Here are some key organizations worth knowing about. It’s a partial list, including just a few of the local nonprofits whose mission is to serve immigrants. Of course, immigrants can also access services from city and state agencies and from nonprofit organizations that serve the community at large. Language ETC holds a resource fair every term to introduce our students to some of the services available in the community.

Citizenship class at the Central American Resource Center. Photo: CARECEN.

CARECEN (Central American Resource Center)

CARECEN was founded in 1981 to assist refugees fleeing conflict in Central America. It’s one of the organizations that emerged from the local solidarity movement in which Central Americans and North Americans organized together to oppose US support to repressive regimes. Today CARECEN has a large citizenship preparation program that has helped many immigrants become US citizens. It also provides immigration and housing services, as well as some ESL classes. Originally located in a ramshackle house on Mt. Pleasant St. NW, CARECEN now has its own spacious building in Columbia Heights. The organization was led for 20 years by Saul Solarzano, a respected and beloved community activist who passed away in 2011.

Saul Solarzano, longtime director of CARECEN, greets a client in the organization’s offices. Photo: CARECEN, courtesy of Washington Hispanic.

CASA de Maryland provides employment training and placement for workers like these men in Baltimore. Photo: CASA de Maryland.

CASA de Maryland

CASA de Maryland also has roots in the Central American solidarity movement of the 1980s. It originally operated out of the basement of the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church, one of the “sanctuary” churches that sheltered Central American refugees. Since then, CASA has grown into the largest Latino and immigrant organization in Maryland. Catering especially to low-income women, workers, and tenants, CASA has programs in job training and placement, financial literacy, ESL, Spanish literacy, citizenship preparation, and legal, social, and health services. They operate three workers’ centers and a community education center, and plan to open two more workers’ centers, a vocational training school, and a multicultural center in Langley Park. There is also a strong advocacy dimension: an affiliated organization called CASA in Action promotes electoral engagement by Latinos and immigrants in Maryland. CASA director Gustavo Torres was recently profiled in the Washington Post.

A CASA delegation visits Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. Through CASA, Latinos in the state have become active in organizing on issues important to workers and families. Photo: CASA de Maryland.

Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School

Carlos Rosario is a large adult education program in Columbia Heights, serving some 2,000 immigrants each year with daytime and evening classes. Classes range from basic English literacy and life skills to career-level English and certificate courses in technology and culinary arts. Carlos Rosario also offers job placement, health referrals, immigration counseling, and citizenship preparation. Students hail from some 78 countries, speaking more than 35 different languages, and most of the staff and faculty are bilingual. Students must be DC residents to enroll.

Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School in Columbia Heights is a large adult education program for DC residents. Photo: Mr. T in DC.

ESLIM (English as a Second Language and Immigrant Ministries)

ESLIM is a consortium of Northern Virginia churches that offer English classes to immigrants. In 1989, three churches in the Arlington District of the United Methodist Church formed a Hispanic Ministries Task Force. English classes began in the basement of Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church, with 30 students and five volunteer teachers. Today, classes are taught by trained volunteers in thirteen locations in Arlington, Ashburn, Centreville, Clifton, Crystal City, Fairfax, Falls Church, and Manassas. ESLIM is a ministry of the United Methodist Church, but membership is open to churches of all denominations and the organization welcomes students and volunteers of all faiths.

English classes at ESLIM in Northern Virginia. Like Language ETC, ESLIM uses volunteer teachers from the community. Photo: ESLIM.

La Clínica del Pueblo

La Clínica del Pueblo was founded in 1983 to serve the medical needs of Central American refugees arriving in DC. For many, cultural and language barriers made getting access to health care very difficult. La Clínica was started in a one-room clinic, one night per week, by a volunteer doctor. Today, it operates out of a state-of-the-art clinic in Columbia Heights, with a staff of 80. La Clínica offers a wide range of culturally appropriate services to the Latino community, from pediatric to adult to geriatric care, including mental health, substance abuse, and HIV/AIDS services. Services are provided on a sliding scale and no one is turned away for inability to pay.

Outside La Clínica del Pueblo on National Latino Awareness Day, October 15, 2011. Photo: La Clínica del Pueblo.

