proposes that superación or ‘self-actualization’ is crucial to understanding the relative success of adult ESL learners. Learners’ decisions to drop out were not hasty or superficial but were based on a commonsense assessment concerning how the class might improve the quality of their lives. Those involved in delivering ESL to adult learners should stress the tangible, practical advantages that accrue with learning English, and at the same time strive to make instruction relevant.
Taewoong Kim is a lecturer at Washington University in St Louis, USA, having previously taught English and Korean to students of all ages. His research interests include learner identity and investment, computer-assisted language learning, and social justice through education.
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction: A Broken Car
Chapter 1. Voices Unheard from the Margins
Chapter 2. Theoretical Frameworks
Chapter 3. Adult English Literacy Learners in America and Research Context
Chapter 4. The Six Persistent Learners
Chapter 5. Who They Are: Thematic Identity of the Six Adult English Learners
Chapter 6. What Drives Investment
Chapter 7. What Makes Adult ELs Drop Out
Chapter 8. What Makes Adult ELs Stay
Chapter 9. Discussion
Chapter 10. Implications and Conclusion
References
About the Author
Index