ESL Marketing – Know your student demographics

June 3, 2010

Do you know what countries your students come from? Better yet, can you articulate what percentage of your students is from which countries? Although most program coordinators or managers could tell you where the majority of their students come from, you might be surprised how many do not know basic statistical information about their own programs and students. Depending on what privacy laws apply to business and schools in your area, you may be able to ask your participants’ age, occupation, gender, marital status, number of children and so on. The more information you can collect, the clearer picture you can build of your typical student. Before you go ahead and design a questionnaire though, I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with any privacy laws that may apply in your country with regards to the collection of personal information.

Most programs keep statistical information in some form, either on registration forms or in a database. Few actually use the data for any real purpose. If you have statistical information, it really is worth the time and effort to compile it into useful reports that can help you assess who has been registering in your program over the past little while.

I suggest that you go back at least 3-5 years to compile your data. You want to know:

  • where your students are from
  • what is their first language
  • how old they are (age range and average age)
  • ratio of males to females
  • information on education or occupation

The idea is to build yourself a “big picture” of who is registering in your program.

After you have that picture, you can assess whether or not the demographics you have fit the demographics you want. For example, if you have mainly female students and you think some gender balance would benefit your program, you could tweak your marketing materials to attract more males (for example, appealing to all-male schools or men’s sports teams).

An analysis of your student population costs you little money, just an investment of your time. It’s an investment that could help your program grow in phenomenal ways.

This post is adapted from “Idea # 9: Assess your current program demographics” in 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Thoughts on literacy issues in Cameroon

June 2, 2010

Recently a colleague suggested to me that I put together an abstract for an upcoming conference in Cameroon. I’ve never been to Cameroon, so naturally I did some research. Research, of course, leads to more thinking. Here’s a thought-piece on literacy in Cameroon, just because I’m a thinker.

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Learning is changing in the 21st century at a global level. There is a rise in the importance and recognition of non-formal and informal learning. This is particularly important in the case of literacy and languages, not only in Canada, but in other countries as well. Let’s take Cameroon as one example. The Republic of Cameroon is located in central and western Africa. Bordered by Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo, it is home to almost 19 million people.

UNICEF reports that the total literacy rate for Cameroon from 2003-2008 was 68% of the population, with 77% of the males and less than 60% of the females having basic literacy skills. That’s significant.

I ask myself what countries in the west can do to improve the situation in countries like this? What are the implications for the 21st century if we do not? Literacy today includes more than just reading and writing. It includes thinking skills, technology and information literacy and the ability to communicate with others. Together these skills allow us to work together, build partnerships and continue to improve collectively, rather than having the gap between those who “have” and those who “have not” widen even further. It is time to close this gap, or at least narrow it. This is more possible today than it has ever been in any point in human history. It is a possibility in the 21st century, if we work towards it being so.

There is a movement in the west to link second language learning to leadership. How can people in the developed nations, particularly the youth, use their own skills in literacy and second languages to improve the lives of those in developing nations? There are those who would argue that we must work first to improve literacy conditions in our own country. I don’t disagree. I also know that 20-somethings get itchy feet. They want to travel, backpack and see the world. What would happen if we created a world where literacy was so important and so “cool” that youth with itchy feet from developed nations were inspired, of their own volition, to combine their travels with a deeply-rooted personal desire to help others in developing nations improve their literacy skills? Wow.

Educational leadership guru Michael Fullan states that “leaders learning from each other raises the bar for all”. The youth of today are the leaders of the 21st century. They live in a globalized, technologically progressive world unlike that of their parents and grandparents. How can we, in the 21st century, mobilize youth on a global level to transcend geographical, political and economic barriers to raise the bar for each other, using the improvement of literacy skills as a starting point?

Literacy is the key to improved education, skills, and employment. These, in turn, build the capacity to improve our situation, increase our human dignity, provide for our families and contribute to our communities. I believe that it is the responsibility of developed nations such as Canada and the United States to work together with other nations to “raise the bar” for everyone across the globe. I believe that literacy and improved language skills are foundational skills for leadership in the 21st century, a century where technology will change at rapid rate. I also believe that the youth from western developed nations must be mobilized to use their skills to help others from around the world.

Bibliography
Eaton, S. E. (2010a). Formal, non-formal and informal education: The case of literacy, essential skills and language learning in Canada. Calgary. Retrieved from http://library.nald.ca/research/item/8549

Eaton, S. E. (2010b). Leading Through Language Learning and Teaching: The Case of Gandhi. Paper presented at the Interdisciplinary Language Research: Relevance and Application Series, Language Research Centre. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=Eaton%2C+Sarah&searchtype=keyword&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=kw&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&objectId=0900019b80400b42&accno=ED508664&_nfls=false

Fullan, M. (2006). Turnaround leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Index Mundi. (n.d.). Cameroon Literacy. Retrieved June 1, 2010, from http://www.indexmundi.com/cameroon/literacy.html

UNICEF. (n.d.). Cameroon: Statistics. Retrieved May 31, 2010, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/cameroon_statistics.html

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Are you stifling your teachers’ creativity?