Spanish Catholic Center

The Spanish Catholic Center is part of Catholic Charities, the social ministry outreach of the Archdiocese of Washington. It provides medical, dental, education, employment, legal, and social services to Latinos and immigrants. There are several locations in DC, Montgomery County, and Prince George’s County, including a clinic in Mt. Pleasant that provides medical and dental care. Catholic Charities also provides other services for immigrants, including legal services and Spanish-language training for construction work.

A patient receives dental care at a Spanish Catholic Center clinic. Photo: Catholic Charities.

Ayuda

Ayuda offers legal and social services for low-income immigrants in the areas of immigration, human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual assault. Clients can consult with an attorney or paralegal on immigration cases and obtain legal assistance with protection orders, divorce, child custody, and child and spousal support. Long located in Adams Morgan, Ayuda recently moved into new offices in Takoma Park.

Ayuda booth at the National Council of La Raza Latino Family Expo in July 2011. Photo: Ayuda.

CAIR Coalition (Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights) 

CAIR Coalition assists immigrants detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in local jails in Virginia and Maryland. The coalition partners with over 40 DC-area law firms that provide thousands of hours of free legal assistance to detainees. Detained immigrants served by CAIR Coalition include long-term residents of the United States, some of whom fled violence in Central America decades ago; asylum seekers, many of whom are survivors of torture; women who are pregnant or have just given birth; unaccompanied immigrant children; and people who are physically or mentally ill. Trained volunteers accompany staff on visits to the detention centers.

LEDC (Latino Economic Development Corporation)

LEDC provides services in small business development and lending, homeownership and foreclosure counseling, and affordable housing preservation. Participants in their programs learn how to buy and stay in their homes, take control of decisions affecting their apartment buildings, and start or expand small businesses.

Latino Economic Development Corporation helped José Ugarte and his family keep their home in Silver Spring through a modification of their home loan. Photo: LEDC.

Many English verbs acquire a different meaning when they are combined with a particle, that is, a preposition or an adverb. The combination of verb + particle is called a phrasal verb, and there are thousands of them in the English language. There’s no rule for forming them, no shortcut to learning them, no way to intuit their meanings. It’s sheer memorization.

If I were an ESL student, I don’t think I’d like phrasal verbs very much.

Easy Phrasal Verbs for the Classroom

The Ventures series  introduces phrasal verbs in Level 3. Here are some of the combinations they teach, as well as some others that are easy to demonstrate and practice in the classroom:

stand up                                        turn over a paper
sit down                                        hand out worksheets
turn around                                  go over exam questions
go out                                            throw out (or throw away) a tissue
come in                                         turn up the music
go away                                       turn down the music
come back                                   call someone back
turn on the lights                        put away your cell phone
turn off the lights                       fill out a form
pick up a pencil                          get up in the morning

Phrasal Verbs with Two Particles

Most phrasal verb combinations use one particle, but some use two. For example:

The thieves made off with the loot.
The project ran up against financial problems.
The car ran out of gas.
I’m coming down with a cold.
Lulu comes across as rather self-centered.
The children look up to their teacher.
Julia is going out with Ted.
These two students don’t get along with each other.
Look out for ice on the road.

Phrasal Verbs Can Have Several Meanings

To complicate things further, a given phrasal verb combination can have multiple meanings. For example, to make up has at least five distinct meanings:

The two friends had an argument, but they made up afterward.
I let the cosmetics saleswoman make up my face.
The children made up a story to explain why they were late.
I need to make up the exam I missed.
The housekeeper will make up the room.

And while to look over something is to examine it carefully, to overlook it has nearly the opposite meaning, suggesting carelessness. Aaargh!

Intransitive and Transitive Phrasal Verbs

Once students have learned some phrasal verb combinations, we then face the next hurdle: teaching where to put the direct object.

Some phrasal verbs are intransitive, meaning they don’t take a direct object at all. Examples include back down, catch on, come back, come over, drop out, get ahead, get away, get well, grow up, look alike, run away, watch out.

Identical twins look alike.
The robbers ran away when they heard police sirens.
Get well soon.

But many others are transitive, meaning they do take a direct object. The direct object can be a noun or a pronoun.

George developed a drinking problem and quickly ran through his money.
Lilia called to ask about the party; please call her back and tell her it’s at 8:00.

Inseparable and Separable Phrasal Verbs

Transitive phrasal verbs are further subdivided into two groups, according to where the direct object is placed: inseparable and separable.

