and to reach the CHAT ROOM! 
Crossroads Cafe is an English language instruction program for speakers of other languages created by a collaboration between award-winning television producer, INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, the specialized language producer, Heinle & Heinle, leading ESL educators, the State Departments of Education in California, Florida, New York and Illinois, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the United States Information Agency. What is the Crossroads Cafe Program? Crossroads Cafe consists of 26 half-hour video "dramedies" - a blending of comedy and drama- with integrated text materials based on each episode. The stories are both humerous and poignant, featuring universal and socially relevant themes and a continuing cast of ethnically diverse characters. Each episode is an opportunity to learn a specific, practical language function, demonstrated in a video sidebar called Word Play... and a focus on a particular social-cultural issue in a documentary-style sidebar called Culture Clips.The videos are close-captioned for the hearing impaired. How do you use Crossroads Cafe? There are three basic ways to use Crossraods Cafe. First, you can make the videos and print materials available to the learner to use entirely independently at home or community centers. Secondly, you can interact with the student in some structured way. You can decide how often, and what form this will take, e.g., face-to-face encounters, E-mail, fax, telephone, voice mail, or audio cassette tapes. Thirdly, you can use the program in a traditional classroom situation, and decide how much of the program will be done in the classroom, and how much will be assigned to homework. The series is currently running on PBS, which will allow for even more flexible scheduling. What does Crossroads Cafe Teach? The multi-level language exercises encourage learners to use higher order thinking skills as they develop story comprehension and basic language skills. Learners progress from producing words and phrases on the simplest level, to phrases and sentences, and finally to paragraphs and discourse on the most challenging level. The most basic exercises involve recognition and matching; the more challenging exercises require learners to express original thoughts and ideas. The exercises have practical applications for learners, such as using English to write a letter, read a recipe or apply for a job. Activities encourage learners to use the language and to share it with others.
Florida Human Resources Development, Inc.
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