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NATIONAL 'ENGLISH FOR SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES' (ESOL) STRATEGY
MAPPING EXERCISE AND SCOPING STUDY

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. INTRODUCTION

This study, commissioned by the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department of the Scottish Executive, set out both to map the demand for and the provision of ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) teaching in Scotland and to investigate issues of concern to ESOL teachers and learners and other stakeholders.

2. BACKGROUND

The background to this study is the rapid expansion of provision of English for Speakers of Other Languages in Scotland, following on from the dispersal of refugees and asylum-seekers to Glasgow (from 2000 onwards) and the Scottish Executive's initiative in promoting adult literacy, numeracy and ESOL since 2001.

3. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the scale, nature and quality of current ESOL provision, the size and demographic profile of the ESOL student body, the qualifications and professionalisation of ESOL practitioners, and identify any barriers to learning. In the course of the research issues of assessment and progression were found to be of major concern to teachers and other stakeholders and so were also investigated.

Specific questions addressed were:

• Where are students learning English and what kind of classes are on offer?
• How many teachers are employed and what are their qualifications?
• Who are the learners, and what are their reasons for learning English and their aspirations?
• What kind of English language tuition do they get and what do they consider they need?
• What are the obstacles that hinder them from making progress in English?
• What are the views of teachers about current provision?
• What do teachers feel they and their students need?
• What kinds of assessment are available and how well do they match student needs?
• How do students move on from ESOL classes into work or further training?

4. RESEARCH METHODS

Self-completion questionnaires were completed by 61 ESOL managers across Scotland and by 147 teachers and 1496 learners in the cluster areas of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dumfriesshire. Interviews were conducted with managers and teachers and with people who work in different capacities with ESOL learners - in voluntary organisations, employment agencies, Race Equality Councils, health centres and elsewhere. In order to identify key issues affecting students and teachers, focus groups were held with students in five institutions in the cluster areas and in-depth interviews conducted with 13 teachers.

5. MAIN FINDINGS

What is the nature of ESOL provision in Scotland?

• Over 9,000 learners were enrolled in around 900 ESOL classes or home tutor arrangements in 2003-04. Four-fifths attended classes delivered by FE Colleges.
• The type of ESOL tuition available to learners varies widely across the country. Learners in most of the cities have access to a range of classes, full or part-time, in Colleges or in Community Centres. Others have far fewer opportunities, often only part-time, and limited to General English, usually in mixed level classes. Only 9% of all courses available in 2003-04 were full-time (15% of students), while 32% were evening courses or ran for less than 5 hours per week (with 25% of all students).
• Funding for additional classes could create opportunities for more students to progress more quickly out of the ESOL class and into mainstream education, training or work. There is a shortage of classes for English focussing on work and study.
• Waiting lists are common, in Glasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere, and learners sometimes have to wait several months before being able to join a class. The maximum number of applicants recorded on waiting lists in 2003-04 was 1,981. Waiting lists for crèche places were also reported. This suggests a fairly widespread shortage of provision and of support.
• Liaison amongst providers tends to be ad hoc, which means that waiting list problems cannot easily be solved on a city-wide or area basis. Quality of provision and of support for learners also varies widely between institutions.
• Learners generally find out about classes by word-of-mouth. Apart from the Glasgow ESOL Forum website and leaflets in migrant languages issued by some institutions, other means of information are hard to come by. Learners and potential learners need access to objective and complete information about the classes that are available in their area.
• The ESOL teaching force, including volunteers, is well qualified in some areas and institutions but less so in others. 32% of all staff in our survey held internationally recognised teaching certificates while 14% held none. Not all employers require ESOL teachers to hold an ESOL teaching qualification and not all employers are prepared to help teachers become more qualified. There is a perception, amongst teachers that the ESOL workforce in Scotland needs to improve its professional status through more accessible training qualifications.
• The quality of the teaching generally is high, and is highly regarded by learners, by HMIE and by agencies who work with ESOL learners.
• There are new opportunities for training, notably in ESOL Literacy, and a trend to encourage teachers in FE to gain diploma-level qualifications. Adoption of an FE qualification structure which includes TESOL, which has happened in England and Wales would allow more ESOL teachers to become qualified, and could enable both FE and CE teachers to become ESOL specialists more easily.
• Volunteers play an important role in ESOL and make up 47% of the teaching strength. In some areas, not only in remoter rural areas, volunteer tutors represent the only source of ESOL provision. However, for teachers who are employed, ESOL is largely a part-time profession (73% of all paid teachers) and this has implications for continuity and development, not least teacher development.
• There is some concern amongst ESOL practitioners that Adult Literacy and Numeracy Partnership funding is not always appropriate for ESOL students, with their wider range of educational qualifications and communicative needs, compared to native-speaker literacy students.
• There is a perception amongst many teachers that ESOL, in both FE and CE, is a poor relation in spite of its role as a major income-earner.
• Eligibility for free places in CE provision, based on residence intention, varies considerably from one council area to another.

