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Inquiry in the Adult
Classroom: An ESL Literacy
Experience
What is cancer?
What
are the
symptoms?
What are the steps to follow
for the treatment?
How can I help my sister cope
with this disease?
T
hese are examples of the
questions that the students
pursued in our class. Because
Federico's sister had been diagnosed
with cancer, he wanted to leam
more about the disease. As adults,
we are constantly asking questions;
inquiry is a human characteristic
and a natural activity present in
our daily lives. As illustrated in
the example above, in inquiry
cycles, students ask questions that
are relevant to them, collect data
to answer their questions, present
their findings, and start a new cycle
by formulating a new question
derived from the original question.
I conducted a qualitative
research study (Larrotta, 2005) and
collected data on the use of inquiry
cycles as a pedagogic activity to
provide students with opportuni-
ties to develop ESL (English as
a second language) literacy. The
purpose of this paper is to share
my findings on implementing
inquiry cycles in an ESL literacy
class with 17 Hispanic adults who
were enrolled in a cost-free adult
literacy program in Central Texas.
From experience working
as a volunteer instructor in ESL
literacy programs and as reported
by the study participants, two
main problems were identified:
student engagement and trans-
ferability of lessons to students'
lives.
I interviewed students that
had been enrolled in ESL literacy
classes from one to three years.
They said that they were used to
being passive
learners,
doing drills
and fill-in-the-blank exercises,
and rarely having homework. I
realized that in order for these
students to become active
Icamers. they needed to develop
ownership of the curriculum
and the curriculum conversation
needed to become a two-way
dialogue between the teacher
and the students. Implementing
inquiry cycles seemed to be
the answer to these problems.
Theoretical Framework
My work on implement-
ing inquiry cycles is based on
Knowles' (1990) adult learning
principles and Freire's (1970)
dialogic approach to literacy.
Adult teaming principles
(Knowles, 1990) include: adults
need to know why they are
teaming something; they are
self-directed and responsible for
their own decisions; they have
a wealth of life experiences
I
By Clarena Larotta
Ckirena Larrotta is assistant
profe.ssor
at
Texas
State University-San Marcos.
She teaches in the Adult. Professional.
and Community Education Program.
(E-mail: cl24@txstate.edu)
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Inquiry can take students in different
directions when ihey are the ones that
formulate the questions.
and knowledge; they are ready to leam when there
is a specific leaming need; they are goal oriented
and learn about what is relevant to them; and
they are motivated to leam when they think
that leaming will improve their life conditions.
Freire's (1970) dialogic approach to literacy
implies a two-way
conversation in
which participants
are willing to leam
from each other
and transcend
their realities.
True dialogue is continual and based on genera-
tive themes. Generative themes "contain the pos-
sibility of unfolding into again as many themes
which, in tum, call for new tasks to be fulfilled"
(Freiré, 1970, p. 102). These are rich, complex
topics that resonate with students' lives and reality.
Adults have families and responsibilities that
they put on hold while participating in ESL literacy
programs. They expect to attend ESL classes where
their leaming needs are fulfilled and their time is
well spent. Therefore, the focus of our ESL literacy
lessons was on pursumg relevant (generative themes)
inquiries. The students investigated questions that
came from their own life experiences, interests,
and leaming needs. My role as the class instruc-
tor was to help them articulate their questions and
guide them in the process of pursuing answers.
Relevant Literature
There is little research available on the use of
inquiry cycles
in the
adult language classroom. Luke's
(2004) dissertation and Schwarzer and Luke's
(2001 )
paper are the most relevant and current sources on
this topic. Luke implemented inquiry cycles at the
college level with Anglo students learning Spanish
as a foreign language. Schwarzer and Luke presented
inquiry as a curricular framework and a holistic
teaching method. These researchers found the use
of inquiry cycles beneficial to language leaming and
appropriate to utilize with adult leamers. Schwarzer
and Luke state that "the inquiry cycle is a student-
centered approach
to
teaching and leaming that begins
with students self-selecting or generating a question
or set of questions about a topic that interests them"
(p.
