The ESL Center has fast new computers and fast free Internet! We have Rosetta Stone and other interactive CD ROMs as well as many Internet applications that teach English and typing. One good website we use is www.livemocha.com. This site connects students with other English learners around the world. They can check each other's work and even chat. There's no better practice for listening and speaking than speaking to someone you can't see! 

We are working on materials for the US Citizenship and Utah driver license exams that can be studied on the computer. It is also our hope that students will use the Internet not just for e-mail and English practice but for finding health information and resources to help their children with homework. We want an Internet-savvy group of students. 

At the English Skills Learning Center, one of our most unique programs is the One-on-One Program.  The program has to be as unique as each of our students.  Currently the program has about 30 pairs who do one-on-one lessons that occur in community centers, libraries, and students’ homes.  Our one-on-one classes are more than just conversation practice. Our volunteers make a lesson plan and gear their lessons half toward oral skills and the other half toward literacy or reading and writing. Working in a one-on-one is a rewarding experience for our volunteers as their students read books to their children and write their first shapes, letters, and numbers! 

Many of the students in the program are emerging readers.  In a one-on-one situation, they can get the attention they need to succeed. It is an exciting time for the ESLC as we are developing and researching new testing and teaching materials in collaboration with the University of Utah.  Some of our volunteers attended the in-service in November and more will attend in January to learn about materials and strategies for teaching our emerging reader students. 

One of our volunteers recently reported, “I remember going to class one day and my student expressed to me that she had gone shopping and had a conversation with someone in English about where she was from, how long she’d been here and if she liked America. She was so excited that she had been able to understand and reply. I’m glad to have been a part of that.”

Pictured: Nicole and Khadija using our curriculum for counting beans. 

"The ESLC Citizenship Program helps people with very limited English to prepare and pass the U.S. citizenship test and become U.S Citizens, in one-on-one and small group classes taught by our great volunteers. It is a Basic English test with Civics questions, but it is a huge task for people with limited or no English skills.  Sometimes it takes over a year to get well-prepared for this test.

We are happy to share great news that, so far this year 14 students have passed their test, 11 of them got naturalized and 3 of them will be naturalized soon.

Last year we served 74 students preparing for the U.S. citizenship test. Currently we are serving 52 students and looking forward to watching this number to grow.  The U.S citizenship not only changes the status of our students, but it also has great impact on their families: such as getting citizenship for their children under the age of 18, become eligible for a federal position, getting a U.S passport and the opportunity to invite family members to come to the United States to reunify their families.

Here is the photo of our Florida Ndagijimana (student) and Oye Akin (volunteer volunteer) who recently started working on preparing for citizenship test. Florida and Oye meets twice a week at the student’s house."

Every December we hold an open house to allow our students, volunteers and community partners to interact with one another.  We are grateful to all 200 people who attended our holiday open house on Wednesday, December 7th. It was simply a delightful time. 

After asking the ESLC Board of Directors and staff what their highlight of the night was they shared the following moments:

It was pure pleasure seeing students' and volunteers' children playing together. Their different languages posed no barrier to interaction.

We also enjoyed catching up with friends while making some new ones. 

We loved playing typing skills games with the kids in the computer lab. 

We had a wonderful moment presenting Vickie Steffey with the Volunteer of the Month award. 

Another favorite part was answering the students' surveys. They're doing such a great job! (And definitely learned how to spell December by the end of the night . . .)!

We were thoroughly impressed with our students and their commitment to completing those dessert tickets! I love their willingness to put themselves out there and communicate without the fear of making a mistake.

Last, but certainly not least, it was fun to watch a student who won a pencil pouch: he asked his friend to take a picture of him accepting the prize from a staff member. 

A special thank you goes to Harmon’s Grocery Store, Rico Mexican Market, Costco and Blue Nile Private Catering for donating or extremely discounting the delicious food.  If you feel like you missed out, please read an article from the examiner.com (first link below) and photos on our Facebook page (second link below).

http://www.examiner.com/community-activism-in-salt-lake-city/english-skills-learning-center-name-vickie-steffey-volunteer-of-the-month

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150417987617615.354346.89392522614&type=3&l=79eafb2761

We have recently began implementing our Parents Engaged in Everyday Reading (PEER) lessons in the Empowering Parents classes at elementary schools.  We are very excited about this new component of our classes.  Each PEER lesson uses a children’s book to teach parents strategies for reading with their children and activities that they can do with their family after reading the book.  The lessons are taught by the volunteer teacher who regularly works with the class and an ESLC staff member.  Our goal is to get parents involved in their children’s reading, encouraging their children to read at least twenty minutes a day and making reading a special family activity.  Each parent who participates in the lesson receives a copy of the book to keep.

Rachel Blackmer, the ESLC’s Associate Director, shared this story about the PEER lesson at Copperview.  "Today during our PEER lesson, when we were reading our book together, Yolanda's son climbed into her lap and started pointing to the pictures in the book and talking to his mother about them. He wanted her to read it to him right then! Yolanda told us that her son loves books and she was so happy to be able to take the book home with her to read to him in English."

We appreciate the support of our sponsors who have made this exciting new program possible!

The Latest and Greatest News about our Small Group Classes at the Humanitarian Center

We had a wonderful "Volunteer Apprciation Luncheon" provided by the LDS Center last Thursday, Oct. 20th. It was in recognition of ESLC volunteers who teach English to employees of the Humanitarian Center, some of whom have been teaching there for several years. Each of the 100 students had written a thank you card to their volunteer teachers, saying things such as "Thank you for teaching me English, we need you and we love you!" and "Thank you for helping me! You are good teachers." Some wrote what they could in English, and finished expressing themselves in their native language. Two students, Iram Qayyum and Chandra Acharya, spoke to the tutors to say THANKS on behalf of everyone, which is a huge accomplishment for someone learning another language. It's impressive to see how much progress our students can make with the support of dedicated volunteers!