Who are the learners?

• 1496 learners completed the questionnaires distributed in the in the Survey cluster areas of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dumfriesshire and Aberdeen.
• Learners are mostly female, young, well-educated and not in work. Nearly all learners are literate in their first language and around 30% have attended university; 42% had come to the UK as refugees or asylum-seekers, while 27% had come to join their families and 25% to study.
• Most have been living in the UK for several years (average 3_ years). The average length of time in English classes in the UK up to the time of the survey was 15_ months.
• The most frequently cited reasons for learning English were to ?to be more independent?, to apply for a job or a better job and to make friends with English-speaking people.
• The need they perceived was for greater proficiency in English rather than for specific kinds of English that might be job-related. In order to achieve this many students stated that they wanted more hours (especially those attending only 2 or 4 hours per week - 56% of these learners) and more opportunities to practise English outwith the class. They also highlight a need for more cr?he places.
• Around half of the learners have dependent children, and the main obstacle to regular attendance at class was childcare. Other obstacles included appointments especially for asylum-seekers.
• Learners are generally content with the syllabus they are following and with the methods teachers use, although a significant number (30%) of low-level students would prefer a bilingual teacher.

Who are the teachers and what are their concerns?

• 147 teachers responded to the questionnaire in the survey cluster areas of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dumfriesshire and Aberdeen. 13 teachers were interviewed in depth.
• They were mostly experienced and had taught in a very wide range of institutions and contexts.
• Teachers are concerned about what they see as the under-resourcing of ESOL leading to many students attending classes for only 2 or 4 hours per week, a lack of variety of classes, a lack of appropriate teaching resources and the quality of the physical environment in which they have to teach.

How are learners assessed and what do learners achieve?

• Initial assessment or screening is variable across Scotland. Some institutions use only interviews; others a bigger battery of tests.
• Individual learning plans, although widely used, attract some criticism from teachers. There is a view that the kind of ILPs developed for adult literacy learners are not always appropriate for ESOL learners, although there is agreement that learners' progress needs to be tracked and regularly reviewed.
• ESOL has a major role to play in helping migrants of all kinds to settle into life in Scotland and feel confident about playing a full part in Scottish life. Students and teachers we surveyed made it clear that ESOL in Scotland is achieving this goal.
• There is a relatively low level of entry to external awards in Scotland (41% in 2003-04) and evidence of an apparent reluctance amongst learners to move out of ESOL classes and into mainstream education, training or work. External awards in FE and CE however have only recently been made available to many students, for whom traditional international examinations such as the Cambridge suite are perceived as not appropriate, or not relevant to those domiciled in Scotland. This, combined with a lack of guidance and the sparseness of language support for ESOL learners in mainstream courses, suggests that progression out of ESOL is both perceived and experienced as challenging.
• The SQA ESOL NQ Units should make articulation from ESOL to mainstream training and education easier and their flexibility and function-based syllabus make them more attractive to students without a strong educational background and encourage them into mainstream FE courses and into the workplace.
• It is clear that the SQA still has work to do to "sell" the SQA ESOL NQ Units to teachers. Teachers are concerned about the current state of the units (which are still being revised), including the specifications and aspects of delivery.
• Work-shadowing programmes like the Bridges and New Glaswegians Project, "into work" programmes like OTAR (Overseas Trade Assessment and Reskilling), PEPE (Pathways to Employment for Professional Engineers) and GOPiP (Glasgow Overseas Professionals into Practice)as well as initiatives by Colleges using EU funding, particularly in Glasgow, demonstrate the value of providing specialised language training and "immersion" - not only for refugees and asylum-seekers but also for other migrant workers. Such ventures, although most are fairly new and still to be evaluated, present opportunities for fast-tracking learners into the workplace.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

RECOMMENDATION 1: The Scottish Executive needs an oversight of the whole of ESOL provision in Scotland to monitor coverage, as well as quality. To this end a national ESOL Co-ordinator should be appointed to liaise with FE, CE and Voluntary sector providers and with the Home Office and other agencies such as the Scottish Refugee Council. The Co-ordinator should also have access to additional funds which could be disbursed to provide tuition in the case of sudden increases in demand.