With inseparable phrasal verbs, the direct object can only go after the particle. You can’t put anything in between the noun and the particle; they have to stay together. For example:

Burglars broke into the house. They broke into it.
(Not: They broke it into.)
The bully picked on younger children. The bully picked on them.
(Not: The bully picked them on.)

With separable phrasal verbs, if the direct object is a noun, there is a choice: the object can go after the particle, or it can go in between the verb and the particle. For example:

Clean up this mess! Clean this mess up!
She turned on the light. She turned the light on.

However, if the direct object is a pronoun, it can only go in between the verb and particle:

The students wrote down the assignment. They wrote it down.
(Not: They wrote down it.)
I pick up my daughter from school every day. I pick her up from school every day.
(Not: I pick up her.)

EnglishClub.com has a simple chart that shows the placement of direct objects.

Phrasal Verb Speed Dating

Here’s an idea for a classroom activity. Make a list of phrasal verb combinations that students have already been introduced to. Using the list, make two sets of index cards: verbs (in one color) and particles (in a different color). Give each student two verb cards and two particle cards, preferably ones that do not form phrasal verb combinations by themselves.

Students then circulate around the room, matching up cards with other students to form phrasal verbs. As soon as two students have a pair of cards that form a phrasal verb, they write a sentence on the board that uses the combination. Encourage students to make as many matches and sentences as they can. You can make it a competition by giving each student one point for a sentence that uses the phrasal verb correctly and makes sense.

Many online sites have lists of phrasal verbs and exercises for learning them, such as Purdue Online Writing Lab, EnglishClub.com, Dave’s ESL Café, BBC English, Caroline Brown English Lessons, and many more.

Mercedes, what is your background, and how did you get interested in running an ESL program?

I came to the United States from Spain when I was nine years old. I didn’t speak any English when I arrived, but I grew up in the Bethesda area and went to English-speaking schools. I did my undergrad at the University of Maryland and then went to business school at George Washington University.

While I was studying at GW, I lived in the Columbia Heights neighborhood and began to interact with the Latino community. It was the late 1980s, early ’90s, so many people were coming into the area from Central and South America. I earned my MBA and worked in information technology for a while. But I wanted to work with Latinos in the community — to use my business skills to help the community.

I worked at the Office on Latino Affairs for four years but lost my job when Fenty was voted out. The director position at LETC was vacant, and board members asked me to apply. I thought, why not? When I worked there before, I really enjoyed it.

Mercedes Lemp (center) with Pedro Biaggi, a DJ at El Zol Radio, and Cecilia Arce, of the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. The three helped distribute gifts to children at a Three Kings Day event sponsored by the DC Police Department’s Latino Liaison Unit.

How has LETC changed since you were last here?

It’s a lot more professionalized. There are more staff. Processes are in place for managing enrollment, dealing with donors, coordinating volunteers. And our volunteer pool has grown — we always had a good number of volunteers, but now we have even more. Also, the course offerings have expanded. When I was director previously, I added daytime classes to the schedule, and now we’re thinking about adding even more of them. For evening classes we’re already operating at capacity in terms of our room use. We just added a bunch of free conversation classes this term, including Monday and Wednesday mornings, and we’ve added computer classes in English. We have also recently introduced a community service fair every term.

LETC director Mercedes Lemp (right) with some of our terrific staff: from left, Steve White, weekday volunteer coordinator; Kevin Burgess, Literacy*AmeriCorps member; and Ashley Lipps, program director.

What do you see as LETC’s biggest strengths? What do we offer that’s special?

I think, above all, it’s our all-volunteer program. We have over 300 volunteers each term — our volunteer retention rate is almost 80 percent, meaning that four out of five volunteers return to teach again. They do it because they’re enthusiastic and enjoy teaching. It gives a different feel to the classroom, compared to a school where some teachers may be working mainly for the paycheck.

Another great strength is our board. We have a very dedicated board of directors, and the majority of them are also volunteer teachers. Other nonprofit directors I know often complain about their boards, how hard it is to get people active, but we’ve always had a really great board at Language ETC.

Are there areas where LETC can grow in the next few years?

I see opportunities for growing the computer program. We have basic and intermediate computer classes, in both English and Spanish; we could add advanced classes. We have a great language lab that we could be making better use of.  We recently got a grant to upgrade our server.

