Northwestern University

I am sneaking this one in. Scott Garton, Acting Head of the Reference Department at Northwestern University Library, responded to the questionnaire about instruction, reference, and resources for nontraditional students. Mr. Garton’s responses were keeping in tune with the responses that I received from University of Chicago. Northwestern offers library tours and in-class instruction to both undergraduate and graduate students. Depending on the program, they offer workshops but Mr. Garton mentioned that attendance in some of the undergraduate workshops was a bit weak so the library is exploring more online resource options. For the School of Continuing Studies (the largest population of adult learners) there is a Research Skills workshop that is offered once a quarter. There is no library orientation for international students but the library does participate in the International Student Resource Fair to answer questions about the library and its resources.

Northwestern does offer some online modules on information literacy and research skills. They have also recently added audiocasts on different research topics. These are not specifically marketed towards nontraditional students but it is another resource that is available to students that need  the extra help or unable to attend a workshop.

Reflections and Recommendations

This past semester has been a tremendous learning experience for me. I attempted to research an area that I assumed was a “hot topic” but instead it seemed like an issue that has yet to generate a lot of talk. Nontraditional students, this also encompasses adult learners, are making up almost half of the university (undergraduate and graduate) population. The days of the high school-to-college student are changing and I think that libraries need to prepare for this new demographic.

 

I began my research by looking for literature and was surprised at how little I could find in both library and education journals. I figured it was best to go straight to the source and began interviewing people that worked with nontraditional students. Through my interviews I was hearing some of the same things repeatedly.  

 

1. Nontraditional students cannot be grouped together with traditional students when giving library user instruction, reference, or creating instructional tools.   

The traditional student has grown up with technology. The adult learner has not. The language of technology is different for these two groups and while you can start at one place in instruction for the traditional student, you may have to start a few steps back for the nontraditional student.

The nontraditional student that does not speak English as their native language needs an entirely different vocabulary. What is a mouse? What does “click on” mean? The librarian needs to not only be sensitive to the multiple meanings in the English language but they must also be culturally sensitive. In order to best address these issues, a librarian must either adapt their vocabulary to include these students or offer additional assistance or resources outside of the classroom.

 

2. An ESL-certified librarian would benefit nontraditional students and adult learners alike.  

An ESL certification helps create sensitivity to a vocabulary. As Lee Fair mentioned, ESL certified teachers have a wealth of synonyms at their disposal. These teachers know multiple ways of explaining one item. Also, a librarian can do a better job recommending materials if they understood what level of English-speaking capabilities some of these students have.

Unfortunately, ESL certifications are only available to those that have teaching certificates. Although a librarian would not necessarily be teaching English to these students, this certification would help the wall of communication that often goes up between native English speakers and non-native English speakers.

I wish I could find an ESL program for educators that are not teaching English, they are teaching content in English, but would like to use ESL skills in their instruction as a communication technique.

 

 

3. Best face forward. 

 

With the changing demographics in student populations, libraries have to be proactive and not reactive. Libraries need to communicate with their communities about what is available. Marketing strategies need to change to encompass the cultural difference we are seeing on college campuses. A student will not use a library if they do not know what resources are available.

In some cases, a library or librarian will only have one chance to make a first impression. If these students are not introduced to the library in an appropriate matter, this may turn them away from what the library has to offer. As an example, Mr. Fair pointed out that if an international student does not have a good first experience with a librarian, they will never return to that librarian to ask additional questions. These students are sensitive to body language and verbal cues and if there is a frustrating transaction, the library has lost a patron.

Having a special library orientation is another suggestion that I had thought of but students best adjust if they are mainstreamed. Pulling nontraditional students out of the crowd will not help. So the vocabulary that is used in some of these library user instruction classes and workshops has to be sensitive to these students needs. The traditional students’ learning process would be not be hindered of small adjustments were made to the vocabulary in these courses.

If having a librarian with an ESL certification was possible, I think that partnering the librarian with the nontraditional students’ advisors may also be a benefit. At the very least, to provide a face for the library.

