CATESOL Roundup, Part 1

As always, last weekend's annual CATESOL state conference in Long Beach brimmed with tips and insights shared by participants, many of whom see the landscape of ESL teaching changing rapidly, in good ways and not so good ways.

For example, in light of California's budget situation for public education, folks shared a "what's up at your college" discussion during the community college level rap on Sat. and reported the impact of budget cuts on their ESL programs. Some districts cut the entire summer school. Some cut the lowest levels of ESL. Cypress College cut their elective credit courses in order to preserve the core ones. College of the Desert turned their noncredit ESL classes to fee-based ones. Most colleges reported that their ESL program administrators were given different scenarios to cut 10%, 20%, 15%, etc. Ventura College had already stopped offering noncredit at all. Someone reported that their ESL and Basic Skills faculty began to fear how soon they would lose their jobs, a fear allegedly mongered by the administration and the academic senate in her college. In all, we all seemed to stand at the brink of some sort.

However, I liked when someone else asked for input as to what we could suggest to our students to continue with their language learning even when we were to lose our jobs. Kathy Llanos from Cypress College suggested making and sharing a list of language activities our students can do on their own.

(To be continued.)