In Conversation With Mary Gaia-Maretta
By Emily Albertsen
Mary Gaia-Maretta retired in the fall of 2008, after a long and dedicated career in ESL. Mary worked for many years at Bow Valley College, Calgary, where she focused on ESL literacy. She is a brilliant teacher, always striving to better meet the needs of and to advocate for our learners; she was also always willing to share with other instructors her ideas, her rich understanding of the field, and her experience. I was lucky to be able to work with Mary for two years, most recently on the development of a comprehensive introduction to ESL literacy: Learning for LIFE: An ESL Literacy Handbook.
Before leaving Calgary for further adventure afield, Mary gave one last presentation on ESL literacy, organized by ATESL. Instructors from across the city came out to hear her views on “Literacy – Beyond ‘Foundations.’” She spoke warmly, with humour and experience, on the differences between high-literacy cultures, such as Canada, and high-oracy cultures, such as the cultures of many ESL literacy learners. Mary summed up the challenge of these learners as they adapt to Canadian culture and shape their lives here: they struggle to develop strategies to deal with a high-literacy, analytical, and bureaucratic society.
Mary began the presentation by discussing traditional, high-oracy societies and technological, high-literacy societies. She highlighted the features of both: in a high-oracy society, there is a focus on oral communication, highly personal interactions, and collaborative work, as opposed to a high-literacy society, which focuses on written communication, impersonal or bureaucratic interactions, and individualized work. Oral cultures tend to be figurative and allegorical, self-referenced and intuitive, and fatalistic, while more literate cultures are abstract and theoretical, factual and logical, and with a focus on causality. It is clear that learners, moving from one culture to the other, face a tremendous challenge, for the expectations of Canadian society are different, and the skills and strategies they developed in their home countries will not serve them as well here.
Mary stressed that ESL literacy learners are not without skills and are not without strategies for learning; however, these strategies are very different. It is the task of the teacher to help these learners become aware of the expectations of the Canadian education system, Canadian culture, and the workplace, by meeting them where they are and building from their strengths. She suggests teaching through oral, collaborative activities; field trips; chants, singing, and clapping games; hands-on activities; and manipulatives. These activities can provide a bridge to developing reading and writing.
She also discussed the impact of moving from a high-oracy society to a high-literacy society, outlining the cause of culture shock and how this might affect learners in the classroom. She pointed out that when learners are in Canada, they are cut off from familiar cultural patterns, operate in ambiguous situations for long periods of time, and have their values questioned – in other words, they have very different cultural expectations which are frequently challenged or undermined. These expectations can cause behaviour that can be misinterpreted in the classroom; for example, learners from a highly collaborative society, where group work is valued far beyond the work of the individual, cannot be expected to know when it is acceptable to work together in a classroom, and when the teacher will call this “cheating.”
Mary completed her presentation by highlighting the importance of teaching specific strategies for learning, reading, and writing. She focused on how to develop organized learners, independent learners, learners with strategies, and learners who set goals. Mary is a dynamic and inspiring speaker; she made us laugh and she shared some of the great experience and knowledge she has. We wish her the best of luck in her next adventure, as she moves from Canada to China.