Background
 In 1978, the Adult Performance Level (APL) study (University of Texas) recommended that adult basic education, including English As-A-Second Language, be functional - that is - focus on the ability to ‘do’ something or perform a task, rather than simply on ’knowing’ how to perform a task. Another way of saying this is that adults need to be ‘competent’ in their everyday lives. Since that time, adult level curricula has been “competency based.” The focus of instruction is on functional skills, such as reading a food label and making an informed choice, rather than academic knowledge for knowledge’s sake, such as understanding the chemical differences between saturated fats and unsaturated fats.
State departments of education have embraced the competency-based approach as reflected in the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS) competency list, the Secretary’s Commission on Attaining Necessary Skills (SCANS) competencies and the ‘Equipped for the Future’ adult role maps currently used as the basis for course outlines across the United States.
Over the years, the emphasis on different content areas in ESL instruction has changed due to societal trends. A need for more citizenship classes emerged following passage of amnesty legislation; greater focus on vocational ESL (VESL) grew out of the SCANS report; and recently (2002,) ‘civics education’ has become a priority with the federally funded EL (English Language) Civics program.
The goals of all of these content-based approaches were to prepare students to apply their language skills developed in the classroom in real-life situations, and to provide adult learners with critical ‘life skills’ in the process. 
Among those “life skills” currently in focus are topics related to food and nutrition in the areas of Family, Consumer Economics, Health, Food, Community Resources and Employment. And yet, because the main goal of ESL instruction is language development, nutrition topics are often addressed in a cursory fashion in common textbooks used in ESL classes. A review of over 100 commonly used ESL texts conducted as part of this project showed that 10-47% of the images or ideas related to less healthy foods, such as snacks and sweets.
This is now also the goal of the “Eating Well, Living Well” project. ESL programs are not expected to add nutrition education classes to their class offerings. Instead, the project aims to integrate in depth nutrition education concepts into the language development lessons defined by the state of California in Model Standards for Adult Education Programs (ESL), 1992.
Why Nutrition Education in Adult ESL?
With the goal in mind of determining interest in incorporating nutrition education into the ESL curriculum, an ESL Workgroup was formed in 2001 within the California Nutrition Network for Healthy Active Families to investigate outreach to Latino adult immigrants enrolled in ESL classes. In 2002, formative research was commissioned by Prehm and Associates (Formative Research) to conduct student and teacher round tables across the state. Conclusions drawn from that research indicate:
- The longer Latino immigrants are in the United States, the less healthy their diet becomes.
- Commonly used textbooks in ESL represent typical “American” foods as hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, pie and ice cream. These are the very foods public health nutritionists and other health professionals discourage, because of their high-fat, high sugar, high salt and low nutrient content.
- Newer ESL textbooks have more nutrition information but not enough for students to make informed choices.
- The majority of ESL households are eligible for Food Stamps, but few apply.
- Parents want advice as to how to get their children to eat healthier traditional foods instead of “what is served at school - hamburgers, hot dogs and pizza.”
- ESL teachers share their students’ interests in nutrition. They lack valid, research-based nutrition information and resources for supplementing the lessons that are included in their ESL curricula.
This initial research formed the basis of the lessons and materials developed for “Eating Well, Living Well.”
Nutrition and Behavior Change
The instructional approaches in “Eating Well’ Living Well” lessons will be familiar to ESL teachers (TPR, Focused Listening, Language Experience, Life Skills Reading). The lesson formats will also be familiar - students are coming to adult education classes to learn and apply the English language, and all lessons include both language and content objectives. 
However, there is a critical ‘added’ component found in “Eating Well, Living Well” lessons (and not typically found in ESL lessons and textbooks) and that is a ‘behavior change’ objective.
Although knowledge (content) is needed to help people realize a need to change, knowledge alone does not enable people to adopt healthy eating behaviors. Research shows that ‘behaviorally based education’ is most effective (Centers for Disease Control, 1999). The “Eating Well, Living Well” lessons, then, include ‘behavior change objectives,” which are meant to reinforce changes in behavior that occur over time.
The Key Steps of lessons that lead to behavior change are:
- Help students identify a need for change by providing a knowledge base and skill development.
- Sustain awareness of the objectives over time.
- Consider psychological factors of change.
- Provide opportunities for goal setting and monitoring progress.
To help adult educators integrate this component, “Eating Well, Living Well” lessons include a broad range of activities and materials that enable students and teachers to evaluate behavior change related to nutrition. These activities include personal ‘Journals’ and supplementary materials that keep awareness high over time and contribute to long-term, healthy changes. To preview these materials, click here: Preview Lesson. For more information on behavior change, go to Research, Resources & Links
Conclusion
Adult ESL immigrants are interested in learning more about health and nutrition to help them maintain healthy behaviors and develop new ones for themselves and their families. The lessons and materials in “Eating Well, Living” are designed to assist adult educators in brining important language and content skills to this audience. For help on using these materials in the classroom, see How to Use the Lessons.
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