TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE OF ONTARIO TESL ONTARIO Vol. 33 No. 3 Aug. 2007 A Tribute to Elizabeth Gryte Inside this issue: strumental in implementing LINC A Tribute to 1 (Language Instruction for Newcomers Elizabeth Gryte to Canada) and TESL Ontario’s working relationship with Elizabeth developed From the Editor 2 during those years when she managed the settlement programs for Ontario Contact Us 2 and we carried out a number of pro- My TESL Career 4 jects as a Service Providing Organiza- tion for CIC. Elizabeth’s background My ESL Exchange 13 included working as an ESL instructor in Australia at George Brown College, Red River Teaching Contextual 18 Community Centre and for the Winni- Guessing as a Reading peg School Division. At TESL On- Strategy tario’s Annual Conference in 2001 Elizabeth was honoured with a TESL Materials Review: 22 Ontario pin for her contributions to CD-ROM: The Hockey ESL. Sweater Elizabeth was the recipient of Words From an 29 the Deputy Minister’s Achievement ESL Activist Award and the Award of Excellence, which recognizes exceptional perform- Sources of Variability in 36 ance and represents one of the highest Second Language official distinctions a public servant can Writing Elizabeth Gryte 1948-2007 receive. While Elizabeth was honoured by this recognition, her real reward Teaching Religion in the 46 came from making a difference in the Schools: Models to lives of newcomers to Canada. Her vi- Inform the e are saddened that Eliza- sion and leadership led to a number of Canadian Context beth Gryte, Director of Settle- new CIC initiatives, including the crea- ment Programs, Ontario Re- tion of a settlement website, the com- Book Review: 67 W gion, Citizenship and Immigration Can- Assessing Vocabulary puterization of settlement programs ada, passed away on Friday evening, and the improvement of educational June 29, 2007, after a brief battle with Internet Corner 71 programs and information centres for cancer. newcomers. Calling all Reviewers 73 Elizabeth devoted much of her TESL Ontario valued Eliza- working life to immigrant issues and we beth’s personal integrity and unstint- wish to recognize her exceptional dedi- ing support for our organization and cation and commitment to the settlement we will miss her greatly. ◊ ISSN 0227-2938 of refugees and immigrants. She was in- Page 2 TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE OF ONTARIO From the Editor perceptive editor once wrote If you have ever been curious that two purposes of a good about exchange teaching in a foreign A magazine should be to comfort country, you can start your fact-finding the agitated and agitate the comfort- right here. Eleanor Cooper details her able. In this issue of Contact we salute year of teaching at Thebarton College the many contributors who, by sharing in Adelaide, South Australia. Adapta- their serious thoughts and provocative bility, she concludes, is the personal humour, have helped us to strike such quality you’ll need most if you decide a worthy balance. to dive into a similar offshore adven- ture. We begin with a photo- illustrated retrospective on Margaret What should a classroom Elliott’s career as an ESL instructor. teacher do when students race to the What is perhaps most astonishing is dictionary to look up every new word that it didn’t begin until she was in her they meet? Milla Vago offers some forties, yet it still spanned more than practical solutions to this question, 30 years. This remarkable teacher coming from both sound research and reflects on the challenges and joys of practical classroom observation. teaching English not only to newcom- By the time you read this issue ers to Canada, but overseas as well. of Contact, the hockey season will Her retirement has been long delayed, once again be upon us. To prepare us but that has never really been a prob- for the fall semester, Karen Thomson lem for Margaret. Some new challenge reviews a new multi-media resource always seems to interpose itself, and sure to be a hit in many ESL and liter- she can’t resist. (Continued on page 3) Contact us Contact welcomes articles of gen- website is at: http://www.teslontario.org eral interest to association members, includ- ing announcements, reports, articles, calls Inquiries regarding membership or for papers and news items. change of address should be addressed to the TESL Ontario Membership Coordinator Contributors should include their at [email protected] full name, title and affiliation. Text should be e-mailed to: [email protected] Inquiries regarding advertising rates and reservation of advertising space or mailed on CD to: should be addressed to the Office Coordina- tor at [email protected]. Editor, TESL Association of Ontario, 27 Carlton Street, Suite 405, The statements made and opinions