Able to recognize when the situation needs external aid

• Unfortunately, you may encounter situations where your learner is in an abusive or unhealthy situation. Although you are not legally bound to report it, it would be unethical not to help a learner in that situation. Contact trained professionals to assist your learner.

"While I might be the expert in this language at this place and time, the learner is the expert in his or her life. If I am going to figure out how this particular learner learns, I had better listen more than I speak, and watch more than I perform." ⁴

B: The Learner

Who are our learners?

There is no "typical ESL learner." Learners can vary in age (from 16 to 90) and will come from a variety of different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Your learner may have a lot of formal education or very little. She may be fully literate in many languages or may have only a basic knowledge of reading and writing in her first language.

Characteristics of the Adult ESL Learner

ESL Learners:

• are creative and adaptable.
• have a great range of life experiences.
• experience stress in their new surroundings.
• are highly motivated but may be apprehensive about learning English.
• learn best when the information is linked to something they already know.
• want practical lessons that are relevant to their own goals and needs.
• like to learn things they will use immediately.
• may have uneven learning: learners will not progress in a uniform manner; they may have "good" and "bad" "English days."
• have a multitude of outside responsibilities (family, home, job).

⁴ Virginia Sauvé, Voices and Visions: An Introduction to Teaching ESL (Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press Canada, 2000), p. 7. By permission of Oxford University Press Canada.