May 29, 2010

Educational program leaders and directors have a tough job managing programs. They need to oversee all aspects of program management including operations, human resources, curriculum, scheduling and budgets, just to mention a few things. Most program directors are overworked, underfunded and understaffed. They work like mad just to keep their head’s above water. If that sounds like you, then I have a question for you: In all this hustle and bustle what are you doing to keep your teachers motivated?

Like students, teachers have different gifts and talents. Do you give them opportunity to use those talents? Better yet, do you give them an opportunity to share their expertise with their peers?

Teachers need more than to just deliver content to students. This is especially true if that content is “canned”, that is to say, it’s very structured, rigid and inflexible. I once had a teaching job that I loathed because all the teachers had the same textbook and had to cover exactly the same content every week. We had a week-by-week outline of all the content we had to teach. Tests and assignments were developed by the two head teachers without input from others. All the assignments given in every class, by every teacher were the same. Every teacher had to give the same test on the same day.  Teachers were instructed on grading practices, so that grading would be “simpler and standardized”. Those in charge said it would increase quality.

It was true. It was all very standardized. And I’ll be honest, a monkey could have taught that class. There we were, a group of dynamic, engaged professionals, all of whom had bachelors or master’s degrees, churning out canned classes like robots. I stayed for a while and then resigned. Why? Because by being overly prescriptive about our teaching, the quality didn’t increase. It decreased.

One by one, the most engaged, dynamic and creative teachers all left. Those who stayed did so either because they liked the ease of not having to prepare much or because they were too afraid to look for work elsewhere. In any case, the result was the same. The teachers became disgruntled, disengaged and unhappy.

Now let’s consider another case. At a local college, my friend Val is an ESL teacher. While she has particular objectives in her teaching, she also had an idea about using Reading Circles in her work. She asked for the opportunity to run a reading circle with her fellow teachers at the college. Her superiors said, “Go for it!” The reading circle was a success and her project became hot talk among her peers. She moved on to do an applied research project about using reading circles for ESL and literacy. She was asked to do a presentation at the college about her work. People started talking. Val’s idea began to spread. She has gone on to present at conferences. There’s even a YouTube video about Val’s Reading Circles.

Val was given the opportunity by her superiors to use her creativity and not have it stifled. By being given the chance to explore and develop her ideas and talents, Val went about digging deeper into an area she has an interest in, develop professionally and become a leader in her own right in the area of reading circles for ESL literacy.

Giving teachers a chance to showcase and celebrate their professional expertise achieves 5 things (maybe more):

  • Offers them a chance to share their knowledge and passion with their peers.
  • Motivates them to become self-directed learners themselves as they have the chance to investigate what they’re interested in.
  • Provides recognition from others, both inside and outside your school.
  • Increases the teacher’s commitment to the profession.
  • Raises the profile of your school by highlighting the talented professionals who work with you.

What are you doing to encourage your teachers to use their creativity?

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

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Leadership through Language Learning and Teaching: The Case of Gandhi

May 11, 2010

In February I presented a paper called “Leading through Language Learning and Teaching: The Case of Gandhi” at the “Interdisciplinary Language Research: Relevance and Application Series” at the Language Research Centre at the University of Calgary.

I talked about a study I conducted of Gandhi’s autobiography, An autobiography or the story of my experiments with truth.
My purpose was to uncover and analyze Gandhi’s experiences as a second language learner. Here’s what I found:

1) Gandhi learned 11 languages throughout his life, including his native Gujarati.

2) He used his knowledge of other languages to connect with others on a deeper level, helping them fight for human and civil rights.

3) He believed that all children should learn more than one language.

He says, ““It is now my opinion that in all Indian curricula of higher education there should be a place for Hindi, Samskrit, Persian, Arabic and English, besides of course the vernacular.” (Gandhi, 1948, p. 9)

For Gandhi, language learning and leadership were intertwined. He saw language learning as a way to communicate with others in his own country, to connect with others on a deeper level, understanding their human condition from a compassionate point of view.

While not everyone who learns another language may go on to have a profound effect on the world to the degree that Gandhi did, any person who learns a new language grows as a human being because they can communicate with others in new ways. This helps to develop a more profound curiosity about the world around us, which leads us to learn more about that world. Learning more about the world and those who live in it leads to deeper understandings of other cultures, other values and other ways of understanding life, love, politics, spirituality and all that is important to humans. Learning other languages opens up new possibilities for personal and professional growth, new opportunities to do meaningful work and ultimately, to value others more deeply because we can communicate with them better and understand them.

The presentation included a practical classroom activity for students.

The full-text paper is publicly available on the ERIC data base.

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED508664

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Related posts:

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

1 Comment | Communication, languages, leadership, Multiculturalism, research, second languages, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

Want to change the world? Learn a language (Part 2 of 2)

May 5, 2010

A quick video on how leaders who learned other languages changed the world in deeply transformative ways. This video captures the essence of what I mean when I talk about leadership and language learning.

Click here to see: Want to change the world? Learn a language (Part 1 of 2)

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Update – January 2018 – This blog has had over 1.8 million views thanks to readers like you. If you enjoyed this post, please “like” it or share it on social media. Thanks!

Sarah Elaine Eaton is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, Canada.

2 Comments | languages, leadership, second languages, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sarah Elaine Eaton, Ph.D.

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