Literacy: Spanning North America
 |
ESL
Classes Across Central AL Need More Volunteers
WBRC Fox6:
6.26.2018
On
almost any given night of the week, adults from as many as 70 different
countries are gathering in classrooms, churches and community centers across
the Birmingham area for a common purpose: to learn and improve their
English-speaking skills.
Students
from “every continent except Antarctica and Australia,” have attended free
classes offered through the Literacy
Council of Central Alabama, Stephanie Lyas, Director of Field
and ESOL (English Speakers of Another Language) programs, said. “We
have students who are barely literate in their own language to others with an
advanced proficiency in English,” Lyas added.
The LCCA website is a great place to
start when searching for an English as a Second Language class in your
neighborhood, one you could recommend to a friend, or if you’re looking for a
place to volunteer.
Lyas
estimates around 70 percent of their students come from a Spanish-speaking
country but said they’re seeing an increase in Arabic-speaking and
Chinese-speaking students who are interested in learning English.
ESL
leaders for Dawson Memorial Baptist Church and Shades Mountain Baptist Church
noticed a similar trend, saying they also see mostly Spanish, Arabic and
Chinese native language speakers in the classes at their churches.
In
the last school year, Dawson served between 30 and 40 students per week among
their classes, which meet on Tuesdays from 6:30 p.m. until 8 p.m., and Thursday
mornings from 9 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. They offer beginner, intermediate and
advanced classes. READ MORE >>
 |
GED
Programming Offered To Crawford County Jail Inmates On Hold
Meadville Tribune: 6.29.2018 by Keith Gushard
General
education diploma programming offered to inmates at the Crawford County jail is
being put on hold as the county Literacy
Council has lost its funding, according to Warden Kenneth
Saulsbery.
In
early 2017, the county Prison Board approved bringing back the GED program at
the jail as a full-time program and paying about $35,000 for the first year for
the instructor and initial supplies from the jail's inmate commissary fund.
The
program operated from 2002 to 2010 on a part-time basis funded by a state grant
but stopped when state funding went away. It was brought back last year as a
full-time program by the Prison Board after it agreed to use the inmate
commissary fund to finance it. That fund benefits inmate activities through the
sale of toiletries and snacks to the inmates and inmates who pay for outgoing
phone calls.
The
Crawford County Literacy Council, which had run the literacy program, recently
found out it lost its own funding and is shutting down, Saulsbery announced at
Thursday's meeting of the Prison Board at the county jail in Saegertown. READ MORE >>
U5
Takes Over Adult Education Services In Crawford, Eyes Enhancements
Meadville Tribune: 7.03.2018 by Mike Crowley
Adult
education services provided by the Crawford County READ Program for more than
three decades will be provided by the Northwest Tri-County
Interdisciplinary Unit 5 beginning this month.
The
Pennsylvania Department of Education announced in June that IU5 and 31 other
organizations across the state were selected for $22 million in federal and
state funds to increase and improve services for adult learners and their
families.
Basic
literacy, GED classes, job skills training and other services previously had
been provided by the Crawford County READ Program. The READ Program applied as
a subgrantee to another applicant that did not receive any of the funds
allocated to the six-county Northwest Workforce Development Area, according to
a state education department spokesman. READ MORE >>
 |
Literacy
Nassau: Helping Long Islanders To Grasp The English Language, One Student At A
Time
NewsLI: 7.04.2018
by Christopher Boyle
Being
new to a country with a radically different culture can be hard enough, but it
can be even harder when mastery of its language eludes you and makes you feel
like an outsider in your new home.
Originally
founded in 1968 as the Literacy Volunteers of America and based out of
Freeport, Literacy Nassau teaches hundreds of Nassau
adults who are functionally illiterate to read every year; in addition, a great
many of their students are also foreigners who wish to get a better grasp of
the English language.
Barbara
Randell, who calls Plainview her home, has been an educator almost all of her
life, teaching at the elementary level for 30 years; she initially worked in
Massachusetts and Manhattan before finishing out the last nearly 20 years of
her career in the Levittown school district.
However,
upon retiring from teaching five years ago, Randell still felt the spark of
education within her; that’s when she got involved with Literacy Nassau. READ MORE >>
 |
Adult
ESL Students Honoured At Celebration Of Learning Awards
Abby News:
7.05.2018
More
than 200 English language students attended the first annual Celebration of
Learning awards ceremony on June 19 at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium.
The
adult students are part of the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada
(LINC) and Access2English programs at Abbotsford Community Services (ACS).
The
LINC program provides free English classes as well as Canadian citizenship,
history and employment information.
The
Access2English program matches adult learners in the community with volunteer
tutors who teach literacy, computer skills and more.
“We
started this event because we wanted to recognize how hard our students have
worked to learn an unfamiliar and complicated language,” said Paula Mannington,
manager of English Language Services.
More
than 100 students received certificates for progressing to the next level in
the Canadian Language Benchmarks system.
Sixty-four
students were also recognized for their excellent attendance and commitment to
learning. One student in particular hadn’t missed a day of class in the past
two years. READ MORE >>
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment