Teaching Basic Computer Skills in Simple English

Alternate title:  Computers: Can't Live With Them, Can't Throw Them Out the Window.

As hard as some people may find it to use a computer, getting the basic tasks of life accomplished without one is getting harder. Learners on the wrong side of the digital divide these days will find themselves struggling harder to find work, get an education, communicate with their doctors and pay their bills. In 2014, for example, students taking the GED exams will find themselves sitting at a computer keyboard from start to finish. 

Computer literacy, bluntly put, is literacy. Literacy organizations around the country are recognizing this fact and finding creative ways to help their learners begin to get basic skills. Some organizations offer on-line computer training. Using a computer to teach people how to use a computer makes sense. We do, after all, use English to teach English here and around the world. There is no substitute for hands-on learning.  

Take a look at the website of the Saint Paul (MN) Literacy Consortium: www2.spclc.org/curricula/computer#basic. They start from the very beginning—turning the computer on. They proceed to teach elementary vocabulary in very plain English with clear pictures. To give two examples, "DESKTOP: The screen
you see first when your computer turns on. DIALOGUE BOX: A window that pops up and
asks you questions."

Each short module focuses on a specific, basic skill. First come the elements of using the computer. The basics of the most common applications, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, follow in a logical sequence of skills. After teaching how to open an Excel spreadsheet, they move on to entering data and maneuvering with the tab key and arrow pointers. Only then do they introduce more complex functions like sums and graphs.

If you are wondering where your learners skills stand (or for that matter, your own), you may check out the Northstar Online Digital Literacy Assessment.  This assessment and the computer skills resources I am sharing today came by way of a Wisconsin Literacy webinar. Kudos and thanks, Wisconsin Literacy! 

Literacy Network has classes in basic computer literacy this semester in Spanish Tuesday nights from 6:00 to 8:00PM.

"Log On and Learn"

Most of us use computers without much anxiety or even any forethought.  We turn them on as soon as we get to work. To such people (if you know what a blog is, you are one of them), Google is a noun and a verb we use regularly. To many people who come to Literacy Network for help, this is not the case.  The English we use here and now must seem not only foreign but positively extraterrestrial.

A website from Literacy Volunteers of  New Jersey Literacy can help learners climb up to the high side of the digital divide. Log On and Learn works nicely for a tutor who wants to help someone who has a beginner's grasp on English. It uses simple language and clear, up-to-date illustrations to communicate the fundamentals that experienced users may take for granted. 
Chapters appear in lesson plan format, helping tutors or teachers to visualize how to make activities happen.  For instance, one section on computer vocabulary encourages the use of total physical response activity: 

Skills: Name (or recognize) the parts of a computer, name (or recognize) the components of a window
Materials: Computer, desktop with Windows
Activity: Practice new computer vocabulary with an ESOL student by using Total Physical Response. [TPR]

Further down in the lesson it describes how to do TPR. Other sections include using email to create a dialog journal, an activity that Literacy Network tutors may find familiar from training. The site presents the basic skills that many of us use without a second thought, such as using a computer for for planning our schedules, checking the weather or searching for a job. The "Internet Scavenger Hunt" lesson teaches a learner to use the most common search engine to answer a question they might be interested to know, e.g. "Who was the third president of the U.S.?"

There is plenty here for tutors who want to develop their skills in teaching techniquest too. It is worth a good look. Thanks for being a tutor.

Everybody Loves Homework

A tutor asked me how to assign homework to an adult learner. In her new student interview she had said she could do two hours of homework a week. We try to find out how learners feel about doing homework when we assess them to get a tutor, but the question always needs more probing.

A tutor should ask more questions, such as, ‘When, in a normal day, can you find a few minutes to spend by yourself? In that time, how much energy do you have?  Where do you go?’  Ask most students whether they want homework and they’ll say yes, which is what they think you want to hear. The more productive questions aim at finding out when and where she has the means to do something related to English. An adult learner needs a reasonably quiet space to read and write or listen to some English. She needs the physical stuff, whether it’s a computer, a notebook, worksheets, a CD player or the TV, to make that happen.

The tutor mentioned that her learner wants to work on verbs. I recommended that she try sending her home with a game to play between lessons. Here is a link to a document you can download at the Literacy Network website.  Clicking that should get you a Word document that you can print out. It has irregular past tense verbs, e.g. make – made, take – took, come – came. You can print that on card stock and cut the verbs out to make a ‘concentration’ game in which she has to pair the irregular past tense with the present 

Literacy network tries to be realistic about the amount of homework an adult learner with a  brutal work schedule and a family to care for can do. For that reason I encourage tutors to give homework that can be done in the little bits of time that they can snatch away from their busy work and family lives. And to increase your chances of the assignment getting done, try to make it fun.

Recording for Your Learner Via Computer

Kudos to Favorite Tutor of the Week, Teel Haas, who sent us this very well-developed idea about how to use a resource you may already have close at hand to teach listening skills. Here's Teel:

What I recorded:  My learner has very limited opportunities to practice speaking and hearing English, so I decided to record one of the books we are using so she can go back and listen to the lessons and speak along with them.  The book I recorded is the Basic Level version of  English for Everyday Activities – A Picture Process Dictionary by Lawrence Zwier.  My learner really likes this book because it talks about things she does every day:  cooking rice, making salad, cleaning, doing laundry.  Since she knows these activities, it helps her build her English vocabulary and her confidence.

I was looking at going “old school” with a tape recorder, but accidentally discovered that my new laptop, which has Windows 7, has this great feature called “sound recorder.” 

"Old School"

Here’s what to do:

1. Click on the Windows "Start" button, a 4-color flag icon (bottom left of computer screen)
2. A window box opens up that says, “Search programs and files”
3. In that box type in the words: sound recorder
4. A small rectangular box labeled “Sound Recorder” will appear on your screen
5. On the left side of the box, click on the “button” that says “Start Recording.”  Speak slowly and clearly into the computer microphone.I read through each lesson twice,  the first time at a slightly slowed rate, so the learner can get a feeling for how a native speaker sounds. The second time through I read much more slowly, being careful to enunciate words, with the instruction that she should read along with me. There are some sounds and words that are particularly difficult for my learner because those sounds don’t exist in her native Wolof, so I stop and repeat those words for her.
6. When finished recording, save the audio file to your computer.
7. I then burned a CD for my learner, since she has access to a computer and that’s the easiest way for her to play the CD back to listen and practice. (You can also copy the file to a USB flash drive or similar portable memory stick, if that’s more convenient.)

 

What if you don’t have Windows 7?  Check with a public library near you to find out if their public use computers operate with Windows 7.  (The Madison Libraries website doesn’t indicate what operating system(s) they have available.)