International Students and Academic Libraries: An

Information Literacy Plan

Assignment #3
University of McGill
GLIS 679, for Professor Joan Bartlett

by
Silviu Serban

10 December 2007
© All rights reserved
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Table of Contents
Information Literacy (IL) Scenario..................................................................................... 4 
Target population:........................................................................................................... 4 
Audience: ........................................................................................................................ 4 
Type of course offered to ESL students:......................................................................... 4 
IL challenges................................................................................................................... 4 
Literature Review................................................................................................................ 5 
Assessing information literacy needs................................................................................ 10 
Instructional goals and objectives for ESL students ......................................................... 12 
Methods of instruction ...................................................................................................... 13 
Curriculum, instructional program and materials ............................................................. 15 
Curriculum and instructional programs ........................................................................ 15 
Evidence of student learning......................................................................................... 16 
Instructional materials................................................................................................... 17 
Evaluation and revision of IL plan.................................................................................... 18 
Appendices........................................................................................................................ 21 
Appendix A................................................................................................................... 23 
Appendix B ................................................................................................................... 25 
Appendix C ................................................................................................................... 26 
Appendix D................................................................................................................... 28 
Appendix E ................................................................................................................... 31 
Appendix F.................................................................................................................... 32 
Appendix G................................................................................................................... 33 
Appendix H................................................................................................................... 35 
Appendix I .................................................................................................................... 37 
Appendix J .................................................................................................................... 38 
Appendix K................................................................................................................... 40 
Appendix L ................................................................................................................... 42 
Works Cited ...................................................................................................................... 45 
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Information Literacy (IL) Scenario

Type of library environment:

The instruction takes place in a North American university under the auspices of its ESL

department in collaboration with its academic library.

Target population:
First year ESL students who are registered in diverse programs: history, psychology,

political science, biology, geology, statistics, music, English, business administration and

other disciplines.

Audience:
ESL teachers, librarians, library administrators, faculty members from the English

department, members of the faculty administration (see Appendix A, page 23, for a list of

members’ names who will give their input for the IL plan).

Type of course offered to ESL students:

It has been discussed and approved to integrate the ESL instruction with library

instruction. These ESL courses, adapted to students’ linguistic competence, will be

offered for the length of a semester.

IL challenges
- Accommodating differences of ESL students’ linguistic skills

- Teaching ESL students library skills more than one semester.

- Designing tailored tests that will properly evaluate students’ language ability in

relation to their information literacy skills (after having finished the information
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literacy program, how well are these students prepared? What are our flaws in

assessing these students at the end of the class?)

- Making instruction relevant to students’ immediate information needs

- Marketing an info literacy program to different parties (see Appendix B, page 25,

for brainstorming solutions)

- Measuring how well students learned information literacy skills after they finish

the information literacy training

- Training librarians to instruct ESL students

Minimum Duration of a Single Instruction (to familiarize ESL

students with their instructor librarians):

Studies suggest that individualized instruction is more effective for ESL students.

However, it might be difficult to have librarians teach for fifty minutes since they have

other activities to perform as their work in the academic library is quite demanding. Yet,

we understand how important is to familiarize ESL students with librarians from the

beginning of the semester. Consequently, we have established that even if there is a

crunch time, we can always get one of our colleagues to give instruction for at least 15

minutes, as librarians’ presence will make a difference to ESL students.

Literature Review
THIS LITERATURE review looks into one particular aspect of ANZIIL (2004) standard

two: “information literate person finds needed information effectively and efficiently.”

The aspect discussed here is adapted to address international students’ ability to identify

keywords, synonyms, and related terms to properly formulate a research topic. The term
 6

“international students,” in this review, means university students from non-English

speaking countries who are studying in academic institutions in English speaking

countries. In this paper, these students are also referred to as or ESL (English as a Second

Language) students.