 

 4. Additional tools.  

Having online tutorials may best benefit the distance and adult learner sect of the nontraditional student population. NLU, as I pointed out in a previous post, has many interactive, online tutorials. It is possible to use these tutorials in conjunction with classroom instruction to benefit the international or non-native English speakers as well. These tutorials, coupled with classroom instruction, encompass a variety of learning styles. They also allow students to go at their own pace. Having them available online also enables student to access them remotely, after class, or if a librarian is not immediately available to assist them with a database. This aids in reducing library anxiety.

 

            Here is an example of an online tutorial that I have created:

           

Academic Search Premier

 

           

While I received a wonderful response to the emails, questionnaires, and interviews, there are a few things that I wish I was able to accomplish. Here are some shortcomings that I identified in the project and some additional steps to the process that I wish I was able to tackle.

 

Shortcomings:

 

• Very little literature on this subject: This was particularly discouraging. There seems to be a great need for resources for nontraditional students and adult learners but I am not seeing a lot of talk being generated about the subject. I looked in both library journals and educational journals. 

 

• Too little time (although, I am sure that is the case with a lot of research!): This is my last semester at Dominican. I wish that I could have carried over this research for one more semester since I feel that I have just touched the tip of the iceberg. This is something that I will continue to research on my own.

 

• Group Research: I think that this would have worked well as a group project. This is a large project to take on (and one that I feel is well worth exploring) and I feel that I could have accomplished more had other students been able to participate.

 

• Dead End: Okay, a little dramatic but I was very disappointed to learn that I (and probably many other librarians) could not immediately pursue an ESL certification since a teaching certificate is needed.

 

Things that I would have wanted to do had I had more time:

 

• Questionnaire for ESL students: I did not have an opportunity to talk to International or ESL students directly. It was an issue of time. It was the summer session and a number of the international students were not on campus. With the ESL students, since some of them are only here for 4 weeks at a time, I was concerned about being able to follow up with them after the questionnaire.

 

• Interviewing more universities about their instruction, reference, and resources available for nontraditional students and adult learners: Again, this was an issue of time. I had the opportunity to correspond with National Louis University, University of Chicago, and Northwestern University. I would have liked to extend my research beyond Chicago-area schools.

 

• Creating a resource page or information literacy program specifically for nontraditional students/ adult learners: While I have made some suggestions based on my research, I would have liked to create a finished product. Since there was not a lot of literature on the subject, I spent more of my time and resources on finding people who worked with nontraditional students and adult learners to share their idea with me.

University of Chicago

I emailed University of Chicago with some questions about their reference, instruction, and resources for nontraditional students and adult learners. Rebecca Starkey, Reference Librarian and Instruction Services Specialist responded to my inquiry.

Ms. Starkey said that undergraduate students at U of C do not have a mandatory library orientation. There is a voluntary orientation which covers basic library skills such as finding a book and also includes a tour of the library. She said about 30% of the incoming class will attend this orientation. Graduate students receive a special library orientation from their subject librarian. There is no standard format for these orientations, it depends on the department and the librarian giving the orientation.

U of C does have a large international student population, most notable in the graduate programs but the undergraduate international student population is growing. International student receive orientation with their department and they also receive an additional orientation but the format is not that different from the general orientation. There is an ESL program on campus and these students attend a special orientation as well. This orientation is more general in nature.

Ms. Starkey did mention that the Master of Liberal Arts Program (MLA) has the largest concentration of adult learners. Interestingly, the MLA program does not receive a library orientation, but they do offer workshops for these students throughout the year. These workshops include instruction on RefWorks and electronic resources. These sessions are geared more towards people that are not comfortable with using technology which may be a good fit for some of the students in this program considering the diverse demographics.

I asked Ms. Starkey if they offered any additional programs, workshops, or resources for nontraditional students or adult learners and she was very apologetic and said that they do not. She did not elaborate and I did not want to push but with the level of sensitivity she displayed in answering the questions about the nontraditional and adult learner populations, I would say it might be an issue of lacking the resources since there are so many different levels of orientations to cover.