89). Conversely, Short, Harste, and Burke
(
1996)
state that "curriculum as inquiry
is a
philosophy,
a
way
to view education... Inquiry is more than problem
solving...inquiry suggests altemate answers" (p.
51).
in different directions when they are the ones
that fomiulate the questions.
When the teacher provides
the questions, students often
think there is only one correct
answer. Inquiry-based literacy
lessons provide choice and
freedom to create, think, and
make decisions (Whitin & Whitin, 1997). In inquiry
cycles, students need to use leaming strategies such
as observe, wonder, explain, and generate a theory.
In our class, the students fomuilated the questions
they wanted to investigate and this practice promoted
student engagement and motivation to learn English.
The Study
This was an intermediate ESL literacy class
with 17 adults between the ages of
21
and 43. We
met for two hours in the evening twice a week
for sixteen weeks. Pablo, Arturo, Federico, and
Flora (pseudonyms) arc the focal participants on
which this paper is based. They attended 85% of
the time and completed all project requirements.
Since I was the class teacher and the researcher,
classes were audio taped and I used teacher-
researcher methodology (Kincheloe, 2003) in order
to collect data for this qualitative case study. The
research question guiding the study was: What
happens in an adult ESL literacy class when we
implement inquiry cycles? Data sources included
interviews, anecdotal records, researcher's log, and
documents (student class evaluations, students'
posters, and written reports). The steps used for
data analysis were: Open coding (Creswell. 1994).
Tesch's (1990) systematic process of analyzing
textual data, and triangulation (Patton, 2002).
The Inquiry Project
The project was inspired by the seven steps
suggested by Short, et al., (1996) for implementing
inquiry cycles: building from the known, taking
time to find questions, gaining new perspective.
A 26 Adult Learning
attending to difference, sharing leaming, planning
new inquiries, and taking new action. However,
the steps we developed were: formulating the
question, identifying sources of information, doing
a preliminary report of progress, performing an
oral presentation with a poster, and coming up
with the next inquiry question to start a new cycle.
Each student chose a topic for inquiry and for-
mulated a "researchable" question. This question
needed to fulfill three requirements: (a) be connected
to students' lives, (b) be interesting enough for
students to invest time researching it, and (c) allow
for (English) language learning to happen.
I
provided
examples of questions to illustrate my own curiosity
as an adult because I wanted the students to realize
that asking questions is part of our daily life. We
identified mfonnation sources to find answers (local
libraries, websites, books, TV programs, videos, and
experts). Every week, the students reported on the
status of the project, and received feedback. Each
student prepared an oral presentation,
a
written report,
and a poster to present their answers in class at their
scheduled date. The last step was to formulate a new
question in order to start a new inquiry cycle because
"Progress
in
inquiry
is
having new understandings and
new questions to ask" (Short et al., 1996, p. 260). The
inquiry project was a cyclical activity; the students
kept repeating the steps they followed with their first
question in order to find answers to new questions.
Findings
The following four themes emerged from
the data: formulating the questions, feeling over-
whelmed, "leaming happened," and fun process.
Formulating the Questions
The questions formulated by the students
allowed for generative themes to develop. They in-
vestigated questions such as: What is cancer? Why
is there racism in America? How can I provide good
nutrition for my children? Some students struggled
to formulate their first question because they asked
questions that were too abstract, too broad, or because
they were worried about pleasing their instructor.
At the beginning of the project, Pablo said, "The
project is a good idea but difficult...I think about
you. What you will think about the answer. This is
the right answer or it doesn't go with the question?
What if you don't like my question? What if the
answer is wrong?" Once Pablo understood that this
was his project and that he could ask anything that
was relevant to his life, he was able to formulate his
question: "What does it mean to be a good parent?"
His project consisted of interviewing other parents
and reading about parenting. After this first question,
Pablo formulated other related questions (What can
I do to help my daughter become bilingual? Why
some of my friends' children do not speak Spanish?
What can I do to teach my daughter to appreciate the
Mexican culture?), and the inquiry cycle began again.
Feeling Overwhelmed
Some students felt overwhelmed with the
amount of information they were finding. They
started feeling confused and I needed to provide
them with extra guidance. This is what they said:
"The project is good, but it's hard...too much
information! This is the first time 1 do this
project; it's confusing.
