3. Reviewing English question forms which students will need to employ in their conversations with
outsiders; e.g., "You wash dishes every day" turns into "Do you wash dishes every day?"--but "You
have made apple pie" does not yield "Do you have made apple pie?"

4. Discussing why Americans might or might not bake bread as much today as they did forty or fifty
years ago; what kind of person might be most likely to use a food processor, eat at salad bars, or
participate in activities against world hunger; to what degree fast food chains selling ice cream may
have become common in large American cities; etc.

5. Having the class split into pairs or two large groups to role-play the process of asking an outsider
questions from the bingo sheet, and following up the practice with a group discussion of rough spots,
etc,

Performing the errands

Interactive errands maximize students’ control and direction over their own learning experiences. In
working on a human bingo project, for instance, students are able to approach potential signatories when
and where they feel most comfortable doing so. They are free to ask people of their choice to sign their
signature cards which allows them to proceed at their own pace from less-demanding encounters to others
which cail for initiative and pluck.

Furthermore, students are bound to do and learn more in the process of preparing for and performing
interactive errands than simply finishing the relatively uncomplicated errands themselves. They may
experience social situations and learn facts which otherwise would be slow in coming to them. It may
become clear to them, for example, that when social conventions such as saying "excuse me" are observed,
Americans are most likely to help them complete their tasks in a cooperative, friendly fashion.

By fulfilling the terms of an academic assignment such as a site visit or idiom search, foreign-born ESL
students whose home environment is monolingual may gradually develop a desire and capacity to venture
into English-speaking society on their own in the future. Because they incorporate speaking, listening,
reading, and writing, interactive errands may contribute to students’ holistic development.

De-briefing and skill adjustment

After completing an interactive errand, students are given a chance in class to share and describe their
encounters. If they have conducted a community site visit to a library or hospital, for example, they might
present an oral report to the rest of the class. At this point, instructors can gauge how difficult the errand
was in practice, to what degree different students displayed a spirit of adventure in carrying it out, and how
much students actually learned from the errand. Following up this classroom procedure with an interchange
in the weekly written "dialogue journal" circulated between students and their instructors is another way
for the benefits of an interactive errand to be identified and consolidated.

Conclusion

The process through which foreign-born students adapt to life in America has numerous components. It
is within the power of a strong ESL curriculum to contribute substantially to at least three of these
components: learning our language, understanding our culture, and finding out how the organizations and
facilities of our communities can be used. If they institute out-of-class interactive language errands as a part
of a comprehensive pedagogical program, we believe that ESL instructors will be well on their way to
enhancing the communicative competence and contributing to the cultural adaptation of their students.

Phillip Venditti Robert Bahruth
Parallel Studies Division Parallel Studies Division
Austin Community College Austin Community College

For further information, contact the authors at Austin Community College, P.O. Box 2285, Austin, TX
78768.

 

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor
September 19, 1986, Vol. VIII, No. 19

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545. Subscriptions are available to monconsortium members for $35 per year. Funding in part by the VW. K. Kellogg
Foundation and Sid W. Richardson Foundation. Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and monthly during the summer.

© The University of Texas at Austin, 1986
Further duplication is permitted only by MEMBER institutions for their own personnel. ISSN 0199-106X