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The status of vocational training for limited English proficient adults in Hampden County, Massachusetts
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to gain an in depth perspective on the practices of vocational programs that serve adults in Hampden County, Massachusetts. Through interviews with staff at selected educational and private industry sites, and through an examination of secondary sources of information such as census data, the following objectives were achieved. (1) The degree of participation of limited English proficient (LEP) students in both education and private industry sector programs was determined. (2) The practices now used to serve LEP students were identified and compared with those of the national Bilingual Vocational Training (BVT) model. (3) The general research base in this area of study was expanded by identifying and examining two additional program characteristics, not usually cited as part of the BVT model. (a) The extent of literacy instruction and the delivery models in use. (b) The use of critical teaching strategies. The study builds on the work done by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education in 1987, in which Friedenberg examined selected vocational programs across the nation using some of the same criteria. The study expands the research base created by that study, and by related studies, by examining closely the situation in Hampden County, and by including the two additional factors: literacy instruction and the use of critical teaching strategies. The author concludes that despite the presence of a large number of LEP adults in the county, virtually no opportunities exist in the education sector for those individuals to enter into a vocational skill training program with BVT features. Some programs are in place for current LEP employees in the private industry sites. Literacy instruction is well integrated with basic skills programs, where they exist. While there is evidence that a problem-posing, or critical approach to teaching would be well received by students, no such approaches were found to be in use in the examined programs. There is an urgent need for direct attention to the skill training needs of LEP adults in Hampden County.
Subject Area
Vocational education|Multicultural Education|Continuing education
Recommended Citation
Harns, Charles Michael, "The status of vocational training for limited English proficient adults in Hampden County, Massachusetts" (1992). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9305836.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9305836