In emailing with Ms. Starkey I have once again reflected on the notion that if there are subject librarians that serve different programs, why not an ESL librarian or a librarian to focus on the nontraditional student demographic?

Interview: Lee Fair (Part II)

I spoke to Mr. Fair about how much these international students know about the library and the services the library offers. He mentioned that the concept of the library is a “foreign concept” to these students. Americans whose first language is English grow up using the public library. These students have libraries in their grammar, junior high, and high schools. By the time that these American students reach the university level then then are fairly well-versed as to what a library had to offer. They understand that there is a reference desk to help them with research or answer their questions and there are materials for reference and materials that they can check out.

International students grow up with an entirely different perception of a library. The public library system in a large portion of other countries is completely different than the U.S. Mr. Fair pointed out that in a number of European univeristy libraries, you ask a librarian for a book or other material and they behind the desk and retrieve it for the patron. Roaming the stacks and browsing is not as common in Europe as it is in the U.S. Reading for leisure is also another difference since many other world cultures are “storytelling” cultures. They rely on a story being passed down by word of mouth instead of reading it in a book.

Because of these perceptions that the international students have of the library, librarians must work to reintroduce the idea of the library as a service. Most international students in the ELS program use the library as a quiet place to study, according to Mr. Fair. The library must change the way in which it markets itself to these students to let them know what is available and advertise the library as a center of communication and community activity.

Along with this need to market the library to these students, there may also be a benefit for librarian(s) with an ESL certification. This is not ESL in the traditional sense of teaching a student English, but this certification would help create a sensitive learning environment for these international students. Mr. Fair mentioned that these students read body language as a communication tool and if they do not connect with a person (for example, in the instance of asking a reference librarian for help) then they may never approach that person again. They would rather work on their own and that librarian may not get a second chance to make a good impression. An ESL certification can help make a librarian more culturally sensitive to that students needs.

As metioned in the conversation with Kelly Darkenwald, occasionally when people (even librarians!) encounter a person that does not speak English as their first langauge, they cna grow frustrated with them and have a tendency to repeat the same things over and over again while their voice continues to get louder. This in turn frustrates the students and they can put up a wall. Mr. Fair pointed out that these students success is dependent on them speaking English and others speaking English to them as well. So speaking their native language is not the answer, but instead, an ESL librarian would have a wealth of synonyms at their disposal so they can best explain the answer.

Another benefit to having an ESL librarian on staff is that when this librarian is conducting a reference interview with this student, they can “level” the student. This means that if a librarian has ESL training, they can tell by talking to the student, which of the 12 levels of the ELS program this student is on. This can help the librarian best recommend materials for this student. Mr. Fair said that in some cases, the student would learn best from a children’s encyclopedia because it uses the most straightforward language (something I am embarrassed to say that I have never thought of).

Mr. Fair said he can clearly see the beenfit of having an ESL librarian partner with the program to help these students be introduced to all that the library has to offer. Unfortunately (for me), Mr. Faid did confirm my suspisions that in order to obtain an ESL certification, you must first have your teaching certificate.

Interview: Lee Fair (Part I)

Today I met with Lee Fair, ELS Center Director. The English Language Studies program at Dominican University is one of about 50 programs in the U.S. and is joined with about 60 programs overseas. This program serves a combination of tourists, business people, and students. About 60-70% of the program’s participants are students. I will be focusing on the student/ academic population in this posting.

The program consists of 4-week courses on 12 levels. People that are new to the English language start at level 1 and move their way through the levels. Level 12 is considered university-level English. Monday-Thursday, students study for about 6.5 hours a day and 4 hours on Fridays. They take a combination of grammar, reading, and writing courses. There are also electives which focus on more specific areas such as business English. Teachers in the program usually have a Master’s of Applied Linguistics or an ESL certification. Experience in teaching in other countries is also considered.

