As I am working at Phoenix College as an ESL adviser, I can easily describe my adult learning ESL population of Phoenix College. I did go to the ESL classes several times, and I help ESL students with the admission and know a lot about their learning practice in a class.
When we are describing adult learners as independent and self-directed, I could not always agree with it when we are referring to ESL adult population. These people came from all around the world, most of them have a degree from their home country, they had a decent job or a business, were established and confident at some point of their life. However, they left all of that behind when they started all over in the USA. The ESL students need a lot of help and guidance with the learning process. Yes, most of them have a strong motivation to learn English and get a job, but others are only focusing on the short-term goals of getting a financial aid, or just a completing a certain ESL class. A lot of them need better goal settings and better planning in term of their educational and professional future. A lot of them do not utilize the college resources because they do not know about them or because they do not feel comfortable doing it on their own.
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Experienced ESL instructors know about all these challenging and try to accommodate the students best way they can (Hiemstra, 1991).
The class I was in seems to have a very friendly and respected environment, but it looks a bit quieter than some other classes in college I have attended. The leading role in the class still belongs to the teacher, not to the students. You can see a tendency for instructor to grade students based on their motivation and attendance more than based on their real assignment results. The instructor tried to facilitate students based on their personal needs, such as being flexible with homework, or opportunity to see a teacher after the class or during the office