American Service-Learning 2005

Friday, June 24

The first and most important goal of the ASL program is "building community". Only when we reach out and try our best to understand one another can we hope to achieve any sort of meaningful and positive change. Slowly but steadily we are building our own ASL community. Through our discussion groups, at our pre-program dinners and meetings we are learning more about each other, the challenges around us, and our own thoughts, preconceptions, and values.

Already through our discussions people are reaching a deeper level of understanding, a deeper empathy. Wataru of the Urban Issues group wrote "I had forgotten the pains and sufferings of being a homeless and was just thinking of how to reduce the number of the homeless from a distant standpoint. After reading this week's article, I know much about them than last week." This kind of deeper understanding will help us confront these problems on a more fundamental level.

Of course, improving our English skills will make our experiences in California that much enjoyable and meaningful. We're lucky to be working with Ken Romeo of the Stanford Language Center's English for Foreign Students (EFS). Ken has is developing our curriculum for our workshop classes and has also put together many practice exercises for you to do before the program. Read about Ken in his own words and then take a look at his web resources.

Cheers,
Chad
ASL Program Director

Ken Romeo: ASL Workshop Coordinator

I am a doctoral candidate in the School of Education at Stanford, studying foreign language acquisition.  I will be coordinating the language instruction part of the American Service Learning, and although I will not be actually teaching in it, I will be organizing the resources and curriculum.  I spent a year in the People’s Republic of China and then lived in Japan for 10 years teaching English in a variety of locations before coming back to the US to start graduate school at Stanford.  Here, I have taught part time in the English for Foreign Students program since completing my M.A. in 2001.

The language instruction part of the program is intended to give students some experience with the topics and situations that they will encounter out at the service locations.  We will have two main “courses”, although they will be very much related:  one course that focuses mainly on basic language skills, and another that approaches language learning through the three main areas of the ASL program.  The main goals of both are:
  
Listening Comprehension - understanding lectures, new people that you meet, and instructions at the service locations
   
Speaking - meeting lots of new people, explaining who you are and why you are here, talking about your ideas and feelings about the things you learn
  
Discussion - reflecting on your experiences in a group discussion: reactions, feelings, ideas and contributions

Writing - writing about your experiences

The course will consist of listening and speaking activities, written reflections and short reports, and short presentations, both in class and for homework.

Information regarding the language instruction part of the program can be found at http://www.stanford.edu/~kenro/efs2005/asl2005/introduction.html.  This page includes several links which might be useful in gathering information about the topics in the program, as well as a weekly listening exercise.

Following is a schedule for future topics.  Most of them have links to outside articles/audio/video – this is just for reference, so please don’t be intimidated.  For each exercise you will just listen to a short .mp3 file (usually about 60 seconds) and then try to transcribe or summarize that, not the reference material.

6/24 This clip will discuss a PBS NewsHour segment about building green buildings.  You can find the transcript and links to the audio and video for this segment at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june05/building_4-15.html

7/1 This clip will discuss the first page of the health care article in the Class Matters series in the New York Times.  There are quite a few pages, but I will only talk about the first one: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/16/national/class/HEALTH-FINAL.html?ex=1119672000&en=b357d5873ce7c09e&ei=5070.

7/8 This clip will discuss a PBS NewsHour segment about the Kyoto Protocol.  You can find the transcript and links to the audio and video for this segment at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/jan-june05/kyoto_2-16.html

7/15 This clip will discuss a PBS NewsHour segment about a program for the homeless in San Francisco You can find the transcript and links to the audio and video for this segment at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/economy/jan-june05/homeless_4-8.html
7/22 The final clip will discuss some strategies for studying English, both on your own and in a group lesson.

Momo Waguri: ASL Faculty Advisor

Momo Waguri is the Program Director/Instructor of the Action Learning Programs/International Internship Programs at the Faculty of Policy Studies, Chuo University. She got her MA in International Comparative Education from Stanford University School of Education. At Chuo, Momo has developed experiential learning programs that have study-service components in Australia, Sri Lanka, and the United States. She believes that education should not be an end in itself; but rather, it should prepare students to be active change agents in their everyday life and beyond. Momo very much looks forward to the learning experiences with you all through ASL program this summer.