January 19, 2003

Attn: Mr. Damion Walters, C.E.O.
OxyChem Corporation
1578 Nitrate Drive
Buffalo, New York 14222

Dear Mr. Walters,

As per your request, I am sending this letter to summarize the results of the ongoing needs assessment of an employee of yours, Mr. Thani Mai, during the past semester of his speech language therapy. Let me begin by saying that it has been a pleasure to work with Mr. Mai during this time. His extreme motivation and willingness to learn new concepts has made it easy for me, as a clinician, to work with him on achieving the goals that you specified, as well as, on the various English skills in which he personally desired competence. As I’m sure you’ve noticed in the workplace, Mr. Mai has made significant improvements in his ability to orally communicate in group settings and in his pronunciation of the names and uses of the various chemical compounds and lab equipment at OxyChem. I am very proud of how far he has come in this relatively short period of time, and hope that you are equally pleased with the results of his therapy.

Reflecting back to the time you first referred Mr. Mai to me, I recall that he was extremely frustrated and worried that he wouldn’t be able to learn English adequately enough to meet the English proficiency level required for OxyChem employees. One of the first days that I met Mr. Mai, I asked him to jot down a few thoughts about how it felt to work in an environment where a relatively unfamiliar language was spoken. The poem that he wrote was extremely touching and really helped me to better understand some of his expectations for therapy. Also during the initial needs assessment process, Mr. Mai and I both agreed to write journal entries in order to express our concerns, apprehensions, and expectations regarding therapy. By reading these journal entries, I think you will realize just how greatly Mr. Mai desired to be respected not only by you, but by his fellow Oxy Chem employees, as well. Mr. Mai was extremely lucky to have such a supportive family environment during his therapy. On several occasions during the initial needs assessment process, Mr. Mai’s wife, Akha, and I exchanged emails where we discussed some of Mr. Mai's personality traits and pronunciation difficulties. As stated in your letter of referral, you felt that Mr. Mai needed to work on better understanding the speech of his fellow English-speaking employees, pronouncing English words relevant to the workplace environment, and engaging in effective communication with his fellow employees. Clearly, Mr. Mai has increased his proficiency in each of the three areas of concern, although mastery has not yet been attained. Part of the ongoing needs assessment process is to provide the client with questionnaires and surveys designed to measure their own perceptions of their success in therapy. On a recent questionnaire, Mr. Mai reported that he has recently gained the respect and friendship of several of the individuals working with him at the company. He stated that learning proper pronunciation of the chemicals’ names and their uses has been very beneficial to him during the presentations he frequently must give in front of his fellow employees. He also reported that the skills we have targeted in therapy have aided him during his daily conversations with the individuals who work with him in the chemical laboratory. Although this was my first experience working with an ESL client, such as Mr. Mai, I felt very confident in my ability to provide appropriate speech and language services to him. Even though I have been a certified speech therapist for seven years, I decided that it would be in my best interest to consult with Dr. Adalyn Maze, my clinic’s current supervisor, in order to receive guidance and new ideas regarding ESL therapy. Every two weeks, Dr. Maze and I met for a brief interview where I shared my experiences working with Mr. Mai, and she, in turn, offered me advice on the unique needs assessment process and therapy plans required for this type of client. At this point in time, Dr. Maze and I both feel that Mr. Mai should continue to receive therapy services for an additional semester in order to refine his pronunciation skills and his ability to understand his fellow employees when they speak at a moderate to fast rate of speech. Of course, it will not be required that Mr. Mai attend therapy as frequently as he did last semester. However, I believe it is crucial that OxyChem continue to fund his enrollment in speech language services so that he can adequately maintain his newly learned skills. Since I cannot observe Mr. Mai in the workplace every day, I am interested in hearing your perceptions about his current English speaking skills, as well as, his comprehension abilities.

