[AAACE-NLA] July 4th: VESL for Victory and Independence

Sun Jun 24 23:31:09 EDT 2007

Thanks Tom!

The historical information here has personal meaning to me because my  father 
was drafted into the U.S. Army even though he was not a U.S.  citizen.  He 
went through special training and was sent to Cornell  University, I believe, to 
learn Italian.  He already knew English and  Spanish and could read and write.

He was a trouble-shooter whose job was to set up and take down telephone  
lines.  He began his service in North Africa.  Somewhere on a ship,  maybe off 
the shore of Africa, on the Mediterranean I imagine, he was sworn in as a U.S.  
citizen.  

Now...if he could only survive the war.  

His company was moved into southern Italy and, as I understood it, were the  
first of soldiers in history to capture Rome from the south.   Unfortunately, 
because D-Day happened near the same time, no one paid much  attention to what 
the army had done at Rome.

My father passed away in February 2006...so I can't check on all the facts  
here.  I'm just glad you mentioned those soldiers who, without knowing the  
language or culture, but who understood the cause, went to war for victory and  
independence.  A lot of people don't know that non-citizens were drafted  into 
the military.  My father said that the war changed his life.  He  knew that, 
until he became engaged in World War II, he was just another  poor kid from 
Mexico whose family was living from day-to-day.  

After the war ended, the world became a place of greater  opportunities.  I 
am sure that this was the case for many of the  immigrants who were educated 
and changed by the war...in a number of  ways.

Jose

Jose L. Cruz
Chief Executive Officer
San Diego Council on Literacy
2515 Camino del Rio South, Suite 125
San Diego, CA 92108
619-574-1641, ext. 103
_jcruz at literacysandiego.org_ (mailto:jcruz at literacysandiego.org) 
_www.literacysandiego.org_ (http://www.literacysandiego.org/) 

June 23,  2007

July 4th: VESL for Victory and Independence

Tom  Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

Freedom and  independence are never free. They are won by those willing to
stand up and  work for these bedrock human values.

Twice in the 20th century the  people of the United States rose up to defend
their freedom and  independence. Among these people were hundreds of
thousands of immigrants  who came to the United States to gain these human
rights and who then often  found themselves fighting their own countrymen to
keep these  rights.

To rapidly teach the English language and literacy during  wartime the Army
followed a practice today called VESL:  Vocational
English-as-a-Second-Language. In this educational method,  English language
instruction and vocational instruction are taught  concurrently, in an
integrated manner. In both World Wars I and II the  teaching of English was
integrated with the teaching of military-related  and morale-building
information to help the soldiers learn and perform  their jobs better.

VESL in World War I 1917

1. See Uncle  Sam.
2. U.S. stands for Uncle Sam.
3. U.S. stands for United  States.
4. Uncle Sam stands for United States.
5. U.S.A. stands for  United States of America.
6. I am for Uncle Sam.
7. I am for the United  States of America.
8. I stand for Uncle Sam.
9. Uncle Sam stands for  me.
10. I am an American.
11. See me stand for Uncle Sam.

This is  the second lesson in the "Camp Reader for American Soldiers"
(Spaeth, 1919)  used by thousands of foreign-born men who entered the Army
in World War I  and needed to learn the English language.  In the first
lesson, the  men learned to say, "I am an American."

Used to teach literacy and the  English language in what were called
Development Battalions, the Camp  Reader was written by J. Duncan Spaeth,
Professor of English, Princeton  University, and Educational Director, Army
Y. M. C. A. at Camp Wheeler in  Georgia and Camp Jackson in South Carolina.
The book is the first book I  have found that was intended to teach both
native-born illiterates and  foreign-born immigrants to read and write the
English language. It also  includes the first Teacher's Manual that presents
a theoretical  understanding of conversational and written English, including
an  introduction to "The Phonetic System of Reading" and an Appendix  which
serves as a separate Teacher's Manual for those instructing  non-English
speaking soldiers.

During World War I some 500,000  immigrants were drafted and thousands more
volunteered for service (Ford,  2001, p. 137). While not all needed to learn
English, tens of thousands did  need to and did. One of those who volunteered
for the Army was Louis Van  Iersel, who was born in the Netherlands. He
learned English with the help  of the Y.M.C.A. and went to war in Germany.
There he was credited for  heroism which saved the lives of a thousand men
and he was awarded  America's highest military recognition, the Medal of
Honor (Ford, 2001, p.  140).

VESL in World War II 1943

World War II saw the nation once  again enlisting hundreds of thousands of
men with no or very low literacy  skills and others of foreign birth who
could speak and/or write little or  no English. Once again, as in World War
I, Special Training Units were  established to teach literacy and English
language to these  soldiers.

One of the tools developed for teaching men to read and write  was a
newspaper entitled "Our War." In the April 1943 issue there is a  comic
strip which features Private Pete and his pal, Daffy, both  fictional
characters who are in a Special Training Unit learning to read  and write.
This strip also features Pedro, a friend of Pete and Daffy, who  cannot
speak good English, but is nonetheless a good soldier. In the strip,  Pete
and Daffy save Pedro from going A.W.O.L. (absent without leave)  by
explaining what A.W.O.L. means. They offer to help Pedro whenever he is  not
sure about something, illustrating how soldiers from different cultural  and
language backgrounds can work together.

In another issue of "Our  War" Private Porfirio C. Gutierrez, a soldier in a
Special Training Unit  wrote a letter home and said, "This is my first
letter in English. I have  learned to read and write so that I can help
protect our country."  By  the war's end, over a quarter million troops had
been taught literacy  and/or English language in the Special Training Units.

VESL for Today's  Immigrants

Today, many programs for those learning the English language  follow a
similar approach to that of the Army in World Wars I and II and  embed or
integrate the teaching of English within the functional context  of
vocational training. These VESL programs continue to help thousands  of
non-English speaking immigrants achieve social and economic freedom  and
independence in their newly chosen homeland.

When we celebrate  Independence Day this July 4th, we can be grateful that
the torch in the  hand of the Statue of Liberty still shines and still
stands as a beacon for  those escaping oppression, terrorism, and poverty.
Hundreds of thousands of  immigrants from the past fought, and many died, so
we could keep the torch  of liberty beaming.  Our freedom and independence is
intact and  thousands of new immigrants arrive each day to enjoy these human
rights.  But these rights are under attack still today, and sadly many of
the new  immigrants, like their forebears, will die fighting so that their
families  and their new American neighbors can continue to enjoy freedom  and
independence.

But freedom and independence are never  free.

References

Ford, N. G. (2001). Americans All! Foreign-born  Soldiers in World War I.
College Station, TX: Texas A & M University  Press.

Spaeth, J. D. (1919). Camp Reader for American Soldiers. New  York: The
International Committee of Young Men's Christian  Association.

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult  Education
2062 Valley View Blvd.
El Cajon, CA 92019-2059
Tel/fax:  (619) 444-9133
Email:  tsticht at aznet.net

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