The students of the program are from all over the world. It is Mr. Fair’s observation that if a country is doing well politically and economically, they will see more students from that area participate in the program. It varies as far as how long students stay in the U.S. to participate in programs. Most students come to DU when they are on break from academic studies in their own country.

 These students receive orientation when they first come to campus. This orientation consists of a “survival” orientation–telling them where the bank is, where the food store is, etc, and administrative and academic orientations. These students do receive a tour of the library but they do not receive a library orientation. Mr. Lee believes that these students may also benefit from a sort of cultural orientation as well.

To be continued in Part II: Observations in cultural perceptions of the library and how to best market the library to these students…

National Louis University

I emailed a bit with Larissa Garcia, librarian at NLU (and former Crown Library Intern!) about some of the orientation practices at her school. The majority of students that attend NLU can be classified as “nontraditional students and adult learners.” Larissa pointed out that the average age for undergraduate students is 32 and the average age for graduate students is 38. Most of these students attend school part-time.

NLU embeds its library user instruction into courses offered by the university. There is no standard orientation or library orientation that is offered. In addition, there are not a lot of library workshops offered either. Larissa mentioned that this is due to the demographics of the university. Most of these students are only on campus one or two days a week, so the best way to reach this audience is to embed the library component into their classes.

Nontraditional student and adult learner populations can be somewhat difficult to target as far as offering orientations/ workshops/ additional help that would work with their schedules. Most of these students are on campus a limited number of hours per week. For this group, online resources may be the best bet as far as learning aids. These resources could go hand-in-hand with the embedded portion of library instruction. NLU seems to offer a great variety of these online tutorials which can be viewed at:

http://www.nl.edu/library/tutorials6.cfm

There is even a section on Information Literacy! I think that this is an excellent resource site for any continuing ed/ adult learner and shows that NLU is sensitive to the demographics of its students. I think that any continuing education program can benefit from a website section such as this.

Interview: Kelly Darkenwald

I sat down with Kelly Darkenwald, elementary school teacher, to talk about ESL certification. Kelly is on her third of six classes for the certification. She has a Master’s in elementary education and has taught both in Illinois and Texas.

Kelly is currently taking courses that are geared towards bilingual studies which means that it is English and one other language (usually Spanish). This will give her the certification to primarily teach Spanish-speaking students English. A general ESL certification will credit a teacher to teach English to speakers of all other languages. In the instance of a general English Language Studies class, the teacher usually does not speak the language of her students.

Kelly mentioned that the primary road block in students comprehending the rules of the English langauge is that words can have multiple meanings. Most languages have a set of rules that apply but the English language uses a lot of slang and what we coined as “catch phrases”. A good example of this slang would be when we are teaching a computer program and we say “click on _______” A student whose first language is not English may be slightly confused, how do we explain “click on”?

Kelly pointed out that the ESL certification program could benefit both teachers and librarians because the course teaches individuals how to teach content in a comprehensible way. The course also teaches students good teaching techniques that could be used in any classroom to environment (a library!)

In her experience, students that come from bilingual homes very often do not have access to a computer in their own home. This is one point that teachers like Kelly must keep in mind is to be able to teach them skills that they can practice outside of the classroom. Also, we must be sensitive as to where we start the teaching process. This nontraditional student set may not have had the same exposure to technology as a more traditional student. This may not always be the case but it is something that a librarian may need to be sensitive to.

Many of these teaching techniques that Kelly shared could easily be applied to librarianship. Librarians in all kinds of libraries are teachers. They show patrons how to use the computers, databases, and how to locate materials, among other things. An ESL certification would benefit a librarian in a community such as an academic library by helping identify effective communication techniques and appropriate vocabulary. An ESL certification may be of more benefit than a second language because it is more diverse and would work in many different learning communities, not just one or two.