I am very grateful to you for choosing the Justice Nichols and Ash Speech and Hearing Clinic to work with this employee learning English as a second language. I appreciate the opportunity to work with this individual, and I hope to provide clinical services to many more OxyChem employees in the future. If you ever wish to obtain additional information regarding individuals learning English as a second language, feel free to visit the webliography that I created when I was completing my undergraduate education at Marshall University in Huntington, WV. There you will find various links related to individuals learning English as a second language. I feel that you will find these sites helpful in understanding more about employees from different cultures and the hardships they can face, both in the workplace, and in their daily lives, while struggling to learn a new language. Recently, I spoke at a conference for speech pathologists where I showed a Power Point presentation regarding needs assessment in ESL clients. It was actually Mr. Mai who inspired me to be a presenter at the conference. I recommend that you view my Power Point presentation in order to gain a greater understanding of the variety of processes I used this semester during my ongoing assessment of Mr. Mai’s needs. I look forward to hearing from you soon, and, as always, I welcome any additional questions or concerns you have regarding this client.

Sincerely,

Erin E. Burns
M.A. CCC/SLP
Speech Language Pathologist

Justice, Nichols, and Ash Speech and Hearing Clinic
541 Emmons Ave. Suite 5-B
Buffalo, New York 14222
(716) 873-8656

Return to genre six: Power point presentation

Proceed to: References

Date: Friday, October 18, 2002
To: erinburns@jnashc.org
From: ahkamai@oxychem.com
Subject: Thani’s evaluation

Dear Erin,

I am writing this email concerning my husband, Thani Mai. I just wanted to let you know that he came home from the speech language evaluation you did on Monday morning with a smile from ear to ear. I know that sending him to you gave him just the boost of confidence he needed. He told me that he’s happy he’ll be receiving help for his pronunciation problems and difficulties in understanding others’ during conversations. He was also glad that you reassured him that his dialectal variety of English was not a disorder or a pathological form of speech or language. Thani and I are both very proud of our dialect because it is something that we can always carry with us from our native homeland, Thailand. However, as new residents in the United States, we both realize that we are often considered incompetent due to our non-standard production of the English language. My pronunciation and communication skills seem to be better than Thani’s, but this could be attributed to the fact that I learned to speak English many years before Thani did, and also, because the people at my new workplace often help me learn how to correctly say unfamiliar English words. My employees also speak very slowly and clearly to me. It seems the employees at OxyChem have more important priorities than helping Thani to communicate more effectively with them. I can’t really blame them, though, because those people have a job to do and may not have extra time to help him. I guess that is where you come in to help him. It may sound stupid in asking you this, but what are you going to do to help my husband? I can honestly say that I’ve never come into contact with a speech language pathologist before, so I am unsure about what you’re going to do during your meeting times. Thani said that when you meet with him this coming week, you will be doing something called a needs assessment evaluation. What is this? Sometimes, Thani is shy about answering certain personal questions, so if you need me to answer them or accompany him to the evaluation, I would be happy to do so at any time. I hope you don’t mind me asking the details about what you’re going to be doing with Thani. I am not trying to be nosy. I am just concerned about my husband and want this therapy to be successful. Just know that Thani’s family is very supportive of him going to therapy and we’re all willing to help you or him in any way possible. I, along with the rest of our family, know how crucial this therapy is to Thani’s job and whether or not we get to stay here in the U.S. after this year. If you could email me back soon, it would be much appreciated. Thank you!

A concerned wife,

Ahka Mai

Date: Friday, October 18, 2002
To: ahkamai@oxychem.com
From: erinburns@jnashc.org
Subject: Re: Thani’s evaluation

