Gloucester County College will start its fall English as a Second Language program beginning Monday at Williamstown Middle School and Tuesday at Glassboro High School.

The free literacy instruction incentive aims to help South Jersey residents develop improved English skills to overcome language barriers.

Classes will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings each week from 6 to 9 p.m. at both locations. Applicants may register now. There is a $10 fee to register. For more information about the program or to register, call 856-468-5000, ext. 6227. (more…)

Being a Chinese high school English teacher for almost two decades, experience and intuition has convinced me that the major motivational factor to be successful in English as a Second Language (ESL) learning is the teacher’s teaching approach, notwithstanding operational variables including learners’ goals, expectations, anxiety, effort and attitude. I believe a good second language teacher must be linguistically competent.

The teacher’s teaching approach subsumes his or her teaching attitude, personality, including actions and behaviour taken in the course of classroom teaching. Many learners turn a deaf ear to English in schools mostly because their teachers cannot arouse their interest in the language, or in a worse case, kill their interest for life.
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Kindergartners in Williamson County could soon be on their way to becoming fluent in a second language.

It’s only a goal for now, but school officials in the district are working toward the idea and have narrowed down the language choice to Mandarin Chinese, German, Spanish or French. Ultimately, whatever is selected would be taught to students from kindergarten through 12th grade, much like students around the world are taught English as a second language.

“We’re one of the only countries in the world where students don’t walk away from their school experience knowing a second language,” said Director of Schools Mike Looney. “We want to make sure our graduates are globally competitive.” (more…)

Native Spanish speakers looking to break down the language barrier can sign up with Saint Ann’s parish to attend English as a second language classes scheduled to begin in early September.

For the third year, Our Lady of Guadeloupe church, as well as the Frankford library and the Methodist Church in Frankford, will host classes on Thursdays or Sundays. The classes place about 30 volunteer teachers with about 50 adult students in a classroom setting where those looking to learn English can begin the process.

“We have found out that our Spanish-speaking neighbors are at different levels of need,” says Jeannie Flemming, coordinator of the program, which allows students to work in round-table settings with those on their level. “We have very educated speakers of Spanish who are interested in sharpening their English and people who are not even literate in Spanish.” (more…)