Some results of a survey that was sent to hundreds of American universities

across show that international office personnel and library staff identified that language

and communication problems are the number one on the list of issues for international

students (Baron & Dapaz, 2001). In the same vein, results coming from another survey,

which tested one hundred twenty-eight ESL students (they were enrolled in ESL writing

programs) from different faculties, have shown that 38% of these students would have

liked that ESL classes to deal more with learning vocabulary (Leki & Carson, 1994). As a

confirmation, another study shows that when it came to writing assignments, which were

to be completed at home, ESL students copied each other’s work; in other words, in

addition to lack of awareness of ethical aspects, these students had major problems with

their language abilities (Hurley, Hegarty, & Bolger, J., 2006). Unfortunately, the library

literature offers very few examples to show how effective the library instruction for ESL

students is (Conteh-Morgan, 2002).

Some academic institutions offer specific information literacy programs that are

designed for ESL students (Hurley, Hegarty, & Bolger, J., 2006). Other schools offer

EAP (English for Academic Purpose) programs with embedded information literacy

lessons and are designed for ESL students whose linguistic skills vary from basic to

advanced level. Generally, these students must complete an English language test and its

results assist instructors to match students’ linguistic abilities with appropriate ESL
 7

courses. As it is often the case, these courses are intensive and are meant to put ESL

students on the same foot with their native English-speaking colleagues (Bagnole, 2003;

Prucha, Stout, & Lurkowitz, 2005). At lower levels, these courses are skill-based

(reading, writing, grammar, and listening), and, at more advanced levels, content-based

(gathering and evaluating info) (Bagnole, 2003). A qualitative study shows that some

highly motivated ESL students improve their linguistic skills in libraries (Bordonaro,

2006).

There are combined ESL and IL programs that have the ultimate goal to help ESL

students develop their information literacy skills. One of the most important objectives is

the ability to use an online catalogue, to become effective in identifying keywords,

subjects headings and their hierarchies, with the ultimate goal of defining an appropriate

topic for a research paper (Bagnole, 2003; Hurley, Hegarty, & Bolger, J., 2006; Prucha,

Stout, & Lurkowitz, 2005). Consequently, students learn to conceptually transfer

cognitive skills from using keywords (uncontrolled vocabulary) to identifying subject

headings (controlled vocabulary). To generate keywords more easily ESL students need

to build and reinforce their ability to brainstorm synonyms (Bagnole, 2003). This is why

when teachers design instructional materials teachers should keep in mind that they

should come up with vocabulary exercises that must be relevant to students’ programs

and link library concepts with synonyms and related words (Bagnole, 2003; Conteh-

Morgan, 2002). Being exposed to this linguistic coaching, students learn how to

formulate a search term for a topic, look for its relevant synonyms (language objective)

and relate them (library objective) (Conteh, 2001).

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Unless librarians are aware of theories of the second language acquisition (SLA),

they may not properly teach library skills to ESL students (Conteh-Morgan, 2002). To

understand how to improve the acquisition of those skills, librarians can also look at two

major current SLA theories that appear to have drawn more attention among ESL

specialists. The innatist theory states that language learning comes from within – humans

learn language with a “language acquisition device.” One of its implications for second-

language speakers is that they learn a language without necessarily having to be overtly

taught linguistic rules (Conteh-Morgan, 2002). The interactionist theory hypothesizes

that language can be learned mostly through interactions between students, or between

students and instructors; these interactions are contextually meaningful to learners

(Conteh-Morgan, 2002). However, some SLA research-based studies suggest that

successful ESL learners are motivated in the sense that they tailor specific-learning tasks,

always search for meaning, and are aware of how to internalize information (Ellis, 1994).

Librarians should know how to design a course and, for that purpose, they need to

understand their students’ needs (Mariner, 2006). One major source of information is to

get information from the international office of the university (Mariner, 2006). Also, ESL

instructors are in good position to provide information literacy education because they are

already familiar with students’ communication problems. In addition, other studies

suggest that both ESL instructors and librarians should collaborate as they should

understand that learning different rhetorical writing styles is similar to learning different

library searching approaches. For example, students can compare the use of appropriate

style and usage to the use of appropriate search strategies, or to the ability of evaluating

resources (Conteh-Morgan, 2001).