Some points to emphasize:

• No “dumbing down” the language or baby talk when talking to students where English is not their first language. People have a tendency of talking louder or repeating the same things over and over again if a student does not understand the first time. This is not helping the student; it will just make them tune out or become frustrated.
• Librarians are not there to teach English-speaking skills. An ESL certification would benefit a librarian by helping identify effective communication techniques and appropriate vocabulary.
• Visual materials and repetition are important. Using handouts, computer tutorials, or other pictures will help students understand the material.
• Changing examples to fit the audience. Students that are not native English speakers may react/ grasp better to certain examples than others. Paying attention to cultural differences is important as well.

The next question to tackle is, is an ESL certification/ course available for people outside of traditional teaching environments? I will be checking in with NLU (where Kelly is currently taking her courses) and Dominican University (they have an ESL certification program in their School of Education)

ESL Materials at the Chicago Public Library

I was on Chicago Public Library’s website earlier today and I found a link to section on materials for ESL students. It can be found at: http://www.chipublib.org/cplbooksmovies/espfor/esl.php. This site was designed for students learning the English language and studying for their TOEFL exam. Even though international students already have strong English language skills once they come to Dominican, they might find something like this useful on our library webpage.

Interview: Sue Ponremy

I sat down with Sue Ponremy, Director of International Studies at Dominican Univeristy to talk to her about some of her experiences with international students (those that come from other countries to study at Dominican University).

In order to attend Dominican University, these students must show that they have strong English language skills by either completing the top-level ELS course or by scoring well on the TOEFL. Students that do not score as high as expected are sometimes offered a non-credit English course before they start ENG 101, a core course at Dominican. Dr. Ponremy mentioned that this is not typical, Dominican does not usually teach English language skills to students that have been admitted to undergraduate or graduate programs but will occasionally accommodate certain students.

Once these students have been admitted to the program, they are grouped with other graduate and undergraduate students. The international students do not have a special orientation beyond what is offered by Dr. Ponremy on their immigration status. There is a high retention rate for these students, an estimated 90% stay to complete their programs. In order to maintain their immigration status, these students must attend school full-time and be on a degree path.

As of the spring 2008 semester, there are just over 300 international students that attend Dominican University. Dr. Ponremy indicated that those numbers do vary but not greatly. The greatest concentration of international students is in the Business School followed by the School of Social Work.

The Brennan School of Business does offer an international student orientation however, this is almost strictly an administrative orientation. Dr. Ponremy did indicate that she sees any effort to help international students as a benefit.  Special orientations, social events, and a separate library orientation would also be seen as a benefit.

Dr. Ponremy sees the fact that the international students are scattered in with their peers as beneficial but it also has its drawbacks. The lack of grouping the international students together means that they are no way segregated from the rest of the Dominican community and they have an opportunity to thrive in the educational environment however, some of these students could benefit from extra help such as the special orientations that I have mentioned. One of the problems with attempting to do a special orientation is that these students are not concentrated in one area, for example, the business school, so it would be difficult to try and reach all of these international students at one time. I suggested a fall orientation, coupled with a special library orientation, and received a favorable response but it was also mentioned that some of these students would be able to gain the necessary understanding about the functions of the library through their ENG 102 library competencies.

To reiterate what Dr. Ponremy stressed, international students would benefit from any additional aid but the issue seems to be that not all international studetns can be grouped together. It seems that some of these students may need additional help more than others. Since these students are mainstreamed and the undergraduate international students do take ENG 102, it may be a matter of identifying which students may need additional assistance.  Possibly workshops? Having a librarian assigned to them along with their advisor? Or would the focus of an international student library workshop be a bit less in-depth than what ENG 102 offers?

UPDATE

Just a bit of a status update. I am still working my way through some additional reading and I am scheduling interviews with the following people:

Lee Fair–Director of the ELS program at DU (interview on 7/14)
Sue Ponremy–International Student Ad visor (interview on 7/7)
Kelly Darkenwald–Elementary School Teacher/ ESL Certification Candidate (interview on 7/8 )

I am also in the process of contacting other colleges and universities in the area to see what kind of library user instruction/ library orientation they offer their international students and adult learners.