1
make it more com-
plicated, but I'm trying!" (Arturo)
"It has been complicated for us...that's what
I observed; ... our language level is not the
same.... Nobody imposed on us the topic
to investigate, but I don't know why it's so
difficult." (Federico)
"It is good fun, but difficult! It's too much
infomiation. It took me a while to find the
question, but I like it." (Flora)
Some questions required the students to use
the Intemet for the first time or interview people
(neighbors and co-workers) in English. Most
of them had to identify specialized books and
magazines to read and find information that could
help them answer their questions. 1 advised them
on how to study and prepare for their presentation.
They prepared personal glossaries and teamed pro-
nunciation to be able to deliver their presentations.
Learning Happened
Students' learning went beyond what they were
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supposed to leam according to the curriculum
suggested by the literacy program. They developed
inquiry and reflection skills, learned grammar and
vocabulary in context, and became experts in their
specific topic. As a result of
this
project, the students
practiced "free voluntary reading" (Krashen,
2003) outside of class. In other words, they were
curious to know and read because they wanted to
read not because their teacher told them to read.
The inquiry project promoted reading as a means
to find information and learn English. Students
were reading with a specific purpose in mind. They
wanted to find answers to their questions. Together,
the students and I established the connection
between students' needs and class objectives. The
students developed listening, speaking, reading,
and writing skills using this one class activity.
Fun Process
In general, students thought the inquiry project
was fun and interesting. Federico said, "The project
is not traditional. There is no repetition; it's interest-
ing. It's new and it's a different way of leaming."
Arturo reported, "I didn't know about MLK Jr. or
racism problems in this country. With this project,
no need to repeat or memorize. It's a challenge to
answer the question. It's complex. There are many
answers." Arturo changed his perception about
reading because of this project. In the first interview,
he said that reading was boring for him. In the last
interview he said, "I leamed English and more...
reading can be interesting. That's why I liked the
inquiry project and because it's different... it's
a challenge and I decide what is read and when."
Arturo started to realize that reading could be
useful and interesting. He was reading from books
and the Intemet and he was not conscious about
the amount of reading he was doing. Reading was
no longer a passive activity but rather an active
task. Finally, Pablo and Flora agreed that "Finding
answers is fun, and I want to ask more questions."
Challenges
Some of the challenges we faced in our class
were: formulating the questions, mismatch in
student-teacher expectations, students collecting too
much infomiation
to
answer theirquestions, students'
use of new vocabulary, and time to accomplish a
first round of presentations. In order to overcome
these challenges, I prepared a mini-lesson on how to
formulate questions in English and had the students
practice asking questions with a group activity. The
students reported on the status oftheir projects peri-
odically and that helped me to find out how to help
and guide them in the process. We discussed vocabu-
lary leaming strategies and built personal glossaries
specific to their research topics. We needed to be
patient and support each other so that everybody had
a chance to present their inquiry project at least once.
As the class instructor,
1
was satisfied with the results
of
the
project, the motivation of the students, and the
amount of leaming that happened in our classroom.
Final Thoughts
In inquiry-based literacy classes, students are
highly motivated; they leam to make decisions about
their leaming and ask relevant questions. A sense of
community and belonging is created because inquiry
cycles allow for generative themes to develop and
promote engagement. This literacy activity provides
the students with meaningful and authentic leaming
experiences. The role of the teacher is to equip the
students with appropriate leaming strategies, fulfill
their leaming needs as they appear, recognize
teachable moments, guide students towards a focus,
and give them direction. Inquiry-based literacy
projects allow teachers and students to negotiate the
curriculum and to transfer what students leam in the
lesson to their
real
lives. Human beings are inquisitive
by nature; adult educators should exploit this human
characteristic to make their classes more student-
centered and create independent literacy leamers.
References
Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design and quali-
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Publications.
Freiré, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New
York: Continuum.
Kincheloe, J. L. (2003).
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as researchers:
Qualitative inquiry as a path to empowerment
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A 28
MuW
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use.
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Larrotta, C. (2005). Using a
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holistic,
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