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Librarians should ensure that students learn in friendly environment, with a small

teacher-student ratio, and that students receive individualized attention -- as they prefer

face-to-face interaction -- in order to overcome fear when they learn library skills

(Conteh-Morgan, 2002; Churkovich, 2002; Mariner, 2006; Prucha, Stout, & Lurkowitz,

2005). It is generally admitted that classes over 15 students and an infrequent contact

with the instructor have a negative impact on students’ learning (Hurley, Hegarty, &

Bolger, J., 2006). Also, when librarians speak to their students, they should use a

medium-level vocabulary and avoid telling that a task is difficult or use any type of

jargon. When instructors utter new library terms, they and should write the words on the

board, so students can look them up after the course (Mariner, 2006; Prucha, Stout, &

Lurkowitz, 2005). Also, instructors should speak at a normal rate but should pause

between each major semantic chunk (a group of sentences related to one idea) (Conteh-

Morgan, 2002; Mariner, 2006). If a task is difficult, instructors should consider the

schema theory, which means helping students solve exercises in small steps (Mariner,

2006). Also, instructors should be taking different learning styles into account: visual,

auditory, and kinaesthetic. For example, when doing presentations at the board,

instructors should draw concept maps provide the visual part of learning; lectures are for

auditory part; and kinaesthetic part of learning is used for hands-on exercises

(Mariner,2006; Conteh-Morgan, 2002).

It must be noted that none of these studies show how successful ESL students are

in finding synonyms and properly formulate a topic. In the ESL literature pertinent to

librarianship, there seem to be significantly fewer research-based studies than

recommendation-based ones, and some of the studies from both categories have been
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analyzed in this literature review. Overall, it is rather difficult to assess how successful

the literacy programs were and what had to be corrected.

Assessing information literacy needs

First, we identified our available resources (see Appendix I, page 37). These resources

are the basis for our new program, and they will allow us to set realistic objectives.

Second, we need to collect information about our target ESL students who are attending

ESL classes and whom we want to use the library. One way to collect information is to

gather evidence by using passive and active methods (Burkhardt, 2005; Grassian, 2001).

The passive evidence is the information we get from our librarian colleagues who deal

mostly with international students. In our future discussions with these librarians, we will

find out if have noticed ESL students’ attitudes towards libraries, these students’

linguistic skills, and their preferred learning styles. Also, we need to obtain data about

students’ ethnic, cultural, and educational background from the international students’

office. Our ESL instructors’ experience is a reliable source of information as they are

quite familiar with the challenges and difficulties these international students encounter,

so we can ask them to share their observations (Grassian, 2001).

Using an active approach, we need to improve our current information literacy

course offered at our university so we can respond to these ESL students’ needs.

Therefore, we have decided to ask our seven librarians to attend ESL classes, with

university administration and faculty’s permission, and familiarize themselves with the

type of population that is attending these classes, their linguistic and communication

skills. We have also asked a faculty member who is an SLA specialist in to give a lecture

on current SLA theories that relate to library instruction. In addition to librarians’

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observations, our ESL instructors will share their observations about the most frequent

problems they have noticed in students’ assignments: in other words, we want to know

whether there is a particular group that is more at risk; whether ESL instructors teach

students any library skills; what time the ESL classes are offered (day, evening). This

way, we can assess which ESL classes can be combined with information literacy classes

(for conducting needs assessment, see Appendix C, page 26).

Most likely, some of our senior librarians have an accurate idea about how many

ESL students usually attend their information literacy classes. These librarians most

likely know how these students had been performing. Also, to understand what these ESL

students’ perceptions of information literacy programs are, we have considered

organizing some focus groups with ESL students. Some pre-tests are necessary to assess

these students’ knowledge of information literacy before they embark on our information

literacy program. ESL instructors will assess these students’ writing skills and command

of language. One pre-test can be done with our specialized online tool that assesses

students’ research skills (however, we recommend that advanced ESL students with more

advanced computer skills should use this tool). More specifically, this tool simulates the

function of the OPAC catalogue and students are asked to choose appropriate keywords

related to a topic and perform searches with those keywords (Churkovich & Oughtred,

2002). With that educational software, and with our technology assistant’s help, students

will improve their research skills (a good reason for improvement is that students can

learn this tool at their pace before the test). Overall, students will learn how to

meaningfully relate keywords within a topic. Once students acquire those skills, they will

go through another pre-test that consists in writing essays. (Grassian, 2001).