Toronto, Ontario, M5B 1L2 expressed in articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies of Deadlines are January 30, April 30 TESL Ontario. and June 30. Acceptance of advertising does not TESL Ontario’s phone numbers are: constitute endorsement by TESL Ontario nor (416) 593-4243, Fax (416) 593- 0164. The guarantee accuracy of information therein. ◊ Contact volume 33, issue 3 Page 3 From the Editor (Continued from page 2) He concludes by offering a set of ten proposals as part of the discus- acy classrooms. It’s a CD-ROM based sion. on the famous story by Quebec writer The study of vocabulary — a Roch Carrier called “The Hockey significant area in applied linguistics Sweater”. Karen’s review gives this and language teaching — has cre- innovative learning material a definite ated a need for new approaches in as- thumbs up! sessment. Maria Claudia Petrescu In her memoir, Kai Xing reviews John Read’s book, Assessing brings a fresh perspective to ESL Vocabulary, a noteworthy contribu- learning as she negotiates the pitfalls, tion to the field. Professor Read ex- loopholes and contradictions of stan- pands the traditional concept of a vo- dard English. Somehow Kai emerged cabulary test to cover a broadened from the learning process (almost) un- range of practical procedures for as- scathed by relying on the rich re- sessing the vocabulary knowledge of sources of her third language, L2 learners. Chinglish. And she just can’t seem to Finally, this issue of Contact get rid of it, no matter how hard she comes tinged with sadness at the loss tries. But then, should she? You be the of a much-loved and respected leader judge. in our field, Elizabeth Gryte. Eliza- On the research front, Khaled beth was the Director of Settlement Barkaoui summarizes factors that af- Programs for the Ontario Region of “Two purposes fect L2 learners’ development and per- Citizenship and Immigration Canada. of a good magazine formance in writing. He calls upon She died of cancer in late June. Eliza- should be to teachers in L2 writing classrooms to beth’s contribution to the lives of thou- comfort the agitated consider individual differences among sands of newcomers to Canada and to and agitate the learners, their prior learning experi- the ESL profession will be long re- comfortable.” ences with L2 writing and the demands membered. of different writing tasks as they plan As ever, a great debt of grati- lessons, devise assessment instru- tude is owed to Laura Stoutenburg ments, evaluate the performance of L2 and Bob Courchêne for their insight writers and give feedback. and ideas in helping to make Contact a Advancing a theme that is rap- lively and readable publication. idly acquiring more prominence in the We hope that this issue gives national consciousness, at the interface you not only food for thought but also of education, culture, and identity, nourishment for the soul. A happy Robert Courchêne explores the issue summer to all. ◊ of teaching religion in our schools. What can we learn from the experi- ence of other western countries with Clayton Graves large immigrant populations that will help us to forge a coherent approach Editor to the issue here in Canada? Page 4 TEACHERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE OF ONTARIO My TESL Career By Margaret Elliott n 1971 I was struggling to put ing and soon changed to a double ma- together my life after the sudden jor — anthropology and linguis- I death of my husband at the age of tics. This broader academic commit- fifty-one. One day my sister said to ment had a number of positive fea- “...I decided that I could me, “What are you going to do to start tures, not the least of which was that it not cope with the living again?” I answered glumly, “ I could potentially open up another ca- frustrations that seemed don’t know!” reer choice — language teaching. to be an inescapable “Well,” she said, “you’d better Teaching children with learn- part of the job. ” go to university.” ing disabilities was yet another possi- ble area to pursue. Indeed, I had an I acted on her advice, and Sep- opportunity to explore this route as a tember of that year found me enrolled volunteer in a class of autistic children as an undergraduate at Carleton Uni- for a short time. While I had excellent versity in Ottawa. I chose to major in guidance and support in this undertak- anthropology, since this was a course ing, I decided that I could not cope just on the point of being offered in the with the frustrations that seemed to be Ontario high school curriculum. an inescapable part of the job. I felt I might have a more It was at that point that I de- promising chance of success in teach- cided to focus on becoming qualified ing a course that the younger students to teach English as a Second Lan- were being faced with for the first guage.