Dear Mrs. Mai,

Although it is not a traditionally recognized role of a speech language pathologist, I told Mr. Walters (the OxyChem manager) that I am willing to provide elective clinical services to non-standard English speakers, such as Thani, who do not present a speech or language disorder (Kavanaugh, 1999). I’m actually very excited to work with a client like Thani because I feel that I will really learn a lot from this experience. Learning about different cultures and languages has always been a passion of mine! To my knowledge, Mr. Walters referred Thani to the JNA Speech and Hearing Clinic because he presented difficulty understanding others’ speech, pronouncing certain English words, and engaging in effective communication with his fellow employees. Therefore, this already gives me some information about the areas of language that present problems to your husband. The purpose for conducting a needs assessment is so that I may gain a clearer focus of what areas to target in Thani’s upcoming therapy (Weddel, 1997). The needs assessment will begin with a personal interview where I ask Thani specific questions about his communication goals (Weddel, 1997). I will then administer several corresponding informal tests that will give me an indication of how well Thani is currently meeting these goals (Weddel, 1997). For example, if one of Thani’s main communication goals is to improve his oral presentation skills or participation during meetings, I would then direct my focus for therapy on these particular goals. I will be happy to go into greater detail about these tests if you’re interested. I understand that you are very concerned about your husband succeeding in therapy. I can assure you that if Thani possesses a positive attitude along with a willingness to learn and cooperate, therapy will provide great benefit to his oral communication skills. Therefore, in response to your question, the particular oral communication goals that Thani and I will work on in therapy will depend greatly upon the results of the upcoming needs assessment (Wrigley, 1992). Initially assessing Thani's needs provides me, as well as, your husband information about what skills he brings to therapy, and about what he wants and needs to know for future communicative success (Weddel, 1997). I hope this information is not confusing to you and provides some clarification about my role in the needs assessment process. Any further questions or concerns you may have are always welcomed. Just because you are not my actual client, does not mean that you do not play an integral role in the therapy process. Never hesitate to call or email me with your questions or concerns about your husband's progress in therapy or about my role in his therapy.

Sincerely,

Erin E. Burns
M.A. CCC/SLP
Speech Language Pathologist

Justice, Nichols, and Ash Speech and Hearing Clinic
541 Emmons Ave. Suite 5-B
Buffalo, New York 14222
(716) 873-8656

Date: Saturday, October 19, 2002
To: erinburns@jnashc.org
From: ahkamai@oxychem.com
Subject: Thank you

Dear Erin,

Thank you for responding so quickly to my email. I feel much better about Thani attending therapy after you explained what was going to take place during these initial meetings. I appreciate your understanding of me trying to get a better idea of why this initial needs assessment is so important. At first, I just wanted his therapy to hurry up and begin and didn’t see the rationale behind all of these initial assessments. Now, I realize that first assessing Thani’s needs is important because it helps determine what he, as a learner, wants and needs to learn (Wrigley, 1992). If the content of the therapy sessions, materials, and your teaching approaches accurately match my husband’s needs, then his motivation to learn and succeed in oral communication therapy will be greatly enhanced (Weddel, 1997). I think I really get it, Erin.

Many thanks,

Ahka Mai

Return to genre three: Journal entries

Proceed to genre five: Interview

References

Claybourne, T. (Sept./Oct. 2000). The
status of ESL, foreign language and technology. Media and Methods, 36. Issue 1, p. 6. Retrieved from Academic Search Elite on September 28, 2002.

Fingeret, H.A., & Jurmo, P. (Eds). (1989). Participatory literacy education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Kavanaugh, K. (Apr. 1999). Teaching the language of work. Training and Development, 53. Issue 4, p. 14. Retrieved from Academic Search Elite on September 28, 2002.

King, K. P. (Summer 2000). The adult ESL experience: Facilitating perspective transformation in the classroom . Adult Basic Education, 10. Issue 2, p. 69. Retrieved from EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite on September 28, 2002.

Sawin, G. (Summer 2000). How to communicate with people who speak English as a second language (ESL). ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 57. Issue 2, p. 140. Retrieved from EBSCOHost Academic Search Elite on September 28, 2002.

Ullman, C. (1997). Social identity and the adult ESL classroom. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. (ED 413 795).

Weddel, K. (1997). Needs assessment for adult ESL learners. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. (ED 407 882).

Wrigley, H.S. (1992). Learner assessment in adult ESL literacy. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education. (ED 353 863).

Wrigley, H.S., & Guth, G.J.A. (1992). Bringing literacy to life: Issues and options in adult ESL literacy. San Mateo, CA: Aguirre International.(ED348 896).

Return to genre seven: Letter to employer

Proceed to: Reflection