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Quite importantly, we have to ensure that needs assessment is synchronized with

the library mission statement (stated in the IL Plan Implementation and it is not included

here). For that purpose, we need to interview people from the library administration,

faculty members, and make sure that we get support. Another significant question is

whether the administration is willing to provide more resources (example, we may need

more librarians for our info literacy classes). Also, we need to market an effective

message to the ESL faculty members that ESL students need information literacy skills.

A detailed version of needs assessment, costs, and a marketing plan will be included in

another document, the Information Literacy Plan Implementation (not included here).

Instructional goals and objectives for ESL students

By the end of the instruction period, ESL students should be able to achieve the following

competencies (ANZIIL, 2004). (For a detailed version of the Goals and Objectives, see

Appendix D, page 28).

Goals

I. The Information Literate (IL) ESL student establishes the type and depth of required

information

Objectives

1. The IL ESL student translates and makes clear the information need

2. The IL ESL student constantly updates his language skills

II The IL ESL student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently

Objectives

1. The ESL IL student interprets and executes adequately-planned search strategies

2. When necessary, the IL ESL student refines the search strategy

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Methods of instruction
For ESL students, face-to-face instruction seems more effective when it is

combined with some online instruction than supplying just online instruction. If we also

consider that ESL students prefer individualized attention to overcome fear when they

learn library skills, and that classes should not have more than 15 students, then we can

make a safe assumption in stating that face-to-face instructions should take priority.

However, the face-to-face instruction should be coupled with handouts, whiteboards, and

tours in the library (Grassian, 2001). Teaching should interweave lecture, discussions,

demonstrations, and hands-on activities that accommodate various learning styles;

respond to these ESL students’ immediate needs because, otherwise, they will loose

interest in the instruction (and we will not be effective); include the time that students

need to clarify their hand-outs; involve as practical exercises during the class time;

provide handouts with glossaries; design an environment in which students can come any

time to ask questions or feedback; aim to satisfy individual requirements, and one way to

do it is to ask students, before class, what topic is pertinent to their needs and include

examples that are relevant to these students; make arrangements for tours in the library,

especially tours that will help students understand how to use different library machines

(example, microfiche readers) (DiMartino and Zoe, 2000). The methods of instruction

are subject to several constraints: cost and the available budget, time constraints, the

available equipment (computers, hardware, teaching materials, software for instruction).

These aspects will be presented in more detailed in the Information Literacy

Implementation Plan (not included here).

Another issue is to take into account our ESL students’ computer skills. They will

go through a computer test for the instructors to have an idea where to start from, and
 14

whether some computer lessons are necessary (see Appendix E, page 31). Once we

determine students’ level of expertise we can have an idea about how to approach our

teaching. All these details will be explained in the Information Literacy Plan

Implementation document, once this IL plan will be approved.

We have considered are three different scenarios for library instruction: 1)

librarians, with the input from ESL teachers, deliver the instruction; 2) ESL teachers,

with the input from librarians, deliver the instruction; 3) both ESL teachers and librarians

collaborate in the class to deliver the instruction. The third scenario is more desirable and

realistic. It is desirable because ESL students, in addition to learning from their already

familiar ESL instructor, they get to know, at their pace, a librarian; the scenario is

realistic because it is less costly. (This aspect will be detailed in Information Literacy

Plan Implementation document, after the present IL plan is approved).

In spite of some ESL students’ difficulty to work in groups, librarians and ESL

instructors would have to design group workshops that take into account the following

aspects: tasks have to be quite structured, and objectives, procedures and outcomes are

clearly defined; multiple responses are encouraged in the class so the ESL students can

create a collective knowledge; tasks should be divided into small segments that relate to

creative problem solving, and relevant to what students need at that moment; a time

frame should be clearly stated and reasonable; librarians should constantly check how

students are doing when they perform the tasks (DiMartino and Zoe, 2000).. Since ESL

students have a major difficulty with the vocabulary, librarians should supplement face-

to-face training with Web-based tutorials and computer-assisted instruction: it appears

 15

that ESL students need more human interaction than mainstream students (DiMartino and

Zoe, 2000).