Also, I’d like to see us expand our relationship with corporate sponsors. Some companies, notably Deloitte, send us volunteers, but we also need to attract more corporate grants.

Thanks, Mercedes!

I’ve often asked myself that, wondering why a class that had 18 or 20 students at its highest point has dwindled, by late in the term, to 12 people coming regularly . . . or 8 . . . or 6. Is it me, I wonder? The class? The school?

Short answer: none of the above. I did a little research and quickly found that student persistence (also called student retention or student attrition) is an issue for adult education programs everywhere. It’s not us; in fact, our numbers are good, based on the proportion of students who progress through the levels and return to LETC term after term.

Our students are adults. They have jobs, families, responsibilities. Many are in service jobs, in restaurants or landscaping or housekeeping, where they work long hours and have little control over their schedules. Often, when a student stops coming, we find out later that his work schedule changed. Quite a few live in Maryland or Virginia, adding an hour or so of commute time to their class commitment. When you think about doing that four evenings a week, or both weekend days, it’s amazing that students sustain it as long as they do.

Many of our students arrive at school exhausted from a hard day's work -- then have to tackle one of the most demanding intellectual tasks, learning a foreign language.

But the problem’s not just logistical, I’m convinced. It’s psychological too. Learning a second language is hard. It’s a long, slow process, and one almost never sees the dramatic progress one would like. (I say this from personal experience, having tried to learn some six languages and never achieving anything like native fluency in any of them.) So there’s an element of frustration, and for some students, embarrassment and perhaps discomfort at not feeling in control. My class last fall had a young woman who was so chagrined at the prospect of making mistakes in front of others that she was extremely reluctant to say anything at all.

However understandable, student attrition is still a concern. A study by the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) found that many adult students don’t stay in a program long enough to reach the goals they set for themselves. Irregular student attendance makes it difficult for teachers to plan lessons. Classes are sometimes disrupted by students entering and exiting at different times. It’s difficult to measure the progress of students who stop out or drop out.

So this is an issue that we, like all adult ed programs, need to be aware of and try to address. From what I’ve read, it’s clear we’re already doing many key things right at Language ETC. But perhaps we could do more.

In addition to the NCSALL study, I looked at resources by Pearson Education and CALPRO (California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project). All stressed that adult students need supports to persist, and that teachers and schools can help. Many of the strategies they suggest are things we’re already doing at LETC — for example, giving certificates for completion. But there are also ideas worth thinking about. The strategies tend to fall into four main areas, noted below. In each area I’ve tried to come up with one or two ideas that we, as teachers, could try.

We have a good classroom atmosphere at Language ETC.

1. Create a welcoming climate. It’s important to build friendly, supportive relationships in the classroom, between teachers and students and also between students as peers. I think we do this quite well at LETC. The fact that all the teachers are volunteers means that we’re teaching because we enjoy it and we like the students. By showing sincere interest in our students as individuals, we help them stick with the program.

Idea: How about creating a hall display with pictures of the most recent graduation? The display could also welcome new and returning students by name, congratulate students who had perfect attendance the preceding week, and recognize students with birthdays in the month (if they choose to add their name when their birthday month comes up). And maybe a world map with flags that show our students’ home countries? The point is to make the students feel like this is their school.

Idea: Our students relate not just to one teacher but to teams of teachers, up to eight for weeknight classes. Is there any way we could add an individualized dimension to this, perhaps by assigning each student one teacher from the team as an adviser/mentor? How could that relationship be put into practice?

Students indicate their goals when they register for classes, but teachers need to follow up.

2. Help students set goals and develop self-efficacy. Students need to set clear and attainable goals that are divided into specific tasks. Students interviewed by NCSALL said that their own determination and belief that they can achieve their goals is important to persistence.

Idea: At LETC, student select personal goals on a checklist when they register for class. That’s fine as far as it goes, but it would be good to reinforce it in the classroom. For example, maybe we could add a 5-minute student-teacher conference at the end of the first week, during which students could further clarify their goals. That would also allow us to ask whether the student feels that the class is the right level for her, and explore moving to another level if it is not.

