ESL to go
Last week we posted that the British government spends £110 million a year on translation services for immigrants, money that many would argue would be better spent on English classes.
Perhaps the government should follow the example of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Teaneck, NJ, USA. The church has recently started offering ESL classes to immigrant day labourers on the road. The church has offered classes on their premises for some time, but recognise that not all immigrants can attend, for transportation or financial reasons. So instead of the immigrants coming to them, they’ve taken the classes to the immigrants, teaching them while they’re waiting for work.
The classes focus on language useful to the immigrants in their work, such as the names of tools, explaining what the matter is if they get sick, and asking when they will get paid.
The feedback from the participants in the article is positive. One immigrant, who is also co-director of an immigrant resource centre, says the classes “provide visible evidence that immigrants are eager to assimilate into society” and that “we really want to adjust but we don’t always have the opportunity”.
The church, according to the article, is not the first organisation to bring the ESL classroom to the streets, with immigrant-advocacy groups nationwide doing the same thing.
So it would seem that given the opportunity, immigrants are keen to learn English and integrate into American society. Should the British government learn from this example and change its funding priorities? What do you think? Have a look at the article and post a comment below…
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December 19th, 2006 at 8:14 am
I think this is a great idea. Not everyone has the opportunity or money to attend traditional ESL classes. I’ve been working in a school in Indonesia for 5 years, and all the students are from privileged backgrounds, becasue of course it’s too expensive to pay for classes for the average Indonesian. I know Indonesia isn’t the USA, but there is a parallel in terms of accessibility of ESL.
December 22nd, 2006 at 9:29 am
Walt you are right. I come from an immigrant family in the US, and believe me many immigrants have problems enough without having to think about scheduling English classes around their need to work to earn money. The more accessible English language classes can be for them, the better.