Librarians should be sensitive to cultural differences and take them into account

when they designing instruction methods DiMartino and Zoe (2000). For example,

librarians and ESL teachers, need to set up partnerships; focus on assignments that are

contextually relevant to students (that is, applying the innatist theory); determine training

in small steps, from simple to complex tasks; participate in workshops in which native

and ESL speakers collaborate with the purpose of raising multicultural awareness for the

former, and to improve linguistic skills for the latter; undergo training to understand and

deal with different learning styles (that is, applying the interactionist theory); help the

other staff to be sensitive to cultural, linguistic, and technological obstacles. These

recommendations will be more detailed in the IL Implementation plan.

Curriculum, instructional program and materials

Curriculum and instructional programs
By the end of the training period, we expect our students to be able to find and

restate the appropriate terms for a topic of writing a research paper. Specifically, they

identify relevant information for their needs in a database or a library catalogue; translate

knowledge into new context; interpret, compare, contrast pieces of information. (The

forms of evidence for the student learning are spelled out in the next paragraph.) The

purpose is to produce ESL students whose language and information literacy skills are

near-native, skills that are essential to develop higher-thinking skills, which are necessary

during the study years at university and beyond. They should be able to describe, discuss,

and explain what they learn. Realistically, we do not expect them, before the IL
 16

instruction, to have the linguistic skills of native English speakers, but we expect ESL

students to possess basic knowledge of English (which will have been tested through

standard tests). In other words, we expect ESL students to lack some linguistic skills

(mainly vocabulary); ability to update those skills; ability to explain what pieces of

information are important if they attempt to do a search in a library catalogue or a

database; ability to narrow down their focus for their research papers. We also have to

test what works best in terms of length of time for instruction: thirty minutes or fifty

minutes. We will test this in a pilot study and its results that will be presented in detail in

the IL Implementation Plan.

Evidence of student learning

1. Interpret, compare, contrast pieces of information

Evidence: For a main term, students will be able to find BT, NT, RT, and opposite term

(see Appendix F, page 32).

2. Understand information relevant to what they need from the database or the library

catalogue

Evidence: Topic is given and they need to identify keywords, concepts and locate

information, and compare pieces of information from both sources (catalogue and

database are specified) (see Appendix G, page 33)

3. Translate knowledge into new context

Evidence: Subject search is given, they find a book in which they find a piece of info.

Then, they identify keywords in that piece of info; with those keywords, they will

identify an article in a database; then, in two sentences, they summarize what they read;
 17

after that, they have to explain why that articles is relevant, or not, to the topic of their

research paper (see Appendix H, page 35)

Instructional materials
Print materials. Some print materials are provided: library vocabulary (provided in

the IL Plan Implementation document); also some printed forms for exercises.

Print materials will also be provided to help students navigate in a library catalogue or a

specific database (materials are not shown here); these tools will have the information

displayed sequentially, so students can follow step by step the instructions. Some pictures

will be shown in the handouts in order to facilitate learning; for example, pictures will

show what the results are for a particular search, in both catalogue and database.

PowerPoint presentation. This type of presentation should be done sparingly

because ESL students prefer more interaction with their instructors. However, when this

presentation is done, instructors should take into account different styles of learning:

visual, audio (lecture), and kinaesthetic (note-taking on handouts) (Grassian, 2001). The

PowerPoint slides will be accompanied by handouts in which students can write their

notes. Concepts will be kept to a minimum in the slides (maximum 7 concepts per slide),

but the teacher should take time in class to detail each concept. Still, considering that

ESL students may have problems focusing on the presentation and writing notes in the

same time, a better solution is to distribute handouts with detailed notes at the end of the

presentation. Giving handouts at the end is a good way to reinforce learning, and students

are not stressed out to write down every single word.

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Online Instruction. Our university has purchased and redesigned a Web based

product for an ESL audience. This tutorial is interactive and it covers acquiring search

skills in a library catalogue, database, and Internet. In addition, Search Companion©

incorporates a more general research skill: defining and understanding the assignment

topic (tests are available, as well) (Churkovich & Oughtred, 2002). This product is

available offline and online, and it includes some of the material that is available in class

(finding synonyms for keywords, defining BT, NT, and RT terms). By using this

software, ESL students can learn at their own pace library skills. However, this software

is not used for grading. Our SLA specialist will assist the technology assistant to design

subject guides that may be particularly useful for ESL students to improve their library

skills. The library web page will have ESL links for subject guides (example, how to

generate a brainstorm for keyword searching).