3. Recognize and reward persistence and progress, however slight. It’s important to celebrate student successes, even small ones. We do this through our festive graduation ceremonies and certificates at the end of each term. This rewards those who make it all the way, but it doesn’t provide ongoing reinforcement for attendance during the term. Could we find some way to recognize regular attendance more frequently?

Graduating students with their certificates.

Idea: Some LETC teachers have students sign themselves in to class on a special sheet (teachers must also keep attendance records in the binder). Having students sign themselves in can focus their attention on attendance, especially if the sheet shows the days they’ve been present. We could go further and make a big sign-in chart on newsprint or poster board, so that all students in the class can see everyone’s attendance during the week or month — hopefully sparking a friendly competition.

4. Help students find ways to stay in the program. If they have to leave, make sure they know they can come back.

Students who attend regularly tend to have the support of their family, friends, co-workers, supervisors, church, etc. But some lack that support, or face other barriers, and there’s not a great deal we can do about that. We have to acknowledge that students’ lives are complicated and that some students may need to stop attending for a while — even as we continue trying to convince them to stay in class.

Idea: If we have mini-conferences at the end of the first week, as suggested above, this would allow teachers to ask each student about her schedule and about possible barriers to attendance. We can then help the student think about ways to address these barriers.

Idea: When teachers identify a student who has missed several classes, the front office will phone the student to find out why. If it’s a scheduling problem, the student is encouraged to switch to another class schedule. But it’s up to us, the teachers, to identify students whose attendance has dropped off and notify the LETC staff. We could be doing this more systematically than we are right now. This may be something that team leaders could take in hand.

Interestingly, the NCSALL interviews revealed that many students believed that once they stopped attending, they could not return. We should make clear to our students that if they need to stop coming or skip a term, we’ll welcome them back as soon as they can return.

Everyone enjoys the delicious foods from many countries, all brought by our students!

A teacher looks forward to dinner.

Advanced-level students with their teachers.

Perfect attendance!

Carlendra (white vest) and me (purple sweater) with our 1-B students.

The Winter 2012 term at Language ETC starts January 9. The next blog post will come around then. Happy holidays, everyone!

The economic downturn has hit industries like construction, where many Latino immigrants work. Photo: NIDCD.

Other trends are perhaps more predictable. Economic distress in the United States – and also in Europe – is making immigrants the target of restrictive legislation and public backlash. Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, signed into law in 2010, was followed in 2011 by similar legislation in Alabama. Both laws contain an array of punitive anti-immigrant provisions and are now under challenge in the courts.

While several states passed harsh anti-immigrant legislation, California and Maryland passed laws to allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at public universities if they qualify for it otherwise. Photo: Antonio Villaraigosa/Creative Commons.

On the other hand, a few states such as California and Maryland have adopted laws more friendly to immigrants. The result is a patchwork quilt of differing state laws and programs. The limits of the states’ role in immigration policy will eventually be decided by the US Supreme Court.

The US approach to immigration continues to revolve around enforcement – border control, detention, and deportation – a shift that began after 9/11. Immigration reforms remain stalled. “The Obama administration, which came to office pledging to undertake a rewrite of the nation’s antiquated immigration laws, instead set a record in 2011 for deporting more noncitizens than any prior administration,” notes the Migration Policy Institute. Many Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail have called for even more drastic measures.

In August 2011, the administration announced that it would undertake a case-by-case review of deportations, allowing some undocumented immigrants without criminal records to stay. It is too soon to know what the impact of the announced policy shift will be.

Migrants in a US Border Patrol holding facility before deportation to Mexico. Photo: Gerald L. Nino/US Border Patrol.

Meanwhile, the conditions under which unauthorized immigrants are detained have been criticized as both inhumane and costly in the United States and several other countries. In 2009 the Obama administration announced an intention to reform the detention system to move away from prisonlike conditions and toward facilities more appropriate for civil detention. But a report in October 2011 by Human Rights First found that “the overwhelming majority of detained asylum seekers and other civil immigration law detainees are still held in jails or jail-like facilities — almost 400,000 detainees each year, at a cost of over $2 billion.”

A family outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. The facility is run by a private prison contractor for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Photo: Common Language Project, http://clpmag.org/.

Language ETC doesn’t take positions on political issues, but we do care about immigrants. 2011 has been a difficult year for almost everyone. Amid these worrisome trends, our efforts to help immigrants learn English so they can improve their lives and contribute to US society are more important than ever.

