Cross-cultural Currents in Teaching Homebuying
Spring 1998
By Deb Cuenca
Salem Harbor CDC
Getting Started
I first introduced the topic of home ownership to my class by giving the students the Homebuying Quiz developed by the Adult Literacy Resource Institute. Beginning the class with a quiz was something I had never done before and the students were caught a bit off-guard, but they seemed to take it in stride. The quiz served as a preview because many of the answers would be found as they continued to study homebuying in the FannieMae curriculum. The quiz also helped to focus the class on key facts related to homebuying, such as keeping records of bill payments, saving money for a downpayment, etc.
Pictures from the Text Generate Lessons in Vocabulary and Pronunciation
I enlarged and photocopied the picture of Rosa and Manuel Castillo standing in front of a for-sale house in How to Buy a Home in the United States on p. 1. I left out the questions in the enlargement so that the students could focus mainly on the picture. We discussed the difference between "for sale" and "on sale" which had not been previously clear to all of the students.
We jotted down as many words as we could that had to do with the theme of the picture. We talked about the word "sign" as a noun - as in the "FOR SALE" sign and "sign" as a verb, as in to "sign" your name. "Sign" as a verb led to the word "signature." The students then again reminded me of how irregular English is. For example, the word "sign" is pronounced with a long "i" and silent "g," compared to the word "signature" in which the "i" becomes short and the "g" is fully pronounced. We then answered the questions below the picture which I found to be very helpful and comprehensive.
Next I enlarged and photocopied the picture at the beginning of Lesson One of Unit One, "This apartment is too small!" I asked the students to call out the different things they saw in the picture - such as bookcase, books, lamp, etc. This one simple exercise worked very well because it showed me what vocabulary the students already knew and which words/synonyms they needed to learn. Vocabulary quizzes are something my students particularly enjoyed and so I had plenty of material right there which would serve as the basis for our next quiz.
A student in our class, Jacqueline, has come a long way. She started the class as a beginner - not knowing the meaning of "How are you?". She soon was acing each and every quiz given to her. The quizzes helped all of the students to retain essential information.
The Under the Mattress Saving Plan
The story of Rosa and Manuel Castillo which appears on p. 2 of How to Buy a Home in the United States sparked an in-depth discussion of traditional and non-traditional credit. A subconscious fear of mine was confirmed: A few of the students admitted - albeit laughingly - to investing in what I call the "UMSP" -- or "Under the Mattress Savings Plan". A heartfelt thank you goes out to the Fannie Mae Foundation and the Center for Applied Linguistics for including this topic in the curriculum. Again, the material informed instruction. Many students come from countries where the banks could not be trusted, which is why they keep money at home. The students and I talked about the necessity of placing hard-earned money in a safe institution, free from theft and fire. I told them that US banks are insured against fires, robberies, and market crashes.
Bank Fees and Services
Two of the students who have checking accounts at local banks chimed in to say that their monthly service charges were too high. We talked about the two respective banks, Fleece Bank (oops! - "Fleet" I guess is the way they spell it) and Eastern Bank. Since I'm no banker, I suggested that each of the two students bring in brochures from their banks. Together we would determine if they should in fact close their accounts and open new ones elsewhere. We are still working in that area. I plan to invite a bank representative to speak to the class.
Curriculum Features
In the curriculum, the "Comprehension Check" and "Talk About It!" sections were interesting and clear. Students did have difficulty with some of the more sophisticated vocabulary which appeared in the "Talk About It! " section. The meanings of words such as "should," "borrow," "advice," "advantages," and "disadvantages" were necessary to understanding the content of the questions and so students were often stumped. Once we defined the meanings, however, we were back to smooth sailing.
The students brainstormed and listed several advantages and disadvantages, (some I had not even considered!) as suggested in Lesson One on page 3. This exercise later proved beneficial when it came time for them to to write a letter of advice to Rosa and Manuel Castillo.
The Vocabulary section that follows, on page 4, was also beneficial because the students learned three new words: "borrow," "owe," and "lend." (They previously knew the word "loan" as both a verb and a noun.) We practiced working with these new words by borrowing, owing and lending pens and pencils to each other.
The grammar review that follows was certainly no review for any of my Intermediate students. It was a very nice and clear presentation and the particular use of the bold and italicized words were most beneficial. My students picked up the difference between the simple past and the present perfect extremely quickly, as evidenced by their successfully completing the five cloze sentences that followed, a few other examples I came up with and one example I had each of them formulate.
Writing and Revising
We then worked on answering questions 1-8 from the worksheet Writing a Long Paragraph developed by the Adult Literacy Resource Institute. The students and I enjoyed this activity because they had the floor, so to speak. They were able to answer the questions and carry on quite lengthy conversations based solely upon what they themselves had generated as content. I liked it because all of the students were interacting and enjoying it. They were so eager to speak up and share their feelings that they actually interrupted each other, but in ENGLISH -- and this happened repeatedly!
The letter-writing exercise was difficult. They worked very diligently for a couple of days on their letters and came to know what the word "revision" means. When the letters were perceived by me (a bilingual English-Spanish speaker) to be comprehensible to a native English speaker not used to dealing with limited English speakers, the corrections stopped. The students who spent the longest time working on their letters were most pleased with the finished product. In fact, a few of the students typed theirs. I made copies of each of the letters and distributed them to all of the students. They liked the idea of being able to keep a sample of their classmate's work and they took pride in the fact that someone cared about keeping their letters.