Evaluation and revision of IL plan

This program should evaluate on a continuous basis once it has been implemented (to

identify the instruments for reviewing this plan, Appendix J, page 38) (Grassian, 2001).

Relevant aspects for evaluation:

- Students have learned what they were supposed to.

- Objectives are met

- Students improved their vocabulary, hence, the research skills

- Librarians and ESL instructors’ teaching methods are effective

- Instruction methods and materials are adequate

Library administrators and ESL faculty members want to see the final results. What that

means is that they want to see concrete data after one year to evaluate the IL program;
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they may favour quantitative methods to measure effectiveness. One way to measure the

effectiveness of the ILI program is to develop surveys that could be either printed or

online. These surveys can follow tests, for students have fresh in the memory how they

did in those tests (Grassian, 2001). Some evaluations can place during the instruction (by

observing students’ behaviour) and after the instruction (measuring students’ attitudes).

For the evaluation during the instruction (formative assessment), instructors want to

know precisely what parts of the instruction worked or not. For the evaluation done at the

end of the instruction (summative assessment) (Grassian, 2001), perhaps not as effective

as the formative assessment because, generally, people do not necessarily mean what they

say. Still, instructors have a way to actually measure students’ attitudes.

However, behaviourally, it is extremely difficult to find valid, reliable measures to

assess students’ performance because one has to measure linguistic competence

associated to information literacy competence. One way to perform evaluation is to see if

students simply identified the right terms; if the results obtained after a search match the

criteria of quality and relevance. The tests must be done in one place, in the same time,

with the same questions in order to minimize the external influences (Grassian, 2001).

Another important note, in the context of assessing ESL students’ acquisition of

language and information literacy skills, as ESL students have various cultural

backgrounds, is that it can be very difficult to measure this acquisition by using mainly

quantitative methods. More likely, qualitative measures, that is, open-ended questions in

informal interviews, can help us identify what where the most difficult aspects when

students learned to formulate questions for their topics, or in what circumstances they

found it was difficult to generate keywords, or what search strategies were the most
 20

difficult and why. (For informal interviews, see Appendix K, page 40). (For user

satisfaction look at the Library tutorial evaluation form, see Appendix L, page 42).
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Appendices
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Appendix A

People who support and are willing to contribute to the IL plan

Librarians:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________

Faculty members from the English department:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

ESL instructors:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________
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Library Administrators:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Faculty Administrators:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

(Source: based on the model found in Burkhardt,MacDonald & Rathemacher, 2004)

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Appendix B

Marketing the program to ESL students (major incentive: three education credits). Other

incentives:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Marketing the program to library staff (workshops, training sessions, brochures,

rewards):

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Marketing the program to faculty, staff, and administration (newsletters, presentations,

one-on-one discussions, workshops):

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________

(Source: based on the model found in Burkhardt,MacDonald & Rathemacher, 2004)

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Appendix C

Methods for conducting needs assessment

Student surveys:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Anecdotal evidence:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Types of reference questions coming from ESL students:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Questions addressed to our faculty Listserv:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
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________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Focus group interviews:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Observations on how ESL library users are doing research:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

(Source: based on the model found in Burkhardt,MacDonald & Rathemacher, 2004)

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Appendix D

Goals

I. The IL ESL student establishes the type and depth of required information

Objective

1. The IL ESL student translates and makes clear the information need

Outcomes

Having the topic, the ESL student formulates questions and develops a

thesis statement

Students read a newspaper or magazine article of their interest and are

asked to state questions that show whether students understood the

content. Having those questions, students are asked to take a stand. The

librarian assesses whether the questions are appropriate and if a logical

opinion can be inferred from those questions.

Behavioural output: Students demonstrate how to narrow down their

focus for a topic.

To indicate the information need, ESL students identify key concepts and

terms and locate sources in the library catalogue, using those key concepts

Students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine article, appropriate

for their ESL level, and are asked to underline key concepts or keywords.

Then they locate relevant sources. The instructor librarian compares

students’ findings with a list of sources that had been prepared.

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Behavioural output: Students demonstrate they understand which

sources are relevant for the key concepts they have identified.