We use four basic titles frequently: Ms., Miss, Mrs., and Mr. Two more are used somewhat less often: Ma’am and Sir. ESL students are often perplexed as to how and when to use all of these. It can be especially tricky for Spanish speakers, because use of honorifics in English and Spanish is just similar enough to be misleading. Students learn that Mrs. = Señora and Miss = Señorita and then try to translate directly, coming up with expressions such as Good morning, Mrs. This sounds very awkward even though Buenos días, Señora is perfectly correct in Spanish. The problem here is that Señora can be used by itself, without a name attached to it, while Mrs. cannot.

Four basic variables determine which personal title to use:

• The gender of the person you’re addressing
• Marital status, if the person is female
• Whether you know the person’s name
• How polite and formal you want to be

The first variable, gender, seldom causes English learners any difficulty. They readily grasp that Mr. and Sir are for men and Miss, Ms., Mrs., and Ma’am are for women.

She's Mrs. Somebody now, but if she's a modern woman, she probably prefers "Ms." Photo by A D Photography, www.alexdurasow.co.uk.

As far as marital status, the Miss/Mrs. distinction is clear (and similar to Spanish). However, the concept of Ms. usually takes some explaining, and its pronunciation (“miz”) must be practiced to distinguish it from Miss. We stress that Ms. is appropriate for any woman, married or not, and therefore it is preferable to the more old-fashioned Miss and Mrs., which require you to know whether a woman is married — something that, after all, should not be your concern. I tell students to stick with Ms. in most situations as both easier to use and more up to date. Miss and Ma’am also make a marital distinction, or at least a loose distinction between a woman who looks younger versus one who looks older.

How to address her, if you don’t know her name? “Ma’am” or “Miss” can sound too formal, and besides, you don’t know whether she’s married. Fortunately, it's perfectly okay in English to omit the title entirely and just say “Hello, how are you?”

The third variable is the one that trips up many students, and teachers, too, because we seldom think about the rules that govern our usage of personal titles. Ms., Mrs., and Mr. can only be used in combination with a last name: Hello, Ms. Smith. So you must know the person’s name in order to use these titles; they cannot be used alone. Ma’am and Sir, on the other hand, are only used alone, without a name: Excuse me, Ma’am. Miss can go either way — it can be used in combination with a last name or it can stand alone.

But even this is too simple, because there are regional variations. In the South, for example, it’s common to combine Miss with a first name when you want to show courtesy and respect, yet also familiarity or affection. It took me years of living in DC to get used to hearing this. I grew up in New England, and nobody there would ever have said Miss Cathy. Yet here in DC, some of my daughter’s schoolmates, particularly African American children, did call me that, having been instructed by their parents in how to politely address adult friends. This usage is comparable to Spanish, in which you can simultaneously show respect and familiarity by using Don or Doña with a first name: Don Pablo, Doña María.

Sometimes only "Yes, Sir" will do.

The final variable is politeness, and this also causes some uncertainty for Spanish speakers. In Spanish, it’s polite and respectful to add an honorific, usually Señor, Señora, or Señorita, when wishing someone good morning or good afternoon, saying please or thank you, and so forth. You don’t need to know the person’s name. Omitting the honorific is not exactly rude, but it’s a little less courteous. For this reason, some of our older and more traditional students tend to use Miss (or Teacher) when they speak to us in the classroom.

English is less fussy about this. If you don’t know someone’s name, it’s perfectly all right to simply say Hello or Good morning or Thank you and leave it at that. If you’re in a situation that calls for a high level of politeness, respect, or deference, then you can add Sir or Ma’am. But these increase the formality, sometimes to the point of sounding stiff or stilted, so they aren’t always appropriate. You wouldn’t usually use them with someone you know well, for example. This is also subject to some regional variation, with Sir and Ma’am more often added in the courtesy-conscious South.

This leads to a basic dilemma in English. Because the Mr./Mrs./Ms. titles can only be used with a last name, you can’t use them to address someone whose name you don’t know. In such situations you have only two choices: either minimum politeness (Thank you), or else a high level of formality and deference (Thank you, Sir).

So, how to present all this to students? It may help to think in terms of a ladder of formality, ranging from least to most formal/polite:

If someone begins “Hey, lady!” you probably don’t want to hear the rest.