RECOMMENDATION 2: Local providers should monitor provision and demand and ensure that, as a minimum, there is some provision for all learners who request it. Waiting lists for ESOL classes that keep learners out of classes for more than a couple of months can effectively deprive them of the ability to function independently in everyday life and can also, by holding up language learning, delay the arrival of the learner in the labour market or from the route to further education and training. Providers should work towards a maximum for time spent on a waiting list (e.g. 6 weeks). The Scottish Executive should consider funding short-term and flexible solutions to waiting list problems, including the use of volunteers and part-time classes. In remote areas use could be made of peripatetic teachers and short intensive (e.g. weekend) courses where there are clusters of learners.

RECOMMENDATION 3: Classes for beginners and ESOL literacy classes should have lower maxima than other classes. Learners at this level should have priority for highly intensive tuition (i.e. more than 21 hours per week). Mixed level classes should be replaced by single level classes wherever possible. As a minimum, there should be separate beginner, elementary and advanced level classes.

RECOMMENDATION 4: Where providers can cope with increased demand, they should set up a website, in English and in the main migrant languages, giving information about all the ESOL classes available in the area, in both CE and FE sectors (using the Glasgow ESOL Forum website as a model). Leaflets translated into the main migrant languages could also be produced and displayed in jobcentres, hospitals, libraries, community centres, surgeries, etc.

RECOMMENDATION 5: Ways of improving progression rates, particularly into work or into mainstream College or university courses, should be investigated. This investigation should focus both on ways of raising learners' expectations so that they are more willing to consider employment or training that matches their skills and experience, and on providing a wider variety of routes including highly intensive courses, ESOL + college courses (less limited than at present), work-shadowing schemes and work-based ESOL, which can provide more motivating contexts for fast - tracking language learning. This is likely to require more staff or staff time for guidance and support.

RECOMMENDATION 6: The proposed merged FE and HE Funding Council should consider an alteration in the rules for international students to enable refugees and asylum-seekers, and other categories to pay home fees for full-time FE and HE courses.

RECOMMENDATION 7: Institutions should establish more full-time and fractional posts for ESOL in order to improve working conditions for teachers and ensure that students benefit from the continuity of teaching, guidance and support that a stable workforce can deliver.

RECOMMENDATION 8: A national minimum level of teacher qualification should be introduced, for both FE and CE sectors, and should be available to all teachers wherever they work. The SQA should develop an award for ESOL teachers, based on the FENTO framework.

RECOMMENDATION 9: Training for volunteers should be developed and certificated.

RECOMMENDATION 10: A common quality and inspection system should be devised for all adult ESOL provision allowing for differences in approach in CE and FE.

RECOMMENDATION 11: Institutions should review the support systems that exist for all non-native speaker students both for practical help and for academic guidance. Effective systems should also deal with tracking progress and ensuring students in mainstream courses have access to relevant language support. Modules already exist, including online units, to train careers advisors for asylum-seekers.

RECOMMENDATION 12: FE Colleges should institute specific induction sessions for ESOL for new staff. Employers and professional bodies should also consider holding in-service training sessions and CPD, during working hours rather than always at weekends.

RECOMMENDATION 13: There should be an agreed national criterion based on length of residence for eligibility for free CE classes.

RECOMMENDATION 14: More time and resources need to be allocated for the revision of the SQA ESOL NQ Units, for the development of support materials and for benchmarking to CEF levels. The production of a Higher course external assessment should be a priority.

RECOMMENDATION 15: The Scottish Executive should set up a working party to develop principles for a national curriculum framework for ESOL.

RECOMMENDATION 16: Teaching and learning materials with a Scottish "accent" should be developed for Beginner and ESOL Literacy classes.

RECOMMENDATION 17: The Scottish Executive should consider ways of providing more opportunities for students to practise English in safe, stimulating environments, outwith the classroom, following the example of refugee support organisations. Volunteering can offer such opportunities, although granting asylum-seekers the right to work would be most effective.

RECOMMENDATION 18: Colleges should consider spending some of the income from full fee-paying international students to improve classroom accommodation for all ESOL. students.

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