Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies (AAISA)

Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks

The Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks (CCLB) supports the use of the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB) and les niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NCLC) - national standards in English and French for describing, measuring and recognizing second language proficiency of adult immigrants and prospective immigrants for living and working in Canada.

CCLB has developed many resources and tools for both CLB and NCLC that are available for free or at a very small cost on language.ca, bookshelf.language.ca, itsessential.ca and tutela.ca. Practitioners are supported in using these tools through guides such as Integrating Assessment into a CLB Classroom and through the many training/professional development workshops offered by CCLB. Training is offered online or face-to-face. Information on the types of training available can be obtained by contacting info@language.ca.

Benchmarking of occupations and the development of Occupational Languages Analyses are also available. Visit itsessential.ca for more information.

Community Support Program for Survivors of Torture

A program that builds community supports for refugees who have experienced torture or war-related violence.

Services in the SOT program:

• Families and individuals are introduced to a volunteer who helps to connect them to Canadian society.
  
• Referrals to settlement and community services.
  
• Referrals to professional services with specialized knowledge in working with survivors of trauma.
  
• Ongoing support and case management from the program coordinator.
  
• Community awareness building.
  
• Educational workshops for the community on topics related to torture and trauma.
  

For more information, please contact the Program Coordinator at 403-290-5466.

Edmonton Refugee Sponsorship Support Program (SSP Edmonton)

SSP Edmonton is a branch of a nation wide project that trains lawyers to assist groups seeking to privately sponsor refugees. If you are approached by a private sponsorship group that require assistance with the application process, please refer them to sspedmonton@gmail.com to be matched with a SSP Pro Bono Lawyer. The task of matching sponsor groups to trained lawyers will be done by a small group of U of A law students. To ensure that we are not flooded with general calls about refugee sponsorship, we would ask that you only refer groups to us that are ready to work with a lawyer.

Before contacting SSP Edmonton groups should:

• Become familiar with basic information about Canada's sponsorship program
  
• Assemble their sponsor group
  
• Determine what type of sponsorship they will pursue
  
• Identify the refugee that they will bring to Canada
  
• Decide they are ready to begin the application process
  

As SSP Edmonton grows, we would also like to continue strengthening our relationship with our community partners.

Local Immigration Partnerships (LIPS)

A LIP is an initiative to support the settlement and integration of newcomers to Canada by fostering welcoming and inclusive spaces, organizations, businesses, and communities through collective actions. LIPs were established by the Government of Canada and can be found across the country.

Alberta Routes

Formerly the Rural Routes Program Initiative, NorQuest College’s Alberta Routes program addresses the professional development (PD) needs of rural and small urban English language programs in Alberta, and strives to build capacity in ESL staff and volunteers who deliver programming in their communities.

Our services include:

• in-person and online workshops
• study groups and talking circles
• mentorship support
• classroom visits
• PD planning

Our website is an online source for information, quality resources, upcoming events, and is home to easy-to-read tip sheets that highlight key topics relevant to the ESL community.

The Refugee Project

This Alberta Association of Immigrant Serving Agencies initiative offers resources for the public, organizations, and for refugees.

The Canadian Council for Refugees

The Canadian Council for Refugees is a national non-profit umbrella organization committed to the rights and protection of refugees and other vulnerable migrants in Canada and around the world and to the settlement of refugees and immigrants in Canada.  The membership is made up of organizations involved in the settlement, sponsorship and protection of refugees and immigrants.  The Council serves the networking, information-exchange and advocacy needs of its membership.

Online Instructional Resources

English Accent Coach

The resource was developed by Professor Ron Thomson of Brock University. It is based on research, which shows that hearing multiple voices produce the same vowels and consonants will help learners to create a good sound system in English. If teachers can identify where the students have problems, they can recommend that the learners work on all the sounds in the region (e.g., if learners have difficulty with the vowel in the word ‘hit’ they should practice all the front vowels). The results of their work can be sent to the teacher. Thomson’s work has shown that not only does perception improve with the use of such a resource, but production also improves.

Learning and Violence

Visit learningandviolence.net to learn about the ways violence and learning experiences are interwoven. Here you will find a wealth of information for teachers and learners. Note that this website does not work on mobile devices and some of the links here are broken, however, the site is still a mine of valuable information for anyone wanting to learn about the specific ways violence affects the learning process.

Pronunciation for Teachers

A new website from John Levis, Iowa State University. The website is intended to be a clearinghouse for interesting information about the field of second language pronunciation. We have begun to populate the site with some of the information that we had at hand. The areas include: Resources; Conferences; Websites solid resources, not advertisements); People with links to your work on sites like ResearchGate, Academia, or Google Scholar); Book or software reviews; Interesting videos (along with a brief description of what the video is good for); Organizations that are relevant to L2 pronunciation research and teaching; Research resources.

Tutela

Tutela is an online community for ESL/EFL professionals.

Online Resources and Services for ESL Literacy Instructors

English Code Crackers

• Provides tools teachers can use to help adult students ‘crack the code’ of English reader
  
• Houses Beginning Alphabetics Tests and Tools for alphabetics class needs assessment
  

ESL Literacy Readers

Our collection of forty theme-based readers, along with an instructors guide, will support ESL literacy instructors to create  comprehensive, theme-based lessons for adult ESL literacy learners.

The themes were carefully chosen and are both of high interest to learners, and more importantly, relevant to their lives. Every effort was made to ensure the stories would authentically represent learners themselves as well as events and issues that a typical learner may experience.

This page is for instructors and includes valuable information about the ESL Literacy Readers, including an Instructor Guide. There are two versions of each of the Readers. The Audio Book allows you to preview the contents of the book. The Print PDF has the book laid out for printing as a booklet.

Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults (LESLLA)

Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults (LESLLA) is an international forum of researchers and practitioners who share an interest in research into the development of second language and literacy skills by adult immigrants with little or no schooling prior to emigrating to their new country of residence.

LESLLA’s goal is to share empirical research and information that will guide further research on second language acquisition for the low-educated adult population. This research, in turn, will influence educational policy development in all those countries where immigrants settle and most need educational support for current research on second language and literacy acquisition for adults who are developing print text literacy for the first time.

Research articles can be found here.

*** The information contained on this page is provided as a benefit and service to ATESL members. While we attempt to present information which is useful for our members, and screen out potentially harmful information, we do not guarantee the accuracy, quality, completeness, or timeliness of this information.