We are delighted to announce the birth of a sibling for Avenue.ca. In October the project launched a new shiny platform where autonomous learners can learn English and orient themselves to Canada.
CanAvenue.ca has the potential to fill a serious service gap for adult newcomers. These learners can benefit from independent language learning:
- Newcomers on waiting lists for formal language training
- Prospective immigrants before their arrival
- Learners in formal language training (LINC or other) and needing or wanting supplementary curriculum
- Learners in formal language training (LINC or other) and needing or wanting supplementary curriculum
- Newcomers preferring to learn on their own
- Newcomers facing multiple barriers to attending formal language trainingLearners who’ve completed formal LT eligibility and still want to develop their skills
- Refugee claimants
- Temporary foreign workers
Value Proposition for Learners
What does CanAvenue provide for immigrant learners?
- Accessibility: Free, open-access, and available anytime, anywhere.
- Learning efficacy: extensive and intensive reading and listening modules, writing, speaking and pronunciation practice, online language skills assessment.
- Aligned with Canadian Language Benchmarks levels.
- Relevance: Focused on real-life situations, skill-building and practical English for newcomers.
- Supportive Content: Provides cultural orientation alongside language training, helping users integrate more effectively into Canadian society.
- Learner social engagement and sharing of newcomer stories through moderated forums and blog posts.
eModules
The Avenue – LearnIT2teach Project initiated CanAvenue development in 2022. The project team carefully analyzed learner needs. Hundreds of hours of development work have resulted in a learning platform that provides:
- Two broad proficiency levels: CLB 3/4, & 5 – 7, + Literacy
- Orientation to independent language learning
- Extensive Reading / Extensive Listening libraries
- Pronunciation practice
- Citizenship test preparation
- Legacy EduLINC skill builders (developed pre-PBLA to support the LINC Activities Books and now updated)
- Links to external language development apps like Youtube and Grammarly
- CLB-based language skills assessed through the Online Self-Assessment Test (OSA) from Achev
Learner Engagement
An effective independent language learning site has to grab and hold the attention of learners. The development team has worked hard to build a platform that rewards time on tasks and return visits. CanAvenue has:
- A news forum
- A moderated social forum
- Gamification & digital badges for module completion
- Module rating scales
- Polls & votes
- Reminders
- Surveys
- Channels for soliciting and sharing newcomer stories
Teacher Affordances
The platform does not support teaching, but does support the classroom teacher with:
- An Orientation to Formal Language Training course to prepare learners to learn
- Opportunities for remedial or extracurricular learning like pronunciation and listening
- Once learners complete their formal language training, they’ll still want to continue to develop their skills. CanAvenue has courses on Independent Language Learning.
Marketing CanAvenue
Our Initial target for promoting the platform to learners is through waiting lists for LINC. We’re sharing information with Language Assessment and Referral Centres to encourage enrolment.
LINC and Ontario Adult Language Training educators are invited to share information with their learners. Their learners in turn may want to suggest CanAvenue to their friends, families or communities.
You may have noticed a new CanAvenue ‘block’ on your Avenue Dashboard. The project team hopes this leads formal learners to suggest the site to fellow newcomers.
We’ve developed a poster or brochure to share in your language training or settlement services centre.
