Essential Skills

An “Implementation Guide for Instructors” is included, as a PDF, with this curriculum.  LINC 5 is designed to respond to the increasing numbers of immigrants who are entering Canada with higher levels of education and are testing at a CLB 5 level or higher. Despite their higher levels, these immigrants may still have skill gaps or language barriers that prevent them from entering a training program or post-secondary institution, or landing a job in their chosen field.

BBC Learning English is a department of the BBC World Service devoted to English language teaching. The service provides free resources and activities for teachers and students, primarily through its website.

The Can Do Statements for Employment are intended for immigrants seeking employment, employment counsellors, and employers. The Can Do Statements are based on the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB); they have been simplified and given a narrower focus to support their use in an employment context. The statements cover CLB levels 4–10, and offer an overview of each level from a workplace perspective. They provide examples of English-language tasks in a variety of workplace-related contexts:

You need to "Add to Cart" in order to download, which means registering to order.

The resources from this website below will be useful to instructors and learners in understanding culture. English Language Lessons (Canadian point of view).  Below are two examples:

• Polite English: What Not to Say to People
• Cultural Differences:  An Intro for ESL Students

This resource includes vocabulary and contextual information for occupations, including airline, hotel, food & beverage, nursing, police, cashiers, tour guides, taxi. Some audio available.

This is a 240-page e-book that provides lessons in reading, document use and math. The lessons are built on real-life examples and follow four individuals in the workplace in Ontario. The organization and layout is appealing to a reader. The four individuals work in four different jobs. Instructors and students can decide which worker to learn about. There is self-assessment as well as critical thinking questions embedded in the modules.

Eye on Literacy wordless picture books are designed by two Canadian educators for literacy learners with limited formal education. The books contain high quality visuals to build on the oral language skills of adult second language literacy learners with limited schooling, to help create learner-generated texts. The site states: "Moving the learner from oral language to print through visuals creates an environment where, together, the teacher and learner can build meaningful contexts and decoding skills. The emphasis is on oral language which becomes the stepping stone to the reading and writing process."

Each book comes with assessments with audio. Yearly subscriptions $45 or books can be purchased individually.

Guided Pathways: Integrating Essential Skills is a five-year project funded by the Government of Canada. An online training workshop designed to equip career development practitioners with tools to assess client needs and provide more effective pathways to gainful employment will be delivered to 900 career development practitioners across Canada.

This online textbook is geared towards CLB 5–6 learners. It is designed to be used by an instructor or tutor. An instructor guide is provided. The focus is on the Canadian workplace: workplace culture, development of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, plus Essential Skills and intercultural competence.

The text introduces two characters, a Strategy Coach and a Workplace Mentor. The Strategy Coach provides strategies to develop language skills. The Workplace Mentor introduces learners to general workplace culture in Canada.

• Video tasks and focus questions help learners develop “noticing skills” and prompt discussions about similarities and differences between the learner’s home culture and Canadian culture.
• Reading sections provide reading passages, pre- and post-reading activities. There is also a reading progress check for self-assessment.
• Each listening section has two listening texts with pre- and post-listening activities, and a listening progress check for practice and self-assessment.
• A writing section with pre-writing tasks, writing practice and a progress check. A rubric is included that generally aligns with CLBs.
• A speaking section contains pronunciation, speaking practice and a progress check. A rubric is included.
• Wrap-up includes discussion, reflection and extension tasks. The extension activities have vocabulary log activities, community tasks and research opportunities.

There is a workbook and an online course for newcomers hoping to find a job in food processing occupations.  The course provides instruction in job skills, job-specific language, vocabulary and pronunciation, Canadian workplace culture, workplace documents, and health and safety. This is a joint-project of the Alberta government and Alberta Workforce Essential Skills (AWES); it is open to all newcomers to Canada.

This resource book contains curriculum for financial literacy with well-presented teaching guidelines.Resource for Literacy Learners on the topics: Economy, Employment, Personal Management from 2002.

Measure Up allows individuals to practice the three Essential Skills of reading text, document use and numeracy. The Choices of Activities include testing and practicing skills, exploring careers and workbooks that are specific to the construction, tourism and trucking sectors. Free to download. The explore careers section is aligned with both Essential Skills and National Occupational Codes. Related Resources is no longer live.

This is an American news website is designed for mainstream classrooms, but is adaptable for English learners (5 reading levels) and set for designed for distance learning; it allows teachers to assign online learning activities to classes. The content includes news stories and articles about law, science, sports, opinion and arts and culture. Support for educators is offered.  Teachers without a subscription may access news stories only.

This resource explains the relationship between Essential Skills and the Canadian Language Benchmarks (caveat: CLB 2000 was used). This is an excellent resource for developing tasks based on real-world employment examples. You will need to "Add to Cart" in order to download. The PDF will be emailed to you.

This website contains a range of resources to aid in delivering instruction to children and adults who have had their formal education interrupted. Includes teaching resources and essential learning indicators for language, literacy and numeracy.

Resources for more intensive intervention:

• Young Complex English Language Learners (ELLs) Toolkit
• Complex English Language Learners (CELLS) Toolkit

An award-winning British Columbia resource, The Westcoast Reader is designed for beginning adult readers, both ESL and English literacy learners. National and local news stories are adapted from The Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers, in addition to articles on health, safety, law and daily life. The paper is printed on a monthly basis for 10 months of the year, and provides a good orientation to Canadian culture and everyday life.

There are links to videos, photos and maps in the online paper. Each front page article has an audio file, allowing learners to read and listen to the story simultaneously. Teacher notes contain instructional strategies and answer keys.

The articles are not referenced to the CLBs. They are written with three levels of difficulty, suitable for CLB Stage 1 learners and higher level ESL Literacy learners.

The following groups can receive The Westcoast Reader free:

• Community Adult Literacy Programs (CALP)
• ESL, EAL and ABE programs provided by public post-secondary institutions
• Literacy Outreach Coordinators (LOC)
• Public libraries

There is a section on Tutela under Resources that focuses on teaching resources. The resources can be explored by theme or level. While the full collection has not been reviewed, they may provide a starting point for developing curriculum.  You must register (it's free) in order to access the information.

The site includes searchable databases:

• Occupations
• Fields of study
• Outlook
• Wages

The point of view is Essential Skills. There is an online assessment of individual skills and knowledge, descriptions of the nine essential skills and access to a Canadian national job bank.