1. The IL ESL student constantly updates his language skills

Outcomes

Finds appropriate synonyms for the key concepts and terms of the research

topic

Students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine article, appropriate

for their ESL level, and are asked to brainstorm and write down synonyms

or antonyms for key concepts or keywords they had identified in an article.

Behavioural output: They will perform this exercise every day during the

term. Students illustrate knowledge of words and their relationships.

II The IL ESL student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently

1. The ESL IL student interprets and executes adequately-planned search strategies

Outcomes

Identifies keywords, synonyms and related terms for the information

needed

Students are asked to read a newspaper or magazine article, appropriate

for their ESL level, and are asked to brainstorm and write down synonyms

or antonyms for key concepts or keywords they had identified in an article.

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In addition, they receive a handout with a map in which they will write the

key words they have generated under Broad Term, Narrow Term, Related

Term, and Opposite Term categories.

Behavioural output: Students recognize relationships of and hierarchies

between keywords and between subject headings.

3. When necessary, the IL ESL student refines the search strategy

Outcomes

Assesses whether the quantity, quality, and relevance of results match the

information needed

Students will be asked to identify books on careers in the online catalogue,

using specific keywords from a newspaper article; then they will locate

one of the books from a shelf and identify which pages are relevant for a

particular career of their interest. They will use that information to

identify relevant articles in an indicated database.

Behavioural outputs:

1) Students demonstrate how they narrow down relevant books and

database articles.

2) Students demonstrate how to find information on careers using a

library catalogue and a database.

(Source: inspired from ANZIIL, 2004)

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Appendix E

Computer Literacy Skills

None Unfamiliar with basic computer use

Beginner Limited knowledge of computer applications: sending email, slow

typing, poorly browsing the Internet

Intermediate Somewhat familiar with computer applications: knowledge of

Microsoft Explorer; able to type and use the mouse; familiar with

software menus; understands basic functions of the search

engines, understand software and hardware problems; limited

skills for repairing PC.

Advanced Quite familiar with computer applications: understands multiple

software applications; uses macros; knows Boolean operators,

nesting and truncation; understands and is able to fix software and

hardware problems; learns quickly new software and identifies

finds functional and design issues.

(Source: based on the model found in Grassian, 2001)

 32

Appendix F

Keyword Sheet

Broad Terms Narrow Terms

Main Terms

Related Terms Opposite Terms

(Source: based on the model found in Bagnole, 2003)

 33

Appendix G

Library Exercise #1

1. Topic:____________________________________________________

2. Key terms or key concepts to use in searching:

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

3. Use the library catalogue (http://muse.ouruniversity.ca/library) to locate one book

on your topic. Fill in the blanks bellow:

Title:________________________________________________________

Author:______________________________________________________

Date of publication:____________________________________________

Call number:__________________________________________________

4. Using the same keywords you defined in 2, locate information on your topic in

this database: Humanities Full Text (Wilson). Fill in the blanks bellow:

Title of article:_________________________________________________

Author:_______________________________________________________
 34

Date of publication:_____________________________________________

Page numbers:_______

Journal title/volume number/issue number:

__________________________________________________/_____/_____

5. Compare the two pieces of information -- the information you found in a chapter,

or chapters, of the book and the information you found in the article -- and write

down their similarities and differences.

(Source: based on the model found in Prucha, Stout, & Lurkowitz, 2005)
 35

Appendix H

Library Exercise #2

1. Do a subject search for Career changes in the library catalogue. Select the book

that was published the most recently. Fill in the blanks bellow:

Title:________________________________________________________

Author:______________________________________________________

Date of publication:____________________________________________

Call number:__________________________________________________

2. Choose a career from this book and write down the job titles and related job titles,

and page number(s) where you located the information.

Job title:______________________________________________________

Related job titles:_______________________________________________

Page number(s):________________________________________________

Write down important aspects of the job title:

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________
 36

3. Go to the database Factiva accessible on campus on the library web page. Find one

article on the job titles you found in 2. Write down the following information:

Title of article:_________________________________________________

Author:_______________________________________________________

Date of publication:_____________________________________________

Page numbers:

Journal title/volume number/issue number:

__________________________________________________/_____/_____

4. Skim the article and describe it in two or three sentences.

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________

5. Compare the information in the article with the information you found in the book

and explain which one is more appropriate for your topic. If they are both relevant to

your topic, explain why.

