Teachers might begin by initiating an ongoing dialogue in a safe environment. This means the affective nature of listening, speaking, reading, and writing should be considered when addressing the reality of linguistic diversity in the student population. Immediately, learners should be understood and accepted in the context of their own lives. Teachers should listen to the emotional clues provided by their students the first day they enter the classroom and speak to the common experiences that unite everyone as human beings. Imposing standardized forms of expression on adult literacy students who have a great emotional investment in their cultural dialect may set the stage for resentment between learner and instructor, an anathema to both the learning process and to individual student empowerment.

“I learn to read and write it took me 5 years. It took me very long time. I feel very good learning to read and write. This has made life different, more exciting. At one point I was desperate, and confused, and felt that I could never learn or have a life of my own.” --Gilbert S.

Once students feel safe, the teacher can easily expand upon the original student -generated dialogue. Here the learners tell their own stories of what it means to be and become literate. They may create characters who are considered effective communicators within their personal and community realms, yet who falter with requirements of organizational literacy such as reading a contract, or identifying the correct grammatical structure of a sentence. They may ask what impact this has on someone's life and explore other available choices.

In this way, instructors and students can operate from a position of learner strengths. Together, they can find ways to combat the fear and inadequacy associated with coping with the everyday demands of self-sufficiency. Providing students with a vehicle for expressing the emotions associated with exclusion while, at the same time, helping them acquire the skills they need to gain access to these institutions may in itself provide the mechanism for real change.

As teachers lead students along the continuum between narrative and organizational literacy, they must recognize that ultimately students will decide how far they wish to take the journey. Not all students wish to master standardized English; their communication goals are as individual as the human fingerprint. While it is important to understand that students who do not have access to standardized English are less likely to succeed economically than their peers who do, they can only be armed with the knowledge and skills to make choices for themselves. The dialogue may become the means for learning and inquiry for both student and teacher.

“I want to understand my children when they speak English to each other and to their friends. I want to be part of their new lives here.” --Mei Ying T.