Finally, if all these forms of address are more or less polite, what’s not polite? Well, plenty of things. The following are all some degree of impolite:

• Lady: Hey, lady, wouldja move yer car?
• Mister (without a name): Excuse me, Mister, which way is the bus stop?
• Buddy: Buddy, can you help me out?
• Buster: Mind your own business, Buster.
• You: Hey you!

Take greetings, for example.

Greetings are the essential lubricant of daily social interaction, and as such they are a staple of every beginning language course. When I was in the Peace Corps in Niger many years ago, we studied Hausa, a West African language. I’ve forgotten almost all of it, but to this day I can recite the ritual greetings without hesitation:

Ina kwana?      How did you sleep?
Lahiya lau         In good health

One then continues by choosing from a dozen or more options, such as:

Ina gida?          How is your family?
Ina aiki?            How is your work?
Ina gajiya?       How is your tiredness?

John Baird, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger in the early 1970s, returned 31 years later and was reunited with an old friend. Ritual greetings, accompanied by hand clasps, are a staple of daily life in Niger. Photo courtesy of Friends of Niger.

The response to all of these is Lahiya lau, although you can vary it with phrases such as Aiki da godiya (I am grateful for work) or Babu gajiya (there is no tiredness). Upon hearing this, the other person may murmur To madalla (that’s fine). After the litany of greetings, you can then begin an actual conversation, or you can end the encounter and be on your way, saying To, sai anjima (okay, see you later).

It’s been more than thirty years, but I will never forget these Hausa greetings (as well as others beginning with sannu and barka). In another thirty or forty years, when I’m on my deathbed, if someone asks me Ina kwana? I will surely respond Lahiya lau.

So when we decided to teach our 1-B class some basic greetings in English, I assumed it would be a matter of teaching a few phrases that they could memorize and deploy in any greeting situation. Wrong.

When you greet people in English (and in Spanish and many other languages), you choose from a menu of greetings, each of which is appropriate in certain situations and not in others. For example, these three phrases all mean exactly the same thing:

How do you do?
How are you?
How are you doing?

But they are used in very different circumstances. How do you do? is at the top of the formality/politeness scale. It’s what you say when your friend introduces you to his grandmother. I don’t know or care much about English royalty, but if I were to meet the queen, my natural instinct would be to say How do you do? Compare that to the more pedestrian, all-purpose workhorse of a phrase, How are you? You can use that with just about anyone and it won’t be incorrect. But add “doing” to the end of it, How are you doing? — often pronounced How ya doin’? — and suddenly it’s very informal, something you’d say when you see your friend at school or the neighbor outside walking the dog.

First lady Michelle Obama meets Queen Elizabeth. When introduced to the queen, you probably want to say "How do you do?" and not "How ya doin’?," unless, of course, you’re the queen’s old chum.

So formality/politeness is one factor in choosing a greeting. That in turn depends on whether you already know the person you’re greeting and on whether you’re at the same social level as that person. We are more formal with people who outrank us (the boss, the school principal, the queen) or who merit respect for some other reason, such as age (the friend’s grandmother).

A second factor is whether you’re meeting the person for the first time. The first time your friend introduces his grandmother, you might say Nice to meet you, but the second time you see the old lady, you wouldn’t say that; instead you could say Nice to see you again. Likewise, How do you do? is mainly used on a first meeting.

I’d like to say we explained all this clearly to our students, but in fact I muddled it all up. But we managed to get across the differing levels of formality via role plays (I put a dainty scarf about my shoulders to play Grandma, in one of my lesser dramatic efforts). We ended up with several lists of greetings:

Informal: Hi. Hey. How’s it going? What’s up? How are you doing? What’s new? What’s happening? These and similar greetings are used between people who know each other and between social equals such as friends or co-workers. Responses can be anything you like, such as: Pretty good. Not much. Same old, same old.

Medium formality: Hello. How are you? Response: Fine, thank you or Fine, thanks. These are the most basic greetings, and almost always appropriate.

Very formal/polite: How do you do? Response: Fine, thank you. And you?

Hey, how's it going? There are many different ways to greet someone informally. But "How are you?" is always correct, too. City Year Chicago Meet & Greet 2011, photo by Anthony Martinez.