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

(Source: based on the model found in Prucha, Stout, & Lurkowitz, 2005)
 37

Appendix I
Available resources

Personnel

- 6 ESL instructors (basic, mid and advanced ESL)

- 1 SLA specialist

- 4 full-time librarians (liaison librarians -- none of them has any ESL expertise)

- 3 part-time librarians (evenings; weekends – one of them has ESL expertise)

- 1 library technology assistant administers computers, the online tutorial, and

updates the library’s website

Facilities

- 3 training rooms in the library

- using ESL classrooms for information literacy

Technology

- one online tutorial which assesses students’ catalogue and keyword searching

skills

- web pages with subject guides (they are not specifically designed for ESL

students)

- workstations in each of the library training rooms

(Source: based on the model found in Delaware County Community College, 2004)
 38

Appendix J

Planning the next goals and objectives:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Reviewing the present goals and objectives:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Marketing the plan and its implementation:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

Reporting our success widely:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________
 39

Looking for new opportunities:

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________

(Source: based on the model found in Burkhardt,MacDonald & Rathemacher, 2004)

 40

Appendix K

List of questions for informal interviews with ESL students

1. First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to participate in this study. We do

not evaluate your answers, so there is no reason to be anxious. However, your answers

are quite valuable for librarians and your ESL instructors because they will have an idea

about how effective their instruction is. So, did you have any previous knowledge of

libraries?

2. Did your ESL instructor help you with any library instruction? How did s/he interact

with your librarian in the class? Did you find that their cooperation was helpful in your

work?

3. What do you recall about your combined ESL and library classes so far? Do you

remember anything in particular that shows that the librarian was able to help you with?

Was that piece of information directly applicable to your assignment? Overall, in which

way do you think that the library class was useful or not?

4. Did you understand ESL instructors and the librarians’ explanations? If not, how do

you think that the information should have been presented? Did your vocabulary improve

since you have started this new class? Can you give some examples in which this

improvement was noticeable? Did you find that by acquiring this vocabulary you could

do a better search? Do you have any examples?

 41

5. How do you learn best? What kind of presentation in the classroom is more effective

for you (board, PowerPoint, online, handouts with exercises)? Have you tried to set an

appointment with the librarian for a specific subject? What was the response? How did

s/he handle it?

6. How do you think librarians and ESL instructors should improve their instructions? Do

you have the impression that those instructions are directly related to your assignments?

Are these instructions really important to you? Why?

7. Do you find the library catalogue user friendly? Explain why in both cases.

8. Now, after a term of ESL and library instruction, do you find the library a friendly

place? Do you think that the library will play a more important role in your academic

studies and later on in your life?

9. Do you think that this combination of library instruction and ESL instruction was good

for you? In which way? Would you like this collaboration to continue in more advanced

ESL courses? Or, perhaps, you prefer separate library instruction once you feel that you

have sufficient knowledge of English?

(Source: based on the model found in American Library Association. College Libraries

Section, 1995).
 42

Appendix L

Library tutorial evaluation form (to be done in the last class of the information literacy

and ESL course)

Using the scale bellow, please circle the choice representing your agreement with the

following statements:

(1) Strongly (2) Disagree (3) Not (4) Agree (5) Strongly

disagree applicable agree

1) I now feel that I can identify keywords and their synonyms for my research topic.

1 2 3 4 5

2) I am confident that I can formulate a research topic.

1 2 3 4 5

3) I feel that the ESL class was appropriate for my knowledge of English

1 2 3 4 5

4) I am confident that I can establish hierarchical relationships between keywords

1 2 3 4 5

5) I am more familiar with subject headings and I know they are

1 2 3 4 5
 43

6) Overall, librarians were helpful

1 2 3 4 5

7) Overall, ESL instructors were helpful

1 2 3 4 5

8) Including library instructions in the ESL class was a great idea

1 2 3 4 5

(Continues on the next page…)

 44

9) Explain in which way the library instruction was useful for your assignments

10) What was the most important library skill you learned during the library instruction?

11) Was there anything you hoped for and it was not covered in during the library classes?

(Source: based on the model found in Hurley, Hegarty, & Bolger, 2006)
 45

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