In the aftermath of the Bush administration's failed immigration bill this summer, which sought, among a range of measures, to make the government responsible for enhancing English as "the language of the United States", has come reason for hope for migrants desperate to learn English but unable to access classes for lack of funding.
By August much of the administration's 26-point plan for immigration reform was dead in the water, but George Bush was able to announce that one proposal, for an online English language programme called USA Learns, aimed at providing out-of-class support for adult migrants, was on track for delivery in 2008.
Plans for the USA Learns web portal were laid in 2005 when the Department of Education (DoE) Office of Vocational and Adult Education, awarded the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan and the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) a contract to develop new English language learning resources.
According to SCOE two prototype 20-unit English courses will be ready next spring for field testing with students. The courses will cover the first two levels of the six-level National Reporting System (NRS) for Adult Education. If judged successful, the programme will be available to learners across the US from September.
The DoE says that USA Learns is being funded independently of federal spending allocated to individual states and with supplementary funding provided by the state of California. According to Daniel Miller, deputy director for adult education and literacy at DoE, the online course will rely on two existing programmes, English For All and Putting English to Work, which will be restructured to provide most of the curriculum for the project.
John Fleischman, director of technology services at SCOE and a lead developer on the project says that a priority is to make the programme easily accessible to migrants.
"The prototype is in essence a learning management system that will offer a wide range of functions and capabilities. Unlike popular learning management systems, such as Blackboard and Moodle, this system is being designed specifically for adult learners with limited English language and literacy skills," he says.
"The prototype will include 15 different activity types, a range of communication and collaboration tools, and a variety of administrative functions and tools."
USA Learns' online learning component is intended to work in parallel with the classes-based courses that most adult learners currently access.
Keeping USA Learns relevant to current in-class teaching is vital, says Erik Gundersen, editorial director for English as a second language publications at the education publisher McGraw-Hill.
"In adult school districts, such as Miami-Dade, that have developed extensive computer labs, online learning materials pegged to the six NRS levels would be a very helpful supplement to classroom instruction," he says. "However, as language learning demands a social and interactive context to be effective, it's important to note that online learning is rarely used in effective ways as a primary form of instruction."
But the impending launch of USA Learns has not put to rest pressing concerns about the state of English language training for migrants. In 2004 the DoE began breaking down federal funding for adult basic education to include a category for "English language and civics education". In that year the foreign-born population of the US stood at 34.2 million and the federal government allocated $69.1m to English and civics training. This year that budget stood at $67.9m.
According to James Parker, an adult learning consultant and former coordinator for work-place education at the US Department of Education, federal funding has been in long-term decline, with individual states having to self fund.
"Just one state, California, spends more state funds on adult education in one year than the federal government allocates for all 50 states and territories combined," he says.
The shortage of money has meant that English programmes are struggling to keep up with growing demand. Earlier this year The New York Times reported that in 12 states, "60% of the free English programmes had waiting lists, ranging from a few months in Colorado and Nevada to as long as two years in New Mexico and Massachusetts."
ProLiteracy, the national adult literacy organisation, says that almost all of its 1,200 local member literacy programmes have waiting lists.
Fleischman remains optimistic that USA Learns will help to bridge the training gap. "Although developing a comprehensive web resource for adult learners with limited English language skills is a challenging venture, the potential of using technology to extend the reach of adult education presents an exciting opportunity to have a significant impact on literacy in the US."
Rochelle Cassella of ProLiteracy is more cautious about the role of USA Learns. "While technology is a necessary and forward-looking enhancement to Esol study it cannot totally replace classroom learning. Students need to be in classes where conversations take place to develop their communication skills. It would be difficult for online study to serve the needs of students who are not literate in their first language. Today, 60% of immigrants coming to the US are Hispanic. Many of them are young men between the ages of 18 to 32 who are not literate in Spanish," she says.
"Also, online training may not be helpful to immigrants, such as the Chinese and Arabs, whose language does not share the same writing system as English. To study online one must have access to both a computer and the internet. For the neediest immigrants this may be an insurmountable problem."