We stressed that in the more formal situations, when you are asked How are you? or How do you do? you must always say Fine, thank you or Fine, thanks, even if you are ill, clinically depressed, embroiled in marital troubles, hobbling around on a broken leg or whatever. The person who asked how you are doesn’t really want to know, just as my interlocutors in Niger, a country ravaged by famine and malaria, where the life expectancy is 53, were always, always, lahiya lau.

In a future post I’ll look at a related topic, forms of personal address in English (Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., Ma’am, Sir, etc.) — a question that is just as essential, and perhaps even more confusing, than greetings.

That’s too bad, because there is some good stuff on the Web. I asked Steve and Ashley to help me pick out a few sites that are especially interesting or useful. They contain material geared to students, or teachers, or both. Students can access the sites at home, or they can come to Language Lab outside class hours and use the computers there.

The Ventures Arcade menu, showing a preview for Level 1, Unit 9, "Simple past with regular verbs."

Ventures Arcade. This website accompanies the Ventures textbook series, and our classes use it in Language Lab. The site is clearly laid out and easy to use. A pop-up menu lets you select a level (Basic through 4) and unit (1 through 10). Each unit contains six interactive exercises geared to the lessons in the book. For instance, a student could choose “Level 1,” then “Unit 9,” then “Simple past with regular verbs” for practice with that skill. The exercises are the simple drag-and-drop, fill-in-the-blanks, click-the-icon type that we’re familiar with from Language Lab. This is the best website for reinforcing the Ventures material — obviously — but by the same token it doesn’t offer anything new or different. The site is free and carries no advertising.

Pronunciation practice on the ManyThings.org site. Students click to hear each word, then click again and choose the word they hear.

Manythings.org. This site is a fascinating hodgepodge. It offers quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, anagrams, pronunciation exercises, sing-alongs, and much more. It has an “Easy Things for Beginners” section that may be especially useful for our students. The “Minimal Pair Practice & Quiz” is excellent for pronunciation practice; we’ve used it successfully in Language Lab. Students can use this website on their own, but the site also has a wealth of ideas and activities that teachers can bring into the classroom. The site is free and has no advertising.

Dave's ESL Cafe is a rather social site, with lots of information on teaching abroad.

Dave’s ESL Cafe. Dave, whoever he may be, has an interesting if somewhat jumbled ESL site. The “idea cookbook” for teachers has categories such as games, holidays, and ice breakers; each category offers a menu with up to 50 activities, some of them contributed by ESL teachers around the world. As you might expect, some of these ideas are better than others. For students, there are lessons on grammar, idioms, slang, and the like, but as far as I can tell these are not interactive. The site is quite social, with teacher forums and student forums. It also has extensive ESL job resources, including for teaching English abroad. The site is free but it does carry some ESL-related advertising.

The Breaking New English website is timely and fun, but quality is uneven.

News English Lessons and Breaking News English. Sean Banville, who created these sites, must work nonstop on them because they really do keep up to date. Each site offers free mini-stories keyed to current headlines, ranging from the serious (“Israel, Palestine Prisoner Swap in Progress”) to the silly (“Justin Bieber Gives Advice on Makeup”). The two-paragraph story is followed by several pages of related exercises, all printable. News English Lessons uses simpler language than Breaking News English and is probably more appropriate for our students. These sites come with a few caveats. One, the author’s views on events are evident, and you may or may not agree with them. Two, some of the stories may be disturbing to our students or promote stereotypes about their countries, such as one titled “Child Sacrifice in Uganda Increasing.” Three, some of the writing is not that great. So use the site, but read the stories first and decide which ones are appropriate. This site carries ads for a variety of commercial products.

A simple crossword created on eduBakery.com. You can save and print a blank version of the puzzle with just the clues, and a solution version with the words filled in, and then make copies for students.

eduBakery.com. This site will generate word games — crossword puzzles, bingo cards, word searches, and word scrambles — using the vocabulary of your choice. You can feed in vocabulary from a Ventures lesson, for example, and print out simple games using those words. However, what you get for free is limited, and doing more requires purchasing an upgrade to “deluxe.” For example, the site will make you a free crossword with up to 10 words and clues; more than 10 requires upgrading.

LETC teachers, do you have sites that you have used and liked? Please share via a comment or e-mail, and we’ll include them in a future post.